welding galved chassis

[mcc1979ian]

ok so 3 year ago i bought a galved chassis for the 90 rebuild but ever since have wished i had bought a v8 one instead of a 200 tdi, so now im obsesed with sticking in a v8 so am obviously goin to have to change the engine mounts and if i cant find bolt in ones im gona have to get weld on.

the question is how much damage is welding the mounts on likely to do to my chassis?

will covering the whole surrounding area in galvafroid afterwards help protect any damage caused?

[SmasherWebbs]

Welding it will make no more difference than it would to any other chassis but you would really want to remove all the galv where your going to weld on first. Unless you have a death wish. Using a good dust mask and a flapper disc on a grinder will do the trick in a well ventilated place!

When it comes to protecting it after spray galv is not a touch on the real thing. However there are some good zinc paints out there.

[western]

for reprotecting try 'galvafroid' paint.http://www.tadmur.com/english/Our_Divisions/Fosroc/services_products/pdf/144.pdf

[stuck]

Ian,

You mentioned Galvafroid in your original post, I've never used it on a chassis but work in a paper mill which is a seriously nasty environment (hot, humid, chemicals etc) where possible we use stainless but in the event of a repair or modification to anything galvanised we use Galvafroid & it seems to last as well as the remaining galvanised item.

In our case that's maybe 5 years tops but I would imagine it would be fine for a LR, I think to be safe I would try to seal the inside of the chassis with Waxoyl or something as the Galv will be damaged where it's been welded obviously.

[nickwilliams]

A few points which may be useful/helpful:

1. Galvanising is most effective when it completely coats the steel. As soon as you get a patch where the underlying metal is exposed, the zinc coating is sacrificially corroded in preference to the steel, and it will dissolve quite quickly once it gets started. So, if you make a hole in your galvanising, make sure you seal it up again with (ideally zinc rich) paint.

2. I've found Galvafroid to be excellent as a touch up to damaged hot dip galvanising, but I find it rather soft and easily damaged so you may want to put another protective layer over the top (Schutz?)

3. If you don't clean the galvanising off before you weld, your weld won't be as strong.

4. Take the warnings about avoiding the zinc dust from grinding and (especially) the smoke from any welding very seriously. Zinc poisoning is not nice. You will need a proper respirator with an active filter (at least P2, and preferably P3) or an air fed mask. The paper masks which just cover your nose and mouth and are fastened with a piece of elastic behind your ears are useless for smoke protection. If you can't afford the proper gear, at very least do any grinding or welding outside and arrange a fan (or the weather) to blow the dust/smoke away from you (although note that MIG welding in a high wind is not recommended either - it takes surprisingly little draught to blow the shielding gas away).

Nick.

[Bowie69]

5. Make sure you give it a squirt with waxy on a regular basis

[elbekko]

Yeah, the galv fumes when welding aren't too optimal... Try to not keep your head in the plume of white nastiness and it's a lot better, but intelligent people would probably start wearing some respiratory equipment (unlike me).

[calle-fas]

If you decide to breath the fumes despite all the good advice you will get a rather heavy headache. Milk is an effective medicine for this.

[windrover]

the good thing about engine mounts is that they are usually coated in oil...the mounts or nearby areas won't rust out. That said, a coat of cold galv would be a good idea