GRHH Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Hi All, First post on a Landy forum...here goes. I have recently refurbished my old 200tdi bulkhead (standard rotting in the corners and footwells) and have had it galvanised for longevity purposes. Having read plenty of posts on here about the galvanising process, I strengthened the lower section by bracing a bar across the outrigger mounts / holes, however after taking it to the galvanisers they have removed the brace (it was held in via nut and bolt through the outrigger holes which was welded to a 3/4" steel rod) as they advised this would have led to stress concentartions... Anyway, result is I now have the bulkhead back with some substantial warping of the driver's side door pillar (and therefore all the surrounding thin metal surrounding the footwell / along the top of the bulkhead). Needless to say I'm pretty p***ed off. The photo attached isn't great to show the damage, I can take more if peoople require. Question is, does anyone know of effective methods of straightening her out? Currently I'm thinking of putting the bulkhead on the chassis and using a bottle jack against the chassis to try and align the holes. However I'm concerned that the warping is so bad that I might not achieve this. My next thought is to resort to heat via tourch and then using a bottle jack? I guess this example goes to show that bracing IS required, and should be welded in to place! Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks, George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arjan Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Nothing unusual here I'm afraid. Hydraulic forces & ratchet straps are your friend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tacr2man Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Your problem is the galv mob , if they did it right they dont warp , mine didnt and no brace was fitted . You might suggest that they redo it and see if they can get the warp out , heating will bugger the galv which was the whole point . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litch Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I braced mine across the bottom with a length of box-section, they left it in place (as I would have expected them to) and the bulkhead came out straight. Which company did you use? I use East Anglian Galvanising in Sawtry (Peterborough). They are not perfect. I once took a front bumper to them made of box-section, it already had holes drilled in it but they wanted to add more and without asking they just drilled away which means I had holes on the exposed sides, I was not happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reb78 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Your problem is the galv mob , if they did it right they dont warp , mine didnt and no brace was fitted . You might suggest that they redo it and see if they can get the warp out , heating will bugger the galv which was the whole point . Who did you use for yours? Ive been to East Anglian galv at Sawtry and they wanted to drill a lot more holes in my bulkhead. I think they would do the job ok, but happy to hear of others if they are more experienced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRHH Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 I braced mine across the bottom with a length of box-section, they left it in place (as I would have expected them to) and the bulkhead came out straight. Which company did you use? I use East Anglian Galvanising in Sawtry (Peterborough). They are not perfect. I once took a front bumper to them made of box-section, it already had holes drilled in it but they wanted to add more and without asking they just drilled away which means I had holes on the exposed sides, I was not happy! I used Highland Galvanisers (Elgin) as I'm based up in Aberdeen. Highland are a reputable company and they've done good work on other projects, however I fear that whoever did my bulkhead may have been inexperienced and dipped it in hot galv too quickly, without my support brace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRHH Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 Nothing unusual here I'm afraid. Hydraulic forces & ratchet straps are your friend Cheers Arjan, I'm going to give it a go on Sunday as you suggest. How was it you used ratchet straps to straighten the beast out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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