I'm considering buying a large tin of Waxoyl OR used engine oil and literally plastering it under the car in an effort to preserve its structure. It's quite clean at the minute.

My grandfather has a 1990 Ford Orion and he paints under it and every part he can with engine oil and despite being in a laughable state the floor certainly isn't falling through!

We now have a huge jack and four axel stands but the one thing I can't get a clear answer on is what simple approach I should take.

Is it as easy as:

Take car to underbody car wash machine.
Wait for it to dry underneath.
Paint on kurust / ANY anti rust product?
Wait for it to set / go black.
Paint with WAXOYL



Because if someone can simply say yes or no or give me their own simple plan I know what to buy, and I know what to do and importantly- that it's good enough.


People are telling me to leave the car alone, and it'll be fine for the next 5 years. They also tell me "oh by the time that car of yours rusts you'll be buying your new Fiat" and the temptation to listen to them and be 'lazy' is tempting. But something tells me this is a bad attitude and that I need to make an effort now to avoid my car being scrapped early!!!

I won't post on this matter anymore, but hope that I can get the final opinions I can use to go and do this as I've been talking about it since February.

Don't paint - if you do, the yearly (I do it twice a year) Waxoyl won't do much good.

Just clean off the crud and mud, then mix 50/50 Waxoyl and engine oil, and spray it everywhere, including the sump pan, but trying to avoid the exhaust system, because it stinks as it evaporates off a hot exhaust.

Like your grandfather, I've used this tested method for years on all my cars, and my little puddle jumper Panda, for example, is totally sound and completely rust-free underneath.

How do you recommend cleaning it?

And how many Litres do you think would do? One of the £30 Waxoyl tins from Halfords?

Do I need to spray it or will a cheap paintbrush do?

Worth getting the black stuff for under the car?

Will using Waxoyl without oil be any good? Just in case the old oil has been disposed of.

There are better products than Waxoyl, but whatever is used it needs to be thin enough to soak into the rust layer and then thicken so it doesn't just run off. ACF-50 is good but its very thin and has to be reapplied. Water dispersing waxes leave a thicker layer of protection.

I think that using old engine oil sounds great but the stuff is actually full of all sorts of nasties. IMO, it's better scrapped and use a half decent corrosion protector instead.

Brushing is ok but wont reach every nook & cranny so spray makes more sense - and its quicker.

DaveMcT said:

There are better products than Waxoyl, but whatever is used it needs to be thin enough to soak into the rust layer and then thicken so it doesn't just run off. ACF-50 is good but its very thin and has to be reapplied. Water dispersing waxes leave a thicker layer of protection.



I think that using old engine oil sounds great but the stuff is actually full of all sorts of nasties. IMO, it's better scrapped and use a half decent corrosion protector instead.



Brushing is ok but wont reach every nook & cranny so spray makes more sense - and its quicker.

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Waxoyl seems okay to me then for my purposes as most the car is sound and it's just surface rust as worst. The Waxoyl is probably thicker than the rust to be honest.

I'll use a spray in small awkward areas. But is the spray good enough?

Is it necessary to do under the entire car? That was my plan and I can't see the spray getting that much area. That's why I am planning on using the tin.

Unless I use a tin, brush and spray of Waxoyl? Hoping it won't cost more than £50.

So far it's:

Wash under it (though I don't know the best method)

And spray / paint Waxoyl on all areas, using a spray for the tricky shapes / cavities.

SB1500 said:

Waxoyl seems okay to me then for my purposes as most the car is sound and it's just surface rust as worst.

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Good old fashioned waxoyl will do fine for what you are proposing. I once kept a van on the road for over 20yrs doing just that and never had a corrosion-related issue. There are better, more expensive and less messy products which would be my first choice on a brand new vehicle, but the cost would be hard to justify on a secondhand Panda, and some need more equipment than you've got to apply properly.

A couple of tips when applying waxoyl.

Cover the ground under the car before you start to keep down the mess. Broken down cardboard boxes would be a good free option & less likely to get blown about than newspaper. Those cardboard trays the supermarket get fruit in are very useful for this (and many other jobs under the car) - just look for the ones without holes in the bottom.

Get a large bucket that your tin of waxoyl will fit in, fill it with hot water, and put the waxoyl tin in that a couple of hours before you start. Change the water as needed to keep it hot. Hot waxoyl is literally thinner than water and you'll be able to spray it easily. For small areas, you can reuse a plastic spray bottle from pretty much any common household product if you wash & dry it thoroughly first; this has the advantage that you can just throw it away at the end. You can also keep the spray bottle in hot water so eveything stays free flowing.

When treating critical, hard to reach areas, you can warm the area with a hairdryer so the waxoyl penetrates as deeply as possible; the rear spring cups would be one example of a part where this is worth doing.

Try not to get any overspray on the brake discs.

Doing an entire Panda will likely take about ten litres (two large cans). I wouldn't bother with all the fancy plastic waxoyl sprayers; spend all your money on the product and womble something to apply it with out of discarded household containers. You'll find that an old paintbrush is also useful.

Both yourself and the whole car will smell of waxoyl for a week or two; it does go away with time. You'll likely get a huge cloud of smoke from overspray on the exhaust the first time you start the car, but I've never (touch wood) had one catch fire yet! Just make sure you're out of doors when you do this.

Thanks jrkitching.

One final question then,

How do I prepare the car or is it fine so long as there's no thick mud / grit? I mean in terms of cleaning the surface.

I'm 95% prepared now and the task seems less intimidating

SB1500 said:

How do I prepare the car or is it fine so long as there's no thick mud / grit? I mean in terms of cleaning the surface.

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The most important thing is that everything is bone dry - if you put waxoyl over anything which is wet, you could do more harm than good. So no washing the mud off unless the car has sufficient time to dry completely afterwards! A little surface dust is actually a good thing as it helps bind the waxoyl together.

Use dry stiff bristle & wire brushes as appropriate to remove any thick deposits - and remember the hairdryer trick if you find any crevices which might be damp.

Do your best to get everything clean, but remember it doesn't have to be perfect.

As JR, but I think he's got his sums wrong with the quantities! You could drown the car with ten litres!

Applied properly, ten litres will do a couple of dozen Pandas with some left over. I have used a 5 litre Waxoyl can, mixed 50/50 as above, for several years now, spraying three cars - a Panda (small), a Jeep (large) and a Merc (large), and there is still a small amount left.

The 50/50 mix enhances the 'creep' and forms a 'mist' more easily than Waxoyl itself. I heat the mix before use and apply it with the correct gun (yes, there is a proper tool for the job) and an airline.
With the Jeep, as it has a separate box chassis, I have watched the mist go in one open end and eventually exit at the other end.

It is not the thickness that matters, but the coverage. If you use Waxoyl aerosols you will need far more material.

Sweetsixteen said:

As JR, but I think he's got his sums wrong with the quantities! You could drown the car with ten litres!

Ten litres will do a couple of dozen Pandas with some left over. I have used a 5 litre Waxoyl can, mixed 50/50 as above, for several years now, spraying three cars - a Panda (small), a Jeep (large) and a Merc (large), and there is still a small amount left.

The 50/50 mix enhances the 'creep' and forms a 'mist' more easily than Waxoyl itself. I heat the mix before use and apply it with the correct gun (yes, there is a proper tool for the job) and an airline.
With the Jeep, as it has a separate box chassis, I have watched the mist go in one open end and eventually exit at the other end.

It is not the thickness that matters, but the coverage. If you use Waxoyl aerosols you will need far more material.

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So you reckon one of the big tins will do?

I've a friend with an air compressor we can use but the spray applicator gun looks complex.

Reckon Jr's method is fine for me to be honest. Even if it means getting messier and spending a bit more time. I'm hoping it's a one time job

jrkitching said:

The most important thing is that everything is bone dry - if you put waxoyl over anything which is wet, you could do more harm than good. So no washing the mud off unless the car has sufficient time to dry completely afterwards! A little surface dust is actually a good thing as it helps bind the waxoyl together.

Use dry stiff bristle & wire brushes as appropriate to remove any thick deposits - and remember the hairdryer trick if you find any crevices which might be damp.

Do your best to get everything clean, but remember it doesn't have to be perfect.

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I was going to suggest pressure washing the underside especially as Waxoyl claims to chase water away from wet surfaces.

However, have you found this is not the case?

Having just done some googling about Waxoyl, its probably best to use something like ACF-50 that will soak into rust and bare metal. Then go over that with Waxoyl. The wax is good but even applied hot (thin) it might not soak in as well as needed to really stop the rust.

I would pressure wash where possible and allow to dry. It may well rip off damaged paint but that's good - you need to know where the problems areas are.

DaveMcT said:

I was going to suggest pressure washing the underside especially as Waxoyl claims to chase water away from wet surfaces.

However, have you found this is not the case?

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Pressure washing is good if you've got a fortnight of scorching summer weather to dry everything off afterwards, but it will force water into every crack and crevice and if you waxoyl on top of it, you're sealing in a recipe for further corrosion. At this time of year, the pressure washer is best left in the garage.

The only time waxoyl has a chance against water is on a flat surface; it's never going to be able to displace water out of a seam.

ACF-50 is good stuff, but I'd suggest is overkill when dealing with a 10yr old Panda.

Personally I think sweetsixteen's idea of a tin of waxoyl mixed with the contents of your last oil change is a proportionate and cost effective way of dealing with SB1500's car. And yes, I once managed to get 10 litres of waxoyl into a brand new Renault 5 - about half went onto the underside, and half into the doors & box sections. There was no visible rust on that car when I sold it 13 years later; it had a couple of topups on the undersides of the wheel arches in the intervening years.

I still think that any loose paint needs to go - and how will that be found without some force? Agreed, an open joint will get water filled but if the seam seals have failed that will be the least of your worries (hidden corrosion will be chewing away inside).

Areas that are already painted may benefit from Waxoyl but unless you use the very messy black version its really hard to know what has been covered. On that note, the underbody plastics (wheel arches etc) will need to be taken off.

Having just seem this, http://www.acf-50.co.uk/marine.htm I would look at the marine version of ACF-50. Winter salt never really goes away so an underbody can be close to marine environment.

Quote:

Given this I would say treat with the ACF and leave for a couple of weeks then go over with Waxoyl to give a protective layer on top of the corrosion block. I cold weather Waxoyl (even applied warm) can skin over but never really soak in.

Plastic wheel arch protectors (and on my Merc a complete underbody plastic shield) can usually be prised away from the body sufficiently to get a thorough coat of Waxoyl where it matters - as long as you're spraying, of course. That's another advantage of spraying - it's quicker and far more thorough - it really does get to the places that a brush can't reach. It makes a heavy mist that settles in the nooks and joints.

Wear a mask if spraying!