My 97 Disco's battery tray area was in poor condition. The enamel had wore away exposing the metal which eventually rusted.

I cleaned the area with degreaser, sanded it by hand, applied rust remover, sanded it by hand again, detailed with rotary tool, cleaned again, and finally applied VHT chassis paint.

Enjoy

 

Looking good. Only thing I would add is that when working with battery damaged areas, you can use a mix of water and baking soda to make any acid remaining inert.

 

While it is open and empty, wrap those wires with either some good friction tape or some type of protective overwrap to minimize the chance of wire damage.

 

That plastic spiral wire wrap would work good in that area. Home Depot electrical aisle or auto parts store. Can be spiral or corrugated.

 

I suggest home depot. Its a lot cheaper and you get more per buck.

 

Yeah I was thinking those wires probably didn't come like that. Good tips.

 

The split plastic offers some protection (better than nothing) but allows stuff to still get to the wires (liquids, heat,etc). On a couple of the missile programs I worked on, we had something I had never seen before. It was called centerline tape (due to a stripe down the center). This material had no adhesive, it bonded to itself thru a self-vulcanizing property based upon molecular migration. Within moments of coming into contact with itself, it would not come loose. In a short time frame, the layers no longer were individual layers but became a solid mass. We used it in high heat environments like the tailcone area of the MX Missile.

I have since seen it more commonly available. It provides excellent protection for heat, abrasion, and provides excellent electrical insulating properties. Any of you military techs seen any around? It would be great to find that at a military surplus sale or any commercial distribution source.

Are any of you guys familar with it?

 

You can get the corrugated plastic sleeve with just a razor split down one side, does not let in as much as the spiral wrap. But you have a lot more connectors that will cause problems with water / salt issues before these wires. Might want to look at dielectric grease as well.