Project on hold...

[Anders Dinsen]

I'm currently working on a large IT project with more than a hundred people involved. When we find problems in this system, it can take a long time before they are fixed. Not because they are complex or because of politics involved, but because someone else may have experienced another problem which happens to be assigned to the same person who's assigned to fix MY problem. If I can't find a workaround, I have to focus on another part of the system instead.

The same is happening to my Weber project at the moment: Corrosion problems has stopped it.

The car is due for MoT on September 22nd, and I have to fix this hole first:



The photo is showing the situation after I cut the thin plate away until it was good metal. A small hole had corroded in a cover plate to the engine room inside the wheel arch. This plate is quite thin and being angled downwards against the body plate, it has been a good place for moisture to get trapped. Zooming in shows more corrosion inside the engine room:



It doesn't look good, but it's not that bad actually, as the rust is only on the surface. This is where the galvanisation process has its advantage: It resists corrosion even when most of the zinc layer seems to be gone.

This particular area on the right side of the engine room (above the vacuum container) is quite inaccessible when the engine is still in, so I won't be able to sand blast or remove the rust easily. The area will receive plenty of zinc paint followed by corrosion protection, and I will just have to hope that it wont get worse. As for the hole itself, it will be repaired by a friend soon.

MoT will follow quickly after that, and THEN will I start the carburettor conversion!

Stay tuned, as they say

[Spyros]

The Zinc paint will not stop rust progress. You need to do something else to neutralize or remve the rust first.
Can you find phosporic acid over there ?

[lewisman]

Get it as clean as you can after the repair.  Treat any remaining rust - I prefer rust removers rather than rust converters but that is just my preference.  Cover the exposed metal with "Galvafroid" paint (must be clean as possible to get the best out of this paint).  Its thick so I use an underseal gun!  When dry spray with copious quantities of Waxoyl or similar. Job done.....

Until next year when you will need to re-do the Waxoyl.

[Anders Dinsen]

Thanks a lot for your input, Spyros and Lewisman

I'm not sure what I'll do yet. The photos were taken with direct light on - slightly dirty and corroded surfaces always look far worse then than they are in heavy lighting. It's not that bad, really. And a lot of the brown areas could actually be rusty brake dust.

But my plan is to clean the wheel arches well with spray water and a rotating steel brush. This should get all the dirt away. Depending on the situation, I'll decide what to do - if it's just slightly corroded, I'll probably just give it regular corrosion protection (and repeat that regularly!) to limit further development of the rust.

The area inside the engine room, where moisture has been allowed to sit, will probably have to be sand blasted down to the clean metal at some point. Engine needs to go out for that, so it's not a quick fix!

Very-long term project is to strip the car completely from the body panels, and do a complete restoration! I've promised the car to my 10 year son Aksel - I'm thinking that I could leave that project to him?

- Anders