What to coat the Wheel Arches in????

islanderre

Hello All,

I'd like to coat the wheel arches of my W124 coupe with some kind of sealer / rust preventer because as most of us know; these cars love to entertain rust.

From my limited research, WAXOYL in Halfords could be used but I seen dynax S50 on 'cleancar.ie' that can also be used for this purpose.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what to use???? I was thinking the best preparation would be to ensure the arches are spotless clean so I was thinking washing the arches and then wiping with white spirits and then applying the sealer / rust preventer.

Please let me know what ye think.

Regards,
Islanderre

conor2469

Waxoyl is more of a cavity wax, I don't know how well it would hold up in areas that experience a high amount of attrition from debris. Are there any rust scabs or bubbling already visible?

MercMad

Waxoyl do more than one product you know. I have and would use the black stuff that goes on like grease. Power wash, then dry and clean with white spirits then literally brush it on and leave it thick in the wheel arch return lip.

conor2469

MercMad wrote: »

Waxoyl do more than one product you know. I have and would use the black stuff that goes on like grease. Power wash, then dry and clean with white spirits then literally brush it on and leave it thick in the wheel arch return lip.

Apologies I was assuming he is referring to the waxoyl brand equivalent of dynax s50, which is a type of cavity wax.

Here is a thread I found discussing waxoyl and other rust preventatives, might be wortha look OP - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=518009

islanderre

Great stuff lads, thanks allot for the replies.

I will suss out the WAXOYL product as described above by MercMad. To answer your question conor2469, yes their are a few small rust bubbles starting in some areas but had intended treating them with Hammerite rust treatment first.

Islanderre

MercMad

conor2469 wrote: »

Apologies I was assuming he is referring to the waxoyl brand equivalent of dynax s50, which is a type of cavity wax.

Here is a thread I found discussing waxoyl and other rust preventatives, might be wortha look OP - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=518009

.......sorry I should also have been clearer since to do a job properly you need more than one product. If the Waxoyl cavity wax is used on the floor and wheel arch areas it wont last, nor protect properly. Personally I like the Waxoyl cavity wax but it does require topping up every couple of years, whereas the Dynax doesnt but the latter is much harder to apply successfully and truly requires some high pressure spray equipment.

The black stuff I referred to should really be used on the wheel arch lips and on the actual floor, hand painted on. You can use it in the wheel wells too and whilst it will protect very well it will also spoil the appearance of areas that are visible.

The Dinotrol products are excellent but again can be messy and require proper equipment, their website and guides are pretty good http://www.dinitrol.co.uk/rust_prevention_waxes_and_oils.aspx

Wibbs

MercMad wrote: »

Personally I like the Waxoyl cavity wax but it does require topping up every couple of years, whereas the Dynax doesnt but the latter is much harder to apply successfully and truly requires some high pressure spray equipment.

I dunno MM I found the dynax s-50 in the pressurised can with the extension spray tube much easier and far less messy for treating cavities than waxoyl. Doesn't stink nearly as much either and gave better coverage. If anything I'd say waxoyl is the one that requires better equipment than the home kit supplied as it's much thicker in consistency.

I used to rate waxoyl back in the day as it was the go to product, but started to look around for better alternatives when I had rust bubble under previously clean metal with waxoyl on top. I also found it tended to settle with gravity a lot more and didn't seep into joints nearly as well, no matter how warm the day, or how long I steeped the applicator in hot water. It's certainly better than nothing, but just going by my experience such as it is, there are much better out there these days. On the cavity treatment front anyway.

islanderre

Just one more thing....... would painting the arches with HAMMERITE metal paint be just as good as probably much easier too?????

Has anyone tried it or would it be a silly thing to do???

conor2469

It would be a silly thing to do, hammerite metal paint should be kept for gates and railings!

cleancar.ie stock por15, search that and have a read of the different por15 products, you should find something suitable.

Wibbs

I'd not use hammerite unless as a temporary measure and even there you'll have issues. The waxes in it can be a bloody nightmare to remove should you ever want to repaint down the line.

Personally speaking if it was me - and having run a mark 3 Capri as a daily driver for over a decade(rust free the day I sold her) and my current car is 15 years old it has been me - I got near obsessed with rust and rust prevention. I consider it car cancer, pretty much everything else on a car is a lot easier to deal with. So what did/do I do?

With wheel arches clean them right back to the bare metal and underseal if present. If you find rust, it needs to be treated. If it's surface rust that hasn't gone through the metal(or worse come through from the other side), you need to sand it away. Rustkillers work, but IMHO and IME they're a bit of a temporary fix, as it tends t come back. TBH I only use it on already sanded/ground away surface rust on clean metal just to catch and convert any microscopic rust left.

If rust has gone through the metal, the only real "cure" is removal of all rust back to sound steel and weld in a patch and the hole is nearly always larger than it looks at first.

After that spraying high zinc primer to prepare the surface for the topcoat. Google around on them as they vary with the amount of zinc in them. The more the better(and more expensive). I've used cheap before and when you pick up a can of good stuff, you notice the difference in the sheer weight of the can. I found the Bilt Hamner stuff good, but there are equally good out there. If you're getting a pro job that epoxy zinc primer is good stuff. Then your topcoat, more than one for the wheelarches.

Protection? Well replacing the underseal is a good start, though again personally and IMHO many's the car I've seen with rust coming through the factory applied stuff. Rust can hide under it far more easily than under paint. Though I don't rate waxoyl anymore I have sprayed it onto wheelarches and I was surprised how long it lasted. Ditto for the bilt hamner stuff. I recall reading somewhere that wheel arches aren't as high an impact area as we may think, so maybe that's why, but both of those products lasted a winter on daily drivers with pretty high mileage.

TL;DR? IMHO Start with clean rust free metal, good paint coating, high adhesion wax and inspect the arches and wax a couple of times a year, reapply the latter as needed.

My 3 cents anyway.

islanderre

Conor2469 and Wibbs,

Many thanks for the replies.....

I will post photos on this thread either Sunday or Monday when I get to a decent internet connection.

Nice work Wibbs; keeping a Capri rust free and using it as your daily driver....

islanderre

Well Sunday / Monday has turned into Friday!!!!!! but these are a few snaps of the wheel arches

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Wibbs

Looks pretty clean islanderre. Surface rust which will be easy to treat/stop from spreading. The second pic with the hole is the only area I'd be a little concerned about, but I am paranoid about such things. Still I reckon sandpaper/wirebrush and some rust killer followed by touch up paint would sort that. I'd be getting good rust inhibitor wax in behind the hole. Not waxoyl in my humble but I suppose in a pinch...

islanderre

Cheers for the encouragement Wibbs!!!!

Both front wheel arches have big rusty holes in them; passenger side is under the ABS module and the drivers side is under the windscreen washer tank...... will get them cut out and replaced in the future; for now ill live with them as they are not structural.

Regards,
Islanderre

Wibbs

No worries I Great to see a lovely car like that not just scrapped as sadly too many nice cars are.

If I were you(bear in mind normal people aren't nearly as paranoid about tinworm as me :D), I'd at least treat the rust you can get to sooner rather than later. Wirebrush/sandpaper to remove as much as you can, then hit it with dinotrol/bilt hamber rustkiller. If you can get some in behind the bits you can't see even better. Then a good wax again either dinotrol or bilt hamber directly onto it and in behind. Maybe even some sort of temp patch to stop water and crap going where you don't want it to go. That way you'll stop, or at least slow down it's spread.

I say this from my own little horror story with my Capri back in the day. One day I noticed small bubbles of paint in the bottom of the tailgate on the inside. We're talking about an old 10 pence piece in size. Nothing too worrying. The rest of the car was tiptop, all the usual Capri weak spots were clean as a whistle - bonnet leading edge, front suspension mounts, behind the headlights, tailgate hinges etc - so I said to myself I'll get to that next summer. She was a daily driver so I couldn't take her off the road for too long and I figured I had plenty of time as I had injected waxoyl into the tailgate. Fast forward to the next summer and it hadn't spread much at first glance maybe doubled in size, but when I examined it from behind the trim panel it had spread like the clap in a whorehouse. Under the waxoyl BTW*. It was in a right barsteward of a position to weld in a new metal, so in the end I got a sound boot from a scrapper for 20 punts. They were at that stage of "banger" so prices were dirt cheap for bits. If it had been a Merc part I'd have cried like a pigtailed girl.







*Not the only time I've seen this with that product and why I'd never use the stuff again if you paid me and why there's a couple of litres of the stuff unused in my shed. in rusty tins