BAJA RACKS RUST!!!!! Any solution???

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super40 said:
just bought a baja rack off mud a couple weeks ago (used). if i did not pic it up super cheep id be pissed..cuz its peeling like a banana with surface rust under the coating. wire wheeling all the loose coating areas then treating with acid then prime & paint. should be ok for a while.
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I wouldn't bother with acid etching it.. By the time you rinse all the acid off with clean water, you're back to square one, as H20 will begin the rust process immediately... Phosphoric acid will bleed thru the paint, muriatic acid only etches concrete, hydrochloric acid is just nasty stuff..
 
Living in the Northeast def has its challenges. I bought my LX from California 4 years ago. I have no rust on my truck. The guys at my Lexus service dept stare at my truck in awe. The can't believe it's rust free. Except a little rust on the trailer hitch.
I even had them undercoat it last year.
 
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lounassau said:
Living in the Northeast def has its challenges. I bought my LX from California 4 years ago. I have no rust on my truck. The guys at my Lexus service dept stare at my truck in awe. The can't believe it's rust free. Except a little rust on the trailer hitch.
I even had them undercoat it last year.

I like the look of the rack but something is def wrong with production. I wrote the first thread on here about baja rack when they first came out. Had thousands of hits. They need to find a better way.
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Yup, mine was from Atlanta, and the local Toy dealer guys came out and just stared at it.... What undercoating did you use? I'll be brush blasting my axles and such and rattle canning them as a PM, but not sure what undercoating to use.. I like the idea of the rubberized rattle can stuff..
 
rubicondon53 said:
I wouldn't bother with acid etching it.. By the time you rinse all the acid off with clean water, you're back to square one, as H20 will begin the rust process immediately... Phosphoric acid will bleed thru the paint, muriatic acid only etches concrete, hydrochloric acid is just nasty stuff..
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phos acid will not bleed through the paint if you clean the air with TSP (tri sodium phosphate) after the phos acid kills the rust.
 
I went out and had a closer look at my Baja rack - there is one rust spot where the PC has chipped off, and it's under where the RTT rail rests, and I can thank this thread for reminding me to hit it again. There are plenty of threads on re-hab'ing roof racks, including INTI and ARB. Do I wish it had a better PC coating? Yes indeed, but I can't imagine any of them are going to be maintenance free if they are being used to carry gear. If everyone's Baja rack is chipping simply from exposure (is that what's happening?), then that must be a quality control deterioration since I bought mine in 2010.

Lou, is that rust on yours just from exposure? It looks like it is, as it's on the brackets as well.

Mine, just now:

IMG_2121.webp
 
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lounassau said:
Plutonis. Yes. My rack is rusting just from exposure. It's definitely a defect. I'm definitely sure the know it's s problem. They can google it to search about Baja Rack Rust and see the posts.

If I remove it I will improve my gas mileage!!!
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If you're not using it, of course I'd remove it.
 
surfpig said:
If you're not using it, of course I'd remove it.
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lounassau said:
It's for looks.
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We're definitely not on the same wavelength here...

:lol:

Yeah, I guess if I was using it just for looks, I'd be kind of pissed.

That being said, they certainly seem to have problems with the quality of the finish.

I have the same rack by the way, but it hangs in the rafters when I'm not actually using it.

:meh:
 
lounassau said:
JCruse- I paid over $850 for this rack plus shipping.
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Yea but mine's only 3' long! A 3/4 length was eight something and out of my budget at the time.
 
Lounassau,
For what it's worth I'd sand and use Eastwood rust inhibitor.. seems to work well on rusty areas of my 40.. I live in Monmouth County . Also like your Panerai
 
Take it and have it media blasted and have them prime it there.You can either hope for the best and paint over their primer or take it home, remove the primer and hit it with something like Ospho
http://www.amazon.com/s/?tag=ihco-20

Then you can paint prep and paint it.

OP I spent fair amount of time in Margate,LBI,Wildwood Crest, and AC when I was a teen and young 20s. I lived in Bucks county, just north of Philly. Your proximity to the ocean is the big issue. I lived in the FL Keys for 10 years and fighting rust was a constant battle. The stuff I listed above is what everyone used to at least slow it down some.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the replies.
BajaRack has very good customer support. They paid to have the rack redone. I took it to New Age in Sewell NJ. It was media blasted and better than new.
 
I agree with Guambomb, Lounassau you should move out of NJ to the Desert Southwest, you'll never have a problem with rust out there.
 
Hey Lounassau off topic a bit, is that big Elephant (like 50' tall or so) still there? I think that there is a spiral stair case inside it
 
Cool they fixed it. It looks like it was under cured, poor metal prep or both. They are a pretty high end manufacturer so cool they took care of your issues. That situation is bad for you and them and it sounds like you both made the best of it. A quick way to check for under cured powder is to wipe it with acetone or lacquer thinner; if finish comes off readily, it's probably under cured. Nearly all powder coatings go through molecular cross link with heat. If not given enough time, they look great but do not gain flexibility and durability properties
 
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