Freelander 1 Rust...

Quite like POR15 - at least in terms of applying it - much easier to get a good finish. Not sure it is as hardy as Smoothrite though. Will be dropping the subframes on my MGF - one is painted in Smoothrite, the other with POR15. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

Not tried EM121 before - I shall have a look!

rob_bell said:

Quite like POR15 - at least in terms of applying it - much easier to get a good finish. Not sure it is as hardy as Smoothrite though. Will be dropping the subframes on my MGF - one is painted in Smoothrite, the other with POR15. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

Not tried EM121 before - I shall have a look!

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Sorry, that's something I should have mentioned. The surface finish with either POR 15 or Smoothrite is FAR better than the epoxy I mentioned. You can only really use that on areas that are going to be undersealed afterwards. It does go on very thick indeed. It's also pretty hard work to sand it. I DID paint over a few patches of it and got a few solvent entrapment pinholes in the paint. Basically, it's not really designed to be painted over.

Thanks - very helpful! Probably ideal for a Freelander subframe or fuel tank cradle.

I love my TD4 even though it does give me some grief at times and when I took it for mot last month it needed two sill patches the overall chassis is good with heavy surface rust but given it has done 150,000 miles it is allowed to be a bit rusty. If everything else is ok on the vehicle they are cheap to repair and a trip to a car body shop would sort it out for many more years so worth it in my opinion if You have spent money on it I have the view that when I have replaced everything I will eventually have a good 4 x 4

True, except you'll start replacing the stuff you'd replaced before... it's a job that will never be finished!

Right, time to buy some more paint for the Forth Bridge.

rob_bell said:

True, except you'll start replacing the stuff you'd replaced before... it's a job that will never be finished!

Right, time to buy some more paint for the Forth Bridge.

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Its always a toss up between maintenance costs and depreciation.

Maintenance costs are invariably less.

...and where's the fun sitting in a (almost) brand spanking, with that new car smell with more gadgets and gizmos, with better safety and more likelihood of getting you to your destination. Nah, maintenance costs are lower and character building

You have to consider what it will give in return as opposed to value. A mechanically good car is worth a bit of repair cost if it's got another 50k miles available from it. Especially if its old and cheap to buy.

I'm one of the converted. Happy to work on cars - and when you can do this and do it right, the costs of maintenance aren't high and the depreciation costs are minimal
"Shedonomics" - keep an old car going indefinitely with good maintenance and care.