Galvanising

[LeonN]

this must have been covered before but i cannot find it. so..
Galvanising. is it common? i know i would need to drill holes so it can get into and out of the inside of every part of the chassis but that would not be to hard to work out. why is everyone not doing it. it would make the car last a lot longer. am i missing something?

[mr henderson]

Expensive, the chassis has to be specially prepared, 'drilling holes' is not sufficient you would need to have every tube end open, adds a lot of weight, etc etc.

Just paint it, carefully, don't leave any areas where moisture can get it but not out again, plenty of waxoyl where needed and keep it in a garage, and it will last forever-ish

[deezee]

I work with a hot dip galv company in Ellesmere Port and have casually discussed projects like this with them before. Now apart from the cost of getting the car back and forth to one of these places, as Mr Henderson rightly pointed out, the chassis needs a lot of prep.

Its not so the zinc can get inside the chassis, its because if you submerge an enclosed object in liquid metal, any water instantly boils and expands like mental. If your lucky it just deforms the tubes. If your unlucky the super steam explodes, empting the bath of liquid metal all over everyone in the factory.

So you have to drill at least 2 decent sized holes in the tube to allow moisture to vent and then once full of zinc, to allow the zinc to drain...... hoping it doesn't collect and weigh your chassis down.

Or you could paint it for £20.......

[LeonN]

Fare enough. I see the stress with all that. I allso woreyed about distorsion. Do rivets not allaw moisture in allover the place? Are people pumping thewhole thing with waxoill?

[SeriesLandy]

Fare enough. I see the stress with all that. I allso woreyed about distorsion. Do rivets not allaw moisture in allover the place? Are people pumping thewhole thing with waxoill?

You can get sealed rivets where they have the normal hole in the top but the other end is closed, you can see on the right hand image.
http://www.npfasteners.com/images/blind-rivets/drawings/sealed-rivet-drawing.jpg

Also to seal the chassis to the floor ect use sikaflex, its a bit like silicon but more sticky.

[flyerncle]

Somebody has previously mentioned cutting a chassis open to repair it after a few years and very little rust had formed inside it.
Each weld should form a sealed portion for every tube, I had toyed with idea of a small hole across the joints and squirt Waxoil in one leg and out of the other so to speak.
In reallity how much use will the Roadster get in a year,good coat of etch primer and good top coat should last for years.

[LeonN]

Ok cool. Will remember that. Tar. Is there a problem with welding caps over the end of open tubes?

[AshG]

nope thats what you should be doing.

[LeonN]

Ok cool and tar. All worked out. Shuld be fine.

[axle]

May I add on it can cause distortion and all your hard work is wasted. Galvansing seem appealing but once you take all these into consideration it is not worth it at all!



I work with a hot dip galv company in Ellesmere Port and have casually discussed projects like this with them before. Now apart from the cost of getting the car back and forth to one of these places, as Mr Henderson rightly pointed out, the chassis needs a lot of prep.

Its not so the zinc can get inside the chassis, its because if you submerge an enclosed object in liquid metal, any water instantly boils and expands like mental. If your lucky it just deforms the tubes. If your unlucky the super steam explodes, empting the bath of liquid metal all over everyone in the factory.

So you have to drill at least 2 decent sized holes in the tube to allow moisture to vent and then once full of zinc, to allow the zinc to drain...... hoping it doesn't collect and weigh your chassis down.

Or you could paint it for £20.......

[sparkybagnall]

you can buy galv spray or just galv paint not sure how it would work out as a under coat

[LeonN]

T shuld work ok. But. My coleges recon a well peeped well painted job wuld be harder waring. The galvo Paint stuff is ace for a hunk os steel left exposed to the elamants. Just not a car.

[Bonzo]

Galvafroild is one such product in the large range of cold galvanising paints.

It's a great paint, provided that the metal being painted has nice coat of surface rust ;)

If the surface is clean & bright, it is next to useless as are the likes of Hammerite.

These products are designed to be painted onto a rusted surface !!

If your chassis is still clean & bright, a healthy coat of etch primer will do niceley :)

[axle]

The same from me Ronnie!