chassis condition

[trevor99]

I have seem a low mileage car (99 chimaera)
everything looked good except the underside of the chassis that
had obviously never been treated and was dirty, flaky and rusty.
I was going to get the car professionally checked out but do not
want to waste my money
If the car has covered mostly dry miles the rust presumably is only cosmetic
and just needs a bit of TLC
what is the preferred treatment, cost and frequency?
I have seen different chassis which vary from lightly oiled underneath
to thick black all over.
any advice or opinions much appreciated.
cheers

[pies]

trevor99 said:

If the car has covered mostly dry miles the rust presumably is only cosmetic

Thats a very big assumption,and could prove expensive you cant actually see the worst areas easily

[Big Brin]

Hi Trevor99,

in my view the condition of the chassis when buying a TVR is of paramount importance. Ideally a chassis should be covered when new in waxoyl (or equiv.) and be refreshed once a year at service. When I bought my 'previously owned' car I inspected 9 before choosing mine. Soem were just a bit too rusty for me to be happy. The one I bought did need a little light derusting, but now it is covered in hammerite and waxoyl, I have no worries about the future as long as I re-wax every year at the service.

Good luck and welcome.

Rgds, Brin

[trevor99]

Thanks for that :-)

just to make myself clear, I was always going to get the car I find professionally inspected.
The question is...
as the chassis has never been treated should I just walk away, or possibly waste my money paying for an inspection?

[biggiles]

If it's low mileage, chances are the chassis will be in better nick than one with higher mileage. But you can't really tell until you get under that first later to see how serious it is.

If the chassis is the only thing holding you back, I'd advise getting it inspected.

[trevor99]

i agree, thats my gut feeling giles, I just needed someone to push me in that direction.

cheers.

[tvrbob]

I have a '99 Chimaera that had an untreated chassis until I bought it in 2002. To be honest I was shocked at what I saw but once I started digging I found only surface corrosion. I now treat it every other year, details on my methods are here. There's little doubt that DIY is the preferred way to go when treating the chassis. There are two vulnerable parts, the wishbones and the outriggers. Wishbones are easy to treat and cheap to replace. The outriggers on the other hand are very, and I mean very difficult to access. For this reason I would never advise having it treated by a third party; they simply wouldn't give the time required to properly prepare the tops of the outriggers.

The only way to be sure is to get under there and find a way to check out the tops of the outrigger tubes.

[that daddy]

tvrbob thats good advice done mine over 3 late evenings after work,Primer POR15 Waxoyl etc,messy and time consuming,better job done by yourself.regular spraying with WD40 helps get in the nooks and cranies of the gusset plates on the corners of the chassis.

[Ed450]

Just a few things I discovered this week whilst doing my outriggers if anyone's interested:

I found that an inspection light and a dentist's mirror (you know the small round bendy ones on a stick) are very useful for checking out certain parts of the chassis, particularly the tops of the outrigger side tubes. The gap between the body and the tubes does vary (and i'm sure it varies from vehicle to vehicle) but the mirror works very well.

I was pleased to find that the tops weren't the jagged mess I feared, and that the original coating was still pretty much in tact! I think mainly dry use and garaging have helped.

My method was to get a drill with wire brush attachment and take off all the loose underseal and paint, and I looped a piece of emery paper round the tube tops and ran it up and down to clean the rest. I couldn't get all the way along the tubes (the gussets get in the way) but then I think that's really a body-off job. I used a screwdriver and a thin bit of metal to knock out the stones trapped between the tubes and body (8 years of accumulated grime was considerable!)

I painted as much as I could with POR15 (mainly the undersides, as they take the brunt of the stones) and coated the undersides in Hammerite Waxoyl-underseal (the black brush-on stuff). Some people spray the tube tops, but in the absence of any sort of spray nozzle with a 90 degree bend, I found an aplicator which consists of a bit of wire with a kind of spherical pad on the end (like an enlarged cotton bud), only stonger and re-useable. I found I could bend it so that it would fit up round the outrigger sides and cover the top. I just dipped the thing in waxoyl, and got to work. Very messy, but i'm pretty sure the tube tops have a nice thick waxoyl layer on now.

Now i've got to think up a way to get the muck off the wishbones.

[puffsorted2]

Check out my thread on the Griff forum - this is from a 14000mile 1999 Griff

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=304976&f=9&h=0

[FlipFlopGriff]

Just finished the outriggers over 2 weekends. As said the tops of the outriggers are a nightmare, with differing gaps either side of the outrigger and the n/s had more clearance than the o/s but not much. I used the 60 grade sandpaper to pull over the top although you won't get to all of it due to the seatbelt mounts and the support pieces. After a couple of goes with differnt bits of material I managed to find that a small piece of sponge with thin wire wrapped around it and doubled back along itself was the best option. I dipped this into the POR and squeezed it over the top of the outrigger. I left enoough wire to enable me to push it into the difficult to reach areas. You will get more drips (on you mainly) this way so be extremely careful. After 2 runs up and down I then brushed the side and easily visible areas. One coat Saturday and another Sunday. I will then waxoyl for good measure to cover the areas I have missed. TBH the front wishbones were POR'd over 18 months ago and I can't see any rust - estimated 15,000 miles in all weathers (daily driver).
FFG

[penno]

Seems a bit of a daft question what colour POR15 do people go for
Black,grey or clear?

My chassis been looked after by the previous owners waxoiled and touch up's but it's now caked with an accumalation of dirty and about two inchs of wax oil so looks awful. So I'm considering painting it black to get over this. The only problem I fear is when I sell the car people will question why the chassis is a different colour? do you think it would put people of?

[andy jb]

I am just about to do this job myself with the wishbones etc pretty much still fully powder coated, i was going to focus on teh outriggers.

I was going to take the hammerite route on teh basis is has undercoat and rust inhibitors contained in teh paint but I keep hearing about POR15 - i have never seen this anywhere for sale - where can you buy this and what benefit does it have over hammerite???

[biggiles]

Many car enthusiasts ignore Hammerite paint as it just isn't strong enough for the job.

POR15 (available from Frosts (frosts.co.uk)) is a very strong paint/sealant, which is many times stronger than Hammerite and will stick to the metal, no matter what.

I'm doing my chassis in a few weeks and will be using Rust Bullet. Tests and shop www.rustbullet.co.uk . It's the same as POR15, except it contains rust inhibitors (judging from the patents available to read online, lots of aluminium).

POR15 glues to the paint but apart from stopping air and water getting to the metal, does not stop rust. Therefore, if your preparation work isn't very good, rust could well form under the POR, where you will not see it.

In conclusion, I wouldn't bother with Hammerite paint- go straight for POR15 or Rust Bullet and do it properly.

Do also bear in mind Hammerite make a lot of products (including paint, waxoyl and rust removers). I'm buying some Hammerite rust removing gel to help get rid of the surface rust on my Chimaera.

Edited by biggiles on Monday 11th September 14:50

[puffsorted2]

penno said:

Seems a bit of a daft question what colour POR15 do people go for
Black,grey or clear?

My chassis been looked after by the previous owners waxoiled and touch up's but it's now caked with an accumalation of dirty and about two inchs of wax oil so looks awful. So I'm considering painting it black to get over this. The only problem I fear is when I sell the car people will question why the chassis is a different colour? do you think it would put people of?

Mines silver (as it was the only colour in stock at Frosts at the time)

As for selling it, most people buying TVR's know what their looking for so I wouldn't worry to much. You will have to clean all the waxoyl and stuff off ( its a fun job!) and get back to the original powder coating colour before painting so the colour doesn't matter anyway.

[FlipFlopGriff]

Black POR, and black waxoyl. The normal colour waxoyl is similar to rust and goes black when dirty anyway, which I think makes it look worse..
Don't really care about a buyer as 1) I know the car has been well looked after and 2) not selling it anyway.
FFG

[biggiles]

Has anyone else tried Rust Bullet?