Perhaps more fully - grit blasting using a grit harder than the plastic but softer than the metal if you don't want to scratch it. However, if planning to paint or powder coat it, you want the surface roughened as a key for the coating. Any sandblaster or powder coating firm will advise you. JD
Investigate the possibility of the fluidised hot bed cleaning process. Basically the part is heated in a bed of hot sand and burns the material off.
This process is increasingly being used to clean paint line components, reclaim parts with faulty plastic/powder coatings etc..
Look here for typical info.:
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If you decide to recoat, the firm doing the job may possess such equipment anyway. You are then left only with ensuring that the inevitable rusty bits are dealt with.
If the damage on your bull bar is not to extensive then you can remove the plastic coating from the rusty areas, treat the rust with some rust inhibitor liquid and then cover the area with a product called PLASTIDIP.
You can buy in from Frosts in the UK
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I have used it to repair the plastic coating on the bullbar of one of my Camels and it worked like a charm.
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I would not recommend powder coating if your bullbar is rislan coated (plastic coated)
Rislan is FAR STRONGER. Powder coating is not that bad but plastic is far better. First hand experience on that also since I have decided to remove the plastic coating from the bullbar of my second camel and have powder coated it instead. The ability of the plastic coating to withstand abbrasion from obstacles and minor hits/contacts with hard surface is far better than that of the powder coating. And powder coating does chip-away while plastic/rislan coating just stays there.
Treating a plastic coated bullbar with PLASTIDIP is what I would now choose.
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If you decide to strip the plastic coating the best way to do it is to heat the plastic coating with a hot air gun or a blow torch, taking care not to burn but just soften the plastic coating. Then cut the area with a very sharp blade (modelling knifes are very good at that), preferably in stripes and remove the coating in lengths. The grills area is very easy to do so as long as you cut the coating from one side of the grill and then around the perimeter at the start and end of the grill. Heat the coating and then just "un-wrap" it from the metal.
If you go this way (removing the plastic coating) I would suggest you galvanise the bull bar. You will have to sand it afterwards so as to remove excess material and smoothen the surface a bit but this will make your bullbar totally immune to rust. PLASTIDIP works and sticks like gum to galvanised areas so no problem with painting it and making it black.
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