P38A Protecting my undercarriage..

Evening all, on Saturday I finally got around to get the car in the air and changed out all 4 shocks for some TerraFirma ones. While under there I did notice some corrosion and surface rust.

Once the major corrosion is sorted and I’ve wire brushed off the surface rust, what’s the better options for underseal currently?

Lanogaurd? Hammerite/Waxoyl? Letting whatever oil leak is currently active coat the rest of the chassis?

Ideally something I can apply myself without the need of an air gun!

Personally. I use hot Waxoil from a cheap gun so it penetrates all the nooks and crannies.

Datatek said:

Personally. I use hot Waxoil from a cheap gun so it penetrates all the nooks and crannies.

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Time to sound like a total beginner.. but could you give me a breakdown of what I’d need and a way to make the waxoyl hot without setting fire to everything?

P38Seb said:

Time to sound like a total beginner.. but could you give me a breakdown of what I’d need and a way to make the waxoyl hot without setting fire to everything?

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I'm a vandal, I heat a 5 litre can on a camping gaz stove with the flame set to low.

Dinitrol - ask anyone that has an old Disco they’ll know what that stuff is. I used pitch as a substitute since I was given it for free, which worked well.

I can't speak from personal experience, but I've been researching this recently, and Lanolin products appear to be the way to go. I believe they are better at displacing moisture where as waxoyl can sit on top of moisture.
Lanolin is also less messy and easier to apply.

Lanolin does need to be reapplied on a regular (say 12 month basis however).
With perfect prep then I believe waxoyl can last longer however.

I use Dinitrol and have done on many vehicles. I used to use waxoyl but on several occasions I've found the metal rusting under the coating. I found this video that may be of interest which shows someone coating a Defender

I don't know what VW used in the 80s but it was flexible and sealed really well. Way better than Waxoyl.

Grrrrrr said:

I don't know what VW used in the 80s but it was flexible and sealed really well. Way better than Waxoyl.

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Ford use some flexible stuff on the Transit, in places there was no metal left behind it

On my l322 iv used hot Waxoyl sprayed over them as a top up cans of chain wax, it’s full of anti corrosives and being a grease helps stop squeeze from suspension etc, whenever I’m doing a job under or with a wheel off last bit is a quick brush and spray just to keep the rust off.
If using Waxoyl heat it up and use it thin and it’s fine, problems start when it’s applied thick, water gets under it then.

P38Seb said:

Time to sound like a total beginner.. but could you give me a breakdown of what I’d need and a way to make the waxoyl hot without setting fire to everything?

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I think the standard method for heating dinatrol etc is placing the container in a bucket of warm water before you use it. It applies easier then.

I used Lanoguard and fluid-film on my chassis on the outside. I did this as its an old 1993 chassis and I need to monitor it for rust and keep on top of it. Dinitrol etc would cover the rust and potentially hide it if it gets worse. It's also a real PITA to remove incase I do need to weld it.

I I had a good clean chassis I would have used dinitrol due to the length of time between applications. People say applying Lanoguard is easy and less messy - its certainly less messy but I find it's the cleaning prior to applications that takes up a lot of time as it would defeat the object to apply it over dirt.

Appreciate all the feedback everyone. I’ll do some more looking in to Dinitrol and Lanoguard.

Either way I’m going to need to give certain a parts of the car a bit of a scrub before applying it!

When i stripped my 2A many years ago, chassis was sandblasted and immediately started with a healthy amount of red lead. The proper stuff.
I was highly recommended at the time, to appear the inside of the chassis with generous amounts of duckoil. Don't know if it's around anymore or if it is, likely different stuff, but the chassis is still pretty good 25 years later

kermit_rr said:

When i stripped my 2A many years ago, chassis was sandblasted and immediately started with a healthy amount of red lead. The proper stuff.
I was highly recommended at the time, to appear the inside of the chassis with generous amounts of duckoil. Don't know if it's around anymore or if it is, likely different stuff, but the chassis is still pretty good 25 years later

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I don't know if they are still available, but I have little spray head on a long length of plastic tubing that produces a 360 degree cartwheel spray a bit like an open umbrella. I feed this down the inside of the chassis leg then pressure up the Waxoil container and slowly draw the tube back so the inside of the chassis gets a good coating.

Datatek said:

I don't know if they are still available, but I have little spray head on a long length of plastic tubing that produces a 360 degree cartwheel spray a bit like an open umbrella. I feed this down the inside of the chassis leg then pressure up the Waxoil container and slowly draw the tube back so the inside of the chassis gets a good coating.

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Yep i used something similar