fbekholden.com

Besides the obvious, visible rust like bubbles in the doors, guards, outer sil, rear guard wheel wells.











Here are some very important places too look.

No-1 Upper subframe fixture spot to the Firewall (This is common for weathered cars and a big fix) Pull the engine, guards, subframe and weld both firewall and subframe and reassemble.

Steve Jackson wrote:




No-2 Plenum chamber drain well.







N0-3 Front lower Radiator Support / Swaybar Tube (This is a very common rust area and and easier fix than most rust repair tasks)

Steve Jackson wrote:

N0-4 Subframe under Battery Box (Very common rust spot)

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No-5 Boot beaver Plus floor meet










No-6 Spare Wheel scoop







No-7 Inner Sil (Much harder repair and a dirty spot)

Steve Jackson wrote:

Steve Jackson wrote:

No-8 Front Box section (where sils meet with lower Sub K Frame)

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No-9 Hiding under FB Chrome rear lower roof pilar







No-10 Roof strip in door jamb.







N0-11 Hat Rail - Front floor brace (Rear gearbox brace attached to)

Steve Jackson wrote:

N-12 Rear Parcel shelf (Covered with ripply vinyl)

Steve Jackson wrote:

I'll add some more soon.

Steve

The Horror, The Horror!!
Seeing this gives me nightmares and bring backs memories of my still incomplete build.
maybe a good topic would be "Where FB and EK Holdens dont rust/ Appreciate what metal you still have!"

Great Post Steve, Thanks..keep them coming..

That 2nd shot of the lower rad support and those last shots of the subframe under the battery.....are they before or after shots?

baker12 wrote:"Where FB and EK Holdens dont rust/ Appreciate what metal you still have!"

Agree baker12, save time and put a pic of a whole FB or EK, that would be a good spot to start looking .

Great Post Steve... Its good that you "photoshopped" FB's with rust and didnt just put EK's up.. Great way to try to keep the peace.... We all Know that FB's dont rust ...

This should be made a hot topic. Or what ever you call it...

I don't know where you got all these photos of my car Steve......

Great thread Steve. I think you covered it all and I could just about tick off every spot for Old Timer...

Stewart

Good stuff Steve.

Can someone offer some advice on No.8, Front Box section (where sils meet with lower Sub K Frame).

Some extra pics, advice...

Cheers, POPOK

Hi Popok

Can you be a bit more specific on the advice you need?

Have a look at pages 6 and 7 of my rebuild http://www.fbekholden.com/forum/viewtop ... f=11&t=576 for some good pics of repairing this section.

Stewart

I have just taken a tour of this post - my opinion = make it a "sticky"... ummmm....... a permanent topic in that section.

The underfloor area really needs addressing by anyone with one of these models - most will have a lot of damage, some will recoverable with a bit of effort and prevention.

GMH designers did provide drainage ports in the lower joins of the inner and outer sills - they also provided them in all the braces....
Our poorly trained/cheap labour immigrants were not enlightened as to the importance of leaving these open.... and many were spot welded closed.....
The braces, top hat sections and front sub-frame did have drainage ports - but the non-requirement to "proof" or even coat the internals of these amounted to them very quickly filling up with dirt - which became scale - which completely blocked and mother nature found ways of making the necessary changes......

The floor section ribbing with top-hat laterals was literally open to debris from the road... those poor liitle holes at the ends didn't stand a chance....

My suggestion - if asked, is to clean as much out as possible, open up the ports, spray fishoil into them with a dip-tube attached to the aerosol can. A "fan" nozzle can be fashioned out of a nylon plug - a hot needle will make the necessary holes to provide a "fan" around the end of it.... the aerosol simply pressurises and sends the fishoil out through the made holes... this is the best method I know of applying a fishoil coating to all internals......... other than removing and re-fitting...
Of course, anything new - should be coated in the same manner.... it is pointless/dangerous to apply the coating until all welding has been finished.

Finally, for now - seal out all those gaps/openings between the floor and any braces with butyl-mastic.
And - drill/make holes/ports at the lowest point of all for anything which does get in there to escape through.

And - PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE everyone - go to Clark Rubber and purchase some flat blanking neoprene plugs and fit them in the outrigger access holes immediately in front of the radiator baffle centre. These holes are for access to the outrigger bolts to the sub-frame and SHOULD be blanked for prevention of crud/dirt/water/fine gravel into your sub-frame....

frats,
Rosco

rosco wrote: A "fan" nozzle can be fashioned out of a nylon plug - a hot needle will make the necessary holes to provide a "fan" around the end of it.... the aerosol simply pressurises and sends the fishoil out through the made holes... this is the best method I know of applying a fishoil coating to all internals......... other than removing and re-fitting...

Thanks for the tips Rosco,

I've heard some guys use one of those pump-up garden sprayers with the hoses and micro sprinkler heads to get right into sills and rails etc.

Just attach a micro 360 degree sprinkler head to a length of spaghetti hose (the stiffer one, not the floppy sort) and attach the other end of the spaghetti hose to the hose on your sprayer. Drill an access hole - insert the spaghetti hose all the way in, then slowly pull it out, squirting the cavity wax / fish-oil as you go. Plug the hole when finished (unless you used a drain hole - cos that would be pretty dumb)

Yes, Alan... I use a number of lengths of thin clear tubing and fit a home made peripheral spaying "rose" into the end of it.
It has a slightly pointed end with a hole in the centre as well..... I push the tube in as far as it can go, press the button on the aerosol then very slowly withdraw the tube... it sprays a fan coating over all the internal walls on the way out.
I repeat this a number of times - and again in a few days.
I place empty food tins under all the drain holes to collect the excess.....
I prefer to use fishoil because it has a very slight acidic base - which at least neutralises the outermost of any scale within.... it cannot possible neutralise all of it if it is deep rust - but it will prevent any further water penetrating the outer urethane residue....
By closing all the entrance gaps with sealant - and I prefer butyl-mastic because it stays almost permanently flexible - I believe I have achieved the best possible practice of keeping issues out of my subframe, sub-floor and sills.......
I have gone further to coat the entire underfloor and toe-board sections with a number of coats of the POR system - including tie-coat then top-coat.....
I am very much hoping my grand-children and their children will enjoy my efforts in keeping this old bus mothballed.....

I have used a cavity wax before - yes, certainly a vast improvement over that black bitumen (do NOT use that stuff on bare metal until it is adequately primed, sealed and cured - in fact, I have a very strong hatred for it entirely) - but I found the cavity wax only works on absolutely perfect steel..... it has absolutely no acidic effect to halt surface rust. I'm also not convinced it will displace any moisture and cure to form a solid base if the surface is damp, cool or or the treatment is applied in humid conditions.....

A lot of people will not drill into the lowest sections of their vehicles due to the possibility of water entering... but I can very much assure you - it is probably already there - or has been...... providing drainage ports/holes/gaps at the very bottom (and to the rear if possible) of such components will ensure that any build up will drain out....... how many times I listened to water slushing around somewhere under my car after washing it..... only to find it was inside the sills....... it hasn't done this for some 30 years now.... once I found out where it was... and the gunk that came out when I drilled the first hole... and later found the spot welded up factory ports...... all four at the bottom of each sill are now fully open to free air...... the sills have numerous coatings of fishoilene...... and the gaps between the floor and top hat braces are all now well sealed up........

I had a number of small issues when I removed the trim from around the rear window... fortunately, there was minimal damage which did not require any mig welding...... but I ensured those mounting clips and plates now do not make any metal to metal contact.....

The front headlamp eyebrows - I was warned about in 1972.... I did find a lot of dried crud in there - but as the vehicle was only 11 years old, and had lived almost all of its life in a garage - weekend outings only - there was little damage.... suffice it to say that my front guards got the full killrust treatment - after using the best neutralising product at the time (RS-1, made by Spartan Paints)..... there is so much paint in those cavities.... I could take away the metal and the covers would still be 1/4" thick.........

Enough for now....

next player...

frats,
Rosco

Is it possible to reinstate the missing photos from the original post?