Advise on refurbishing my anti roll bar

[Mac68]

I've removed my anti roll bar as I couldn't remove the droplinks easily and my roll bar could do with being re-finished.

Is removing the rust and then painting with Hammerite sufficient or powder coating the way to go?

The ARB, where the bush makes contact, appears to have a build up of what looks like tape or possibly the inside of the previous bush?

Can I remove this build up to paint / coat or is it to protect the coating on the ARB?


Thanks
Mac68

 

[Big Jock]

ARB

That tape is there in an attempt to take up the wear on the bar where the bush goes. Throw it away(the bar). It will always rattle.

 

[timm996]

Re: ARB

That tape is there in an attempt to take up the wear on the bar where the bush goes. Throw it away(the bar). It will always rattle.

Oddly enough my car had a tape wrapped ARB, must be a thing, I replaced mine

 

[Mac68]

Re: ARB

Oddly enough my car had a tape wrapped ARB, must be a thing, I replaced mine

The tape of the entire bar?

Thanks

 

[Mac68]

Re: ARB

That tape is there in an attempt to take up the wear on the bar where the bush goes. Throw it away(the bar). It will always rattle.

Ah so it's definitely by design then, I wondered if it was a left over residue.
Replacing the ARBs isn't an option so I'll look to paint and put some paint protection back on.

Thanks

 

[timm996]

The whole bar! the tape was someones temporary bodge, obviously it works but long term I didn't like the idea of it, so got new ones. A set of new bars is about £700 so the tape bodge is the attractive option and seems to work and quite common as they seem to rust a lot.

 

[timm996]

The whole bar! the tape was someones temporary bodge, obviously it works but long term I didn't like the idea of it, so got new ones. A set of new bars is about £700 so the tape bodge is the attractive option and seems to work and quite common as they seem to rust a lot.

 

[Mac68]

Cheers timm996, I'll "bodge" for the time being as I have bigger fish to fry

I maybe investigate something more robust than tape like a plastic shim once the bar is painted.

Thx

 

[Marky911]

Get it blasted and powder coated then measure the diameter of the bar at the areas where the bushes go. .
You should be able to buy bushes from the likes of Powerflex to fit whatever the size is. New bushes will cost about £30.

Throwing the bars away is extreme to say the least. :grin:

 

[Mac68]

Get it blasted and powder coated then measure the diameter of the bar at the areas where the bushes go. .
You should be able to buy bushes from the likes of Powerflex to fit whatever the size is. New bushes will cost about £30.

I have Meyle bushes already so I'll refurb the bar and paint and then fit my new bushes and if they were as snug as the ones that came off I'll run with it otherwise it's tape/shim bodge. At least the bars come off easily enough!

Throwing the bars away is extreme to say the least. :grin:

I agree, the Scotsman in me says that's not my first option. I'd rather fix it up and if it fails or doesn't perform then I'll replace it.

Thanks all

 

[1marc]

I'd agree, sandblast and powder coat is an effective and inexpensive option.

Personally I'd be looking at upgrading. Either OEM GT3 / GT2 / RS as all thicker and will help dynamically (pretty sure they are about £200 each ish) or aftermarket Eibach / H&R (around the same cost including bushes). All adjustable so can be tailored to your driving requirements especially if you take it to somewhere like Centre Gavity for geo too.

Is it the front, rear or both that are looking a little worse for wear and which 997 do you have?

 

[Mac68]

I'd agree, sandblast and powder coat is an effective and inexpensive option.

Thanks for the input, PC is probably best but I can get these cleaned and painted today and be back on the car at my next freetime.
I've sent a couple of emails to local powder coaters and might re-visit it.

Personally I'd be looking at upgrading. Either OEM GT3 / GT2 / RS as all thicker and will help dynamically (pretty sure they are about £200 each ish) or aftermarket Eibach / H&R (around the same cost including bushes). All adjustable so can be tailored to your driving requirements especially if you take it to somewhere like Centre Gavity for geo too.

I'm not sure I can exploit or use uprated bars to their their full potential. This is my fist performance car so I'm taking it easy and as allluded to upthread, the car needs other works including all the arms are 17 years old so some bushed have started to perish.
The droplinks are the first step to getting rid of low speed clunks and depending on the outcome I'll replace more items.

Is it the front, rear or both that are looking a little worse for wear and which 997 do you have?

Currently it's the rear ARB I'm working on as I couldn't free the rear droplink from the ARB. The front ARB could be the same but I managed to swap the droplink OK, well once I used a impact wrench to free the droplink from the shock. I imagine the front is in the same condition so will re-visit it once the rear ARB, bushes and droplinks are sorted.

Thanks.

 

[Mac68]

Thanks all for your input, especially the safety of jacking up the car etc.

I've completed the rear droplinks, the ARB bushes and painted both the braces and ARB and now everything is torqued up.

Car on the homemade ramps

Right rear droplink and brace.


Now onto the front left droplink (I've already replaced the right hand side) and ARB bushes and maybe I'll refinish the front ARB.

Cheers
Mac68

 

[Mac68]

Snap of how the ARB looked in the end.
I opted for some strong gaffa tape. I wasn't 100% sure I needed it but I'll be replacing some other suspension components in the coming months so the ARB will be off again at some point.

After this snap was taken I replaced the two bolts in each collar with 10.9 tensile bolts as my original bolts were two different lengths.



Thanks all for your input.

Mac