Re-Zinc-electroplating body parts?

[V951S]

The lower sills on the front-fenders are rotted out on both sides. I am going to purchase used front fenders, and will have them media-blasted down to bare-metal.

I can get parts zinc-electroplated for very cheap ($30 for <150lbs). So, I'm considering getting the front-fenders re-plated in white-zinc before primer and paint.

Is there anything that you folks know of that would make this impossible, or unfeasible, or unnecessary?

[Tom]

I'd be worried that you are stripping away a lot of really good protection. See Porsche's description of what they do from a 1984 brochure below. I'm also not convinced regular zinc electroplating -- like on nuts and bolts -- is as good as galvanizing for rust protection. I've had a lot of fasteners zinc plated with yellow dichromate to match the factory look, and the plating doesn't seem to last that long, even in sunny California. I'm no expert on rust protection by any stretch, so consider the source, but my gut says you'd be better off preserving the factory protection and trying to enhance/seal it further with something like POR 15 or one of the ten thousand rust prevention products that Eastwood sells.

hot-dip.jpg (192.51 KiB) Viewed 385 times

[V951S]

I thought they zinc electroplated it, but I see they hot-dip-galvanized - much stronger.

So do you think repainting it over the existing guards-red is a better option?

When I'm done restoring, it will (almost?) never see rain, much less the salt that owner #3 drove it in (and put it away wet).

Update: just did some research and it seems like keeping the factory protection is the best option.

[Tom]

I thought they zinc electroplated it, but I see they hot-dip-galvanized - much stronger.

So do you think repainting it over the existing guards-red is a better option?

When I'm done restoring, it will (almost?) never see rain, much less the salt that owner #3 drove it in (and put it away wet).

Update: just did some research and it seems like keeping the factory protection is the best option.

Yeah, on the shiny side I think a quality paint job maintained properly (kept cleaned and waxed, chips sealed, etc) is good enough for just about environment. You can strip the original paint down to the primer, just don't keep going and strip away the factory protection. It's actually a chore to get the factory protection off -- I've done that for welding and it takes a lot more effort (blasting time/intensity) than just stripping paint.

It's the underside where you might want to get more creative. That's where you are more vulnerable to rust. Debris, moisture, lack of finish/mainenance, nooks and crannies all contribute. Eastwood has endless rust prevention products worth checking out. I used POR15 on a few similar areas of my old 450SL and am pretty impressed with it. Almost like ceramic. I also used a rust encapsulator combined with an undercoating spray on a few already-rusted portions of the underside on that car, and no signs of the rust retuning after 10 years or so (admittedly here in sunny California).

https://www.eastwood.com/rust-solutions/prevention.html

[V951S]

What are the various ways to strip paint down to the primer that you have experience with? Ideally that's what I'd like to do.

[Tom]

What are the various ways to strip paint down to the primer that you have experience with? Ideally that's what I'd like to do.

Hopefully there are some experienced body shop people here. My experience is limited when it comes to body work, but the few times I needed to strip down factory paint, I just sanded it off with a DA Sander. I'm sure there are more efficient ways, but with the sander you can stop once you get to exactly where you want. Chemical stripping and sand blasting risk going further than you want for the weekend warrior (i.e., me).