Does my Chassis need work? Honestly!

[F129RLU]

Hi, a quick favor to ask all the experianced guys. Can you look at these pics and tell me whether you think my chassis needs work, i'm dreading the answer. But i suppose, best i know.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by F129RLU on Thursday 31st July 12:20

[ketvrin]

Hi Ian, its hard to tell from the pics with all of that waxoyl on there, hopefully that will have protected it in the past. I can see rust, sure butI can see no holes so thats a good start. Are you brave enough to start prodding to see if any holes appear ?

I hope its just surface rust and nowt to worry about...

K

[GreenV8S]

Impossible to say just from those pics. The usual test is to poke the tubes hard with a screwdriver. If it's severely corroded you will find you can dent them and maybe even poke a hole in them. However, the corrosion is usually worst on the top of the tubes around the body mounting plates where you can't see it, so even if it's all sound underneath that's no guaranty that they are all OK. But on their own those pictures showing rust under the waxoil are not particularly frightening.

[F129RLU]

Hi,

I did prod at the rusty bits (sounds a bit rude!) when i bought her. And for all my strength i couldnt make any holes.

Is it fair to assume that if the parts i can see are strong, the bits i cant see will be the same??

Thanks for the advice though, truely appreciated.

Ian

[Roy C]

Check the tops of the perimeter outrigger tubes, particularly the nearside. Mine rotted through, but looked fine from below.

[pies]

Looks like it will pass an MOT

[F129RLU]

yeah, it went through in april with no advisories. Although passing the mot isnt whats worrying me, its the prospect of my butt hitting the floor when i take a road hump just that little bit too hard! lol

[sphs2]

hi, from what i can see there its not mint but is mot worthy, the question is how far do you want to go with the car? do you plan to keep it for a while?

If you plan on keeping the forst thing i would do i get rid of that black C*** and get the wire brush out, then treat it with jenolite and put some clear waxoyl on.

[merky300]

Mine looked ok until I lifted the body, and had a good poke around.



Both sides were the same. I was supprised at how localised the corrosion was, the tubes a few inches away from the holes were solid and sound. The rear mounts/seatbelt plates also looked sound until the body was lifted when the plates literaly split in half but the rear tube and trailing arm mounts were again very solid.

I would say that if you are keeping the car this winter would be a good time to partially or fully lift the body give the tubes a thorough de-rusting and you may get away with just rust treatment and paint with no welding. Leave it any longer and the inevitable will happen.

Tony

[Barkychoc]

merky300 said:

Mine looked ok until I lifted the body, and had a good poke around.



Both sides were the same. I was supprised at how localised the corrosion was, the tubes a few inches away from the holes were solid and sound. The rear mounts/seatbelt plates also looked sound until the body was lifted when the plates literaly split in half but the rear tube and trailing arm mounts were again very solid.

I would say that if you are keeping the car this winter would be a good time to partially or fully lift the body give the tubes a thorough de-rusting and you may get away with just rust treatment and paint with no welding. Leave it any longer and the inevitable will happen.

Tony

Those tubes don't look like the originals either - don't they have mitred joints on the corners on the original tubes?

[mep12345]

Mine looked good from below and had passed an MOT a month or so before the first time I inspected it. Look what I found on the body lift at my little shop of horrors at www.gbsportscar.com - moral is you cannot really tell inless you do a partial body lift.

Mark

[merky300]

Barkychoc said:

merky300 said:

Mine looked ok until I lifted the body, and had a good poke around.



Both sides were the same. I was supprised at how localised the corrosion was, the tubes a few inches away from the holes were solid and sound. The rear mounts/seatbelt plates also looked sound until the body was lifted when the plates literaly split in half but the rear tube and trailing arm mounts were again very solid.

I would say that if you are keeping the car this winter would be a good time to partially or fully lift the body give the tubes a thorough de-rusting and you may get away with just rust treatment and paint with no welding. Leave it any longer and the inevitable will happen.

Tony

Those tubes don't look like the originals either - don't they have mitred joints on the corners on the original tubes?

You are right the corners are mitred, only this one had a big dent in it so it looks as though it is a butt joint, it was mitred though.

Tony

[merky300]

mep12345 said:

Mine looked good from below and had passed an MOT a month or so before the first time I inspected it. Look what I found on the body lift at my little shop of horrors at www.gbsportscar.com - moral is you cannot really tell inless you do a partial body lift.

Mark

I would agree totally, mine had 8 months MOT and those holes didn't rust through in the 4 months since it was tested.

Tony

[F129RLU]

Ah, thanks for that adrian. Nothing quite like breaking it to me gently!

[mikee boy]

The only real way to tell is to remove a section of the waxoyl (and not the best looking bit!) down to the bare metal and assess what you see. My chassis was red with rust and I was really worried about it, but after cleaning up it was actually quite solid. This was mainly because it hadn't been on the road too often.

If the chassis is good it's nice to know. If it's not, it's essential to know so you can plan the work over the winter.

[ketvrin]

I said you would get some honest opinions Ian ...

in summary the advice is to remove the waxoyl from the weak points - front of outriggers is obviously number 1 - and do a thorough check including the tops of the outriggers to see how bad the rust is... if you find holes then the partial/full lift is the only way you will be able to adequately repair them, if not the treat with a rust inhibitor and hammerite before re-applying waxoyl - take a look at my refurb pics on my profile...

fit mudflaps to cover the outriggers when you are finished to help stop it all happening again too soon.

Good Luck

K

[F129RLU]

Actually, mud flaps are sitting on the workbench ready to go on. I'm going to have a look at the front of the outriggers today, (after i've built my boy a go-kart) Then i suppose if the body has to come off to do it, i'll spend the winter doing a partial restoration. Theres a few bits that i wanted to tidy up anyway so i may as well get it all done. Tidying up the bodywork will be easier to do with it off.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Theres an amazing amount of knowledge here.

Ian

Edited by F129RLU on Friday 1st August 09:02

[ketvrin]

If you remove the inner wheel arch from the body, you will be able to see along the top of the outriggers for a short distance (that short distance is always the worst anyway), try poking the tube from that angle to see what happens...

I'll keep my fingers crosse for you

K

[900T-R]

Adrian@ said:

What you have is a poorly a prepared chassis with a lot of waxoyl over the top of the rust and damp that was then captured under waxoyl....THAT is sweating and causing the chassis to rot away under the waxoyl.

Is the Waxoyl stuff not supposed to penetrate the rust and drive out moisture, then (unlike what is claimed for Tectyl, the corresponding item from Teroson etc)?

[F129RLU]

Well, i've taken a chisel to it and pushed and banged at it and i cant manage to dent it. The worst is a little bit of flaking off the topside. But in places scrapping away the underseal reveals clean white painted metal.

The front courner plates look the worst, but again pushing at it, all seems pretty solid.