Treehouse Racing Arms - rusty as hell!

[Sean]

Am I the only one? It seems in the last two years, when I've driven my car very little, the powdercoating has flaked off and they are just big pieces of steel rust now. There's tons of steel there, so i don't see them being a safety issue right away but it really disappoints me. Am I the only one with rusty arms like that?

[Mafiaracers]

I havent had issue with mine, yet..... :/ But we don't use salt on the roads here in Oregon.

Either way, I'd take them off, grind off all the rust, dip them in a bucket of POR15 or RUST MORT, repaint them and enjoy.

[Sean]

I am from out west, so it has never seen salt either. (anything more than driving home for christmas and cleaning it right away) How long have you had them?

[FredK]

I've driven on mine for 20K miles. I rarely drive my car in the winter, and the paint has mostly failed.

No big deal, I'll just sand them down and paint them again.

[Spaz]

Mine were chipped right out of the box and since have continued to flake off, while it is not a big deal nor does it effect the performance, for the price of them i was expecting powder coat or at least a thick layer of paint!

-Cam

[Sean]

I sent an e-mail to Jon at THR and he said this:

yeah, they're in a location that just gets the crap beat out of them by flying debris. The only coating that has held up in my testing ofer the years is black oxide (like the stock ones) EVERYTHING else gets whipped. I would say just pop em off some weekend and hit them with a wire wheel or something and then some rustoleum - it seems to last quite a while as well.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Jon

I was hoping he'd say something like - bummer, I'll send new ones. lol (Thinking that for the price they should have lasted longer too...? - They must make a killing on these things!) Anyway, sounds like it's expected - so I'll just have to make that a project after OFest to pull them off and coat them good with some paint. I'm thinking some hardcore beefer rubberized undercoating may withstand the elements! Thoughts? haha

[TwoJ's]

It is kind of sad that they just come painted. Sounds like they know that the paint is insufficient, but continue to sell them like that. It's not like they are barely covering manufacturing costs... they should come powder coated.

I would advise against using the undercoating. If I were in your shoes, I would get them powder coated. It's costly to have a place heat up their oven just to do small parts like that though. I made a sway bar for my senior project, and I was able to get it powder coated for free because my prof. knew a guy with a shop that regularly sent stuff out to be coated black. I had to wait, but they just threw it in for free. The largest cost is for the powder coaters to heat up their giant ovens.

That being said, this may not work out that well because there is significant down time. And I don't have these, but if I remember correctly, there's a urethane insert in there right?

So your options are:

PC: big down time, and costs more than paint. Will last.
Black oxide: Really expensive and big down time. Will last.
Paint: Cheap, fast, won't last and you'll have to do it again.

[xwill112x]

is the rusting bad enough to cause a failure prematurely?

[HarryPotter]

Mine too were chipped and flaking out of the box, was kinda disappointed after dropping 200 dollars on control arm bushings.

[fiftytakedowns]

what is so much Better about those bushings anyway?

[HarryPotter]

They are pretty much a solid bushing with very little play. You get excellent road feel, no shimmying under any circumstances, such as heavy braking. Traveling over uneven pavement is a breeze. Granted I do believe most of this could be had by going with poly bushings. I think they are a little overkill for a street set up.

I did go from shot out oem's to these so I am not the best person to ask as I have no idea what the other bushings would deliver in terms of performance.

[AndrewBird]

What about Plasti Dip? Won't chip and it's easy to touch up if need be later.