ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

All done and dusted with a brand new colour coded de luxe bar. At first it was going to be a re-spray, but they opted to replace the whole thing (swapping the foggies). This was done at ARB Brighton and I am very pleased with their service. They also lent me a (gasp...) Nissan Navara ute, which was ARB'd up to the eye-balls. A further good gesture on their part, but putting a Prado driver in a Navara... Where's the love? :wink:

In short, happy to make further purchases at this branch without any hesitation. I think that best sums up the outcome.

Good news and good outcome deeptank. Things can go wrong sometimes... but its pleasing when businesses acknowledge the fault and move to make amends quickly. This IMO is a true test of 'customer service'.

[AJ Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AJ]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Was just giving the Prado a clean up the other day (something us black Prado owners have to do a bit more frequently than the rest of you :wink: ), and found that I have two spots of rust on my bar. My rust can only be seen once the bonnet is up, and the rust is right down, basically at the bottom of the fan where the mounts meet the chassis. It's come up on both corners. I don't know how this could happen, given that there is nothing positioned there to rub the paint away. So I'm guesing that ARB have ballsed it up a bit and maybe missed a spot when colour-coding, or it's been done on install.

Not overly happy about it, so I'm going to call the place that fitted it tomorrow. Fingers crossed :x

Cheers,
AJ

[phoenix Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close phoenix]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

ARB are replacing my bar with a brand new one. Interesting to see what they do with the current one, strip it back, repaint and resell as new?

The reason for the rusting was "non-ideal atmospheric conditions during painting". Too much humidity or too cool or something??

[Deeptank Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Deeptank]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

ARB are replacing my bar with a brand new one. Interesting to see what they do with the current one, strip it back, repaint and resell as new?

The reason for the rusting was "non-ideal atmospheric conditions during painting". Too much humidity or too cool or something??

I thought about that too... In my case the bar itself was 100%, so if it was stripped right back and then re-powered coated plus painted then I suppose it would be as good as new. Not sure if there are any safety regulations about that...

Time will tell how good the new paint job is.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

ARB gear sure isn't what it used to be... my bar is under two years old and the rubber bumper bits and the black plastic around the fog lights looks like it's been out in the sun for the last 50 years.

The fog light surrounds are almost grey from fading as are the rubber bumpers. The rubber bumpers are also all out of shape.

Not like it gets much sun either... it's always garaged at home and I park inside a warehouse at work also...

In the past ARB gear has been expensive but the best,These days it's just expensive :roll:

Mick

[Deeptank Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Deeptank]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Hi Mick - I think you should swing by ARB and have them take a look. Sure, you won't have it under warranty anymore, but still worth a shot. Or at least get them to fit new ones at cost. You crusing around with a shitty looking ARB bar isn't going to do them any 'product advertising' favours...

As I've mentioned a few times already, the guys at ARB Dandenong (franchise) we're a bunch of couldn't-care-less tools, but ARB Brighton (company owned) guys were outstanding. Not sure about your local, but still worth a shot. Failing that, just buzz the head office and let them know what's going on. In the scheme of things the bumpers can't cost more than a few bucks to make.

Good luck mate!

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Hi Mick - I think you should swing by ARB and have them take a look. Sure, you won't have it under warranty anymore, but still worth a shot. Or at least get them to fit new ones at cost. You crusing around with a shitty looking ARB bar isn't going to do them any 'product advertising' favours...

As I've mentioned a few times already, the guys at ARB Dandenong (franchise) we're a bunch of couldn't-care-less tools, but ARB Brighton (company owned) guys were outstanding. Not sure about your local, but still worth a shot. Failing that, just buzz the head office and let them know what's going on. In the scheme of things the bumpers can't cost more than a few bucks to make.

Yes good advice... I'll try ARB Gawler, they have a really good reputation (franchise)... my local ARB is actually the state office... bunch of tools in the office and goons in the workshop...mind you they don't like me either :twisted:

Mick

[Jam Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jam]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Gentlemen,

in the interests of forum pedantry:

The 120 series bar is powdercoated in grey, same as the roofrack. Most ARB bars are powdercoated black.

I can't speak for the outlet you got your bar from in Melbourne, but when they paint (ie, colour code) the bars they should only really be scuffing the powdercoat enough to make a texture the paint can stick to.

Having said this, I have heard of a "bad batch" of powdercoated bars where the powdercoat had some crap in it which stopped the paint from sticking.

In either case, there's no way the bar should be raw under the paint!

The colour coded bar ARB bar on my surf was awesome, I never had any paint issues with it in 4 years. Maybe something has changed in that time?

[AndrewW Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close AndrewW]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

This thread has been quite informative guys, well done 8)

My old Hilux had a TJM bar on it for 5 years, only very slightly scratching caused by myself, other than that it was perfect, no rust at all.

I have contemplating a Toyota bar, versus an ARB bar. Dandenong is the closest dealer for me, but I have never had any luck with them, always quote from the book, and anything I have bought, they stuffed up. I work near Brighton, so I will definitely visit them first.

I had an ARB rear bar on the old lux too, compared with the TJM front bar, the ARB jobbie was quite sad, yes it suffered a few knocks, but it was rusting in places that weren't knocked and looked a lot worse than the bullbar at the same age. Perhaps they have fallen victim to cheap chinese imports to help inflate their share price.

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Perhaps they have fallen victim to cheap chinese imports to help inflate their share price.

Have you seen their share price lately? :roll:
http://hfgapps.hubb.com/asxtools/Charts ... sxCode=ARP

They have a Thailand plant that makes racks and some bars but these are mainly export not for AU

[switched Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close switched]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Geee, now here's an informative topic. I'm due for a new bar and was thinking of getting mine done in colour coded silver to keep the prado looking less agricultural. After reading this, I think I may opt for the standard powdercoat. Sure it may not look as nice, but it's cheaper and from what I can tell comes with alot less headaches :lol:

Would really love to see some photos of the chips/rust though

[switched Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close switched]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Well I recently ordered my deluxe winch bar from ARB. Also will be receiving my FREE recovery kit valued at around $340. He persuaded me to not get the colour coding if the vehicle was to be used off road and country driving as the colour code doesnt hold up to well to stone chip as compared with the powercoated bar. I came to this safe conclusion last night after reading this thread from the beginning and the problems people are having.

[sleeky Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sleeky]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

It all depends who they get to paint the bar. I am very happy with mine and it looks great.

[chester Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close chester]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Same response here when i told the ARB rep of my dirt road driving "save hassle and 200 bucks and forget the colour coding

[switched Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close switched]

Re: ARB Bar chipped n rusty. 1 month old, not been off-road yet!

Ive had a change of heart.. After seeing a few silvers with the standard powdercoating I decided I will go with the colour coding and live with the chips Funnily enough this time when I called to change the order, the chap (different to the first guy I spoke with) said that the colour coding is quite resilient to chips..