Bullbar Alterations

The last update showed the 109 with the bullbar removed for repair and alteration.  That work is now complete and it’s just a matter of refinishing. The bullbar was stripped of its black nylon coating (the same type of plastic coating that is used for covering steel garden furniture, just a little thicker) by using a paint stripping heat gun and a sharp wood chisel.  By slowly passing the heat gun over the surface, the plastic is slightly softened but, more importantly,  its adhesion to the steel is greatly reduced.  By running the chisel along one side of the tubular bars or the light guard slats, I was able to make a break in the wrapping, which then allowed me to get the chisel under the remaining plastic and peel it like an orange.  I worked on one-foot sections at a time to keep the heat in, but you don’t need to go mad with the gun – if you’re blistering the nylon you’re getting it hotter than needed and if you start melting it, you’ll just make removal harder.  It took about three hours to remove the whole lot, and a lot of that time was spent trying to get the last remaining bits out of the various joints and corners.  In all, it took much less time than I anticipated. The amount of rust was varied.  The central uprights are pretty well covered in surface rust, with just one deeper area on the front face of the right hand upright where the nylon had been split.  I suspect that most of this rust was present before the bar was nylon dipped, either from storing the steel sheet outdoors or from storing assembled but uncovered bars outdoors prior to dipping.  The tubular sections are fine, with just a little surface rust where they meet the uprights (where there is a very tight water trap and the nylon is prone to splitting).  The rust will easily be removed by the media blasting, and further rusting will be prevented by an extremely tough form of red oxide primer that my blaster uses (as used on the fuel tanks and other assemblies he’s done for me).  I had contemplated having the bar galvanised, but it’s more costly and not much tougher than the red oxide, would need holes to be drilled in the tubular sections to vent and drain, would make finishing difficult, and could warp the assembly. My friend Alun has welded the new spot light mounting brackets to the upper tube and the brush wire brackets to the rear side of the upper corners (the latter made from a 300Tdi EGR valve gasket).  He also repaired one of the light guard slat’s welds which had broken free. I cut the lower horizontal section away after drilling bolt holes that would allow it to be refitted with sandwich plates should the need arise.  This was the purpose of fitting the new light brackets, and was done in order to make spooling the winch’s steel rope much, much easier (access to the wire was very restricted with the bar’s horizontal member in the way). Once the bullbar comes back from blasting and red oxide priming, I’ll be taking the removed centre section to my local powder coaters (the ones who did my second row seat “biscuit tins” and rear storage lockers) – they think they’ll be able to powder coat over the red oxide giving the benefits of the rust protection from the red oxide and the tougher and smarter finish of the powder coat.  Normally, powder coating is done onto bare steel after using an acid etch-wash to generate enough adhesion.  If this test piece has a reaction or bad adhesion, I’ll just use satin black paint. I’m looking forward to getting the bullbar refitted.  Though I have become more used to seeing the 109 relatively naked, I still prefer it with the bar, and I’d like to get those spot lights back on too for night driving, especially with winter around the corner.