No Jim, with all that's going on I just locked up the garage & didn't think.
General Any tips for rust-"proofing" the back axle?
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General Any tips for rust-"proofing" the back axle?
No Jim, with all that's going on I just locked up the garage & didn't think.
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Lead acid batteries suffer when left unused. You will need to put it on an Optimate once a week to keep it topped up.
I had mine sand blasted after removing the bushes, then a good coat of satin black chassis paint and finished off with a litre of stonechip. I also blasted the mountings and painted them with the satin black chassis paint.
On refitting it I replaced the bushes with some Superpro polyurethane bushes and sprayed Dinitrol underbody wax into the spring seats to hopefully keep the rust at bay should the springs wear through the stonechip.
I have a couple of jobs to complete when the weather improves including an Eibach suspension lowering kit so the spring seats will be getting another dose of Dinitrol.
On refitting it I replaced the bushes with some Superpro polyurethane bushes and sprayed Dinitrol underbody wax into the spring seats to hopefully keep the rust at bay should the springs wear through the stonechip.
I have a couple of jobs to complete when the weather improves including an Eibach suspension lowering kit so the spring seats will be getting another dose of Dinitrol.
I purchased the XCP some time back for the use on anything behind the brake discs on my vehicles when I'm servicing/fettling suspension etc, but so far haven't used it yet Jock. We all know what a fanny about it is trying to loosen nuts/bolts what have you when rusted to hell.
Hi Jim. Yes I rather like the look of this XCP stuff. I'm going to buy some for the 1st coat. Not quite so sure if the waxoyl underseal is best for the top coating though? Still, plenty of time to think about it before the weather gets hot enough (hot? - no substitute warm) to do something practical.
Glad for you that the coupe is reawakening ok. I remember you telling me last year that you were hoping to make a trip down here to us Sasanachs in Edinburgh, did you manage?
I notice you addressing the "other Jim" on here. I've been having a conversation with him and hope, once Mrs J and I are properly well again, to meet with him for a cup of tea and a chat as he lives not too far from me. Corona Virus permitting (knees trembling)
Kindest regards and take care
Jock
Aye Jock, Jim & myself were among a Coupe tour NC500 a few years ago, happy times, we managed to get in there before it became too crowded & too popular. When you meet up he will tell you all the craic, we stayed in a few up market places, wined & dined in style.
Regarding my Coupe, I had a major restoration by a Coupe specialist near Bristol, over two years. I flew down just before Christmas last year & drove up here Inverness-shire 9hrs. Two fuel stops & once to stretch my dodgy leg. I'm recovering from a hip operation & not able to get behind the wheel of the Coupe yet. But getting there.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Did our 1.2 last year. Cleaned the rust off and coated with waxoil. Went to derust and paint the drums today and noted that the axle looked is if it had never been touched so did it again. Much more thorough this time.
Every last grain of dirt and spot of rust was removed to bare metal. Then I used Dinitrol Rust converter Epoxy seal. I am satisfied that this looks like a good finish and all existing rust has turned black. It seems to be an industrial strength version of Kurust. Finished surface looked as if it had been coated in fibreglass resin. This was given two coats of black paint and Dinitrol under body seal. I de rusted the springs thoroughly and did these too. Then I did the drums and back plates. It looks like new with the wheels off!
I am very glad of the prompt as the job was screaming to be done and there was a disconcerting amount of rust along the welds. I will eventually post to say how these products work long term.
Every last grain of dirt and spot of rust was removed to bare metal. Then I used Dinitrol Rust converter Epoxy seal. I am satisfied that this looks like a good finish and all existing rust has turned black. It seems to be an industrial strength version of Kurust. Finished surface looked as if it had been coated in fibreglass resin. This was given two coats of black paint and Dinitrol under body seal. I de rusted the springs thoroughly and did these too. Then I did the drums and back plates. It looks like new with the wheels off!
I am very glad of the prompt as the job was screaming to be done and there was a disconcerting amount of rust along the welds. I will eventually post to say how these products work long term.
I've not heard of this stuff before, it sounds like good stuff. Is this it?
https://www.dinitroldirect.com/product/dinitrol-rc900-400ml-aerosol-add-on/
It's quite pricey but that wouldn't put me off if it works well. Do you think one can would do the axle or would you need more?
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Thats the stuff Jock. I think one would just about do the whole thing. I am very satisfied with the finish and have done basically 4 swinging arms, 4 drums and back plates and still have possibly half a tin left. I swear by all their products. I find them much easier than waxoil and I have never seen rust on anything I have used their stuff on. I did the spring seats and the springs on the Panda 169 and am pretty happy it will not need so much attention again. The finished job looks pretty sound and had a few coats of high temperature paint left over after spraying the brake drums. I may see if I can get the plastic coil wrap for the 169 as its an obvious way of preserving the springs which were suffering a lot of surface-ish rust.
I was surprised how much difference there is between the 169 and 312. The newer car has plastic wrap around the lower spring coils - just a plastic tube, but clearly a good idea. It also has a rubber cap at the bottom as well as the top of the spring which also seems a good idea. Drums seem bigger too but that maybe just subjective. The drums came off the 312 but not off the 169 which had a brake service recently, so I did not force the issue. I used various wire brushed on my drill and a flapper wheel and was very pleased how the very sad drums on the older car came up. The whole spring seat arrangement has been heavily revised on the 312 so there seems to be less welding. The only thing i did with that is cleaned the top arm to cross tube weld and treated that. I did the new car day one and have not had the energy to get under it yet to see how its fairing!..
Now I have to get the front wheels of the older two and clean the back sides. and remove all the stones thorns and nails from their tread too. By the time I can use any of them again they will be in stunning order.
My neighbour said there's no need for me to to wash cars at the moment, little does he know about OCD (car)...... Ruby was covered in pollen.... Had to wash her! He only thinks I am mad, I know I am! My excuse is that all the cars are long term keepers so worth looking after.
As an aside, I checked the batteries, and the Li ion was by far the lowest state of charge. I reluctantly followed the long winded process of disconnecting the negative lead before charging, but I cannot see any reason for this as it appears to be an earth lead only. Now various things need to be reset. I use a solar panel to charge the other two a couple pf hours a week does the job nicely with no messing about.
I hope your safe and sound. There's one massive problem with this virus thing..... there's an acute shortage of my regular beer round here. My Brexit supply will run out in about another 2 weeks. Tragic.
Safe and sound? Yes thanks very much, you we are all in good fettle and self and Mrs J are being very careful. So far we think my youngest boy (in his 30's so not that young) has had a mild dose of the virus, but without testing who knows? He's taken 10 days to get through it but is now back to his usual obnoxious self! His wife and 2 children seem unaffected. Unfortunately a few years ago a big tummy operation put paid to me being able to consume alcoholic beveridges, pity, I liked a nice beer or malt or G&T or vanilla vodka or almost anything with alcohol in it!
Waxoyl is indeed a very messy product so I'm looking forward to trying the Dinitrol. I see it's made by the Dinol people. Remember Dinol Tufcote underseal from many years ago? When I worked for the DAF garage we were agents for Zeibart - a nice little bonus earner if you managed to sell it and even better if you could get the customer to buy the "full works" paint and interior protection too. The main competition at that time was the very similar Dinitrol treatment package. Zeibart seems to have disappeared (it was swedish I think?). I think that, as with all these things, if the vehicle was very carefully prepared and allowed to dry out properly after all the nooks and crannies were washed out before fastidiously applying the product it was very good but standards of application varied greatly. The most unpopular and difficult DAF colour to sell was AVERTO - a bright green which I quite liked actually. Google "DAF Averto" and you'll see a picture of a 33 in that colour. - I think DAF had fields full of unsold ones in this colour and my boss always had them Zeibarted at our expense before sale because that way if they rusted (because they had been lying about for so long) Zeibart picked up the problem (and, to their credit, they never argued about it). The way we got our stock was by the boss ordering and paying on delivery for the cars. If I had a good month and sold all the stock, or if someone wanted a car I didn't have in stock, it was difficult to get more from the factory so I used to swap stock with other dealers. However If you ever actually ordered an AVERTO coloured car they would allow you to increase your order by one other car of your choice! Boy did I dread if an AVERTO just turned up out of the blue!
All Becky's springs were pretty "crusty". The front ones I renewed when I did the struts/top mounts/etc last year but the rears are looking rather sorry for themselves.
Although she passed her MOT recently with no advisories, I'm considering fitting new ones when I do the axle. I don't like the way the spring bears directly on the metal of the pan but maybe if i just "swamp" it, after I've used the Dinitrol, with something like waxoyl (got half a tin left over from last time I used it) it'll stop the rust getting going again.
Becky's wheels are pretty crusty too and I'm thinking of having them powder coated but haven't quite made up my mind yet.
I have a ctek smart charger which keeps Becky happy without any need to disconnect main battery leads. I'm a little bit nervous about putting it on the Ibiza though with all it's modern regenerative charging, stop start and battery monitoring electronics. The chaps on the Cupra forum (the other forum I go on - but nothing like as active as this one!) say that if I connect to the body on the neg side it'll be fine as that way the monitoring electronics can "see" the charger. Ummmm? I'm afraid I'm a bit of a "fierdy"
Best wishes and I hope you stay well
Jock
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
few photos of the results. Looks like I have missed some bits but the weld that fail are all treated. The brown stuff is the underbody wax. The back of the brakes is the rust encapsulater spray as is the spring in black. I Hammerited the springs. Its not the right stuff but they look fine now....
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The spring pan failure point is a vertical band about 20mm wide, about 20mm inboard of the weld. I believe it's stress-corrosion that speeds up the decay.
Weld repairs do not need to go all around the spring pan, but do need to start at the swing arm weld and end into the curve. Basically go well past the high stress point so the weld itself does not become a stress raiser that cracks or rusts rapidly.
Weld repairs do not need to go all around the spring pan, but do need to start at the swing arm weld and end into the curve. Basically go well past the high stress point so the weld itself does not become a stress raiser that cracks or rusts rapidly.
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Yep, Had same problem and a nice mention on the MOT advisories! I had 4 years ago.
This 'LOW cost' solution is what I did.
Get car raised so you can work underneath safely
Remove one rear wheel and wire brush the axel being careful not to catch any brake pipes, Pay particular attention the lower coil 'cup' which seems to be the most common failure of the rear axel
When rust removed, as best you can, paint it with hammarite paint. when you've done a good part of one side , replace wheel and remove the other and do same.
I will admit that its a very low tech solution but it did the trick and ive had 3 clear MOT's since.
As I said, this is a low, but somewhat effective way of dealing with the rust issue and within the realms of most people.
This 'LOW cost' solution is what I did.
Get car raised so you can work underneath safely
Remove one rear wheel and wire brush the axel being careful not to catch any brake pipes, Pay particular attention the lower coil 'cup' which seems to be the most common failure of the rear axel
When rust removed, as best you can, paint it with hammarite paint. when you've done a good part of one side , replace wheel and remove the other and do same.
I will admit that its a very low tech solution but it did the trick and ive had 3 clear MOT's since.
As I said, this is a low, but somewhat effective way of dealing with the rust issue and within the realms of most people.
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The last time I did any wire brush work under a car wheel arch I ended up in A&E with metal crap in my eye. And yes I was wearing safety squints.
Today, the easiest solution would be a grit blast attachment on a pressure washer. They cost about £20 (plus sand media) and suck dry sand into the water jet to remove rust. Treat the clean metal with a water base rust converter then paint in the normal way.
The rear axle will easily drop down by removing both shock absorber bottom bolts. No need to undo the stuff to remove it from the car. It a sensible job anyway so you can copper paste the threads.
I went the whole hog had had the axle shot blasted and zinc metal sprayed (cost £80). The axle is easy to remove but I did have the use of another car while the job was done.
Today, the easiest solution would be a grit blast attachment on a pressure washer. They cost about £20 (plus sand media) and suck dry sand into the water jet to remove rust. Treat the clean metal with a water base rust converter then paint in the normal way.
The rear axle will easily drop down by removing both shock absorber bottom bolts. No need to undo the stuff to remove it from the car. It a sensible job anyway so you can copper paste the threads.
I went the whole hog had had the axle shot blasted and zinc metal sprayed (cost £80). The axle is easy to remove but I did have the use of another car while the job was done.
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You can't be too careful when working under your car. Any time I go under mine, it usually takes me longer to make the car safe as it does to do the job. My garage is several hundred yards up the road from my house behind some houses off the beaten track, a great spot, level smooth tar to work on when car is up on ramps/stands, but if the worse were to happen no one would hear or find me for some time.
Work & stay safe everyone
My garage is several hundred yards up the road from my house behind some houses off the beaten track, a great spot, level smooth tar to work on when car is up on ramps/stands, but if the worse were to happen no one would hear or find me for some time.Work & stay safe everyone
