Removing body to get the Chasis Galvanised- how big a job

[MisterCruiser]

If one was to purchase a Swb 120 series, how big a job is it to remove the body and the drivetrain to get the chasis galvanised?
How many hours approx to remove to get to the bare chasis? Would a weekend do it? Surely 2 weekends would anyway? Assuming the job is being carried out on a 2 post lift. Has anyone here done this, what's easiest method, leave the body on the lift and drop the chasis or leave the chasis on the lift and raise / prop the body up somehow?
The engine can be left in I assume, no need to remove it?

Also, how practical / clever would this be to do? I'm just going by my 90 series which I have 8 yrs, instead of rust-proofing every yr or 2 and repairing chasis and sills as you come across holes, would it be better to galvanise from day of purchase, if you're keeping long-term (forever) which I am. How big a job is it on the 90 series? Same as the 120 I guess. I often wonder would I have been wise to have galvanised my chasis / sills 8yrs ago when I first purchased my 90 series.

Also, with the body off, is there anything that could be done to the sills that would be equally as effective as galvanising so they wouldn't have to be touched again either for a long long time?

With the chasis removed, is it possible to get the inside of the chasis box sections extremely clean and free of loose rust in order for the inside to be galvanised properly? Will any difficult hard to reach sections of the chasis interior compromise the effectiveness of the overall galvanising or will it still be a decent job regards it;s inside? Or are you better to buy a brand new chasis which would have no dirt on the inside and get that galvanised? What ball-park figure is a new 120 swb chasis?

How long will a galvanised chasis in this method realistically last before having to weld it, 10yrs? 15yrs? etc..

I'll be buying a 120 at some stage in the near future and am just looking into this galvanising option, I can do all the work myself and a mate so I'm just trying to get an idea of the time it takes? Then just the price of getting the chasis galvanised.

 

[Towpack]

If you're hooked on the (real) galvanising route I'd say go with a brand new, corrosion free chassis. Getting an old chassis clean enough, inside and out, for effective galvanising would be difficult if not virtually impossible. Acid dipping would be required to remove all traces of corrosion which could leave you with a chassis that requires some repair/strengthening work prior to the galvanising dip. Transferring parts over from the old chassis to the new one would also be much easier IMO. The life expectancy of a galvanised chassis would depend on the quality of the galvanising process, especially the preparation. Done properly it will probably out live your permission to drive it.

 

[AndyCook]

Can you get brand new 120 chassis ? imagine prices might be mental

 

[Shayne]

Surely a new chassis would arrive treated and sealed making the acid bath's job twice as hard ?

 

[Juddian]

Would be interesting to know how much a new chassis costs.
Many years ago whilst delivering courtesy cars to a bodyshop, they had a 4 runner (UK version of Surf) in, had a front end smash which bent the chassis but very little body damage and were in the process of fitting a new chassis. It was several years old so the chassis can't have been that expensive to make the job worth the while for the insurer.
Like when my 70 series was smashed up basically the front bumper took the whole impact, but the 4runner chassis being probably thinner bent where the 70 series didn't budge.

Hell of a job though, i wouldn't want to tackle it.

The sheer amount of chassis difficult to access with the body in place is why, after normal rust treating/proofing of the accessible sections, i now favour annual or sometimes twice annual underbody spraying with whatever oil based product one favours, the spray reaches those out of sight places and inside chassis/cavities, currently its ACF50 for me but when that runs out i'll try chain lube.
This method has downsides in that everything you want to work on underneath is greasy filthy, but bolts come undone without snappiing off and the spray protects so many other components as well.

 

[Shayne]

13 days start to finish - impressive

 

[MisterCruiser]

I'd imagine anew chassis would come pre painted, I forgot, so all that would have to be removed for the galvanising process. But at least there'd be no corrosion, but the cost of a new chassis probably wouldn't make this feasible.

So, that brings me back to buying a good 2nd hand chassis.

@ Towpack - "Getting an old chassis clean enough, inside and out, for effective galvanising would be difficult if not virtually impossible."

Would it really be that difficult though to get a bare chassis cleaned for galvanising? Surely you'd have full access to it's entirety and wire brushes and grinding flap discs should get it prepared? Any welding bits that crop up I can tackle between myself and a mate. Obviously I'd try buy the cleanest 2nd hand one to begin with which hopefully would need no welding. The difficult areas to access and prepare properly would be the inside of the chassis, but with it bare you'd get a good pressure washer in there. Would that not be adequate? Surely that would have it prepped enough for galvinising? Or would it need acid dipping for the inside part?

Maybe sand blasting would be a good alternative for the inside part of the chassis, access may be an issue here though.

Anyone know ball-park figures for acid dipping? And for galvinising?

Hard to know what's the best way to get 10 - 15 rust free trouble years out of one.

 

[Beastrider]

MisterCruiser - I agree with Towpack and Juddian. Plating processes depend on cleanliness to be effective. I would think getting a used chassis clean enough for any metallic plating process to be effective would be near impossible. Also since most chassis rust from the inside out, that is where you would need the preparation most.

But getting the chassis stripped of everything else.... body off, all drivetrain/engine off, suspension, steering, axles, fuel lines, brake lines, wiring looms etc.. ready for galvanising the chassis.....Sounds like a huge undertaking! Surely better to spend hard cash and buy the best vehicle you can. Just my view.

 

[uHu]

Havalook here: HDJ100 - Body off renovation, now with a hot dip galvanised frame *Picture Heavy* - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

Picture taken from the thread of Moridinbg om Mud.

 

[karl2000]

Can you get brand new 120 chassis ? imagine prices might be mental

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[MisterCruiser]

MisterCruiser - I agree with Towpack and Juddian. Plating processes depend on cleanliness to be effective. I would think getting a used chassis clean enough for any metallic plating process to be effective would be near impossible. Also since most chassis rust from the inside out, that is where you would need the preparation most.

But getting the chassis stripped of everything else.... body off, all drivetrain/engine off, suspension, steering, axles, fuel lines, brake lines, wiring looms etc.. ready for galvanising the chassis.....Sounds like a huge undertaking! Surely better to spend hard cash and buy the best vehicle you can. Just my view.

I agree to a certain extent. Say you buy the cleanest 120 you can find, the newest of them 2010 is still 11 yrs old. If keeping it for 10 yrs, it's going to be 20yrs old in my ownership. I think it's fair to say it is going to require welding of sills and chassis at various points within my ownership from 10yrs old to 20yrs old. And I mightn't even purchase a 2010, I could end up with a 2007/8 model which will be 13/14yrs old when I get it. From reading this forum, folk seem to ay the 120 is worse than the 90 series for rust.

What I am trying to determine is, would an initial galvanising of chassis and similar treatment of sills exempt me from the any welding repairs from then until it is 20yrs old, saving all the time and effort spent cleaning / welding / painting / rust-proofing every yr or every 2nd yr of my ownership. Would 1 big initial rust proof job (galvanising) when first purchased save loads of time / money in the long run?

 

[karl2000]

folk seem to ay the 120 is worse than the 90 series for rust.

Just don't buy one from Scotland

 

[MisterCruiser]

Havalook here: HDJ100 - Body off renovation, now with a hot dip galvanised frame *Picture Heavy* - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]
View attachment 177897
Picture taken from the thread of Moridinbg om Mud.

Thanks for posting that link. That's an amazing insight. After reading through that entire thread, I definitely have a feel for what I'd be undertaking. Fair play to that lad, but no way would I go that extent, that seems mental.

I love the idea the youtube lad had with using the chains and wire rope attached to the drill to clean the interior of the chassis, that's 1 of the main practical things I was wondering about. Great to see that technique.

I'd be sick if I was him though to have all them issues he has at the end of the whole project, oil dilution, steering off centre (What's the VGRS ((spelling)) system he mentioned as maybe being at fault?)

The way I'd go about it is I would buy a good 2nd hand chassis in advance and prep that for galvanising at my leisure and then it would save time as could just swap 1 out and fit the 1 I prepared earlier. However, I appreciate it will still be a time consuming project.

 

[Shayne]

Wish i had the tools or could find some who did to get Aquasteel in every place the Krown rust protection boys do .

 

[Jake the Peg]

I’m sure as part of the galvanising process it’s acid bathed, so really you’d only need to address the external rust removal / repairs. From another forum I’m on the cost to acid dip a body shell is around 1300gbp’s
I think it’d be a nice project to do but would it be economical to avoid future repairs, I’d guess the rebuild would become expensive with replacing bushes, brake pipes and fixings etc as you go along as I’m not sure you want to strip it again to do further repairs once you’ve built it.
It may be better to use a service like the Krown rust protection and accept there will be some smaller repairs in the future?

 

[Rob Cowell]

13 days start to finish - impressive

Can anyone see why trolley jacking the body up didn't work? Bit of a shame because I was hoping to do this next year once I have my new one and I have a bit of time to fix up the old one to keep going as a livestock moving farm car for a bit. I don't want to take the body right off but I'd like to lift it enough to properly sort out a few bits of welding which really are bodged without a few inches of clearance to get the torch in.

 

[Shayne]

Using little jacks with wobbly stilts trying to lift and balance the whole body

Loosen the body mounts and jack up one side or end at a time for your job Rob , they could have done the same with a couple of planks under the body adding a block at a time under it .

 

[uHu]

When I separated body from frame, I first took out the engine and gearbox, inside my small garage. Then rolled the car out, disconnected all body bolts and plugs, cables, pipes; then jacked up the body, one end at the time, in increments. Then built a support (wood) for the rear end, two vertical A-frames and a cross-beam through the wheel wells, high and wide enough for the frame to roll out backwards, on it's wheels, under the cross beam and between the A frames.

Tip for moving the car/chassis without an engine, especially when at a slight incline, is to buy 2 trailer hitches and mount them to each end of a piece of pipe. Then you have a draw bar to connect the rolling chassis to a working "tug car".

 

[Rob Cowell]

Well, I started to lift the body on mine. Not trying to take it off, just enough to get at the rotten bits of chassis. As usual it turns out there are more rotten bits that show up once you start to dig.

I knew the floor was starting to go, although not this badly.

Still, needed to lift the carpets to get at the tops of the body mount bolts. They all came off OK apart from the passenger side mounts in front of the rear wheels. I had to cut off one side, and hit the other a lot with a club hammer to drive the bolt up through the mount. With these bolts in place (but lose), jacking up the body was lifting the chassis too.

With the body starting to lift I can see some pretty impressive cracks on the top of the chassis where it joins the rear cross member. Not sure how clear this picture is but there's an approx 12 inch crack along the top of the chassis rail where the rail is formed by joining and welding two pieces.

The reason for wanting to jack up the body was to get at this bit on top of the driver's side rear shock mount.

Floor above one of the body mounts infront of the rear wheel also looking flimsy

Going to drop the fuel tank next because I know I need to weld one of the top arm brackets that is very close to that, and that will also detach the pipe that would usually run to an auxillary tank if fitted which is attached to the body and I think will snap if I lift the body any more.

Moving very slowly. I took the bumper off and rear carpets out 2 weeks ago and have done nothing since. Might have more of a prod at the weekend and see what other delights I can find. But tying back to this thread, loosen all the body mounts. Remove the bolts from the mounts in front of the rear wheels and you should be able to get a good few inches of lift on the back of the body at least. Can only think those guys trying to lift with multiple trolley jacks had the bolts left in the mounts and they jammed once the body tilted a little bit.

 

[chapel gate]

Sir, I do believe you have created yourself a job..