chassie protection

dogbox · Guru

chassie protection

Yuglamron · Guru

personally I use a wire brush to take off the worst,never down to bare metal as I then paint with stuff from Repco called Fertrans.It converts the rust into an organic black coating which cannot rust further.Then I use zinc rich spraypaint.The zinc rich stuff comes in white, black and silver.

Nothing ever stops rust totally but this method is the best I know of.

Maybe others have their own methods and will post them.

Safe Travels

dogbox · Guru

i was working on the thought line that a hot dipped galvinised chassie was the best start. i've never see boat trailers done with supagal or duragal

blaze · Guru

My thoughts are hot dip galv is the way to go but the minute you need to weld or drill to fit an accessory then you are better with a bar metal chassis that is painted correctly and maintained then when welding or drilling you can maintain the integrety of the surface protection. Over my years dealing with things marine I have seen a lot of galv trailers fail because of add ons, seen galv cowsheds fail because of chemical reaction caused by bore water. So I think at the end of the day the best chassis protection is maintance.
cheers
blaze

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

All of those that you list are zinc coatings.
Zinc is a sacrificial coating and it slowly disapears instead of allowing the base steel to rust.
Hot dip has more zinc thanthe others, so would offer the best protection.
Small areas without protection casusd by mods. will have little effect.

Cheers,
Peter

-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Monday 13th of February 2012 12:13:14 PM

dropbear68 · Senior Member

If were talking a van chassis, from a painters point of view here, all surface rust must be shifted ither by grinding or wire wheel / brush etc, I use a product called Galmet ionise this stuff is the bees knees, Id hit the rusty areas with this, followed by red oxide primer, zinc phosphate based undercoat and something like Wattyl KillRust Epoxy Enamel to finish, really nothing is gonna stop steel from rusting but you can slow it right down, regular maintenance like washing it with a bit of kero in the water and keeping the old fish oil upto it, any leaf spring packs can be brushed with old sump oil, bitumen is another good preserver.

-- Edited by dropbear68 on Tuesday 14th of February 2012 09:14:23 PM

03_troopy · Guru

Hot dipped is best (Duragal is also hot dipped at manufacture), but if you are asking because you intend to get a chassis done, then you need to do a bit of work before hand and you may find that some places won't touch something that hasn't been newly built. Any box section (enclosed section) needs to be drilled with 10mm holes so that the section can drain when hung from any angle. The steel needs to be reasonably clean beforehand and free from grease. They're acid bathed before dipping, but this won't remove heavy rust, paint or grease. If you need to make repairs or mods after the item had been hot dipped, then the bare metal needs to be coated with Cold Gal to protect it..

dogbox · Guru

i ended up googling supergal an duragal an they are a light gal coating done at time of manufacture of the steel.
when it gets cut,welded or ground the coating is removed or burnt off which means the out side can be recoated but in most cases you can't access the inside which is where the rust will start but may not be evident for a long time(years)

hot dipped is done after all welding is done
any modifacations done (cutting ,welding or grinding) done after treatment can be touched up on the out side but again you can't access a lot of the inside

so as long as no mods done after teatment hot dip galvanizing would be the better option but it cost more as well

Cupie · Guru

dropbear68 wrote:
any leaf spring packs can be brushed with old sump oil, bitumen is another good preserver.

-- Edited by dropbear68 on Tuesday 14th of February 2012 09:14:23 PM

Is it OK to put oil on leaf springs? Somewhere along the line I was told that the friction between the leaves was an integral part of the operation of leaf springs. The oil would reduce the friction.

Any experts on this?

(I might just do what I should have done in the first place & google the question)

edit ..

Every Google site on the subject, albeit from forums, recommended lubricating leaf springs.

Many even discussed older vehicles fitted with 'gaiters' or covers over the spring sets to preserve the lubrication. Looks like I was wrong.

I'll delve deeper & see if I can get a technical source rather than forums. But I suspect that the answer will be the same.

-- Edited by Cupie on Wednesday 15th of February 2012 02:34:12 PM