Rusty Wishbones

[Mikey]

The wishbones and other suspension components have over the last year started to bubble with rust.

Before I attack this with Hammerite over the winter months is there any preferred solution.

I assume replacement is obviously an option but would like to avoid this.

Mike

[JamesD]

Mickey

Replacement wishbones are expensive, you could get a really good finish in 1 of 2 ways

1) Remove wishbones, rub down to bare metal, apply ku-rust or similar/ oxy primer and paint over.

2) Rub down to bare metal and then get them powder coated (not as expensive as you might think).

I would tend to go for the powder coating as the finish is tougher in the long run, painting however is the cheaper option.

Regards,

JD

[Mike H]

Yep repowder coat if you can get the old off. If you can get your local powder coater to tag them on to the end of a batch 500 hanging basket brackets you might get them done for a tenner. Cheaper than paint.

The only problem is getting the old stuff off - how do you do that?

Mike

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

find your local metal re-finishers, bung him a tenner and Get them Sandblasted he will probably get them powder coated for you also  

[Fastboy]

I had some Sportsbike Wheels powder coated. You can get the old stuff off with liberal dosings of Nitromors Paint Stripper from your local DIY chain.  

Leave it 10 mins and it bubbles up nicely ready tp peel off.

[Blatman]

ALL the powder coaters I have been to have had blasting cabinets, so I'd let them do it. If you prepare it yourself, and the powder coated finish isn't to your satisfaction, they'll blame the surface prep............

Me, I'd send 'em to the boys at Cat Motorsport. They'll see you right.............

[DickieB]

I'd second Cat Motorsport. They did all my wishbones, trailing arms etc last winter. Top job, even the threads were cleaned out.

They can also remove and insert bushes for you if needed.

Dickie B

[furtive]

Oooh interesting. That would mean posting the bushes back to them though  

Any idea roughly how much they charge? My wishbones currently have the following in varying amounts:

powdercoat (not much)

rust

hammerite

mud

So would require a #### good clean

[racing22]

Powder coating is the way to go but have you considered the following:

Powder coating involves extreme heat, blasting or nitromorse paint stripper are not compatible with rubber, so you must consider the rubber bushes.   - good luck!

[Mark Stanton]

so you must consider the rubber bushes

If you're gonna get the stuff repowdered - then get it blasted and re-new the bushes anyway - thats the main thing to consider about bushes - change em    

[hilux]

Sand blast `em (cheap) and get `em primed by the sandblaster (do not leave bare metal around for any lenght of time) or wait and take em home straight away.

Paint em (or get em painted) with hammerite no 1 primer and brush on hammerite `smoothrite`

When still tacky use a small can of hammerite `smoothrite` spray to blow over.

This smooths out brush marks buts get a decent coating (cheaper too) than spray cans will.

You dont need to remove bushes either (although a great opportunity to repace with poly bushes anyway IMHO)

Done properly it is indistuinguishable from powder coating and will polish up just the same

You get a range of colours too.

Try it on your track rods/steering, rear drive shafts etc (can be done on car if required with a judicious bit of masking.

This will last for years as I can testify having owned and rebuilt classic cars.

Alternative is powder coating

[jonlewis]

I was at CAT's place yesterday and I must say the quality of their work was excellent.

[Bryan C]

I had my front wishbones and wing / headlamp brackets done earlier this year after nearly 5 years of all weather motoring and they were pretty flaky !

I took them to a local powder coaters who used a supplier to shot blast to bear metal and they were zinc coated before powder coating in gloss black. Zinc was recommended for durability but it is expensive ( surely not too expensive on our pampered vehicles!!!! )

The cost was £75.00p.

While off, the steering arms and ball joints were finished with black plastikote spray.

I did not remove the standard bushes before treating, taking teh advice of my motorcycle builder/restorer friend next door but I did cut short lengths of garden cane which were wedged into the bushes as the powder build-up could cause the long bolts to jam - you want a nice easy fit with lots of copper-grease when you put them back.

One more tip is to use a proper ball-joint splitter. I kna**ered a couple of rubbers which I replaced using Land Rover spares who sell them separately. Ford will gladly sell you a new ball joints which was slightly OTT.

Regards

Bryan C

Westie SeI CVH