Patrol 4x4 - Nissan Patrol Forum banner

Galvanising a GQ chassis & legality?

7K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Gqtitroll 
#1 ·
Any personal accounts on having a GQ or even a GU chassis hot gal dipped? Then the legality of the operation as far as conforming with ADR's? Steps on personal accounts would be great.

I'm only aware of the issue, about the VIN on the chassis being covered with zinc. In this case an engineer would sight the number, record it, fix his/her own ID tag to the chassis. After hot gal dip, engineer would ID their tag, re-stamp the number into the zinc and then remove their tag.

I believe at the same time of the after-inspection, the engineer would also sight for chassis warping or related damage. (Gal dipping is pretty damn warm)

I'm in Townsville, if there are any state specific requirements concerned, as well.

Cheers!
 
#6 ·
No risk of warping as the whole chassis is being heated and cooled at once, galvanising is an excellent way of normalising the heat affected zones created by welding, I think hot dipped chassis is an awesome idea and I'd love to get it done, if I ever needed my body to come off or was close enough too striping down to the chassis for some reason it would be strongly considered
 
  • Like
Reactions: JM666
#12 ·
Yes it would be heated uniformly but different thickness steel cools at different rates that's what you have to watch and you have to make sure they have a vat big enough to do it in one dip , I have had truck trays come back that they have had to turn over And dip again because the vat wasn't full enough and the finish was terible with he scum from the bottom of the vat , the extra heat bowed it like a bannana ,

You also have to consider the way the zinc flows and air needs to escape because when you dip something depending which way hey dip it you need to drill holes to let he air out so there are no air pockets other wise you won't get zinc in the air pockets .

Hope this made some kind of sense cheers
 
#7 ·
It's sections in the ends of the rails and around the seams of each rail that I'm finding rust. I'm saving my gold coins to do it next year, if it pans out legally and sounds good to my engineer buddy.

VIN is located on top of the Left Hand rail, on Right Hand drive models - just forward of the front left coil & shock.

Thats a "hot tip for young players", welding a plate over the top - cheers!

I've seen the industrial galvanisers doing their thing up here(Townsville), so I have a basic idea of the process. Acid type solution is heated which removes surface impurities and etches into the rust, also eating paint away. Removed from acid solution and residual heat dissipates excess acid. Part is then dipped into the Zinc tank which is also very hot, where Zinc bonds to internal and external surfaces.

Great idea about the dipping and being liquid form - internal and external surfaces are treated! No rust is left ;)

Prep for this operation is only allowing sufficient sized holes for flow of Acid solution and Zinc to moves through, without creating pockets of acid under a layer of zinc. This could then cause the metal to eat away under the zinc surface without you knowing.

I believe most Galvanisers will charge by weight - so every EXTRA kilo your chassis weighs after the dipping is how they gauge the cost and how much zinc you used etc.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the great ideas, gents. Sometimes I get stuck thinking 'Inside" the box - painting after was the plan, but I failed to connect two and two together. Cant see the Zinc, doesn't exist ;) (If police do pick on me)

I enjoyed the detailed pics of that 1-Tonner as well, cheers for the link mate!
 
#11 ·
i dont know if it would be a concen concidering how little payload the patrols have to keep them under gvm. but how much extra weight would you be adding??
but if weight isnt a concern i spose extra weight below center of gravity can only be a win :)

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top