In this paper, an attempt was made to determine the load-bearing capacity of a bonded joint of galvanized steel elements with CFRP fabric. This issue is extremely relevant to the use of bonded carbon fiber fabric as a mean of reinforcing hot-dip galvanized steel structures. This technique is used in engineering practice for both hot-rolled and cold-formed steel elements. In order to obtain the necessary parameters for modelling bonded joints of galvanised steel thin-walled elements, laboratory tests were carried out. In the first stage, four specimens made of 50 mm diameter steel cylinders bonded to 16 mm thick hot-dip galvanised steel sheet of S350 GD were subjected to the pull-off test. In this connection the SikaWrap 230C composite fabric embedded in SikaDur 330 adhesive layer was investigated. In the second stage, the axial tensile test of the bonded butt joint using the same materials was performed. In this stage, 10 hot-dip galvanised steel sheet samples of S350 GD and 16 mm thickness were tested. The discussion on the failure mechanism in the context of the bonding capacity of the composite joint was carried out. Moreover the advanced numerical model using the commercial FE program ABAQUS/Standard and the coupled Cohesive Zone Model was developed. The significant influence of the preparation method of steel element surface and the thickness of the adhesive layer on the failure mechanism of the joint and the value of the maximum failure force was shown.