Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method of pre-treating a metallic substrate, the method including one or more cleaning steps, where at least part of the surface of the metallic substrate is contacted with one or more aqueous cleaning compositions, to obtain a cleaned metallic substrate; and/or one or more chemical pre-treatment steps selected from the group consisting of conversion treating steps, passivation treating steps and thin-layer forming steps, where at least part of the surface of a metallic substrate is contacted with one or more chemical pre-treatment compositions selected from the group consisting of conversion treatment compositions, passivation treatment compositions and thin-layer forming compositions to obtain a chemically pre-treated substrate. Also disclosed herein is a method of coating a metallic substrate, where the first step consists of the method of pre-treating a substrate, where after a last rinsing step one or more coating compositions are applied and cured.