I can't see the pics, but I guess my question would be whether the bar would need to be coated before it gets installed.

If it just has "surface oxidation" from getting wet, it wont change the fact that a shop will need to prep the surface before paint/powdercoating. If you dont coat it before installing it, wouldn't it have oxidized from the water that gets splashed up under a moving car anyway?

That being said, I wouldn't buy anything from him now because of his attitude and how long it took him to ship it. Sadly, it seems that I've dealt with a lot of that with various sellers lately.