Best way to protect against rot?

[TeaMonsta]

The Surf I've just bought has lived inland in southern England since it was imported so is pretty clean and solid underneath. However, I live in rural Aberdeenshire so want to protect the underside against the harsher winters we get up there. What would you suggest?

[shokenore]

Simply move south again before the winter.

Or.
Get the underneath coated with waxoyl or similar.

[Webbo]

A good pressure wash and spray with black Waxoyl around £8.00 for a large can.

[TeaMonsta]

Waxoyl it is, then. Thanks folks.

[andy_enuff]

Also check out Frost restoration's website.... lots of products for the more enthusiastic of the protection posse.

www.frost.co.uk

[cabbage]

Hi, I'd recommend cleaning the underside as much as possible after driving on the NE's treated roads! My truck went from being very reasonable underneath to crap in one winter! I now try to hose down the under side as much as possible, frost and frozen pipes allowing, to get the salt off.

Also re-painting the underside is always on my list of things to do, slowly its getting done, a section at a time!

[TeaMonsta]

Thanks for your input, Cabbage and Andy!

[POPEYE]

1, a good clean
2, a good coat of red oxide
3, a good coat of truck & bus grade underseal
4, a good coat of red hammerite (so you can make out the chassis from the floor pan
5, dont forget the engine and trans

[fsaroyster]

Man that's some rust/rot protection right there!

I'm looking to do the same. My plan is to sand off all the surface rust I can get to, and then Waxoil and Hammerite everything. I wasn't sure what to do about the drive shaft and stuff, but seeing as yours has been painted I guess I can do the same? I'm planning on taking off as much bits as I can so I can give them a going over with my sander, for example the bash plates under the engine, plus there's a really big/long bash plate along the majority of the middle section of the underneath, they all just look to be bolted on, am I'm OK to attempt to remove these and clean them up or am I getting myself into potential hot water?

Thanks in advance

Rog

[TeaMonsta]

@ PopEye - That's the way to do it!

[POPEYE]

Not sure about 3rd gens, never had one apart but i guess all parts are removeable, it takes a lot of cleaning tho, best bet is steam if you have a co nearby that can do it, i had to use elbow grease plus a cut up waxol gun piped up to a big tub of hot soapy water, also applyed plenty of degreaser first, i got two 10lt tubs of it, some old stiff paintbrushes, wire brushes etc, its a bugga of a job, after that the painting is fairly easy, i hand brushed all the back end of the chassis after spraying on the red oxide and underseal but got fed up with brushing, on the forward end i masked up all round the engine bay and just sprayed away till it was covered,
hammerite is great, those pics are about four years old and the stuff is still on there, a bit grubby now but still looks ok, stands up the heat as well (on the engine), basicly you can paint all over everything, although i did mask all rubber brake hoses, the paint flaked off cv boots etc as expected, only prob is the price of hammerite and underseal, i had to pay for the red but the underseal i borrowed
also i have a pit which makes it much easier

[fsaroyster]

Cheers for the info Popeye, much appreciated.

I got myself one of those Waxoil pump/spray kits, hopefully it'll do the job. I've also got a half decent pressure washer and a steamer, albeit one for the home, its pretty powerful, so I'll just have to dig in and do what I can, just wish I'd got the truck at the start of summer rather than now its dark when I get home and getting damper by the day...

[POPEYE]

Hope the waxol spray thingy works better than mine did, you cant beat a compressor powered waxol gun, the hand job just kept blocking up, i got a couple of alloy cans from the coach builders that used to contain glass cleaner, i found these fitted on the waxol spray gun (i'l post a pic of the gun if you want,, ) the gun is really for shultz underseal, what i did when spraying waxol is warm up the can so it pours ok, then fill the spray gun can, place it on the open jaws of a vise, and heat it up with a blow torch ( i know this might be frowned on) and could be dangerious but as long as you keep the flame low and only on the base of the can and are carefull it gets the waxol nice and hot, when you spray it gets into awkward places much better and the vapor from it gets into box sections etc and helps coat everything, i did all along the chassis through verious holes and inside doors etc, you need a decent mask as the mist is oily,

as for cleaning (or help with cleaning prior to undersealing) you know those compressor accessory kits you can get, they have a cheapo paint spray gun, a tyre inflator, a blow down gun, and an oil spray gun, i took the oil sprayer, cut the suction pipe short, jublee clipped a hose onto it, the other end goes in a 5gal can containing any soap cleaning products you can get hold of, like fairy liquid, soap powder, dishwasher soap, anything that will desolve, shove a load of this in the can, fill with hot water, weight down the end of the hose so it sits on the bottom of the can, you need to place this can higher up than what your gonna spray, (gravity feed to the gun) and have the tube plenty long enough so you can work away without pulling the can over, connect up the comp and off ya go, ( after applying degreaser first and letting it soak in) gun in one hand, old brush in the other,
end up with a decent cleaning method, plus neck and back ache!!

[HONEST AL]

Popeye's motor is cleaner/shinier underneath than mine is on top

[fsaroyster]

i found these fitted on the waxol spray gun (i'l post a pic of the gun if you want,, ) the gun is really for shultz underseal

Popeye - Thanks again for all the info, if you've got a pic of the gun that'd be handy to see.

As I've mentioned, I really want to go to town and where possible remove parts from underneath so that I can give everything as good a going over as possible.

When you guys mention doing inside the doors, do you just take off the door cards and remove all the gubbins from behind there and give it a good coating inside? Makes sense, as a few of my older cars (25 years old) all suffered from rust at the bottoms of the doors which I believe was due to damp/moisture getting in behind the doors.

I'm tempted to remove the cladding on my 3rd gen to see what's lurking underneath, hopefully its all fine, but if not it'd be better to find it now and put a stop to any rust that's looking to ruin things...

Rog