Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc F
I saw it at Stoneleigh and it looked a very pleasing shape.
However (and as if I know anything) I wonder about the wisdom of selling a kit that makes use of the Spit main body tub. I traded up to my Miglia to avoid all the rust problems, and it is the sills etc that are the problem area.
So genuinely curious. I know it will make it seem an easier build, but it seems to be building in a lot of future rust.
Will be interested to hear what others think.
Regards
Marc
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Wouldn't the usual "precautions" proscribed for chassis-building address any worries over "further rusting?" Fertan, Rustoleum Rust Reformer and several other non-phosphoric acid based converters are readily available, giving a conversion to an iron tannate surface which can (read: must) be coated with an Alkythane-type paint and zinc chromate primer before final painting. Once primed and painted, an iron tannate surface will, of course, rust, but the passage of an hundred years or so will be required for it to do so, and by then - at age 125 to 150 or so - very few kit car builders will care.
Of course, if one begins with a rusted chassis and does nothing but bolt on a different body, the choice of one chassis over another might be a consideration, but I doubt that many self-builders would do this... it takes away all the fun of wire-brushing, bead-blasting, surface-treating, sealing, priming and painting a chassis, thus reducing the time spent in the garage by several hundred hours - time which one will, no doubt, need spend with one's Wife instead. Here in America, we'd call this a "no-brainer." Another coat of primer on the chassis, or sitting in the parlour listening to complaints about one's sister-in-law's husband's employer's dog's habits. You lads just sit here and listen - I'll be in the garage with a couple of Shepherd Neame’s double stouts.
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