I can think of several reasons why you do not see "galvanized" frames on cars. Galvanizing is essentially using a tank of molten zinc large enough to immerse the part you want to coat. The heat can distort large metal sections. As mentioned it coats threads (both internal and external like studs), It adds weight, it is expensive and it doesn't get into some areas well like deep recesses and when it does it doesn't drain out well. There are not a lot of places that have tanks large enough to accomodate something as large as a car frame. It is not an inherently high speed process for large parts what with heat-up and cool down into what is really a batch process. Most automakers have gone to an e-coat process which is a paint process that you dip the parts in and use electricity like plating. The other way auto manufactuers use galvanizing is to use metal already coated with zinc but you cannot weld to it without ruining the zinc and the fumes are dangerous so it is used for panels that don't need welding. The main problem with the epoxy on the Delorean is that as it ages it gets brittle (epoxy is already pretty brittle to begin with) and cracks. The designers didn't worry about the cars lasting forever, the epoxy lasted long enough. Look at other 20 year old cars that were bare underneath and you will see whole areas missing from "rustworm". Considering what they did when the cars were built not too many from that era even had paint on the frames! I remember passing auto assembly plants and they stored the frames to be used outside till they needed them and they were rusty before they even assembled the cars! Today they throw a cheap black paint on them so they don't look horrible when you buy the car. Take a look under a car 1-2 years old and you will see rust starting to pop out around holes and at the edges, how long do you think these cars will last? In 10 years there will be rust everywhere. If you want a car that will last forever it may cost a lot more! The moral here is if you want the car to last you must flush the underbody to remove salt and road debris, inspect often for rust and promptly repair any damage to the epoxy paint. If the car was neglected the rust problem will be more severe especially if the car was driven in the snow belt. If I was to assemble a car today powder coating is the way to go. David Teitelbaum vin 10757 --- In dmcnews@xxxx, Martin Gutkowski <webmaster@xxxx> wrote: > Someone asked Mike Loasby this at Eurofest. The reason is that with all the > tapped holes in the chassis, it's much easier to plug them with plastic > plugs