After much pondering , I thought of sharing this with the fellow mudders.
I purchased two Bajaracks back in July-2013 (me+friend) and at that time, the Baja folks were very considerate to fabricate it with low profile legs (so we could fit it inside our garages) and added a few tabs, front , rear for our LEDs. So basically we have been using them for over 3 years now. We have the full shazaam of bajarack mounts i.e. spare wheel, hilt jacks, maxtrax, awning.
You can see few pictures at my dedicated thread : LC200 GXR Winch.
So around about somewhere mid 2015 we started to spot few rust spots and my friend went ahead and applied a rubberized coat. I didn't, I was lazy, and hence by early 2016 the rack had started to literally fall apart and leave rust stain marks on my roof. I was horrified. I took off all the mounts, LEDS and was appalled to the level of rust - see pictures below.
I contacted Bajarack, (sales & tech team) before summer this year, and asked for a viable explanation to this phenomenal rust : here is what they had to say : 29/04/2016 ,
Hi Ahmed,
The rack looks terrible, we have never seen such destruction on one of our products, can you please get a quote from a local powder coating place to see how much it would be to sand blast and re-paint the rack.
Ok so, to be honest, I was relieved that at least there is acknowledgment of the problem and some kind of monetary support from Baja folks. We exchanged numerous emails and I kept them abreast with the rack fixing process. Long story short - it cost me around $350 and the Baja folks were notified. This is what they had to say after I shared all the fixing process.. 24/05/2016
Hello Ahmed
Thank you for the feed back and we are taking your experience under review in the powder coating process, we already made several improvements working directly with the chemical treatment suppliers and we have change our powder coater....
So I sent them my account details for the 'principally agreed' cost - and haven't heard from BajaRacks ever since. sent them a reminder or two .....
Anyways - you will see the pictures BEFORE & AFTER - in the After process, I went with ;
Since 2013 , there is a lot more rack variety in the market for LC200. so folks choose carefully ...
I purchased two Bajaracks back in July-2013 (me+friend) and at that time, the Baja folks were very considerate to fabricate it with low profile legs (so we could fit it inside our garages) and added a few tabs, front , rear for our LEDs. So basically we have been using them for over 3 years now. We have the full shazaam of bajarack mounts i.e. spare wheel, hilt jacks, maxtrax, awning.
You can see few pictures at my dedicated thread : LC200 GXR Winch.
So around about somewhere mid 2015 we started to spot few rust spots and my friend went ahead and applied a rubberized coat. I didn't, I was lazy, and hence by early 2016 the rack had started to literally fall apart and leave rust stain marks on my roof. I was horrified. I took off all the mounts, LEDS and was appalled to the level of rust - see pictures below.
I contacted Bajarack, (sales & tech team) before summer this year, and asked for a viable explanation to this phenomenal rust : here is what they had to say : 29/04/2016 ,
Hi Ahmed,
The rack looks terrible, we have never seen such destruction on one of our products, can you please get a quote from a local powder coating place to see how much it would be to sand blast and re-paint the rack.
Ok so, to be honest, I was relieved that at least there is acknowledgment of the problem and some kind of monetary support from Baja folks. We exchanged numerous emails and I kept them abreast with the rack fixing process. Long story short - it cost me around $350 and the Baja folks were notified. This is what they had to say after I shared all the fixing process.. 24/05/2016
Hello Ahmed
Thank you for the feed back and we are taking your experience under review in the powder coating process, we already made several improvements working directly with the chemical treatment suppliers and we have change our powder coater....
So I sent them my account details for the 'principally agreed' cost - and haven't heard from BajaRacks ever since. sent them a reminder or two .....
Anyways - you will see the pictures BEFORE & AFTER - in the After process, I went with ;
- Full sand blasting of the rack and all the mounts, (did i tell you that the mounts were equally rusted?)
- Galvanization of the rack and all the mounts
- Red rust proofing primer as the base layer -
- checked all the joints , welds etc were intact or not..
- 2 coats of powder coat
- oven bake
- 1 coat of some shiny stuff - don't know what that was..
Since 2013 , there is a lot more rack variety in the market for LC200. so folks choose carefully ...