Cheap side bars rusted badly.

[Droneshadow]

This may have been covered before so excuse me if it has. My T6 had a set of new side bars fitted 3 years ago.
I’d noticed them rusting at either end for a while so thought I’d take them off and repaint or replace.
I was quite shocked to see how badly the have corroded. The brackets were a pain to remove as the nuts had rusted to the bolts on the attachment brackets, this meant they just span round instead of undoing. Ended up taking about two hours to get them stripped off, with lots of cussing and swearing. I’m not going to be fitting any more. The only bits to survive unscathed are the stainless clips, and zinc plated bits, for obvious reasons.
If you are going to fit some, use plenty of protective grease or rust preventer as you go, inside the ends of the tubes as well.
I should point out these were cheap bars, more expensive ones may well be more resistant.

 

[Mixersmate]

Mine are the exact same and I took them off yesterday funnily enough.

I left the brackets on, I’ve cleaned them with a wire brush and will hammerite them tomorrow.

I have some new replacement side bars but I’m toying with the idea of sending them to the powder coaters to get a better quality finish on them before fitting, with a coat of G5 wheel armour ceramic coating that I’ve got lying around.

I’ve also bought some shorty style mud flaps to try and minimise stone chips that damage the coating.

I will definitely be copper greasing the bolts because as you said they were an absolute nightmare.

 

[Vanbus]

This may have been covered before so excuse me if it has. My T6 had a set of new side bars fitted 3 years ago.
I’d noticed them rusting at either end for a while so thought I’d take them off and repaint or replace.
I was quite shocked to see how badly the have corroded. The brackets were a pain to remove as the nuts had rusted to the bolts on the attachment brackets, this meant they just span round instead of undoing. Ended up taking about two hours to get them stripped off, with lots of cussing and swearing. I’m not going to be fitting any more. The only bits to survive unscathed are the stainless clips, and zinc plated bits, for obvious reasons.
If you are going to fit some, use plenty of protective grease or rust preventer as you go, inside the ends of the tubes as well.
I should point out these were cheap bars, more expensive ones may well be more resistant.View attachment 254127

This may have been covered before so excuse me if it has. My T6 had a set of new side bars fitted 3 years ago.
I’d noticed them rusting at either end for a while so thought I’d take them off and repaint or replace.
I was quite shocked to see how badly the have corroded. The brackets were a pain to remove as the nuts had rusted to the bolts on the attachment brackets, this meant they just span round instead of undoing. Ended up taking about two hours to get them stripped off, with lots of cussing and swearing. I’m not going to be fitting any more. The only bits to survive unscathed are the stainless clips, and zinc plated bits, for obvious reasons.
If you are going to fit some, use plenty of protective grease or rust preventer as you go, inside the ends of the tubes as well.
I should point out these were cheap bars, more expensive ones may well be more resistant.View attachment 254127

I doubt expensive ones more resilient these days as they are all steel Powder coated. We used to make side bars out of stainless pipe, brackets etc. but 'we can buy for £200 less' is what we heard. Well this is what you get for cheap...

 

[Muppet]

Same here. Just taken mine off (they were in when I bought the van) as they’ve basically corroded from the inside out.
Rust bubbled up under the powder coat, then the powder coat started to flake off.
you can see all the rust that came out of the bars in the pic.
Even though getting the actual bars off is only four bolts, all four were seized and two sheared completely trying to get them off. Now gonna try and remove the fitting kits… don’t think I want any more of these on the van…

 

[SussexT6]

This is unfortunately a common sight,
I learnt with a previous T5 how bad these can be.
The new set on the work van have had Lanoguard sprayed inside, a bit of a faff but so far so good.
It’s the lack of any protection on the inside that is the killer.
If you know anyone with a endoscope get them to look inside a NEW one, wow

 

[DXX]

Sacrificial anodes for the van body.

 

[Muppet]

This may have been covered before so excuse me if it has. My T6 had a set of new side bars fitted 3 years ago.
I’d noticed them rusting at either end for a while so thought I’d take them off and repaint or replace.
I was quite shocked to see how badly the have corroded. The brackets were a pain to remove as the nuts had rusted to the bolts on the attachment brackets, this meant they just span round instead of undoing. Ended up taking about two hours to get them stripped off, with lots of cussing and swearing. I’m not going to be fitting any more. The only bits to survive unscathed are the stainless clips, and zinc plated bits, for obvious reasons.
If you are going to fit some, use plenty of protective grease or rust preventer as you go, inside the ends of the tubes as well.
I should point out these were cheap bars, more expensive ones may well be more resistant.View attachment 254127

Hi Droneshadow - so I’m now stuck on removing the fitting kits. Same issue as you - bolts corroded to the threads and just spinning as you described.
Mind if I ask what you did to get the fitting kits out?

 

[Sasquatch]

I have very similar bars. I sprayed up the ends and over the brackets with Buzzweld lano spray and they've stayed pristine. Have just done it again ready for the forthcoming winter.

 

[bobnudd]

I got Matt black coated stainless trapezoidal bars at a reasonable price (THQ) .

The cheap ones, from veedubz iirc, rusted to a crusty husk on both ends in a year, the middle looked perfect until you looked underneath where the underside had completely disappeared.
The new ones have a few scuffs down to the metal on the underside now, but remain corrosion free as promised. Which is nice, because rusty side bars is what makes little baby Jesus cry!

 

[Droneshadow]

Hi Droneshadow - so I’m now stuck on removing the fitting kits. Same issue as you - bolts corroded to the threads and just spinning as you described.
Mind if I ask what you did to get the fitting kits out?

Sorry for the late reply, I wiggled the bolts out eventually with a pair of mole grips, they had an offset plate on them, very fiddly but do able.

 

[Roberts83]

This happened to mine, apparently using traffic film remover, tar and adhesive remover this all aids the corrosion...that was from someone at auto finesse...