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

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

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

The bar I've got is not colour coded and looks great. No chipping (except for where I accidently knocked it rather hard with a spanner) and no signs of rust anywhere and I have checked a number of times. The bar has been on for about a year. My father in law has a colour coded ARB winch bar on his 100 series and it looks bloody awful. He hasn't done much off road (only across the Simpson last year) and is a reasonably careful driver but the paint on his seems a little on the thin side as there are plenty of edges where the paint has been rubbed back. This is after about four years but has been like that for the majority of that time.

I guess as Deeptank has indicated depends on who does the spraying and what time of day. Some jobs are good and others not so.

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

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

I chipped my bar a couple of months ago, not bad considering i totally destroyed the gate at the farm i ran into

[lippa Member Find all posts View Profile Close lippa]

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

what's the warranty with ARB Bars? I got under mine the other day to remove the bash plates, and noted the centre colour coded plate was quiet badly rusted, like big bubbles of rust and flakes!!!!!! bar is 13months old!
it was its first trip to beach, hence I was removing them to clean. no evidence of powder coat either, just a quick jam of etch, then a mono-coat metallic over the top.
Paint is extremely thin around the edges, which is why it has let go. I have the standard ARB excessive chipping as well, but i have stayed on top of that with a touch up brush. It's a shame, as the finish and colour match is excellent.

lippa

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

I know this is an old thread but I have to vent. Mine is another case of a brand new (3 months old) colour coded ARB premium winch bar, not even chipped, now getting quite rusty on the inner side around the base. It’s just appearing along the base and around the welds, and the bar looks like its 10 years old already!. The car hasn’t been anywhere near salt water. What a crap paint job! I think if ARB are going to outsource parts of their operation they need to implement better quality control over their service providers. I have taken it back to the dealer and he is taking it up with ARB rep. I think I’ll ask for a black powder coated bar this time, rather than risk another paint schnozzle. Its a real shame because the white colour match looked great.

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

Colour coded bars are usually painted (outsourced) by the fitting dealer rather than ARB head office...

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I arranged the painting of my own bar, I think that was a good move, cant complain about the paint job on mine.

Cheers Andrew

[Fred63 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fred63]

I have already posted in another thread regarding the quality of powder coat on some products.
best solution in my humble opinion if you want colour coded get is blasted and painted by a good panel shop.
then you know the prep is done right,
Spike in you case without seeing it I would say the prep for the powder coat was the problem not the paint put over the top of it.
good luck getting it fixed

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

I have already posted in another thread regarding the quality of powder coat on some products.
best solution in my humble opinion if you want colour coded get is blasted and painted by a good panel shop.
then you know the prep is done right,
Spike in you case without seeing it I would say the prep for the powder coat was the problem not the paint put over the top of it.
good luck getting it fixed

Thanks Fred, yes I suspect you’re right. Here are some pics I took:


For a 3 month old job, it was pretty incompetent of the paint contractor I reckon….

Agree yours was a good idea AJ, I remember reading that on your thread about you getting yours done by a trusted service provider, I probably should have paid the extra to do the same. You’d just like to think ARB would have better quality control over their outsourced contractors.

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

ARB quoted me $245 to colour their bar. Guest 4x4 quoted $450 to paint the ARB bar, as they only use a BMW spray painter a few doors up from them. I'm paying $450 for TJM (Coburg) bar colour coding. Again they will only use a certain guy as he does good work ( so I am told). Find out tomorrow but I believe you get what you pay for (most of the time)

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

Find out tomorrow but I believe you get what you pay for (most of the time)

Amen to that.

[Fred63 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fred63]

I agree that is pretty poor.
But the rust is coming from underneath.
2 issues here.
the original surface was not prepped correctly it appears there was already surface rust under the original coating.
the contractor working to a price then covered the original coating, his prep on what he worked on may have been ok.
he could not see what was under the original coating.

I have just ordered a bar myself (another brand) and will leave it as is black.
Black on white. should look ok.

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

Yes reckon I’ll do the same Fred. Assuming of course I can get some restitution from ARB…...

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

Well I just had an interesting discussion with my local ARB dealer here in Southern Sydney. He is adamant that ARB do all of their own powder coating/painting/spraying of their bars, and don't outsource the colour coding. He says he's even been out to their new facility at Prestons (near Liverpool) where it gets done and seen them in action. I'm not sure whether that's just Sydney, but it seems there is no excuse then for poor third party performance, it's all down to ARB quality control. Watch this space......

[Corigator Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Corigator]

I got my bar fitted by the panel beater. He sandblasted the bar first then colour coded to match.

There is still a little surface rust at some of the joints, but mostly Good.

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

Well I just had an interesting discussion with my local ARB dealer here in Southern Sydney. He is adamant that ARB do all of their own powder coating/painting/spraying of their bars, and don't outsource the colour coding.

Tell him he's dreaming, they only powder coat in Kilsyth, colour coding is done external.