Thread: Project Serenity

So, working flat out at the moment trying to get the inside of the chassis rails painted out before Friday. Deadlines really make the world go round!

As I said last time, I've decided to go with POR 15 as my coating, as, well, you can paint over rust! I've heard good reports of the stuff, so I figured it's worth giving a good go, in an attempt to preserve this Landy for another 50 odd years.

The company who make the stuff say preparation is crucial for the paint to stick properly. So, deciding that I won't mess with it too much given what's at stake, I've gone and bought the whole system... For 1L of degreaser, 1L of preparation etcher stuff, 1L of paint and 1L of thinner, it set me back a fraction under $180. If this stops rust from occurring inside the chassis, it's worth an awful lot more than $180 to me! I was fortunate to find a local supplier, so I managed to get it the day after I decided it's what I wanted.

So far I've managed to get through the cleaning process. I also bought a pipe cleaner attachment for the pressure cleaner. The pipe cleaner has been invaluable so far.


Dad wielding the pipe cleaner.


Plenty of dirt.

We've washed each rail out with high pressure water maybe 4 or 5 times now, basically until we're convinced there's no more dirt coming out with the water. You'll notice in my last post that the chassis is raised to the ceiling of the shed, this is for drainage purposes during cleaning.

The most exciting and challenging part of all of this is actually getting the pipe cleaner through the chassis. There's a heap of crush tubes in there, it has a habit of getting stuck on all of them. It took a while, but we eventually devised a reliable system, based on what sparkies do. Might as well take inspiration from those who do this on a daily basis!

Yellow tongue from particle board flooring is what we ended up using, with a sinker for added bend. If left to its own devices, it has a habit of going over the top of things that you won't be able to get the pipe cleaner through, particularly the first crush tube where the front shock absorber mounts. So, to bend it that little bit further, it's time to go fishing.



This is a oval shaped sinker approximately 30-40mm long, taped to the end. The extra weight drags the yellow tongue down nicely, making it go where you want it. We found that taping the front down a little so it sloped up nicely also helped get through. A twist of the yellow tongue where you get stuck, and you can reliably get right through the chassis. Tape your pipe cleaner on gently, pull back through until you reach the dumb iron and then yank so the tape snaps, Bob's your uncle.



We also used a degreaser, Marine Clean, as recommended by the POR 15 people. The Karcher we have has a detergent pick up, but apparently that only works if you don't have a high pressure nozzle attached. Real useful. So we mixed the degreaser about 20:1 with water (as directed on the label) and used a short piece of hose to plumb it into the pump. Worked quite well eventually. After letting the degreaser sit for a while, we've gone back and washed it out.

The real issue is now moisture. I'm pretty sure the next step which is the etcher needs to be applied to a dry surface, so we need to get it dry. Paint obviously needs a really nicely dry surface as well. Which is just fantastic, as the instructions say to rinse the etcher off with water after about 30m as well!

It's OK though, we've got a solution! Hair dryers. $45 for a pair of 1800W units, perfect for my use. I decided to decline the offer of an extended warranty for some reason.



I went and checked them after about 1.5 hours of operation, the whole chassis varies from too hot to touch to nice and warm, with plenty of warm air flowing out all the holes along the whole length. I reckon it should comfortably be dry before Monday, even if I do turn them off overnight.

Now all we need to work out is how on earth we're going to get the etcher and paint in there. I'm currently thinking something along the lines of a pressurised insecticide sprayer with a really long hose. I'm definitely open to suggestions though!

I'll try to get some better photos of inside the chassis before I hit it with the etcher, then after as well.

I think I need more deadlines in my life. Really invigorates my work ethic!

Oh, in regards to the rust chunks I had a picture of last post, that's about all the rust we've found. There's been plenty of rocks, but very little rust. I'm quite thrilled by that actually. We suspect the rust chunks came out of the rear cross member which is about to be replaced anyway, so I'm really not bothered at all.

-Martin

Make good progress there Martin looking good, I was thinking of doing my outer chassis with Por 15 and was going to use Fertan rust converter inside the chassis, but I'm interested to see how the Por 15 works out, I've heard you can hit it with a hammer and it won't chip, pretty hard stuff when it cures.

Cheers Chris

I'll let you know how I go with it. If it works well internally, I'll be very happy.

Strangely though, I'm not planning on using it on the outside of the chassis. I'm planning on getting the chassis professionally sand blasted and as part of that process it will be sprayed with a zinc rich primer, giving it similar properties to galvanising. I assume that POR-15 isn't going to bond very well with this, so I'll probably go for a standard chassis black on the outside.

It's a bit of a pity though, the resilience of POR-15 would make an ideal coat under the chassis. At least I can reach to touch it up easily if needed.

-Martin

So, I was trying to get myself some breathing gear for use when spraying POR 15. I went into my local PPE shop, and the guy who served me checked the MSDS (like I should already have done).

Turns out the stuff is pure evil.

Here's an excerpt from the MSDS:

(http://www.por15info.com/msds/POR-15MSDS.pdf)

A NIOSH approved air-purifying respirator with an organic vapor cartridge approved for use in isocyanate
containing environments may be permissible under certain circumstances where concentrations are
expected to exceed exposure limits. In spray applications you must protect against exposure to both
vapor and spray mist. Protection provided by air-purifying systems is limited. Use a positive pressure
air supplied respirator if there is any potential for an uncontrolled release, where exposure levels are not
known, or any other situation where air purifying respirators may not provide adequate protection.

I'm definitely not spraying that.

Hi I got this one blasted & painted with industrial grade Hi chem paint so far seems good. Can't remember price which means it must of been good. I think it was worth it came up really good.
Cheers Will

Originally Posted by turkeybrain

I'll let you know how I go with it. If it works well internally, I'll be very happy.

Strangely though, I'm not planning on using it on the outside of the chassis. I'm planning on getting the chassis professionally sand blasted and as part of that process it will be sprayed with a zinc rich primer, giving it similar properties to galvanising. I assume that POR-15 isn't going to bond very well with this, so I'll probably go for a standard chassis black on the outside.

It's a bit of a pity though, the resilience of POR-15 would make an ideal coat under the chassis. At least I can reach to touch it up easily if needed.

-Martin

If you are going to sandblast the outside of the chassis when you get it all repaired. You can paint it with Por15 without prep. It bonds directly to sandblasted surfaces.. I sandblasted a few of the suspension components of my Landy, and brushed it with Por15, and it's great. (Can't even tell that I brushed it on.) I dropped one of the components on the concrete floor by accident (After leaving it a week to cure. Although it cures in around 5 hours. And is better after 4 days) and it didn't even scratch it..(Phew) Just make sure you handle the chassis with gloves after it's sandblasted.. And it will bond OK..

Wolf

Thanks for that, if it bonds well to sandblasted surfaces that will remove a lot of the preparation work.

I might see if I can get the sandblasting company to paint the chassis both internally and externally with POR 15. That way I get the good quality finish I want without any of the potential health risks. I assume any sand blasting firm worth their weight will have an air line feed for their employees.

-Martin

It's been a long weekend in Hobart, and what a productive long weekend it has been!

Friday was the day my cousin was planning on coming down to replace the rear cross member and front left dumb iron. He arrived at about 7:50 am, had a cup of coffee, and we got into it.

First up was the front dumb iron.

You'll have to look back in the thread to see what it looked like before the repairs, it appears I didn't bother to take photos before he cut it off... I did however get back into it once he had removed it.


Perhaps the biggest thing to notice about this is the severe lack of rust inside the chassis tube. We were both quite surprised by how little there was, and it was noted it was dry rust as well - all in all a very good sign!


Old and new together


Tacking it on. There was an awful lot of measuring and re-measuring to ensure the new bit went back in exactly the right position. Note the writing in chalk all along the chassis - these were our measurements.


All welded back up, looking very sharp.

The repair piece was a slightly different shape than the original, which means we did have to change the dip a little bit, but not by much. the hole where the suspension mounts, which as far as we're concerned is the most important part, remains exactly where it was vertically, horizontally and longitudinally.

Next up was the rear cross member...

Again I forgot to take any photos of it before, but I know I've posted a number of pictures a few pages back, if people are interested.


The old and the new.


Chassis sans cross member.

In this photo you can see we left the bottom section of the chassis intact. This didn't actually survive the repair, we removed it later. We were initially confused as the replacement cross member didn't have a bottom section on it. It did, however, come with plates which overlap and can be welded on afterwards. It's actually a neat system, we assume designed to allow flexibility with the variation of Land Rover chassis construction. A lot of seams weren't stitched the whole length, allowing you to bend the new bit to make everything match up nicely.


Inside the chassis leg


A closer shot.

I must say, given this is a 49 year old vehicle which clearly has spent most of its time off road, I'm very impressed with how rust free the chassis is. Everything I've seen of it makes me very pleased about its condition, I think I'll have a good base for my Landy for years to come.


Starting to put it back together again. Tack welds holding it in place, allowing us to adjust the drop and angle, etc. A couple of "creative cuts" were required to get everything to line up just right, plus a little "bridge building". Very pleased I had a fully qualified and experienced welder doing this one!


All done! You can see the plates welded on to the bottom as an overlap in this one as well.


Very nice.

All measured up, the new rear cross member is less than 1 mm away from the position of the original one in every direction. Even the angle worked out to be exactly the same. That really is only possible if you've got a good quality reproduction. I didn't expect I'd say that about a Britpart product, but there you go. I'm quite impressed with the quality of their repair sections.

I have to say I'm extremely impressed by all this. In fact I think I'd go as far as saying I'm thrilled!


The new one looks a lot nicer!

So, by 1 pm on Friday, all of this was done. 5 hours is all it took.

There's still a little bit of work to do to the chassis, thankfully stuff that I'm once again capable of managing. Both the gearbox cross member and the one directly in front of it have both taken some serious hits on rocks, leaving them very bent and battered. I'm currently in the process of repairing these. I've started out with the gearbox cross member.


Gearbox cross member deskinned. You can see some of the bends in it here, but it doesn't really show just how bad it was.

I've undone all the spot welds holding the bottom skin on, which I might add took forever, made much more difficult by plenty of bends. Thankfully once I had it off, I was very pleased with the condition of the metal inside.


Lovely paint. Just a touch of surface rusts in the corners, which really isn't that serious.

Since these photos were taken, I've straightened it, stripped it back to clean bare metal, primed it and top coated it. I've also straightened the skin and painted that up as well. I'll weld them back up first thing tomorrow morning. Once that's all welded up, I'll be pulling the bottom of the other cross member, and straightening that up before welding it back up again.

Once that's all done, the chassis is complete! All it will need then is sand blasting and painting.

I'm liking all this progress at the moment, it's all going very well. It's nice to finally be out of the dismantling stage. It was a little disheartening I must say. All this progress is just fuelling my desire to do more work now. Pity there's paint drying at the moment, or I might still be in the shed, driving the neighbours up the wall!

I made mention of planned repairs to the bulkhead a few posts ago. My cousin didn't get to it, he had other things to attend to (like his wife and kids), so I'll be taking it up to his place in about a week, allowing him to work on it at his leisure. Given his propensity to work on his projects until 2 am most mornings, I should have it back very shortly... I'll be getting it sand blasted when the chassis is done so we're sure we don't miss any issues. Dad has been giving me a hand, he's stripped the bulkhead of all 'jewellery' so there's absolutely nothing left on it any more. I'm very thankful he has too, I thought it would take me maybe an hour, but he's worked on it for about one and a half days to get it finished. With that in mind, I'm not sure I'd have had the time to get it completed in time!

Dad has also been using my camera, primarily documenting the various bits he's disassembling. Downloading the photos tonight, apparently he's also been documenting me. So here's a photo of me pondering over something.



-Martin