2 questions

I was underneath the new car last night, starting to clean up the chassis. As you will see from the pics, she's not got a great deal of life left in her, but if I can keep her going for another couple of years, I'll treat her to a Galvanised chassis.

Anyway, got the old wire wheel on the drill going, and actually was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the rust flakes are coming off to reveal good strong metal underneath.

The first question, is whether these rust convertor paints are worth the bother. I read a blog yesterday of LandRoverblogger, who sells a rust convertor that paints on blue, and dries black, converting the rust. I am tempted to clean up all the chassis as best as I can, and paint the entire thing with this rust convertor. Sound like a good plan? After this, I am thinking of painting with Buzzweld Chassis in One, although I don't know whether the Buzzweld Wheel Arch Refinement product would be better?


The second question is that I appear to be missing the circled item on the below pic, but can't see what it is supposed to do. Any help would be appreciated. And now, brace yourself for a rusty chassis;

looks like your missing the cross chassis body support ,,,and thats not good ,,,i take it from pic it is a 110 station wagon

It is indeed. Well, I knew it was going to take some work. I assume this is a bolt on piece?

Answered my own question with a quick google and read. Also, they're not that badly priced new, at about £60 for a galvanised version, and slightly cheaper for a painted version.

I think my best bet is probably going to be to take the body off to clean the chassis up properly, and to check everything is as it should be. Would also give me chance to re-build and reseal all of the body properly.

I'm not a scientist or anything but I fail to see how any product can convert rust into anything useful. Mild hydrochloride acid solidifies rust which makes it look nice and solid but what you actually have is a crusty scab covering what's left of the metal which continues to corrode underneath. If I was going to coat my chassis with anything it would be whatever that stuff is that they paint railway bridges with. Many of them are over a hundred years old and still pretty solid.

Col

Not expensive, but a pig to change because of access. Be particularly careful with fitting the new one when it comes to routing the fuel line!!!!!!!!
There should be a small cut away for where the fuel hoses sit.

If it's this weathered underneath, check the seatbelt mountings if you have the CSW.

Rust converter will only be good if you still have 1-3mm of steel left in the main body of the part.....i.e. stops surface rust only. If it's scale rust through the thickness of the part, it will do absolutely jack.

Alm.

Well I'd actually broken out the angle grinder and welder to start on it, so have been a brute with a hammer to check strength, and as much as it looks horrible, a lot of it is still solid. I'll try and grab some pics tonight to show some of the difference.

I thought it was well and truly gone, and will be replacing any parts that need replacing with solid metal. So any areas that can be cleaned up and saved are just a bonus in my eyes.

Looking at that I would still
Budget for a new chassis in a few years.....

flat said:

Looking at that I would still
Budget for a new chassis in a few years.....

Click to expand...

Is that not what he said in the first few sentences??

Cheers

neilly said:

Is that not what he said in the first few sentences??

Cheers

Click to expand...

Yes I know, but is what I meant is that even though it's cleaning up 'ok' there is not much life left in that so don't get lulled into a false sense of security by just hiding the rust with paint/waxoyl etc

flat said:

Yes I know, but is what I meant is that even though it's cleaning up 'ok' there is not much life left in that so don't get lulled into a false sense of security by just hiding the rust with paint/waxoyl etc

Click to expand...

Oh, I see sorry, Agree, wonder how many people do that? and then proclaim shock that their rusty chassis is suddenly holey chassis when they spent the last two years putting waxoyl / dinitrol on it every spring......

The same thing as patching a hole, and blindly thinking there is no rust anywhere else about to eat its way through.

Cheers

Haha, no I don't intend to be 'one of those types'.

I know that at best, I'm just prolonging the inevitable, but tbh, I can clean this one up for relatively cheap, and if I can get just a couple of years out of it, then I can save up for a galvanised chassis.

The more time I spend under it though, the more I'm tempted to just take the body off from the bulkhead back.

I'm intending on changing the doors including the rear door, rearmost window panels and tub cappings, so there wouldn't be much more to remove, and it seems fairly simple to do.

This would then surely give me best access to clean up the chassis as well as replace the crossmember.

johnsonca9 said:

Haha, no I don't intend to be 'one of those types'.

I know that at best, I'm just prolonging the inevitable, but tbh, I can clean this one up for relatively cheap, and if I can get just a couple of years out of it, then I can save up for a galvanised chassis.

The more time I spend under it though, the more I'm tempted to just take the body off from the bulkhead back.

I'm intending on changing the doors including the rear door, rearmost window panels and tub cappings, so there wouldn't be much more to remove, and it seems fairly simple to do.

This would then surely give me best access to clean up the chassis as well as replace the crossmember.

Click to expand...

Tbh if your going to that much trouble I would either rechassis it now, or just leave it - do a quick spray of something to make it last a year or two till you can save up or else your going to strip and rebuild twice

It doesn't convert the rust back to metal it just stops it rotting further really. We use a product called rust killa at work which is pretty good for stopping it getting worse. If you're bent on keeping the chassis I'd use that then waxoyl it after. Or if taking all the body off just do the chassis too.

I recently done this to to my 110 csw. It's not to bad a job. I removed the roof and side panels in one. To remove the tub I cut through the inner sill between the b and c pillars ( rotten anyway) and lifted off. The rest is just unbolting and drilling out pop rivets.

After starting my own 110 project I'd strongly advise that you just save your £60, make something to more or less replicate the missing bit, weld it on and just leave it bare. Spray some fertan perhaps? Painting rust that bad will only trap in existing moisture. You don't want to start ripping the body off until you can get a new chassis. I spent lots of time and lots of money on my chassis, and it's still a 30 year old chassis that's rusting from the inside out. Had it blasted, welded on new outriggers all round and rear crossmember, patches everywhere, ended up costing me about £450. I did it because it was all I could afford to do at the time. Had I known I'd still be at it 2 1/2 years later I'd have waited until I could afford a new chassis.

As @flat says, I'm going to end up rebuilding mine twice.