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Rust Proofing fing Engine bay

Adrianlle

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Once the warmer weather is back again I plan to try to improve the corrosion resistance underneath by treating with Rust Converter and then covering. Juddian on here has waxed lyrical about Bildt Hammer, so thinking of that. In the meantime would like to have a go at the Engine bay before I put the Old Girl in for a full service. What do people recommend for the Engine bay.? There is surface rust on the chassis members to convert and then topcoat; there is a bit of surface rust under bonnet etc on the silver paint; there is rust on the pipes to lintercooler etc. Rust on wishbones etc. I imagine all this is pretty common, so wondering what people have done/ used to rustproof and generally smarten up this area. I’m keen to do this before she goes in to Toyo for a service because, perhaps naively, I think the more looked after she looks the more care they might take!!
 
For treating rust where it can't be removed down to bare metal I've been using Aquasteel for a while now and find it as good as anything. It converts the rust to the usual black whateveritis compound and dries to a hard resin type coating. I'd say it's more suited to chassis and anywhere other than body panels as obtaining a good topcoat fish would be difficult. Apparently it can be left without a topcoat but I usually give it a coat of motorcycle chain lube as an extra barrier. Cheap and durable.
 
+1 there Towpack. Used it on several motors, over the years, and on my 120 now, with no problems. Lots of preliminary work to prepare, power wash, degreasing, cleaning off loose or flakey rust. Overcoated with black spray stonechip and spray on underseal. Have got waxoyl to do inside chassis etc.
If the aquasteel is good enough for North Sea oil rigs, it's good enough for me, but each to their own.
Adrian, how did you get on with your rusty rear axle ?
 
Thanks for the Aquaseal info - sounds good. Thinking I will try that and coat over it with black smooth Hammerite. As for the rusty trailing arm supports, booked into local welders for axle drop and fabrication and welding. Prob another week or so before it’s my turn there. About £700 for 2 days work which isn’t too bad. What shocked me however was quote I got from another place. Went there for a quote for rustproofing. They contract out any welding required to a local Land Rover place. The quote for the fabrication and welding of the brackets alone was 5 days work- £3600 plus materials with caveat that the labour might be more than quoted! So I hastily booked it in to the local welders who have a good reputation. Will report back once the work has been done.
 

I bought some of this but never got around to trying the jet laq sealer because while the alubright is good for cleaning it falls a long way short of the polished finish i hope to achieve someday when i get around to it .
 
+1 on the Aquasteel/ Motorcycle chain lube approach, not pretty but effective. My 120 was the best I found and 12 cans later is still the same.
 
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How good a job in rust preventing and rust removing is how much time and effort you put into doing the prep work , it took me 5 full days to do my 120 and it wasn't that bad rust wise , but it is all the wire brushing with a hand brush and drill wire brush as well as a grinder wire wheel , to get into all the nooks and crannies takes a lot of time and effort , then apply rust killer and paint with black hammerite type paint then finish off with waxoyle to keep the whole lot waterproof , but you get a massive satisfaction feeling when its all done , because to pay someone to do the job for you to that stranded costs many thousands of pounds in labour charges , you can take it to a garage/paint sprayers and get it done for a thousand pounds or less and it will look great but in 18 months time it will get even worse than it was before , because time is money the garage painters at a grand would not have done a proper job that you can do using your own time , if you are doing the engine only just now pay attention to the inner wings where the wheel arches are , do the wheel arches above the wheels above the shocks/struts also , also take the batteries out and the plastic battery trays and do that area even if they are not rusty you can give them a coat of waxoyle or hammerite paint in the same colour as your paint work thats what I did and did the same with the inner arches under and over , do the chassis rails after giving them a good wire brushing , take off your bash plates to make sure you can do under the chassis rails and crossmembers , I did the wishbones anti roll bars and bash plates aswell to make it all look like new and the end results are great , wear goggles when doing under the car to stop flaky bits and paint/ waxoyle getting in your eyes ,
 
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Motorcycle chain lube is a new one for me. Is this a spray or brush on and what’s the best value way to buy it ? Assuming it’s ok too for things like the axle, wishbones etc? Assume Aquaseal is a brush on and I’d need wax oil or bildt hammer sprayinside the chassis members?
 
The quote for rustproofing by a dinitrol specialist is about £1k inc vat. Wouldn’t begrudge that if it was a once for all but begin to think a better long term approach would be to do the Engine bay fairly soon and then the underside as a project once the warmer weather comes. Will save a lot of money and as you say will mean I will know what’s been done and give a lot of satisfaction once the aches and pains of doing the job have worn off. Also enables a really thorough inspection of the underside. So that’s the plan. Once I’ve started on the Engine bay suspect I’ll be back with more questions about this and that but in meantime Thanks for all the input as ever.
 
The chain lube comes in aerosol tins. There's many to chose from but they nearly all leave a protective waterproof coating that doesn't set hard, so won't flake off and sticks like the proverbial! It's formulated to stick to and protect motorcycle chains rotating at high speed and doesn't wash off easily, perfect for protecting chassis and axles. The Aquasteel comes in brush on. Not sure if it can be thinned and sprayed but brush application is better IMO as it can be worked well into the rusted surface.
 
That must be a relief to know it's now in hand, and the work is being carried out all in one place, Adrian.
The Land Rover place is a pizz take mate, their price without the work, is a fabrication. haha.
 
No mention of Krown here and it goes inside your chassis , doors , wings , bonnet , the bloke even drills some holes to put it where he couldn't get to otherwise , i paid about £350 and hung around for a few hours until it was done . My only regret is i wish i had tarted things up with a wire brush and paint before i went for the treatment just so it looks as good as it all is .

Krown is not a treatment as such it just stops rust so it doesn't get any worse .
 
I use the WD40 Motorcycle chain lube and buy it by the box of 12. Don't get just chain lube ( for forklift chains etc) . To start with I gave the 120 a really good clean underneath with the hot water pressure washer we use for the trucks, the advantage being it warms up the underside and it dries effectively. A day or 2 later start applying the chain lube. Every time it goes on the ramp for something it gets 2 cans.
Consideration should be given to any future repairs as it will be a bugger to get off to do any welding etc.

The main problem with attention to and effective rust prevention is the majority of people are starting this too late when rust has got hold. The only real way of rust eradication is sandblasting parts separately, painting and re assemble . Body off and underneath blasted and painted, chassis too and re assembled.

In 1994 I started to restore this Chevy Blazer. Everything was stripped off and blasted, primed painted and repainted with truck chassis paint. I hired a mobile blasting plant and did the chassis ( easy cos its "C" section) and all the underneath. I must have done a good job because it was still mint and black in 2017 when this photo was taken. This the only way to do it properly.
I was running this when I bought my 1st 80 in 97.


IMG_0237.JPG
 
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That’s impressive. Accept that many of us may be starting this too late- courtesy of previous owner(s) - But I guess doing what I can now is better than just leaving it.! Just been googling wd40 motorcycle chain lube, but can’t seem to find bulk packs of 12, only of wd40 chain wax which I assume isn’t what I want? Any suggestions.
 
Great condition Andy, looks like you just bought it from the showroom.
Quite rare those ??
 

On another forum a poster was using Castrol CL waterproof grease on the subframes sump etc of his Punto van, which was as new underneath after some 13 years.

My late cousin pumped and painted gallons of general chassis grease into the sills and cavities of an HB Viva he bought new, whilst it was filhty because dirt sticks to grease it was rust free for decades and is probably one of those few survivors.

Whilst CL grease appears to be discontinued, the above Smith and Allan 12.5kg tub of grease is meant for salt water application, unless you are prepared to go to the lengths some of the above posters (and respect given chaps, well done) have gone to, i might be inclined to steam clean the whole vehicle and once dry give it just a general wire brushing and paint where access is possible and then paint on a grease similar in properties to the one linked over the whole chassis, and use something decent that creeps to get into the joints and cavities.
The actually bodyframe area to concentrate on is the inner sills, between side steps and main chassis rails, if you look they get heavy weathering especially at both ends due to grit thrown up from the wheels, these can perforate if left and need treating inside too, which means aerosol or spraying via probes inserted via the various holes you can find via rubber bungs and if you remove the doorsill kick treads, these seections need treating twice a year i suggest.

Personally what i'm doing now, after going to town seriously with Bilt Hamber products when i first bought the cars, is every spring and autumn i get underneath and spray ACF50 onto and into the worse affected areas because it has good creep, this appears to be doing the trick as i can find no worse rust patching than when i first bought the vehicles, literally a half hour's job now twice a year.

We are paying the price of well heeled first owners who whilst keeping the body clean often completely neglected the undersides, never even giving a thought to washing the salt off underneath around April time, this year especially will have taken a serious toll on many vehicles, used during the winter but not being used during the spring rains which helps clean the salt off due to general house arrest of the nation.

I'm really anmoyed at Toyota for not galvanising the chassis and suspension mount/frames of their genuine off road designs, for the costs involved pre production they would long ago have put the opposition out of business, the general mechanicals are good for 40 years with some decent maintenance, its rust that kills them where salt is used extensively, any higher costs for new vehicle buyers being reflected in even higher residuals.
 
Adrian go to your local motor factors they should be able to get what you want and just remembered that there is a motorcycle place just off the big roundabout coming from morrisons to the old bus station road first turning on the right think Webbs garage is up there might be wrong
 
As Tonycy11 has already said its all down to the prep work! Like so many of you I’ve spent hours under my 100, wire brush, chipping hammer,needle gun, grinder, the lot, and boy does it test your patience!!
As for letting someone else loose under there to supposedly prepare it properly - not a chance!
This is the first I’ve heard of Aquasteel so I went with Buzzweld and Rustbuster, both do a rust converter and both seem to work well however the Rustbuster can be over coated after a couple of hours where the Buzzweld needs 24 -48 hrs depending on temperature.
Buzzweld also do a “wheelarch refinement”which can be used anywhere on the underside either brushed or better still sprayed with a Shultz gun if you have access to compressor, it’s economical to use this way and gives a good durable finish which has held up well
As part of the job I dropped the tank, needless to say the guard had suffered from the usual tin worm so I ha to break out the mig!
I kept a couple of the sections I cut out and treated both with rust converter plus one coat of Buzzweld “chassis in one” paint and they’ve now been sitting outside for 3 years at the bottom of the garden ( with the permission of the head gardener!)
The one on the right is Buzzweld and the one on the left is Rustbuster, there’s really not much to choose between them even now and given the state of the steel to start with they’ve held up quite well.
I also went with Buzzweld cavity wax, it’s nice and thin so it does creep into the joints and seams well but it goes without saying you need a nice warm day to get the best out of it!
So 3 years in and so far so good, time will tell!
 

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