Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and new to ownership, having just acquired a fully restored 1971 Lusso.

The car was taken back to bare metal, a few (small) areas of rust were cut out and new metal welded in, the body has been undersealed and professionally re-sprayed.

My question is this, while the going is good should I get the car rust proofed? I've read that a Waxoyl treatment (into all the boxes and cavities) is a good idea once you've got the bodywork perfect. It looks like a £250-300 job to get this done professionally.

Thoughts?

Hi Pete welcome to the forum.

There are not really that many cavities that you would be able to get Waxoyl into. The only ones I can think of are between the inner and outer sills, the rear wing cavities but these would need holes drilling somewhere to get it in there. You could do some areas yourself by buying a Waxoyl aerosol spray and spraying it in the door bottoms, down behind the rear wings behind the rear panels. Also in the bonnet area down by the headlights on the front wings and front panel. You would have to make sure you don't block any of the drain holes in the bonnet area and doors.

Personally if it has been under sealed and painted well I wouldn't bother. I had to have a rear N/S wing panel welded in recently before the car was resprayed. I did spray some Waxoyl down behind the rear panel onto the rear wing where it had been welded just to make sure any new welds were covered.

Others like Sean AKA Franko500 would be in a better place to comment as he is currently doing a lot of metal work on his 500 restoration, also because he used to be a panel beater so has loads of experience on this sort of thing.

Tony

Definitely do it. I agree with Tony, you could do a good job yourself, save a few hundred and get to know the car better.
Worst thing would be removing the door cards and the rear side panels.
I would put a lot of wax in through the rear light openings as this accesses a fair bit of the problem areas and lets you right into that wheelarch joint.
Professionals would probably make some holes in the inner sill to help with that area and there should be an inner baffle halfway along inside making that into two cavities.
Get plenty of anti-rust juice down the front inner wings and maybe down the hole for the bottom door hinge on a front hinged car.
Axel Gerstl has a good guide to the common rust spots you need to target as you don't benefit from having seen the rust for yourself. ; (
http://webshop.fiat500126.com/sites/51/bodycheck
......and just remembered, useless though they are, keep the drain holes clear as Tony said and use the car as much as possible because all cars rely on the constant movement to clear away water.

Thanks for the tips (and the link).

I think I'll buy some Waxoyl myself and get into the areas that I can access easily. With a good bare metal underseal/paint job already in place I think this will probably cover it.

Pete

I removed the rear side panels, used an extension lance for the spray type cavity wax and sprayed into;
sill area, pulling the lance backwards to completely cover the inner sill;
around window frames;
rear arches;

Removed the two upper bungs in the engine bay;
sprayed via lance in the cavity

Removed rear lights;
sprayed in this cavity

Front wheel arches inside
Bottom of battery tray inside
Door hinge area
Down into front wheel arch where it meets sill and under windscreen.


Bought some cavity wax, 4 spray tine aerosols with extension lances ( ebay about £30 delivered) and went ballistic. All inside as externally it just collects dust.

Just door to do now.

Careful as the wax will pour out of drain traps onto the drive, quickly wiped and cleaned down with detergent.

Took about an hour to do, hardest bit was removing side panels and rear seat.

I'm now ready to treat my car. A little extra research makes me think that Dinitrol 3125 might be the best bet. It looks like about 4 litres will be about right. Please can anyone confirm that from first hand experience?
Thanks from Peter.
[/url]KNO_5630 by peterthompson, on Flickr[/IMG]

Hi,
just to add my two pennies worth.
Areas to treat:
Down the inside of the front wings to get to the Door posts.
All around the front wings where they are welded to the inner wings.
Through the door hinges into the Door Post.
Drill holes through the inner sills & protect the complete sill panel.
Remove inner 1/4 trims, spray into sill panel and around the arch of the 1/4 panel.
Remove the large plastic grommet on the rear bulk head behind the rear seats, spray into the cavity where the roof meets the 1/4 panels.
Remove the large grommets on the top of the inner rear wings/Engine Bay and spray the inner wing area.
Remove the rear lamps and spray inside.
Spray inside the small chassis cover panels either side in the engine bay.
On 500L models clear the drain tubes from the lower screen panels. Its also worth coating under the windscreen panel in the corners.
Inside the bottom of the doors.
Inside the rear engine support panel.
And if you really want to go mad, spray inside the roof cavities.

Beware, you do not need more than a thin coat over the inside panels, it sticks to anything and leaves a waxy residue which causes water to run off and prevent any corrosion to bare metal or porous primer.
If you put too much in, it will eventually block up any drain holes and cause further problems. You can also find on a hot sunny day it will drip out of everywhere as it gets warm and runny. Then you spend ages getting the stuff off.

As for the product, the diy Waxoyl kit is usually good enough, otherwise most bodyshop paint suppliers can supply a product in a container which you can attach a waxoyl spray gun to and use a compressor.

You're spot-on there Sean. If I didn't know already I would guess you had seen a really rusty Fiat at some point Well covered!
So maybe not as much product as I expected
I am off now to look for some. Will keep you posted.
This forum and the Classic Car one seem to be converging.

Buying this stuff on the 'net incurs big postage here in the north so my friendly local autorefinish supplier helped me out. I had hoped they would have Dinitrol but they only had Waxoyl. I got the 1 litre with the screwtop and a schutz gun to match as widely rpecommended. The gun comes with an extension tube.
I will see how far that goes and try to illustrate how I do it

Did it today Pete...a doddle. My restoration story is elsewhere though and I don't want to duplicate. Page 33

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=118356#118356

fiat500 said:

Did it today Pete...a doddle. My restoration story is elsewhere though and I don't want to duplicate. Page 33

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=118356#118356

Click to expand...

Great, thanks for pointing me to that post. Maybe not today, but a project before the end of the summer that's for sure!