More thoughts on rust management for internal body spaces where access is difficult (1 Viewer)

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Oct 8, 2011
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Toronto, NSW, Australia
With my barn doors being replaced, I have the internal panels out to get into the spaces above/behind the rear wheels and I had a look at the left side which had significant rust coming through which was hidden by a section of the old TJM fibreglass flare that's now long gone.

I fertan'd the inside the body panel join running around the outer edge of the LHR wheel arch and it's still ok, but I never did anything to paint over it or spray something else over it like woolwax, fluid film, etc.

Been doing more reading and I'm thinking that Woolwax is going to be the winner. Fluid film's application spec doesn't really suit what I want to do. Ye old Wattyl fishoilene still could be used, but not sure of it's longevity. Eastwood's internal frame coating might be suitable too but the phenolic layer it leaves behind probably isn't the answer for the wheel arch interior space.

The RHR wheel arch space will have rust too but it's nowhere near as bad as what it was on the left side.

I've still not been able to do anything about the rust in the body sills under the doors except to bog and put on a bit of paint where I got rid of rust and bogged. Funds to have a body shop investigate properly and cut out + replaced rusted sections have not become available.

So who has used Woolwax aerosols?
 
Not a fan of woolwax or fluid-film. Those products stay wet and tacky and quickly a become an oily dirt smudge. I'm anxious to try a new product called Lanoguard, but it's only sold from the manufacturer in UK currently and the shipping to US costs more than the product. Seems like you would better access to it being in AU. There's a couple YouTube videos on Lanoguard, it really looks like a winner as it dries hard, not tacky. Good surface prep looks important for this stuff. Also for internal boxed sections under the body there are some professionally installed products that are applied hot and then cure in place. Might be worth calling some panel beaters around your area to see what they offer.
 
So Eastwood has some cavity spray and so does KBS coatings. They come with a tube and a diffuser nozzle that is nearly Omni directional for getting in to various places. I am using Eastwoods version.

Also you might look at something like rp-342 or the CRC equivalent. Is durable and you would need gasoline/petrol to remove it. Apparently it handles pressure washing also.

I have also not decided on my wheel arches yet but that will be soon
 
The eastwood stuff seems the logical choice for inside the lower body sills whether I elect to go the body shop route or not. Def do not have any skills/experience to do body metalwork replacement myself.

Inside the rear wheel arch spaces is a different situation.
 
Living in the northeast, I use Fluid Film everywhere. Every October I use a pneumatic sprayer and do the complete underside. Then I go around with a spray bottle and extension wand and get into all the nooks and crannies. I'd rather have a dirty, greasy truck than a rusty one.
 
Well if you find something good that isn't rubberized for the wheel wells, please post back here as I don't have a solution i like. I don't do rubberized as i moved from a place where i saw how much rust it hid and allowed to grow.
 
I like a combo of something like cosmoline & FF or WW. The former is great for surfaces and all around, forms a more solid layer that lasts better, while the latter are great for creeping into tight spaces and seams, just need to touch up annually or so. The creeping as well as "breathability" & not trapping moisture is key with those. What I personally do not like using is any type of painted/hardened product, unless it's on bare, clean, prepped metal like in a frame-off restoration. Whole lot more work. Otherwise, I've seen it accelerate rust too many times, and you often don't know as it's covered up. Even if I could start from scratch with brand new, clean, prepped metal and use the best paint and all that, I would still use FF/etc on top of it.

I mostly use FF & do the whole undercarriage annually before winter, and touch up the rear in spring before boating season. I'd love to get the air gun, but don't mind the cans at all, and simply use the little wand to get in the frame, rockers, and anywhere else there's a cavity with access. Working great so far.

I use boeshield T9 on my outboards under the cowling, which cures more waxy than "wet," and the engines stay spotless in our saltwater environment. Even used it on the rear axle of my truck one spring, as I didn't have a can of FF handy, and it worked great. I quick rinse off the rear after boating, and water was terrified of the stuff.
 
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Living in the northeast, I use Fluid Film everywhere. Every October I use a pneumatic sprayer and do the complete underside. Then I go around with a spray bottle and extension wand and get into all the nooks and crannies. I'd rather have a dirty, greasy truck than a rusty one.
Me too!
 
One reason i considered Woolwax for the wheel arches was that it's not rubberised, is fairly 'neutral', and over time 'flows' as it's an extremely difficult seam to treat. The external holes aren't much trouble as they just take suitable prep and filling but because of how the two sections of panel join it's a rust trap. Same as what happens with the lower edge of the side cargo windows.

Wattyl here in Oz makes a thing called Fishoilene which is a rust-proofing product more akin to standard commercial auto body rust proofing. It can be obtained in aerosol which would be good for the really difficult access to the wheel arch seam and down to the bottom of the c-pillar area which I've found is a key rust area at the back end of each lower body sill.

Never used it, or anything like Woolwax or Fluid Film before. Fluid Film seem more suited to exterior surfaces though. In another forum site I've seen reference to a Tectyl 506 product from Valvoline.

For treating rust after I've done as much physical cleanup I now use Fertan which is excellent but it requires something else on top. Some people say that after the rust convert stage some sort of sealant should go on, then a topcoat paint, then another layer of some sort of sealing product. Is a 4-layer approach really practical for treating the inside of body cavities and wheel arch seams?
 
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Not a fan of woolwax or fluid-film. Those products stay wet and tacky and quickly a become an oily dirt smudge. I'm anxious to try a new product called Lanoguard, but it's only sold from the manufacturer in UK currently and the shipping to US costs more than the product. Seems like you would better access to it being in AU. There's a couple YouTube videos on Lanoguard, it really looks like a winner as it dries hard, not tacky. Good surface prep looks important for this stuff. Also for internal boxed sections under the body there are some professionally installed products that are applied hot and then cure in place. Might be worth calling some panel beaters around your area to see what they offer.
If it dries hard then it will cause problems, guaranteed! LPS HardCoat is a similar product, it’s not a winner in the salty environment.
If the product needs proper surface preparation then it’s also a negative. The gooey slippery slimy stuff is that way for a reason, it heals when it’s rubbed by something. A product that dries hard does not.
I live in an extremely corrosive environment and products such as Woolwax and Fluidfilm are the best performers.
 
I've used fish oil/fisholine on my 80. I rate it pretty highly. Applied it over 3 years ago on parts of the underside and inside the frame rails. It's tacky at first, but over a few weeks kind of hardens without becoming completely rigid, so it doesn't crack, but also doesn't cause dirt/dust/sand to stick in it. If you can avoid anything too dirty for a few weeks, and deal with a bit of a fishy smell for the first week or so (totally dissipates after that), I think it's a really good option. Doesn't seem to exist in the US. When I mentioned it a year or so back here, someone mentioned the possibility of it attracting bears stateside, which sounds plausible. Down here in Aus though, I think it's a really good inexpensive option. Great preventative.
 
Got a tin of Fishoilene and have been experimenting with it. To get it into the front part of the rear wheel arch seams and down into the bottom of the c-pillar spaces where rust is a problem I got a small container, filled it with Fishoilene, and just poured it down along the seam.

For the back part of the rear wheel arch seams I applied it by brush, and poured a little down the seams as well. Sorry about the pics, but this is what the spaces look like currently towards the c-pillar areas. The left side is a lot worse that the right, and it was fully Fertaned recently after cleaning up as much as possible. The fishoilene will seep into all the spaces I hope.





The right side got a bit of fertaning as well lower down out of the picture towards the back more.

I'll paint the surfaces as much as I can away from the fertaned and fishoilened seams with basic paint just to give the inner face of the outer metal as good as protection as I can give it.
 
Is the black stuff in the upper picture rust or just decomposing leaves etc?
 
Treated rust.. The left side is much worse than the right as when the TJM flare piece originally fell off from over the left rear wheel it had revealed a fair amount of rust.

Also I'd previously painted both seams inside but only painted the whole available internal panel space on the right side. As of today I've re done that and also painted as much of the inside of the left external body panel that I could access (with all the cabling, etc. that gets in the way).
 

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