Bulkhead panel replacements or just replace it

Hi All,

We have gone ahead and bought LH and RH inner panels to cut and shut the rot out of our bulkhead:

Cost is ~£60 for both vs £1600 for a new bulkhead. What are people’s views on doing this? My worry is keeping everything straight as the doors have to bolt back on to these.
I suppose worst case if it doesn’t work we have only lost £60 ‍

The answer to your question, IMHO is a galvanised bulkhead.

How you get there is more or less immaterial -

either:-

fix that one and get it galved

or

buy a refurbed galved one

or

buy a galved one outright now

or .....

the "how" makes no nevermind - the end result needs to be a galved bulkhead.

And then the same treatment for the chassis

Having just repaired/removed rusty sections from my bulk head I'd say your bulk head is easily repairable. Buy your new metal from YRM as their panels are superb quality and fit first time. Whilst repairing and as your bulk head is off car it would be worth buzzing back/media blasting back to bare metal, then treat with a good quality zinc weld through primer, ala Built Hamber, then enamel primer followed by a couple of good coats of your preferred final paint colour...Paintman supplies high quality coach enamel primers and paints.

v8250 said:

Having just repaired/removed rusty sections from my bulk head I'd say your bulk head is easily repairable. Buy your new metal from YRM as their panels are superb quality and fit first time. Whilst repairing and as your bulk head is off car it would be worth buzzing back/media blasting back to bare metal, then treat with a good quality zinc weld through primer, ala Built Hamber, then enamel primer followed by a couple of good coats of your preferred final paint colour...Paintman supplies high quality coach enamel primers and paints.

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Fantastic, thanks for the info. We have gone and bought the panels from YRM and will check out the coatings once we have managed the repair.

Disco1BFG said:

The answer to your question, IMHO is a galvanised bulkhead.

How you get there is more or less immaterial -

either:-

fix that one and get it galved

or

buy a refurbed galved one

or

buy a galved one outright now

or .....

the "how" makes no nevermind - the end result needs to be a galved bulkhead.

And then the same treatment for the chassis

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Agreed, for the chassis we will strip it back with a blast, repair what needs doing and get it dipped. Think you are right, this needs to be done.

Bust2Built said:

Agreed, for the chassis we will strip it back with a blast, repair what needs doing and get it dipped. Think you are right, this needs to be done.

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When the two rusty crusty crappy bits of a deafener are galvanised - it will quite literally last forever - this is either a good thing , or a very bad thing depending on your point of view

Disco1BFG said:

The answer to your question, IMHO is a galvanised bulkhead.

How you get there is more or less immaterial -

either:-

fix that one and get it galved

or

buy a refurbed galved one

or

buy a galved one outright now

or .....

the "how" makes no nevermind - the end result needs to be a galved bulkhead.

And then the same treatment for the chassis

Click to expand...

I would agree with this, although would also add that you want a hot dip galv not an electro plated (cold galv) version.

dag019 said:

I would agree with this, although would also add that you want a hot dip galv not an electro plated (cold galv) version.

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Oh god - YES !!! hot dip everytime

Disco1BFG said:

Oh god - YES !!! hot dip everytime

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I made that mistake, bought one bling claiming to be glaved (very good price) was not hot dipped so i am not looking at getting that donw which will make it a fair price rather than a good price

Does anyone know of a good place to go for blasting and/or dip galv in kent? Found a few places by searching but it always pays to have recommendations!

Bust2Built said:

Does anyone know of a good place to go for blasting and/or dip galv in kent? Found a few places by searching but it always pays to have recommendations!

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Not in Kent but can highly recommend A&C Shotblasting in Newbury. They are media blasting and powder coating specialists. There's always a Landy chassis in there being blasted and have recently had all my underhood metalwork blasted and enamelled. They don't hot dip galvanise, but may be worth calling Craig as he may know of someone nearer to you that he could recommend - A&C Newbury 01635.523775

v8250 said:

Not in Kent but can highly recommend A&C Shotblasting in Newbury. They are media blasting and powder coating specialists. There's always a Landy chassis in there being blasted and have recently had all my underhood metalwork blasted and enamelled. They don't hot dip galvanise, but may be worth calling Craig as he may know of someone nearer to you that he could recommend - A&C Newbury 01635.523775

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Thank you, we will give em a bell

If you bolt a metal bar or similar across the bottom of the bulkhead using the bottom bulkhead bolt holes, this will keep it all square and you can start cutting and grinding. I used a spot weld cutter from machine mart to remove full footwell panel but there are many of them randomly fired all over the panels.

Gmacz said:

If you bolt a metal bar or similar across the bottom of the bulkhead using the bottom bulkhead bolt holes, this will keep it all square and you can start cutting and grinding. I used a spot weld cutter from machine mart to remove full footwell panel but there are many of them randomly fired all over the panels.

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Good plan, might just put it back on the chassis now the engines out and tak the new panels in place before taking it off to finish the job.

Bust2Built said:

Does anyone know of a good place to go for blasting and/or dip galv in kent? Found a few places by searching but it always pays to have recommendations!

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Medway galvanisers but I don’t know if they will risk dipping a bulkhead tbh

Not sure how good your welding skills are and what sort of value you place on your time, but you might want to blast or strip the bulkhead a bit more before deciding on whether to repair or replace. Looking at the images you've posted (guessing its a 300tdi or that sort of vintage, based on the spot welded vent mesh) it looks like you might have more rot than you might initially think once blasted/stripped. I was in a similar position a number of months back with a bulkhead that superficially didn't look that bad (my A posts from the outside were really solid, better that yours look) but in truth, on closer inspection was actually fairly well gone. On balance it was more economical (and a lot easier) just to replace it. Not saying that you couldn't or shouldn't repair it, but I'd get it stripped first, before making that decision (I know that's a cost, but might be wise in the long run)

Thanks Johnny,

This is good advice. We picked up a dirt cheap media blasting gun and some shot for the compressor, I don’t have high hopes for it, but may clear off enough of the grub to give us more of a clue. We can defiantly inspect inside once we cut holes in it too.

It is a late TD5 bulkhead and we have done full replacement of the top already a few years back. We didn’t coat it very well as the intention was to take it off the road much sooner, but kept using it as a daily until last April. A lot of the rust around the vents is the welds that were not coated properly and is mainly surface rot. However you are right, I bet there are some nasty surprises inside.

We will keep you posted as we plan to have a crack at it either this weekend or in a couple of weekends time.

Thanks for the advice.