road armor rusted.

[Kurt Henzler]

i posted a thread in 3 gen section about this. who has a rusted bumper already. mine is rusted everywhere in only 9 months. what is the solution. what colors are holding up best.

 

[Oil Burner]

Kurt,



That is a shame. Is it rusting around welds or just random places? You haven't had it very long. Its powdercoated, not painted, right?



Jason (white and silver dodge from pgh)

 

[Kurt Henzler]

it is all the edges that the paint is falling off. it is coming off in sheets. the tubes themselves are fine. they say it is powercoated. how do you tell. mine looks silver just like my truck. jim was very nice at road armor. he said that they would repaint this time for free. it is just going to cost me 300 to ship it both ways.

 

[Oil Burner]

I don't know how to tell for sure, but its gotta be powdercoated. Atleast they will recoat it for you. To bad they aren't closeby.



I have heard that powdercoating, when it comes loose or chips, can come off in bigger sheets than paint will. but powdercoating should hold up better than paint. might have been a bad coating job to start with.



good luck



Jason

 

[DKarvwnaris]

it is all the edges that the paint is falling off. it is coming off in sheets. the tubes themselves are fine. they say it is powercoated. how do you tell. mine looks silver just like my truck. jim was very nice at road armor. he said that they would repaint this time for free. it is just going to cost me 300 to ship it both ways.

For the cost of shipping you're getting shafted with, you could hire a local shop to powder coat the stuff easily. I would not stand for shelling out costs of returning the product PLUS paying to send it back to you. They did a crap job of prepping the material, that's why it is rusting and flaking off.

Poor finish speaks loads about the workmanship of a product. Offer to split the bill of a local powder coater refinishing the parts for you instead. If they are concerned about their customer base, its the least they could do.

Powdercoating finishes that I have had done to tube bumpers and buggy frames I have built has lasted years, mainly because the shop did plating and coatings specifically. Do you think the lack of quality control the first time is going to really improve when the pieces now have rust on them? Not likely. Make sure they are beadblasted in the affected areas, I doubt they will do it if you mail them off.

 

[Chipstien]

I agree with above. Bad prepping. Do you really want to shell out the shipping only to have them do the same job. There should be no rust from a year of use.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

YUP!



Get it blasted and prepped LOCALLY, then powder coated - at least then you get to gripe LOCALLY if it causes problems later... Powder coating isn't a mysterious "Black Art" - lotsa local areas have good shops capable of doing it...

 

[Kurt Henzler]

jim at road armor said that they sell 150 units per month and have less than 1 percent problems with the paint. the finish warranty is 90 days. i can see that because of road chips and misuse, they can not be responsible for everybodys paint chips. i do not have a chip problem. the was do to poor prep or bad product. (jim even told me that) the paint is peeling from all edges. i can not believe that i am going to have to pay anything to fix this after spending over 2000 for this bumper.

 

[24V-DSL]

Bs!!

Sounds like they're pretty proud of their "less than 1% paint problems" on 150 units per month.



You shouldn't be charged anything for this, beyond your own fuel to get it to a local shop.

 

[DKarvwnaris]

jim at road armor said that they sell 150 units per month and have less than 1 percent problems with the paint. the finish warranty is 90 days. i can see that because of road chips and misuse, they can not be responsible for everybodys paint chips. i do not have a chip problem. the was do to poor prep or bad product. (jim even told me that) the paint is peeling from all edges. i can not believe that i am going to have to pay anything to fix this after spending over 2000 for this bumper.

I am glad you posted this issue, I have a friend who was ranting and raving about their bumpers, I sent this to him last night. He is now going to buy a reunel bumper or ARB. At the least, you prevented a half assed shop from taking more money from others who expected quality. 90 days finish for finish is a pretty weak product coverage. When I was building custom parts like this, I covered it no questions asked for a year, and usually would repair them after much longer if the customer was reasonable and polite about it. I guess that's why I didn't need to advertise my services for over 5 years of business and relied on word of mouth.

Personally, I think Road Armor's contract with Four Wheel Parts Wholesalers has made them think they're better than they really are now. They seem to have developed the same quality of customer satisfaction that FWPW has been so good at for years.

 

[24V-DSL]

Well, there you are.....

One confirmed lost sale, and who knows how many more after all this exposure on the TDR?

 

[DKarvwnaris]

One confirmed lost sale, and who knows how many more after all this exposure on the TDR?

When the thread gets to about 20 replies and 100 views, send it to Road Armor. Nothing gets the attention of a inactive customer care line as bad publicity. Consider it a membership version of the consumer watchdog groups you here about, (which do nothing to help the effected customer resolve their issues).

 

[Kurt Henzler]

i think knocking without giving them a chance at road armor to fix the problem is not the thing to do. i own my own business for the past five years and am not that kind of person. but on the other hand , they told me at road armor if my paint was falling off after this short time that there was a problem with paint prep and it will be warranty. i think they should pay shipping or allow me to have it painted locally as long as i get them several estimates. what is the best way to handle this.

 

[Kurt Henzler]

at 150 units per month , there has to be a ton of members with their front bumpers. how is the paint holding up?

 

[DKarvwnaris]

at 150 units per month , there has to be a ton of members with their front bumpers. how is the paint holding up?

Question is, how much of that is specific to actual sales and not just inventory on hand orders? Four wheel Parts usually has several dozen units in stock for them to carry a product, they are probably still building for inventory and display. I wouldn't take their production level as a sign of quality, it just shows they are getting too big too fast if anything.

I have been running my own business for years as well. I started in the accessory market by sheer misguided lack of luck after I finished my time in the Navy. As a reseller, I would hold Road Armor completely responsible for the remedy, shipping included. My customers would not expect me to charge them for the warranty, so I would in turn have to cover the costs somewhere. Warn, Rancho, Pro Comp, etc. all send me pick tickets to cover shipping on warranty and screwup on their parts. Due to the accessory markets markup, don't think for a minute that the profits are not there for them to do the right thing. They screwed up their product, not you. I'd demand a full refund of the product or tell them to make it right at their expense. You paid for the shipping already to get it to you the first time.

I would not as I said allow them to charge you for shipping just to recoat it. Give them the option of covering the powder coating locally, which they will have to pay for even at their place of business one way or another. The difference is, you will have local support if it happens again, Doubtful if the shop does it for their main line of business as I mentioned before.

If Road armor wants to act like a big company, they need to handle problems like a big company, its a 2 way street, not the one way they are offering you.

I posted a link to this thread to a few other sites I read, if you get a call from Road Armor regarding this, don't be surprised. One of the forum members on another site is a dealer for them, he is concerned as well.

PLease post your results when the issue is resolved so I can update the linked forums as well.

 

[Kurt Henzler]

thank you dkarvmnaris and everybody for your support and help. i will talk to jim at road armor and post results.

 

[DarrellB]

Mine have also rusted.



My rear bumper is horrible, all the edges have flaked off and started rusting and the thing is scratched all to heck where I have stepped on it to get in and out of the bed. I looked and noticed the finish warranty was only 90 days so I didnt' bother trying to call. I've got a line on a local shop and I'm even thinking about Line-X'n the both the front and rear down the road.



I would have thought the finish would have been a little better than it is. My front has some nice gouges from rocks as well and that paint sure doesn't look to think to me. :{ I love the looks of the bumpers but I dont know if I'd buy from them again unless they did a little better job on the prep work before paint.



DB

 

[Kurt Henzler]

how old is your front bumper and what color did you have it painted?

 

[DKarvwnaris]

Mine have also rusted.



My rear bumper is horrible, all the edges have flaked off and started rusting and the thing is scratched all to heck where I have stepped on it to get in and out of the bed. I looked and noticed the finish warranty was only 90 days so I didnt' bother trying to call. I've got a line on a local shop and I'm even thinking about Line-X'n the both the front and rear down the road.



I would have thought the finish would have been a little better than it is. My front has some nice gouges from rocks as well and that paint sure doesn't look to think to me. :{ I love the looks of the bumpers but I dont know if I'd buy from them again unless they did a little better job on the prep work before paint.



DB

Line X coating the bumpers will be your best solution if you're subjecting the surface to rocks, foot prints etc. Just make sure you have the bare metal treated with some kind of rust inhibitor, possibly an etching primer. There is little you can do if you are gougin the coating off on rocks to complain about it holding up, but in the case of the pics on thise thread, there is a serious defect in workmanship from Road Armor's coating process. If you don't go the line X solution, I would look into having the bumper recoated or painted and apply a non skid tread surface to the stepping area. The Rocks are just something you will have to live with, nothing will withstand beign ground between steel and a rock, you might as well run a grinder over its bottom. How about an aluminum skid plate edge, at least it won't rust, possibly a stainless steel trim as well?

 

[TaylorJ]

Mine too is rusting, flaking off in big chunks. Becareful at the car wash. I had mine done in white. I bought a front and rear bumper from Road Armor. I am going to check with a local company to see what it would cost to get them recoated but I would definately not send them back to Road Armor to have them redone especially if they want you to pay shipping.



Johnny