rear chassis surface rust

[Goldsie32]

can any one tell me were i can get it sorted

[henry21p]

DIY, or strip it and take her back to arch for a refurb!

[Malcolm]

Nearly wet meself when I first saw extent of surface rust but a good rub down, hammerite primer & top coat sorted it. A refresh every other year kept it at bay.

[David Lynch]

Good question, I keep staring at the POR-15 in the back of the garage. Maybe this winter

 

1.4K SS 😬 Just smiling

[k80rum]

I've just tackled the rear corrosion on my chassis - 8 years old and it looked really terrible. There's a section on my website if it's of any interest. I suppose it's dependant on the severity and the owners willingness to tackle it, but it's certainly worth treating as a DIY job in my opinion.

 

I used a rubber flapper wheel from Frost on a power drill to remove the old rust and powdercoat, then used POR Metal Ready, followed by POR-15 and a final coat of POR Chassis Black. I'm really pleased with the result - the chassis looks as good as it did when it was new and it should last for ages - it's much less prone to damage than the powdercoat.

 

The whole process took a week of evenings - Evening 1to strip the components off and about half an hour with the flapper wheel, followed by a rub down and the Metal-Ready. Evening 2 was about an hour painting on the POR-15, followed by a second coat the next night. The Chassis Black was applied on the 4th night and then everything bolted back on

 

Darren E

 

Website and Emerald maps library

 

Superlight R #54

 

 

 

Edited by - k80rum on 23 Jul 2007 11:22:04

[Sheds Moderator]

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was to sort and how durable the repair. I gave everything a good wire brushing and slapped ona couple of coats of chassis black. It's a bit quick and dirty but it held the rust at bay for 2 years without further need for maintenance and still looked OK.

 

The chassis black in question is bituminous - petrol removes it but it does limit corrosion very well.

[Goldsie32]

Cheers guys for the advice, Look like i may have to get my hands dirty

[Nick Chan]

Remember to wear disposable gloves if you are using POR-15 - and don't wipe your face at all with the back of your hand as it can take quite some time to come off... 😬

[Steve Waite]

Goldsie:

I stripped the back suspension, de dion etc out of mine 2 years, rubbed it back using emery & a flapper wheel in an old drill & then painted on 2 coats of hammerite primer + 2 top coat.

Still looks good & solid now.

1 tip though, find some rubber or plastic sleeving held on with cable ties to cover the chassis where the handbrake cable rubs.

Steve...

 

Red 1.4K

[Goldsie32]

Steve.

When you said you stripped the suspension and D/D etc out, Does that mean you removed them

[Steve Waite]

Goldsie:

Yes, the de dion was also badly corroded due to loss of the powder coating, I removed the de dion & did it without undoing the brake pipes to calipers. You have to be careful not to bend the pipes, but use string or rope to hold them out of the way.

Make sure you leave room to one side of the car to withdraw the de Dion from underneath the car.

You will have to remove the seats to get at the heads of the bolts on the suspension arms. That is a pain in the a** job, but easy if you use a ring spanner on the heads of the bolts inside the car & then let the spanner lock against the chassis whilst your underneath with a socket & wrench.

If required caterham cars do supply a rear suspension fasteners kit but it's cheaper to get any parts required from a local fastener stockist, I ended up with most bits left over.

Forgot to mention - when emerying back to bare metal I used "rust remedy" to treat the badly correde areas & after re-assembly I sprayed all chassis painted & suspension joints with waxoyl.

The caterham build manual lists all torque wrench settings.

It was a weeks worth of effort but at minimum expense.

Steve...

 

 

 

 

 

Red 1.4K

[Sheds Moderator]

This is why I just gave mine a wire brushing and slathered on the chassis black. It took me an evening. 2 years later there was no need for a revisit and the car has now been sold. Over to you whether you want to do a quick and dirty repair every couple of years or spend a lot of time on doing a proper job that will look better and last longer. I chose "80% of the result, 20% of the effort".

[Goldsie32]

Cheers again guys

[millsn]

When using POR15 chassis coat black when it says to stir the tin it really means "There will be 6" of gunk in the bottom of the tin that needs lifting into the main body of the paint for it to be any cop". The POR 15 base layer did not have this, stirring it seemed to do very little. I only found out about the CCBlack after trying a few coats unsuccessfully. If in doubt read and use the instructions! Doh