[pboglio]

It's about $700-$800 for a new sub-frame but I'm probably not going to spend that kinda coin at this point.

Going to buy a kiddie pool 45" dia. x 8" high ($18 from Ace Hardware). Car recharger 10amp ($59 from Harbor Freight) & some steel plates and wire. Some sodium carbonate (washing soda) ($15-$30). The subframe is about 40" x 30" and will fit perfectly inside the pool fully submerged. For ~$100 I'll have an electrolysis tank setup. This is basically what RediStrip do but with commercial equipment. Compared to building/designing my own vapor hone blaster this'll be simple. Little bit tricky with the hydrogen/oxygen off gassing but otherwise straight forward.

This is the setup I'm going to build:

 

[chidog]

And that should clean inside the hidden areas, just make sure to get all oils and grease removed first.

 

[pboglio]

Yep, going to get scrubbed internally using a long stainless bristle rifle brush to remove the loose paint flakes, loose rust, grease, etc. The power washing would be a good idea before hand as well. The subframe is designed with open-ends and drainage holes so there is some access. Was talking with my lab chemist at work about a few strategies and he set me up with a simple bowel filter cartridge and diaphragm pump to help filter out the loose iron oxide in a parallel filtration configuration. Typically you can precipitate out the dissolved iron using oxygen injection prior to an ion exchange water softening resin and that is an option later-on that I might try but this should suffice for now. Might also try (2) battery chargers in parallel to boost the number of ions in the bath. This is kind of a tricky problem with body panels and subframes because if you don't do this correctly the rust just comes back and rots thru again. But generally the applications are endless such as brake rotors, calipers, bolts, body panels, subframes, steering kuckles, control arms, etc. Going to try this out and see how it works as it's a very eco-friendly method that eliminates harmful chemicals.

 

[pboglio]

Nice video of a Porsche 918 repair. Cost of car and parts was $18,500 + $4,265 parts without labor. Now figure they still have to paint it so add another $5-$7k or so if they do it themselves going to be cheaper. Not a bad deal. You'll note they purchased exclusively Porsche OEM body panels and replacement parts and the prices were actually reasonable. Probably the only area they could have improved is in the robotic brazing of the replacement roof along the lateral seams, not sure if they could have done that by hand or how the body shops manage that. Otherwise leaps better than those RS guys doing the Juke build.

 

[Bargeld]

Hilarious, I just watched that video this morning!

 

[chidog]

With that pool I wonder if you could plate that frame? That would help keep rust at bay. And yes then paint over the plating.

 

[Macgyver]

Just Hot glue all the openings shut.

 

[pboglio]

With that pool I wonder if you could plate that frame? That would help keep rust at bay. And yes then paint over the plating.

You are (1) step ahead of me....lol. Plating bath was going to come later for smaller parts/brackets and that definitely is in the works with a smaller tank. The subframe I'd have to see as it's a big tricky part covered in paint but for now I'm planning on using a zinc coating and phosphate wash that sorta does the same function but obviously not as good as a zinc plating.

Hilarious, I just watched that video this morning!

Yeah, the video was a definitely a riot.

 

[pboglio]

And here is my initial setup. I had to go out and purchase a 59" diameter Kiddie pool from Ace Hardware since the smaller 45" pool was just too small. They have (3) types of 59" pools which have varying wall thickness but this was the cheapest. The picture confirms it'll easily accept the subframe and could also handle a driver/passenger door, front fender, rear hatch, hood, swaybar, etc. Little bit tricky getting it home on top of the EVO but I managed it. Total cost was $31 w/tax. Battery charger from Harbor freight was $64 w/tax and has 10 amp capacity and importantly it's a manual charger sort of, have to see if it'll cause issues as there are still some automatic charging functions. Filter & diaphragm pump were free. Just need to buy some 12ga wire, hardware, & some flat steel plates from Home depot for the anodes.

Should be setup next weekend and I'll show the results aftewards.

 

[Macgyver]

Remember when you are done with the kiddie pool. Free fender flares. LOL

I am curious how the HF Charger will work.

 

[pboglio]

Well I thought I've seen it all. So this is my solution for my 18x10" setup, I'll be the talk of the Auto-x crowd.😂

 

[Mysftail]

Wouldn't be the same guy that hot glued his GPS to the dash, would it? 😁

 

[Macgyver]

LOLOL

 

[Storm Trooper]

Gene - Little late to reply but I dont think that charger is going to work for what you are looking to do. They are absolute garbage. I have about 5 of them around the shop. They dont work unless they see voltage. If you try to plug them in to a completely dead battery, they wont start charging. Going to say the battery has to have at least 6 volts in it still for it to activate the charge. Since you arent going to be using it to charge a battery and not connecting it to anything with voltage, I doubt its going to work.

 

[pboglio]

Makes sense. The best chargers are the old school manual chargers, even the cheap e-bay chargers. This was all Harbor Freight had in stock but I can return it and order one on Amazon. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Macgyver]

What about hooking up a battery somehow so it sees voltage and the charger charges it?

 

[pboglio]

Possibly. However I need the full 10 amps diverted to the tank and not charging a battery. That means a voltage signal across the terminals but also current flow into the cathode/anode leads. Talking with a EE at work to see if it can be done with this charger.

But a battery might work if hooked up correctly

 

[Storm Trooper]

He would somehow have to come up with a way that limits how many amps it's putting out. The battery will put out way more amps than the charger can (think cold cranking amps rating). Like he said, an old school charger would be best as they put out whatever you set it to no matter what.

Edit - he beat me to it haha

 

[Macgyver]

What about a trickle charger ?

 

[Macgyver]

But yeah an old school charger. We used them to charge our over head crane scale marine batteries. They would run so far down that regular chargers would not work.