I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: rust proofing
I’ve had my new to me sport black in for a mechanical check today (all good👍). As expected he recommended me to get the underneath preserved as it’s now showing some surface corrosion (not mot advisory or welding etc etc). I’ve made a few enquiries but seem to be in an area with little or no options. I’ve found this company rust.co.uk who are around 1 hour away from me which is fine. Their proposition is as follows. I’m keen to know peoples thoughts. I’m unsure exactly what the arch treatment would get me as mine don’t seem too bad on the outside I would rather pay to have them tidied up inside without having to find a bodyshop to paint the arch (again not easy for me to find!). I’m aware of people’s recommendations in London and Sussex but cannot get the car there.
Any thoughts or experience is appreciated.
Thank you for your enquiry regarding Rustbuster’s Hot Fog full rustproofing service to your vehicle. The cost of fully rustproofing your car will be £495.00+vat. If you would like to make a booking, we take a £100+vat deposit that comes off of the final balance.
We can complete this work at our Spalding, Lincolnshire premises, alternatively, one of our Approved centres in either Walsall, West Midlands or Preston Lancashire might be closer. This process takes 1.5 days to complete.
Please be aware Rustbuster’s Corrolan Pure is an Amber/caramel colour when applied setting clear over the coming months.
Below you will see a detailed breakdown of what our full rustproofing service offers,
High-pressure cleaning of the underbody using Chlor-X salt remover and traffic film remover.
Infra-red and air blast drying.
Removal of wheels and masking of brakes and hubs.
Removal of any plastic inner wheel arch guards. We do try to remove the plastic rivets carefully to reuse them, but any new fixings required are billed to the customer. (Note: we do not remove painted plastic arch returns and skirts that form part of the bodywork.)
Removal of any loose rust and old loose coatings.
Inspection of chassis, sub frames, sills etc. for corrosion and rot. Please see the note on welding repairs below.
Surface rust is treated with Rustbuster FE-123 molecular rust converter or Corrolan Penetrator.
Vehicle bodywork is masked in vinyl electrostatic wrap before wax spraying begins.
Cavities are injected with Rustbuster Corrolan Active cavity wax using either wet spray or a high-pressure air mix ‘fogging’ method. Cavities include chassis, sills, cross members, subframes, door bottoms and tops, lock mechanisms, A, B and C pillars, bonnet, and boot/hatch seams.
The underbody is coated with Rustbuster Corrolan Pure high-performance transparent amber under body high build film.
Plastic arch guards and wheels are replaced.
Bolt on services
Epoxy Archguard Service
We offer an epoxy arch guard service for the painted steel arch returns which includes the following:
Removal of any rust bubbles within the arch return, taking it back to sound steel. This does not extend to the body work above and beyond the arch return.
Treating surface rust and corrosion with FE-123 converter.
Coating with Rustbuster EM121 epoxy mastic rust proofing primer in satin black. You can then arrange for overpainting in body colour if you wish.
The primer is applied to the inner 3cm of the arch and the outer 3cm of the arch exterior. (The amount coated varies with each vehicle but 3cm is the approximate average.)
The cost for four arch returns is £250 +vat. The cost for two arch returns is £200 +vat.
I live just along the coast from you. Last year I took my NC to Cleverley Repaired Cars (now Vincent’s Motor Works) in Stradbroke in Suffolk. They did a very thorough job using Dinitrol, for less than your quote. And I had the use - at no cost- of a loan car.
Well worth the journey in my opinion.
One of the arches on my Sport Black was like that 4 years ago.
I took it back to bare metal in the places where the rust was and treated it.
I gradually built up the paint in layers until it matched.
No problems since.
I did have the full Dinitrol treatment done at https://www.jrclassics.co.uk earlier this year, but probably a bit far for you to travel.
Thank you. I had my springs fitted there on my nd so May be worth a conversation. I must admit something told me they didn’t do it anymore but will see. Appreciate the idea!
Thank you. How did you did your arches? What would your thoughts be to the service I have been offered? Wary of getting something that will do the job really.
I scraped all the rust off, which was just bubbling through the paint on a small patch and applied Hammerite Kurust.
I built up the paint with the genuine Mazda touch up kit, rubbing down between coats. I know it’s there, but not noticeable unless you’re really inspecting it.
I’m not too sure about their treatment/process and how they go about it once it’s there. Have you had any recommendations?
This is from a previous thread, after I’d had my Sport Black done at J R Classics.
Thats not a bad price to be fair, the arches are well worth the treatment too the rust normally starts from behind the arch where dirt and moisture settle on top of the arch fold so when you see little rust spots most of the time it’s corrosion making its way to the surface from behind the arch and no amount of polishing will prevent that from happening but wax oil will help the life of the car and in future keep maintance costs down.
A couple of days ago someone asked about treating corrosion around the rear arch lip.
I treated mine, it’s in the link below.
JR classics treated my car, probably around 4 years ago now. The price was more like £800 if I remember for full underseal treatment and all cavities, proper job. It’s been topped up since by the myself and Geoff the previous owner. With any treatment like this it still needs annual attention (it’s not a lifetime treatment) especially if it’s your daily driver. Think of it as slowing down the dreaded rust turning into serious rot and holes. Once rust is in there it continues to work it’s magic, only completely cutting it out will stop it, so we get them treated best we can.
Thank you. Jr classics looks good. Unfortunately it is 3 hours from me and my wife wouldnt drive that far (twice) to take me . I’m a little wary of the one I’ve found as I’m not sure if it is thorough enough. I don’t mind keeping an eye and testing annually but don’t want to spend out and then run into troubles later on. (Buy cheap buy twice and all that). The car will be my daily for at least 18 months after which hopefully back to being. A fairweather car.
From experience, I’ve owned 4 MX-5’s, 2 have been NC’s they mostly rust (the NC) around the rear lower arch to rear sill areas. Also around the rear chassis members, that’s where the exhaust back box hangers are located. Also the boot floor either side of these members, where the muck gets flicked up from the rear wheels. The return lip on the rear arch can start to bubble with rust, as mentioned above needs inspection and rectified to stop the spread.
The main cause for concern is the rear part of the sill just behind the rear jacking point and the metal that goes up into the wheel arches. Lift the wheel arch liner after removing that small bolt holding the liner on there, that bolt will probably be rusted in anyway but it goes in to a plastic bush in the wheel arch which does prise out. I think the plastic bush + hole is the cause of most rust starting there couple with the location with all the muck from the wheels getting in too. Having the whole of the underside undersealed isn’t that important, doing the areas the are prone to rusting is. Suspension parts rust too as do the subframes, mainly the rear subframe, again it catches the most muck that thrown up. The suspension parts are pretty strong but look unsightly with rust build up over the years.
If you plan on attending the rally next weekend don’t be afraid to ask members about rust protection and general problems to solve, I’ll gladly help if I can.
The guys from themx5restorer will be there, also worth checking out their videos on YouTube entitled ‘lights up lights down’ very interesting stuff and informative.
I am attempting to mask some blemishes and saw a video where it was said that you shouldn’t rub down between pearlescent coats one and two - or you lose the glittery effect. I don’t know how you can avoid this on localised repairs like this and especially if you are trying to touch up chip marks.
Thank you. Yes I am going next week. To give a (very) brief summary of my dilemma. He always had new company cars so never worried about them at all. I then changed careers so have been leasing an Octavia (again not remotely worried about). I then had a mk4 from virtually new that I’ve given up to keep costs down. I’ve used the equity in that to buy this 2011 sport black I have. The person I trust with servicing etc has advised me getting the underneath protected as several areas show surface corrosion. He mentioned subframe specifically. My plan is to daily this car for at least 18 months all year. I live 1 mile from the sea and the car is on the drive. Within reason I don’t mind spending the money my issue is finding people who I can rely on to do what’s needed well without doing unnecessary ‘dressing up’ that doesn’t really seem to help.
No one has yet said the info i sent at the beginning of the thread is a waste of money so leaning toward doing it. I would like the arches doing but cannot quite understand whether anything visible will then need painting as I’m not very keen on re spraying whole arches etc when they (currently I know!) don’t need it! Thanks again.
I get the impression it’s just the return and they will leave it in black primer neatly masked off.
I did something similar myself on my old Mk2, and just painted the return with some bituminous jollop which didn’t look out of place. Had it been a ‘nice’ sport black I might have been inclined to finish the return in colour.
The rustproofing quote seems reasonable value as it includes proper preparation.
My only concern with a 12 year old car would be is there is already rust inside the sills. It’s a shame Mazda don’t protect them properly in the first place.
When you consider the unnecessary and overpriced extras the dealers offer on a new car it’s ridiculous that they don’t push rust protection which must be the best accessory or modification it’s possible to add to a new or newish MX-5.
Well as to worth having the underseal done, I’d say yes but the whole car, probably no.
As I’ve said just do or have done what I consider needs to be done, which I’ve mentioned in the thread. You really need a recommendation from some who has used the company you’ve had a quote from I guess.
The rear wheel arch lips, I’m seeing arch lips on your car that may have been painted before, could be wrong though.
No need to paint the whole lip, about half out will do. If you can use/have a Dremel with a flap wheel on it, paint using a rattle can method then DIY it.
In the pics below I ground away any offending patches around the lip with the Dremel, treated the rust patches remaining with something like Kurust the painted over with black epoxy 2 part mastic paint. Let it cure for a couple of days then over primed it in grey rattle can primer. After a few coats of that I painted again rattle can in body colour, true red again a few coats then finished in a couple of laquer coats. Masking up between coats as you go.
No one would ever know unless you actually did a close inspection that the car has had the arch lip treated. Sold the car after doing the work on it nearly 3 years later, not a sign of any rust there resurfacing.
Also the under the sill area where it rusts the most, just aft of the jacking point. In this pic I’ve lathered the area in black epoxy mastic then afterwards went over with some Dinitrol to finish. The same epoxy mastic used on the wheel arch lip.
Btw plastic sill covers removed in the pic as I need to see if there was any treatment need under those, minimal it turned out.
Thank you so much. That’s incredibly useful. As you say I need to find somebody who has used these people really. Reading through I’m a bit mindful of when they speak about not removing plastic skirting as I would assume to do the dills on our cars properly that trim would need removing? Thanks again.
I had my 2010 20th Anniversary model undersealed at Rust.co.uk in Spalding some years ago. They do a thorough job. I had some brown substance weeping out from around the rear lights for a couple of days afterwards. It was also in the sills, boot and bonnet. Pretty much every hole you could poke a spray tube in. They also had a deal with local hire car company so you can get home when you drop yours off. Might look at getting my Abarth 124 Spider in before the bad weather.
Thank you very much. That’s good to hear. I take it the excess was easy to remove? Did you have the arches done as well? Keen to know exactly how they are finished. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
. I’m a little wary of the one I’ve found as I’m not sure if it is thorough enough. I don’t mind keeping an eye and testing annually but don’t want to spend out and then run into troubles later on. (Buy cheap buy twice and all that). The car will be my daily for at least 18 months after which hopefully back to being. A fairweather car.
