Thread: Galvanising

One more with the badge. Sprayed black and lightly sanded to highlight the writing.

Originally Posted by brendanm

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The coating was thicker than I thought with some inconsistencies. I touched up some of the dags with a file. The surface texture on some components was rough. I will attempt to sand down, though not through the Zinc coating to achieve a better finish. Maybe this is where a centrifugal galvaniser may be better as excess zinc is spun off the metal after dipping.

I am not convinced that I have gone about this the right way. Initially I though that painting with a cold gal would be like spray painting an asterix on a hubcap and calling it a mag wheel. Given it was originally gal I was keen to reproduce this. I will post some more photos that give a better look.

As you said the parts were originally hot dip galvanised. AFAIK they were all dipped rather than centrifuged.

Many landie restorers make the mistake of trying to restore to better than original condition. The lumps and bumps in the original gal would have corroded away before you got the car.

I have been told that (some?) series 1s were delivered with runs in the original paint!!! (don't know how true that is)

Wow that looks great!

Had a go today with some cold gal over some of the smaller and articulating parts to get a better match with the newly re galvanised components.-Looked like undercoat.
Picked up some aluminium based paint. Looks garish though is a lot closer match and allows movement of hinges and swivel catches.
With any luck it will fade at the same rate as the zinc coatings.
Pick the hot gal dipped from the gal paint from the Aluminium paint.

Next time you are using the aluminum paint mix a bit of enamel hardner in it , it is a lot more durable . I use it on the out side of my brake resvour & the brake fluid doesn't take the paint off

Looks like they did a good job, but does seem abit shiney for an old landy. I have vague recollections that the galvanising man told me to wipe it with lemon juice to speed up the aging process. I havent tried it so if you do, do it in an unseen area first. I guess you need to wash it off when you are happy with the colour.

Thanks 1950landy & Klonk. Both great ideas that I am sure to try.
One of the next items was to have the rims sand blasted and powder coated. Reading posts is steering me away from powder coating and I was going to etch prime and coat with a hardener in the enamel. As I was thinking the fitting of tyres would be harsh on paintwork. I did not think about the little fittings.

I will you know how the Lemon juice works out. There is plenty of surface area on the back of the tailgate hinges. Makes sense as before the parts were dipped in zinc they were acid washed. Not sure if the acid was to bring components back to bare metal or just further clean up. The acidity of the lemon juice is probably better for your hands than Hydrochloric.

Originally Posted by brendanm

...Not sure if the acid was to bring components back to bare metal or just further clean up. ...

The acid was to remove the zinc. Parts need to be bare steel before galvanising.

Washing with vinegar or lemon juice also removes some of the zinc you just paid money to put on there. It will go dull with time of its own accord.