Hi
I’ve recently joined the club and live on the Norfolk/Suffolk border near Bungay. I bought a 2012 NC and having read a fair bit about rust, I’d like to find out whether there’s anywhere fairly local where anyone has had their car undersealed?
Also, I have no clue on likely cost so any experiences on that too would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Dave E
Welcome to the club!!
I did mine myself with a Dinitrol kit which wasn’t too messy especially with polythene sheeting all under the car.
However a firm reasonably close to you is Michael Cleverley of Cleverley Repaired Cars at Stradbroke, IP21 5JL. He knows MX-5’s inside out. www.mx5expert.com. It’s well worth giving him a call.
Laurie
Thank you Laurie, that’s really helpful
Hi Dave.
I would also recommend Michael Cleverley.
Best wishes,
David
Just had mine done professionally with Dinitrol . Cost a bit over £500 . Took three days . Was provided with before, during and after photo album. But a long way from you !
I have posted this before but it may be of interest………
In 2017 I bought a 2010 Mazda mx5 NC cabriolet with 75K miles on the clock, she was by no means perfect but essentially appeared to be sound.
Over the next couple of years I put right various issues which arose after purchase and after the 2020 MOT the examiner commented on the rust he had observed on her undercarriage while going about his business, which got me thinking about what I was going to do about it.
At some time in her life she had been resprayed but her collars and cuffs don’t match, the engine bay along with inner sills, outer door surrounds and inner boot lid area were not included and after finding a piece of broken plastic grill on the inside of a front valance I’m guessing she may have been front ended at some point and hence maybe the respray.
So what to do?
I thought about a professional underbody seal using the likes of Dinitrol and read numerous comments from people not happy with the results due to careless work and then when considering a cost of around £500 or so, was it worth the risk of having no control over the work and spending a considerable amount on a less than perfect car?
Had she been a Prima Donna with half the amount of miles I might have thought it a wise investment but I just couldn’t bring myself to seriously consider it, so went off on a quest to determine what DIY solution would suit.
Lanoguard won the day, there are no chemicals. £71.94 (inc shipping), kit includes 600ml grease, 2lt spray and the spray head assembly.
The manufactures advise “minimal prep” and 20 minutes job done, I don’t think so!
It all depends on the amount of rust, if the vehicle is relatively new with only surface corrosion then yes virtually no prep and you could be done in 20 minutes or so but with me and my 11 year old Mazda it was a different story.
I started by jacking and putting an axel stand at front offside, removing the wheel, completing the work, putting the wheel back then moving on to the rear offside then onto the near side.
Each corner took at least 2 hours to scrape back the rust, another 10 minutes or so greasing nuts, bolts, seams and vulnerable areas then just a couple of minutes with the Lanoguard spray.
Then I moved on to the underside, not really a lot to do there fortunately but I have to say I am really happy with the results, time will tell so took a number of photos to compare when I next come to top up next year which should hopefully be a doddle and will only take 20 minutes (we will see)!
I didn’t bother about rust treatment, the car is a summer runabout and is covered and under cover in winter with plenty of ventilation so didn’t see the need.
The only issue I had was that the spray head stopped spraying after a long session, it was down to a blocked filter at the end of the pipe in the container, easy sorted, pull off, run under warm water, clean off, wouldn’t recommend leaving the filter off as the spray nozzle would then likely block and be more difficult to clear.
Another tip would be to put the grease container in some warm water before use, makes it easier to remove and brush on.
Here are several pics showing before (after cleaning), during (after grease & spray) and after (24hrs later) –
Thank you David, that’s appreciated
robtt, that’s really helpful, many thanks
rustbusters in spalding.
according to thier advert they do it 4 hours while you wait or go for a walk.
Id be wary of any quote of rust proofing work being done within hours. You really have to take bits off, cover suspension etc, scrap the old stuff off (not considering any time to fix anything that needs fixing) and put some treatment to get rid of oxidization (as much as possible), let it dry then apply the underseal, let it dry. this work needs a few days. The mx5 restorer is going to do my NC in march this year and mine is fairly good and needs no fixing but it still going to take them a week to do it.
ckleanth, thanks, I too would be wary of a while you wait service. Michael Cleverleyis only 20 mins away from me so I’m going to arrange to take my NC to him to look at.
Cheers
as to the rustbusters people.
underseal is all they do.
so i guess they got it down to a fine art!
but it is a guess, as i have no experience of their work
