ARB - derusted and new mounting hardware

[R129mine]

Last year I removed the ARB on my R129 and did a quick sand down of the worst of the rust, painted it and put it back on.

This year I decided to hopefully do it properly:

• Sanded down the worst of the rust and old paint with an axle grinder
• covered it in deox gel for a few days
• sanded it down again
• applied hydrate 80
• applied 2x coats of epoxy mastic

I did similar thing with the 4x brackets but instead of deox gel I soaked them in citric acid for a week and sanded them down every other day (and then applied hydrate 80, epoxy mastic)

Spray painted it in black for good measure

Ordered new bolts and nuts and 2x new inner and outer bushings


This morning I finally got around fixing it to the car the new bolts are slightly shorter than the old ones which makes mounting it a little harder but after 40 minutes of struggling it is now on.


Happy with the result, just a shame of the remainder of the suspension but that will have to be done another time



I also replaced the 2x horns and cleaned up the coolant expansion tank and did some other preventative rust treatment under the car by the wheel arches and the radiator supports as well as the front bumper mounting points. They all had light surface rust on it


Nobody will ever see it but I know it is there

I will now get the car on my small ramp and will treat the lower wishbones and centre support with POR15

 

[Yogioes]

Good work you are doing there. I also painted my ARB but I think I would try powder coating if I was doing it again.

I would suggest having a look at the transmission cooler pipe that sits just behind the bottom edge of the radiator, particularly where it goes through the P clip.
I appear to have disturbed mine while changing the lower rad hose and it started spraying transmission fluid.
Worth checking while you are under there.

And, something I wash I had known before I started, the fan shroud is very easy to remove. Two clips at the top and it just lifts out.
Yours may be the same.

Picture is looking down the back of the radiator.

 

[R129mine]

someone suggested that powder coating may make the ARB too thick and the bushes would not fit properly. I don't know if that is

I will have a look at that line, mine is equally rusted, I did take care of the other cooling line which runs in front of the radiator by sanding it down, treating it with deox gel and then the hydrate 80/epoxy mastic route.

This is after, before was much worse, trust me




Thanks for the tip regarding the fan, must give that a go, I like the easy things