Do inner sill heater tubes survive the Envirostrip process?

[Barry]

Hi All .

Richard asked me about the process I use when dealing with the sill area, which I took to mean the conventional sill replacement process, also I don't know we were referring to a freshly e-coated shell. With this in mind, please ignore the above .

I have to confess (and don't want to be a party pooper here), I'm not a great fan of dipping and e-coating fundamentally solid cars for all sorts of reasons. Point being for purposes of this particular thread, is that I've never cut out and replaced this area of the car, and wouldn't. Just my own personal view.

If I remember, and it's a while since I've worked on an e-coated car, it's horrible stuff when hot, and gives off loads of fumes, and leaves black streaks etched into the coating, a sure sign of very aggressive fumes. I bet if you deliberately put a bit of clean, fresh steel right next to some e-coated metal, and then welded the coated surface, within a half a day or so, the bare steel sample will be showing significant corrosion. Do the same welding perfectly clean steel, and you'll have no problems. Might be wrong, happy to be corrected.

Therefore I'd imagine you'd need to clean back by a good 1/2 - 3/4 inch on both sides of the proposed weld site, prime back up with the Wurth Zinc Hell or similar, I.e. anything that is a genuine weld-thru primer: beware many claim to be, but often this just means it'll more or less burn away given enough heat. Best way of telling is by painting a surface and trying to MIG weld a bit, and then try spot welding it. If both welds perform the same as no coating, it's a genuine weld-thru. If the welds are compromised, it's not a weld-thru primer in my eyes.

That's many feet of really hard cleaning I know, but probably the only way of getting a really nice sounding and looking weld.

As for the etch priming, well clearly it's e-coated, so you're not gaining anything by adding a primer over that in cavities, and a good cavity wax later on, refreshed every five years or so should keep it all good.

Sorry to sound a bit down on the process, and I wouldn't have chipped in had my advice not been posted (which was absolutely fine, just a little out of context in this case).

Best wishes for now .

[inaglasshouse]

Sorry Barry! I should have made the context clearer.
Thanks for posting.
Cheers, Richard.

[Barry]

[Nick Moss]

If the car is being done by Enviro Strip are they Ecoating it or just etch priming?

[DustyM]

Do Envirostrip have an e-coating facility?

[Nick Moss]

Not that I am aware of.

[AndrewSlater]

Hi everyone thanks for the responses and clarifications much appreciated.

I am a little unclear as to what the rust inhibitor is that Envirostrip have used on the car.
I have asked on several occasions but never had a definitive answer from them.

My bodyshop guy is pretty confident that the car is not e-coated which is one of the reasons he is concerned about the protection within the sill areas.
He was also wary of me going down the stripping route as he is always concerned that there factory finishes that are lost and are difficult to reinstate ( probably wise words ) - however I wanted to strip the car to see the full extent of the rust issues ( which turned out not as bad as feared ).

I elected not to have the car etch primed as my bodyshop guy wanted to see the car in bare metal and for nothing to be hidden.

Is the best advice to epoxy primer where possible, and to use good weld through primer where the welding will occur?
Or is there a better solution or more normal course of actions that I am missing?

As always any suggestions appreciated ( I don't claim to be an expert in this ).
Thanks again Andrew

[stretch]

Andrew,

i understand that they use a surface sprayed rust inhibitor that only last several weeks. There are a few guy's on here that have used this process, maybe they will give you there opinion. I am not a fan of this process myself.