914 - Hot-dip galvanise - Yes or No?

Ongoing and archived Porsche (and other marques) restoration threads from DDK members

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streetwagens
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Post by streetwagens »

Any thoughts on Electro galvanising?
912jeff
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Post by 912jeff »

We can only speculate on how sp damage body shells. I sent 3 hillman imps there in 2006, and all 3 suffered the same distortion, which basically was the fact that the back end dropped by 30mm. One shell also had very bad fork lift damage to the sills.

Additionally there was some panel rippling on the scuttle and also in the centre of the doors.

The surface of the steel was also very active and prone to corrosion, you only had to start welding it and the surrounding area was brown by the morning, and every seam was seen to bleed rust. We got round the later problems by treating the shell with a derusting acid that contained a corrosion inhibitor, followed by pressure washing, followed by a manual phosephating processs followed by etch priming on the outside panels. Internal box sections in my opion are best left bare metal (ie not to e-cote) and waxoyl instead. This is so the wax can run into the seams and can sit on the bare metal surface. If it sits on paint, the paint could flake off along with the wax. I have had this happen on an e-coted modern car that I waxoyled, and then could not understand why it went rusty 8 years later.

We now have a new supplier that can control how they heat the shell, in an oxygen free enviroment, followed again by the derusting acid that contained a corrosion inhibitor, followed by pressure washing, followed by a manual phosephating processs followed by etch priming on the outside panels.

This is a kinder process that although is more labour intesive, I feel is a better process that avois any risk of sulphuric acid being trapped in the body seams. I am sure everyone knows what damage battery acid does!
Geebe
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Post by Geebe »

All very interesting, all be it too late for me. Hopefully their process has got better with time. I hope that as my car has thicker pillars the warping wont have effected the shell so much. The main reason I went to the extra expense was to avoid any rust issues later on. I was going to waxoil the car also for added protection.

What is the other company you use 912jeff as SP was the only place I could find?

Thanks
912jeff
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Post by 912jeff »

We Will be the other company, watch this space!
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