Thread: Galvanising parts

I did 2 landies at industrial galvanisers on the northside. No complaints. Was paying 80c/kg back then but the going rate is more like 1.30 now.

You need to sandblast or paint strip everything first.

It won't make the low-strength steel used on landies brittle. It will riple/distort thin sheet though. E.g. footwells. I have never had a part that came back unusable though.

Industrial do a rough job I have a gal firewall on the series 3 lets just say I hope you have plenty of bog to fix it. two other people I know that have used them for landy bits say the same thing.

The 2 IIA firewalls and 1 rad support panel I had done there turned out fine.

Maybe you are expecting too much? A firewall will come back with rippling in the footwells and behind the dash - just the nature of the galvanising process.

They could have gone downhill since I used them though.

It is not too much to expect that industrial galvanizers would at least wire a front bumper through the bolt holes, rather than wrapping around the bumper so that when you remove the wire the gal comes off.

They can all be rough. The other alternative is Sunstate on the northside and they can be even worse. It depends how the labourer/forklift driver is feeling at the time. Galvanising plants arent the most pleasant places to work and chances are whoever is wiring up your parts isnt feeling that good about being there. I've heard stories about deliberate mishandling/damage to items to discourage that client from returning if they dont like handling that type of item. Most of the damage seems to occur due to forklifts and sloppy handling techiques.

Sunstate is a lot cheaper ($250 versus $800) for doing chassis - Industrial quote a fixed price for chassis but Sunstate go by weight for everything.

I've done most parts on my 110 including the chassis and door frames but not the firewall - I chickened out due to fears about warping. Some have done it succesfully and some have had disasters. A bit of sacrificial bracing would probably help a lot. I've done 2A firewalls without much drama but a 2A firewall is much stiffer than a 110 firewall due to the inherent bracing in the dash.

I used transfield over at Richands near Rocklea for a few bits. They were ok. Stuff needed cleaning up.

I bought a galvanised firewall (done before I got it). I had to retap captured nuts where the door straps and dash connect. If you have a defender firewall you will also have to re-tap captured nuts for the guard tops. There were a few extra captured nuts inside the defender firewall. Amost every captured nut let go. I ended up welding a nut or having to cut a hole in the skin so I could fit a small size socket through. This deminished the benefit of gal. I had to replace the A pillar on one side, deminishing the benefit of gal (don't know if it was bent before being galed). Remember too that paint doesn't stick very well to gal.

The main rust risk to firewalls is near the windscreen hinge and footwells. Paint and wax oil can adequately keep rust at bay. I wouldn't bother with gal for a firewall.

Pete - how much rippling did/does your firewall have, and where?

I have only done IIA firewalls, but have seen a few SIII and 110 ones done without problems.

On dad's IIA the firewall went on fine.

On mine, the original firewall was bent from a roll. I bought another one, galvanised it, and when I went to fit it the outrigger bolt spacing was 0.5" or so too wide on the firewall (however it could have been like that to start with, and the chassis had a replacement outrigger on one side...). I just wrapped a rope around the firewall, and used a broom handle to tension the rope until the holes lined up. Apart from that, no problem.

If anyone is worried about the firewall distorting, a large electroplating place may be able to coat it???

Thank you all for your input. I've actually veered from my original path, I'm probably going to sandblast and repaint the repaired parts. A mate from up home in Toowoomba used to be a spray painter, so a thick coat of two pac is probably going to be my solution. If he's unavailable, i've been know to dabble in 2 pac on occasion (with varying results) Guess i like to be in control of my project as much as possible.