217 replies to this topic

[techieboy]

You would be looking at £150+ to have a subframe galvanised. But you need to have the old galv stripped off first then have it blasted.

I could supply you with a reinforced subframe freshly galvanised, with a uprated toe link kit for £995

Ouch, so it's my Uranium U-235 broker I need to speak to, to see if ISIS are in the market for the contents of a dirty bomb.

[cookster501]

Dirty bomb!! Don't get it🙊🙈🙉

[Dirtydiesel]

Made a start on the rollcage,

Edited by Dirtydiesel, 20 October 2015 - 09:46 PM.

[Dirtydiesel]

  Is the new tube-section (going to be) drilled in at least 2 locations before the hot-dip?   Closed off tubes have a nasty habit of blowing out when dipped   BTW.. Re-dipping these should really not be a problem. Plenty of people have had Elise subframes re-done and I have not heard of any that warped.   Just make sure you put bolts in any exposed threaded hole before dipping or you'll be chasing threads for ages   Bye, Arno.

Thanks Arno, I'd already drilled into both ends of the tube inside the toe link brackets to let the zinc in and the super heated air out. I prefer to re-tap any fixing holes rather than screw bolts in as the galvernising process makes the bolts really soft and they seem to shear off rather than screw out.

Edited by Dirtydiesel, 20 October 2015 - 09:53 PM.

[Arno]

 

I prefer to re-tap any fixing holes rather than screw bolts in as the galvernising process makes the bolts really soft and they seem to shear off rather than screw out.

 

 

That works too.. I just found it a chore when a mate of mine had his Porsche 924/944 stripped down and then had suspension bits like arms and beams all hot-dipped and didn't do this.. Turned out there were a surprising amount of threaded holes in the various bits after all that kept us busy for some time to clean 'em up again

 

And of course.. As it's a Porker the thing was littered with all sorts of coarse, fine and extra fine metric threads on various fasteners so I ended up with a nice selection of taps and dies once het got rid of it..

 

Bye, Arno.

[cookster501]

Well Dan got to say its looking awesome can't wait to get behind the wheel. any advice on suspension setup would be appreciated it's mainly going to be a road car and a few track days a year not really interested in lap times and joining the willy wanging club

[Gedi]

Why are you putting a rollcage into a road car?

 

Also, don't let the vx220 firewall police see that hole that's been cut for the fuel pump, you'll be hung, drawn and quartered.

I supposed the added strength of the rollcage might save your passenger in the event of a side impact. Although I wouldn't expect it to crumple as designed.

[cookster501]

That's only the start of it having a full rollcage for extra safety

[Dirtydiesel]

Picked all the wishbones up from blasting today, after looking at their construction, I decided to drill the main sealed sections of them through the bush eyes and the balljoint sockets. As this will have no effect on their strength.





Unfortunately there's no way to get into the smaller bracing bars so I just drilled them conventionally.



Also picked up the rear subframe from the galvernisers. It's still perfectly straight :-) no warping anywhere, almost like it has been designed to withstand 400° zinc ;-)

[Tony H]

Phwoar subframe porn

[FLD]

What made you hot-dip rather than electroplate?

[Dirtydiesel]

What made you hot-dip rather than electroplate?

Because electroplating just doesn't last.

[FLD]

There's a trick to that

[Dirtydiesel]

There's a trick to that

Not convinced, if there was a trick to get a few thou of plating to work as well as hot galv then lamp posts, farm gates and structural steels would all be electroplated. We considered tuffriding but it was too tight a fit in the baths.

[FLD]

 

There's a trick to that

Not convinced, if there was a trick to get a few thou of plating to work as well as hot galv then lamp posts, farm gates and structural steels would all be electroplated. We considered tuffriding but it was too tight a fit in the baths.

 

 

Hot dip is a far cheaper process (and gives a thicker coat) which is why lamp posts etc are done that way.  Electroplate has issues with contaminants so that eventually the thickness of plate won't change and no more zinc will deposit.  Instead you get a black powder in the bath.  You can give the parts a quick acid bath (usually a v mild acid) to remove contaminants from the surface and reactivate the surface to take plate again.  I had mine done like this (done three times) which builds up a similar layer thickness to hot-dipping.  Takes a lot longer and costs A LOT more which is why it's not common.  Hopefully my wishbones should do OK though.  They were passivated afterwards too.

[cookster501]

Thanks Tony H it looks factory fresh I'm very pleased with it

[Duncan VXR]

Looks very good, really glad it was more than upto the job of 400deg. Would go down that route if doing another Keep up the good work 😉 DG

[Ormes]

Phwoar subframe porn

[Kart59]

Wish id had my subframe re galvanised instead of painting it when it was off! Really great work going on here

[cookster501]

Looking forward to getting the wishbones and hubs back from tuffriding next week should really start to take shape then😆