Russell,
any hole that's less than 10mm in diameter will tend to fill up with zinc, but because it's a relatively soft metal, it's easy to re-drill and tap.

Even with 'safety critical' fastenings such as the 7/16 UNF thread for seat belt anchorages, the tap will find the original thread.

Reckon I've done well over 25,000 of the blighters now...

ken

How about these people?

http://www.surfaceprocessing.co.uk/

[quote="Smiffy" a drunk Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, and his review of the new Ferrari Testosterossa ends up with him shagging the car! [/quote]

ha ha - i remember it well "and i've.......got the keys, but i'm not going to drive this beauty, oh no, i'm going to shag it, up the arse" (proceeds to copulate with one of the ferrari's exhaust pipes" - Viz has gone down hill for some time, i reckon

Smiffy,
it'll be interesting to hear how much the estimate is for chemically stripping a bodyshell, but I'd guess you ought to be sitting down at the time of reading...

The galvanizing part shouldn't be too costly, as galvanizers tend to base their pricing on an item's weight, whereas I'd expect the preparation for plating to be based on its surface area.

ken.

I considered this for my drummer when I was restoring this, but IIRC the cost from surface processing company (probably the one you're asking) was about 1500 gbp.

Thanks for the lead, O-N: surfaceprocessing are only 5 miles or so from where I live, so I'll see what they've got to say.

I'll keep you all posted.

Erasmo: who galv'd/eplated yours? Would you mind if I ask what the cost was?

I do it all the time at work, it's just a ballache. Especially with all the little threads in the dash and so on.

Battery drill for the smaller diameters?
It doesn't have enough torque to break a tap, but does lessen the chances of the operator developing rsi...

No good for those M14 damper sockets or even the 7/16 UNF ones, which is why the plating on the T handle tap wrench is completely polished away.

ken

The Volvo was done at SPL in Dudley. I had it done in two stages, the shell was stripped to bare metal. I then repaired it and it was then re dipped and E coated. The Electrophoretic coating is a paint process, the shell gets dipped in a vat of paint as a current is passed through it. I believe there is an issue with the E coat part of the process at present as the line that was used was also used for the LDV van plant.

I'm told SPL is working on a new solution but I've not personally seen it. As I said I visited Duck services and decided I couldn't live with the level of distortion. It isn't really a to do with Duck services, it is simply the interaction of heating, cooling and thin metal.

One of the issues with dipping an old bodyshell into any kind of liquid is that many/most are not designed to be dipped. When the shell is lifted out the liquid needs to run out of the shell quickly, otherwise the weight of the liquid can pull the shell out of shape.

I'm not entirely convinced dipping a 2CV shell is necessary. Once you've replaced the floors, sills and maybe the rear lamp panel you've pretty much dealt with the box sections. Careful preparation, painting and most of all rust proofing ought to preserve the structure for years.

The Acid dip is very unforgiving, but it creates a wonderful starting point. All the grease, dirt, paint, underseal, seam sealer and sound proofing is removed. This is the floor of the Volvo shell once I'd had it dipped.

electrolic galvanising has one big disadvantige, because this is based on electric current the cage of Faraday kicks in; meaning only the outside gets sinc on it the innside of hollow parts don't get any sinc....... theres no current there.....

Please someone tell me I am wrong........

The big disadvantage of melted sinc (heatbath) is disortion because of the tension going into the metal, a 2cv body will work, but straight panels like a door or the side panels of a Acadyane are almost useless, but it go's into every edge and hollow spaces and so on....

So it's up to you.....