<VV> 66 rockers galvanized?

[Dale Dewald]

Hello Bryan,

The boxed rocker panel sections of the LM cars are made from hot-dipped 
galvanized steel.  In this process, the bare steel sheet comes off a large 
roll through a pickling vat, where it is chemically cleaned, then runs 
through a vat of molten zinc (at about 860F). It is then cooled and finally 
re-coiled in preparation for shipping to the stamping plant.  The molten 
zinc does not simply form a coating on the steel, but chemically bonds to 
it, forming a gradient layer of Fe-Zn intermetallic compounds at the 
interface with a layer of zinc on top.  These intermetallic compounds 
provide almost as much corrosion protection as the zinc metal on the 
surface and are rather difficult to remove without a lot of 
grinding/sanding or heavy acid etching.  Simple fine sanding of the rocker 
panels in preparation for paint will not likely remove all of the zinc or 
the intermetallic compounds, so just go ahead with your normal prep 
work.  Make sure, however, to follow the instructions for your primer for 
proper surface prep to coat galvanized metal.

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI

At 15:33 2/02/2012 -0500, Bryan Blackwell wrote:

>Thanks Dave for the confirmation.
>
>So, anyone think I should make a big effort to save the coating on the 
>outside before paint?
>
>--Bryan
>
>On Feb 2, 2012, at 12:07 PM, Dave Keillor wrote:
>
> > The rockers on both my '65 coupe and '66 convertible are galvanized on
> > the inside, so I assume they're also galvanized on the exterior, but I'm
> > not going to remove the paint to find out. <ggg>  Both are Willow Run
> > cars.
> >
> > Dave Keillor