As I said I think the majority of good practises have been covered at some point in the forum but I'll be happy to offer my opinions, maybe it'll help.
What is the best way to;
On the outside of the chassis -
Remove rust.
- Mechanically should always be your best bet obviously. Ideally you could use a pneumatic chipper to remove the flakes and bubbles before sandblasting (you can get a half decent portable blaster for less than £50 these days). Otherwise it's sweat and a wire brush!
Treat rust
- Anything that contains Phosphoric Acid, avoid ones that contain Tannic Acids they're too gentle. Phosphoric Acids get deep and converts the rust into Iron Phosphate.
Prevent it coming back (paint, corrosion prevention coatings).
- Regular work unfortunately. Even with the tens of thousands we spend on rust prevention and a deck crew of 8, they're still doing rust work on a daily basis.
My ideal way to treat a chassis (short of stripping your car and getting it galvanised) would be this;
- Give it a thorough clean
- Sand blast/chip/wire brush the whole thing
- A thorough coating of a Phosphoric Acid based rust converter. (Ospho is fantastic stuff if you can find it)
- Leave for 24 hours and brush off
- Second coating of rust converter
- Leave for 24 hours and brush
- Either. Paint with an oil based paint or a gloopy inhibitor like Lanoguard or Waxoyl
Also the same for the inside of the chassis. Obviously this has to be more considered as we can't get to the rust to physically remove it. I am just doing some repairs to my outriggers and then I need to address the inside of my chassis so would welcome your suggestions.
- I've considered making a sand blaster/vacuum setup to create an internal sandstorm inside the chassis. If I ever pull my finger out and make it ill post it on here (or maybe patent it..... Haha)
- The Ospho stuff I mentioned before has the viscosity of water so you could spray into the inside of the chassis and it'll work wonders, really does stop the creep of rust. I've heard people say to not use it alongside rust inhibitors like Lanoguard but I genuinely can't see why not.
I have put Lanoguard on the outside of my chassis and it is stated it is used in marine environments so it will be good to know if that is true (I mean lanolin based products rather than just Lanoguard branded ones). Also, if it is used, do you have any recommendations for a brand and how best to use/apply it?
- They might use it on small craft but not larger vessels.
- The stuff does look good though, from what I've seen, and I'm planning on using it myself.
Another great product to use, other than Ospho rust converter, is Tef Gel. It takes the place of copper pastes and the like and is used on fittings. It's a Teflon based paste the consistency of marmite and I use it on everything! It's particularly good for galvanic corrosion which occurs all over the land rover world. Seems expensive but it'll last ages.
Anyway, hope that helps somewhat.
I'm away on my stag do now so I'll probably end up needing to sell the Defender by the end of the weekend to pay my stripper debts
