hot zinc spraying

[melmelody]

hi all ,

just sent my bus to the shot blasters to get the seams and a few other bits of the body work cleaned up before they get too bad and the owner of the firm asked me if i wanted the seams hot zinc sprayed . he reckons a lot of bulli owners over here in germany have it done as it stops the rust from coming back. i said yes because its only a couple of hundred euros extra and if it works then it'll be money well spent. i was wondering if anyone has done this to their bus and what the results were. if no one has any experience of this i'll post at a later point and let you know how it goes and if it works cheers mel.

[garyd]

Hi,
I've experience of using this technique on buses but I have had it done on steelwork in the past. (Bull bar and wheel carrier for a Land Rover amongst other things.)

I was advised that it is a better technique than galvanising since it adheres/bonds better to the steel. If you damage galvanising the rust can grow under the zinc coating and lift it off the steel.

I have got to do my seams this spring so perhaps I should try to find a zinc sprayer around here.

Garyd

[Oldiebut goodie]

Why would it be any better? Why do you think that a sprayed zinc coating would not suffer the same effect?
Galvanizing is carried out by dipping the article in molten zinc - giving a heavier coating than spraying. If you damage either coating you run the same risk of moisture getting underneath the coating. Galvanizing by your local works would be much cheaper also. (provided the item will fit in the tank)

[kevtherev]

I agree..
Zinc plating (if it were poss) would be better as the prep would remove all rust where ever it was
zinc spray is just covering up the rust

[melmelody]

hi again,

not covering up the rust as its all getting removed by the shot blasters before it gets hot zinc sprayed. the owner of this firm does lots of buses t1s bays and t25s and he reckons that it will stop it returning i can only take the guy at his wordbut he seems a decent bloke and he had a splittie and 2 porsche 356 speedsters and an old maserati in his place the other day so i think he does lots of older cars and knows his stuff.as i said in my last post only time will tell and i'll let you all know the results in time. if it turns out to be an effective way to prolong the life of these vehicles then maybe it will be a good technique for other members to use .i'l keep you all informed how it goes . fingers crossed eh?
cheers, mel.

[CovKid]

Seems a wise move. Anything to slow down having to do it all again

[melmelody]

hi covkid,
yes thats what i'm thinking.the owner of the firm asked me if i wanted it done and to be honest i'd never heard of hot zinc spraying but he explained it to me and for the extra cost (250 to 300 euros) i thought wel it has to worth a go especially if it will slow down or stop the rust coming back and he says that it will.although saying that hes a business man and hes out to make money. as i said only time will tell.

[boatbuilder]

I've never heard of it either, although it sounds good. How do you paint on top of it? As far as I know, paint doesn't stick well to zinc coatings.

[Oldiebut goodie]

I presume that you would have to let it weather first as with normal galvanizing.

[melmelody]

hi all,
not exactly sure about how the paint will adere to it as i had never heard of it before, although i did see a bus a couple of weeks ago that had been shotblasted along the seams and the owner said to me that all the seams had been zinc coated so i assume its something like the one i saw and that just looked like a dull grey primer although you could see it had a metallic finish to it. i'm off down the shot blasters later to finish the prep work (fit metal templates into all the apertures from behind if you know what i mean, to keep all tha dust and grit out of the van) and then hopefully they will do the work tommorrow and it'll go to the painters fri or sat so i'll let you all know once i get a chance to have a good look at it. know what you mean about painting galv. though but this seemed too have a completey different look to it. i'll try and get photos up

mel.

[colinthefox]

I did a fabricated steel lighting thing for the courtyard of the Theatre Royal Plymouth 25 plus years ago. Had it blasted and hot zinc sprayed. Not a spot of rust yet. Rougher surface takes paint well too.

[melmelody]

oooh that sounds encouraging.tried to upload photos tonight but made a balls up on photobucket and ended up getting locked out of hotmail too so got to wait 24 hours before i can try again
i'll try again tomorrow and see how i get on.

mel.

[boatbuilder]

I suppose if there were any adhesion issues (and maybe there aren't any), an etch primer would grip on it.

[melmelody]

Hi all,

Here are the photo's before and after so far

http://s1120.photobucket.com/albums/l483/melmelody908/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jebiga41]

Why would it be any better? Why do you think that a sprayed zinc coating would not suffer the same effect?
Galvanizing is carried out by dipping the article in molten zinc - giving a heavier coating than spraying. If you damage either coating you run the same risk of moisture getting underneath the coating. Galvanizing by your local works would be much cheaper also. (provided the item will fit in the tank)

A very good article on the hot dip vs spraying here http://www.avantguardscoatings.com/avantGalvTSZ2007.ppt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;