Galvanising.

[mrmaggit]

I was having a furtle around Wols' wishbones this morning, as you do, with a wire brush scraper in the electric drill. After a short while, I thought, b*gger this, the answer must be to take the wishbones off, get them shotblasted and galvanised, end of corrosion worries.

I'm prepared to be the guinea pig, any thoughts from the rest of the Griff massive?

[JoolzB]

Have you considered the Por15 paint from Frost.co.uk. I got some last year but haven't used it yet. It's meant to stand up to a beating with a hammer and stay on even if the metal buckles.

[ian8542]

I know galvanizing or zinc plating weakens high tensile bolts, but i would have thought it might be ok on wishbones.
Only problems are the process will add weight and will coat the tube insides making it impossible to fit bushes.
On a chassis, the process would probably cause it to twist.

[heliox]

You can't galvanise a Griff chassis as you'll kill it.

The temps required for the process require holes to be drilled in sealed voids and this chassis is made from welded tubulars which are mostly sealed, so basicaly you'd have to drill holes in everything.

You can always use galv paint but re-powdercoating is the only real proper fix.

h

[mrmaggit]

I can understand why people posting get annoyed by answer posts.

I am only considering galvanising the wishbones. At no time was the chassis mentioned by me. The front wishbones are in a well rusty (technical term) state, because the powder coating has flaked off. I'm loathe to re-coat with powder, to have the same thing happen again. The other treatment to consider is metal-spraying, something I had done to a Norton motorbike frame some years ago.

Now discuss, re wishbones only.

[Ding]

I am in the process of treating my chassis at the moment and all my removable bits are being sent to the powder coaters. Excellent service and not expensive. (they shot blast them first and then coat them).

Recently sent 5 or 6 items from another car and it only cost about £50. (well worth the money in my opinion).

Ellie

[19560]

JoolzB said:

Have you considered the Por15 paint from Frost.co.uk. I got some last year but haven't used it yet. It's meant to stand up to a beating with a hammer and stay on even if the metal buckles.

IMHO this is the best answer. I have tried the shot blasting/ powdercoating/No1 and hammerite/zinc spraying routes and this paint developed for Nosthsea oil rigs is the only one that hasn't failed.

[mrmaggit]

19560 said:

JoolzB said: Have you considered the Por15 paint from Frost.co.uk. I got some last year but haven't used it yet. It's meant to stand up to a beating with a hammer and stay on even if the metal buckles. IMHO this is the best answer. I have tried the shot blasting/ powdercoating/No1 and hammerite/zinc spraying routes and this paint developed for Nosthsea oil rigs is the only one that hasn't failed.

That's good enough for me, then, thanks for all the input.

[stesrg]

If your wishbones are not to badly pitted(big rust crators like mine, need replacing) get them galvanised they will not buckle only if they are thin and flimsy when they come back use a flap wheel in the bush holes to remove the exess galve and using the correct drill size re drill the bolt holes. a little washing up liquid and bobs you uncle, fit and forget
steve...

[simon.b]

One of main problems with painting or coating formed steel components is at the edges. All the sharp edges should be removed and a reasonable radius applied. The reason being is that the paint/coating thins at the sharp edges where it is then easily chipped and lets the elements in.

Shot blasting does to some extent help by softening the edges though the best way is to take a file to them and round them off, but don’t go mad, then shot blast. If they aren’t to bad just a wire, brush Hammerite, et al and waxol works fine.

It was the initial powder coating by TVR that is badly applied to inappropriately prepared surface that is the problem and not the coating it’s self.

Cheers,

Simon.

[steve-v8s]

An interesting observation with powder coating is that the process can be quite variable. I make gadgets for the agricultural market and have some of the parts powder coated to make them farmer proof. Over the years I have used three different contractors. The first company was abandoned because their coating pealed off in great sheets after a while (rather like a TVR chassis does). The current outfit extensively pre treat the parts before painting with a whole load of processes and the paint adheres far more effectively, even where the surface is chipped the surrounding areas stay OK. So I would go for powder coat, with a good quality paint, done by an outfit that know what they are about.