Vintage Minor Register

Hi i was thinking of have my chassis hot zinc dipped or galvanised has anyone done this before would u recommend it or not ?
cheers steve

I have not had a chassis frame done, but virtually everything on my tourer, including the chassis, wings, bonnet, etc. have been galvanized which is causing a problem now because the paint hasn't keyed onto it properly and is peeling off in hand-sized curly pieces - probably due to an incorrect primer being used.

The reason that evrything is galvanized on this car is that the restorer back in the seventies was a Scottish fishing magnate in Aberdeen and fishermen galvanize all their equipment to protect it from salt corrosion, so I think he threw the Minor in the galvanizing tank along with his fishing boats!

I have heard that welding repairs are made more difficult if the steel being welded is galvanized. As far as I know, this (and the need to paint properly) is the only issue.

I do not think it a good idea to galvanize a chassis or any parts on cars at all. It causes future problems. One being that paint will not stay on. If it is galvanized there is an etching solution you can apply to the galvanizing before you apply paint. It also makes it very difficult to weld later.Mike.

Aside from the paint /welding problem's what's the point of doing this?

If a chassis survived the last 79 years in the worse possible conditions, there is surely no point in galvanising a chassis now.
the cars are being treated far better than they have ever been in the past and are bound to survive for another lifetime or four!
I'm going to use a decent primer and paint for my car

regards Halbe

There are many very good paints available that have developed from the armed forces and oil industries, one of which is por15 available from Frosts but probably cheaper elsewhere! It's not uv stable so needs to be kept out of direct sunlight or overpainted, I did my garden gate with it, followed by smoothrite, and 3 years later there's absolutely no sign of deterioration despite it being exposed directly to the British weather!