Monday, August 11, 2008

Acid woes

This was a rectification that I'd wanted to perform for some time but never got down to doing. I was just too darn lazy... It all started from my previous battery springing a leak at one of the caps and the hot acid splashed everywhere causing paint to peel and in time, a thick layer of rust developed.

So last week, I'd arrived early at Tommy's shop (he hadn't arrived yet), parked my car there and walked over to have a chat with Chris. Upon Tommy's arrival, we got down to work, stripping off the battery and its holder (which was also rusted).

As you can see, the acid had worked its way into the integral structure of my car and rust was just everywhere!
The battery's mounting plate was properly rusted.
Thoroughly!
So we got to sanding off the rust with 200 grade abrasive cloth on the more severe areas and 600 grade on the less affected areas. We finished off the polishing with 800 grade abrasive paper and washed it clean of whatever oils or chemicals in preparation for painting.

Here's Tommy helping to paint up the mounting plate whilst I painted my car's structure.

Front and rear neatly done and lookin' shiny in the afternoon sun :P

The structure after paint, but sadly, the rust has worn into the surface at some areas. Seen here at the left of the picture (rough looking surface).

Somehow, it just didn't feel complete and I had a nagging urge as if something was missing... Something was not done... I looked around and couldn't satisfy my curiosity.

So I gave Kiong of Kiong Lee Exhaust a call to see if I could borrow one of his hydraulic jacks to check the undercarriage. I eventually found some of the acid actually got to the bottom end and had "aided" the development of slight rusting. This was quickly dealt with an 800 grade abrasive pad and painted over to a gleaming finish :)

6 comments:

Richard Khoo said...

ooiii....
use MF battery lar.. hehe

ScAvEnGeR said...

Haiya... MF also got acid la bro.

Only dry cells are free from the corrosive fluid. As such, the price for one is exorbitant.

Bit I've an MF waiting to be installed, but I'll still be using this until it either runs outta juice or it explodes...

I'll remember to wash off the acid this time :P

Richard Khoo said...

use boiling water? hehe
i remember last time when i was small, my daddy always use boil water to flush away the white powder, and he told me it's the battery acid.. hehe

ScAvEnGeR said...

Good suggestion Rich, I'll keep that in mind.

kev said...

lol, broke u vow, haha, its ok, as long as u dont get any damages :P . unfortunately i wanted to go touge, but taugeh hero's friend met in a car accident. even wanna go clubbing, friend broke a leg, lol. im safe at home. hahaha

kev said...

btw my solution to no touge, is virtual touge, check out my page, lol