Not impressed with AEV

JerryD

JerryD

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Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2019
Messages
897
Location
West Michigan
I really like the AEV upgrades I have on my Jeep. The function, the style... I'm good. The durability of the finish, though...

I wash my JK fairly regularly, especially underneath with the salt on the roads here in Michigan. Last fall, I had to deal with a little surface rust on one of the ends of the front bumper. When I sanded it to prep it for touch up, I found MORE surface rust under the paint. Made a mental note that come spring I would take it off, get it blasted and probably powder coat it.

Well, today I took my wife's car to the store and when I got back I pulled up to the front end of my Jeep. I was truly surprised to see the rust on the front hoop. It can't have been there too long but I don't look at it every day, and to be fair, it's been under a lot of snow and ice lately.

0126201214_HDR.jpg
 
JerryD said:
I really like the AEV upgrades I have on my Jeep. The function, the style... I'm good. The durability of the finish, though...

I wash my JK fairly regularly, especially underneath with the salt on the roads here in Michigan. Last fall, I had to deal with a little surface rust on one of the ends of the front bumper. When I sanded it to prep it for touch up, I found MORE surface rust under the paint. Made a mental note that come spring I would take it off, get it blasted and probably powder coat it.

Well, today I took my wife's car to the store and when I got back I pulled up to the front end of my Jeep. I was truly surprised to see the rust on the front hoop. It can't have been there too long but I don't look at it every day, and to be fair, it's been under a lot of snow and ice lately.

View attachment 114183
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This has been on the Jeep 2 years, but it's only been in Michigan for a year... It came from Georgia
 
That's too bad, I've never had anything but positive experiences with AEV. It would be worth brining this to the attention of their customer service department, as they usually respond very quick.

That's the problem with salt. Even when you wash it off, often times it's still there, eating away at things.

Of course I don't know if they are being cheap and using crap quality powder coat or sub-par metals, so it's hard to say.
 
It's a known issue on some of their bumpers, but it's usually at the weld seam. I don't feel like I have standing since, I'm not the original purchaser, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. Just one of those things. As you indicated - it's the price of living in the Salt belt.

I still think their products are very good, but this is definitely something I'd share with someone considering AEV.
 
Oh yeah, if you aren't the original purchaser, then I doubt they'd do anything.

Something very similar happened with a Shittybilt bumper I had on my old TJ. It looked good for about a year, but even here in Oregon where they DO NOT use salt on the roads, after about a year the powder coat started coming off and the metal was rusting only due to exposure with the air / water. Come to find that the powder coat those cheap Chinese bumpers use is barely even powder coat at all. It's not the good, thick stuff like you'd find on high quality products, it's something thin and cheap they use to save money, sprayed on by a paint gun, so not actual powder coat at all.

Either way, thanks for sharing this. I try to look highly upon AEV, but clearly they do have some shortcomings, and this is proof.
 
Starrs said:
I think that might happen to any Jeep bumper left outside in one of the snow capitals of the world..
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Well, it didn't/hasn't happened to the Chinese Barricade bumper that's been on my son's JK twice as long. It just seems that the AEV bumper wasn't prepped properly AND the paint is very thin. ???
 
JerryD said:
Well, it didn't/hasn't happened to the Chinese Barricade bumper that's been on my son's JK twice as long. It just seems that the AEV bumper wasn't prepped properly AND the paint is very thin. ???
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Any chip in any powder coat on any object and the rust will begin to form as it gets under the powdercoat. I’ve heard those barricade bumpers are made with shitty powder coat too lol so I guess it just depends on who was spraying that day. AEV won’t issue any kind of exchange on that. I’d sand it down and buy the textured touch up spray they offer and try that.
 
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