Rusty Chassis....

[ktg1000]

Just had a look under the hood of my 16000 mile '98 Chim 4ltr to discover that the chassis (white tubular structure on mine) is peeling paint badly and exposing surface rust almost directly adjacent to the manifolds!? Should I be concerned? I'm a new owner who's learning day by day...please help!

[RichB]

Should you be concerned? Well not really, unless the rest of your chassis is rotten, but it's worth sorting it out. The chassis is actually powder coated, not painted, and the white/grey flaking stuff is a plastic coat rather like that on cheap (did I say that ) garden furniture. It will flake off in various places, in your case caused by the heat of the manifolds. Also worth checking are the wishbones especially, the steering rack mounting, the chassis outriggers where stones chip it away and the corners behind the wheel arches where the body sits on the chassis. Many owners clean up the flaking powder coat, Hammerite the bare metal and Waxoyle the whole lot. A dealer will charge about £100 to do this but I reckon you'll get a better job done if you do it yourself, plus you get to give the chassis a good close inspection. I've just done mine took about a day and a half, last Saturday with the wire brush and Hammerite and yesterday morning doing the Waxoyle.

Use the search facility, there is loads of tips on using Waxoyle & Hammerite etc. www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?f=13&h=&t=54544

Have fun. Rich…

[Morgala]

Where can i get Waxoyl from?

[wixer]

You get waxoyl from most motor factors. I tend to use the aerosol cans of it, it makes life a lot easier. A better paint than Hammerite is POR 15. I've used many types of paint over the years on all sorts of vehicles and this stuff is incredible and by far the best I've used. Far easier to use than Hammerite aswell. It's available from Frosts Auto Restoration Techniques ltd. 01706 658619 Ask them to send you a catalogue, they do some really excellent stuff. A word of warning though, do not get this stuff on skin, it just does not come off.

[simpo two]

RichB said:

A dealer will charge about £100 to do this but I reckon you'll get a better job done if you do it yourself

Couldn't have put it better myself, though I paid £45 at an independent and they did an excellent job. IMHO it's not the sort of thing you can do in your driveway: sometimes it's best to hand over the loot and let someone else get filthy!

[wixer]

£45 ??? Did that include the price of whatever coating they put on ??? Did they repaint the chassis where the powder coating had flaked off before putting any rust protection on ?? If they did all this for £45, tell me who, it'll save me getting under the car this winter.

[rat]

It can be alarming can't it? There was quite a bit on mine, but once cleaned up the welder is certainly a long way from being required yet.

It depends how bad your rust was, but £45 is about an hours work. I did a thorough job on mine last week and it took Sunday and every evening of the following week. It wasn't a very nice job either. Though I used Jenolite - Hamerite - stone chip protection on exposed parts - clear Waxoyl and I think I got everything.

Last year I did a quicker job and just used a can of clear Waxoyl with the hand pumped sprayer. It didn't get a very good result. This time I cut a piece of very thin Ally sheet, glued a paint pad to it and curved it so that it wrapped around the outriggers to get a good coating all around. Not as pretty as a white chassis all round, but neither was the rust.

I hope it's much less of a job next year now!

[simpo two]

wixer said:

£45 ??? Did that include the price of whatever coating they put on ??? Did they repaint the chassis where the powder coating had flaked off before putting any rust protection on ?? If they did all this for £45, tell me who, it'll save me getting under the car this winter.

Scole Engineering (near Diss), as increasingly used by smart TVRCC Suffolk members. £15 for materials + labour. They used the black stuff thinned down. Don't believe they repainted it first though - that would be asking too much!

[colinrob]

Richb said:-
The chassis is actually powder coated, not painted, and the white/grey flaking stuff is a plastic coat rather like that on cheap (did I say that ) garden furniture.

Powder coating is a more durable paint finish than "wet" paint or stove enameling the problem is not that it is powder but the preperation and the type of powder used. Most of our customer specify powder coat because of its durability!!!!!!!!!!
We don't paint TVR chassis though!!

[RichB]

colinrob said:

Powder coating is a more durable paint finish than "wet" paint or stove enameling the problem is not that it is powder but the preperation and the type of powder used. Most of our customer specify powder coat because of its durability!!!!!!!!!! We don't paint TVR chassis though!!

But you know what I mean about the cheap garden funiture effect when it peels off the umberella pole R...

[taylormj4]

rat said:

Last year I did a quicker job and just used a can of clear Waxoyl with the hand pumped sprayer. It didn't get a very good result.....

Hey Rat, did you have any joy with that hand-pump sprayer - I cursed mine to death - Had it stood in a bucket of boiling water and everything but it just solidifies in the feed tube every time and then won't spray at all. Clean it all out and then start again. But as soon as you stop the flow for a second, it freezes up again.

Matt

[zumbruk]

I did my chassis with the Waxoyl pump-up sprayer (after cleaning off with a cup brush in an angle grinder and 2 coats of Hammerite). I put the whole thing, can, sprayer and all into a bucket of hot water for about 2 hours, topping it up with a boiling kettle every so often. The Waxoyl goes completely runny (and gets *everywhere*). I kept the can in the bucket the whole time and each time I moved the bucket, or went for a pee, or whatever, I put everything else back in the bucket as well. I had no trouble with the Waxoyl setting anywhere unwanted at all.

[RichB]

rat said:

did you have any joy with that hand-pump sprayer - I cursed mine to death Matt

Don't bother with it, as I say the empty wheel cleaner type spray bottle worked fine 50/50 with thinners and you just bin it afterwards.

[rat]

taylormj4 said:

Hey Rat, did you have any joy with that hand-pump sprayer - I cursed mine to death Matt

It basically worked, but a spray can would have been better. I got it for the tube extension really. That wouldn't 'spray', it just sort of flopped out on a 6" trajectory and went all over the place. Wiped off easily though. A roll of rust-proof kitchen towels is not what I wanted the extra cc's of waxoyl for.

It stinks too.

9 months later there was no sign that I'd ever done it - hence the thorough paint job this time.