Hi Guys,

Well its been a while but my beloved zed has been sleeping quietly in the garage underneath an indoor cover,

but unbeknown to me has been rusting without me knowing, really annoyed. ( how its rusted in an indoor garage is puzzling me )

 

first sign is a fuel tank leak, so began the process of removing the rear tank,

 

looking under the rear arch behind the bumper, it has rotted through, this has been repaired before but again has rotted through,

does anyone have any pics or experience with repairing this section?

 

looking under the zed it looks like I will be dropping the subframe and using a product called POR 15

http://www.frost.co.uk/semi-gloss-black-por15-rust-prevention-paint-946ml.html

 

I have sprayed loads of waxoil and stone chip under the arches that did nothing to stop the rust, what is the best way to clean it all off to bare metal so I can do a proper job?

 

any help would be greatly appreciated regarding dropping the rear subframe, and redoing the brake pipes, do these need to be done as

a complete section front to back, or do you join them somewhere, ive tried the search function but I need a little more help with the brake pipes

and hicas pipes that seem to have rotted

 

any help greatly appreciated

I have also been redoing the brake lines using Kunifer pipe 3/16 with 10mm fittings

I removed all the pipework and I have been able to make a copy as I go along, and I have also covered sections in heatshrink for that factory look

here you can see the new next to the old

look great mate. Up for a visitor yet :)

yeah sure im off all week mate ill send you a pm :)

Had a chance to do a little more, so after battling with the underseal, best way i found was with an oscillating

Multi tool scraper and then a wire wheel on a grinder.

 

Once down to the bare steel any rust was dealt with using dinitrol rc900

Then i used bilt hamber electrox zinc primer thinned down using there xylene thinner and applied

Using a brush

Next i will use bilt hamber epoxy mastic & dynax s50 inside the sills and box sections ect,

Lots more to do but just a quick pic to show progress

 

Nice work [emoji106]

Well done mate. It's a shit job but well worth it.

Thanks guys

Yeah a very shit job.. ive tried the heat gun way and the thinners too but found the

Oscillating multi tool scraper snd wire wheel the best, being on your back under the car is a killer

Amazing work well done! How high is the car off the ground?

Amazing work well done! How high is the car off the ground?

 

The sills are not very high at all just enough to crawl under and work on

Ideally they need to be about 24 inches of the ground

The rear half is higher so easier to work on, once the rear is finished i can then lift the sills

Higher and concentrate on them

I managed to clean up the passenger side arch today, all rust spots again treated with dinitrol rc 900, then I will do the zinc primer then epoxy mastic

Nice work. :yes:

Thanks guys

Yeah a very shit job.. ive tried the heat gun way and the thinners too but found the

Oscillating multi tool scraper snd wire wheel the best, being on your back under the car is a killer

 

I find the cup style fine wheels ideal, stubborn bits require a twisted knot wheel though. Thankfully they are cheap from Screwfix/toolstation. The old crap goes EVERYWHERE though doesn't it. I've got a bit left to do down the front part of the floor pan I've been putting off.

Great job!

I find the cup style fine wheels ideal, stubborn bits require a twisted knot wheel though. Thankfully they are cheap from Screwfix/toolstation. The old crap goes EVERYWHERE though doesn't it. I've got a bit left to do down the front part of the floor pan I've been putting off.

 

Get in there matey :) its a messy job I know, I found I bought a cheap cup wire bush and it ruined my grinder, the twist knot ones are awesome

and does clear the underseal away, but it does then end up like silly string everywhere else.

More update, I have had a look at my sills and the floor section is rotting away from the side sills,

so I am going to have to strip everything out, cut sections out of the floor and weld in new steel, Sills don't look to bad but there are sections to repair

biggest problem I have is the side skirts from zcentre and I have blended them into the body work, so the only way I have of getting to the sill is to cut a section out of the fiberglass side skirt as low down as possible

 

Edited April 12, 20178 yr by FASTREDZ

Keep at it mate your getting there. That floor pan shot makes me want to pull the carpet up.

had mine done 2 years ago, all the usual places front floor pan where it meets the sill, same with rear floor pan, and the sills themselves, well worth getting it all done, mine is coated in dinitrol now i used the thin one thats like water first followed by the thicker wax, plus the sills have been coated with waxoyl so hopefully no more probs. but keep at it, tough job but worth doing

Almost thought it was my car there looking at the pics! In exactly the same situation. Pipes done but onto all the welding now, front sills/floors too. Keep it up!

 

P.s. unsure of what rear arch welding you have left but be wary.. welding too high in the arch behind the rear passenger seat I encountered some kind of felt padding by the wire loom. I say encountered. I mean took my welding mask off after a nice job and looked inside to see it on fire

I think I'd cry!!!

Almost thought it was my car there looking at the pics! In exactly the same situation. Pipes done but onto all the welding now, front sills/floors too. Keep it up!

 

P.s. unsure of what rear arch welding you have left but be wary.. welding too high in the arch behind the rear passenger seat I encountered some kind of felt padding by the wire loom. I say encountered. I mean took my welding mask off after a nice job and looked inside to see it on fire

 

I,ve had some pretty big flames come out of the inner arch box section :) I know where you are with the loom and padding its quite a job checking whats going to catch fire next and keeping an eye on things,

the front part of my sill is shot so need to repair that also, to be honest my sills are not to bad thank god, yes there are patches to do but all in all not too bad, the floorpan has disappeared the drivers side being the worst,

 

Im using billit hamber dynax seam on all the seams including any welds runs, weld through etch primer on any seams, painting everything in billt hamber zinc primer and then bilt hamber epoxy mastic on top finished with bilt hamber s50 cavity wax on all the cavitys, I hope this time it will not rust again,

 

very interesting to see that wherever I had previous weld runs this is where the rust has attacked the worse.

Nice job, I am also saving my personal Z at the moment. I got surprised with many rust spots.

But it will be all worth it.

So continuing on with my inner sills,

I found the best way to tackle this job was to work from the inside out, I have the fiberglass skirts on the outside blended in so I don't want to disturb them

so I cut the rusted section out of the floor, then unstitched the inner sill and the middle sill to gain access to the outer sill

I have made new panels using galvanised steel

 

then I got to do some of the underside using the bilt hamber epoxy primer...nice stuff

I'm full of admiration for your efforts to do a proper job here. Looking forward to seeing the car finished.

I'm full of admiration for your efforts to do a proper job here. Looking forward to seeing the car finished.

 

Agreed.

I can both sympathise and empathise having done similar myself.

Respect. :thumbup1:

 

I would recommend a good mask when welding galvanised steel, I believe the gas is somewhat poisonous.

 

Just a thought, are you contemplating any bracing?

The rigidity of the shell is predominantly based around the sills themselves.

Edited May 2, 20178 yr by redwine300

Good work mate. The bilt Humber products are great, I used them on mine. As you may be aware, the cavity wax is quite flammable.

As red wine pointed out, please be very careful with welding the zink, it is highly toxic when welded.