Undersealing

[greasemonkey]

Hey chaps. This probably been coverd before and i apologise if it has :( Its mainly about has anyone used these guys to do undersealing ? Got a quote of £500. I live in highbridge and would be great if anyone could shout out a good company that can carry out undersealing.Cheers All

 

http://www.brabazonmotors.co.uk/

[stants]

If it's a proper job wash/dry removal of old stuff then I'd say that's not a bad price,

I take it yours has been sealed in the past ?

If you can and have the means why not save yourself 450 quid get a wire brush some ramps a pot of underseal & brush and do it yourself ? Only takes about an hour and a half to do the floor then it's just the rear arches

[greasemonkey]

Hey stants yeah I could do it myself I suppose.  And no the car dont look like its been done before. 

[Steveuk260.Esq]

That's eq pensive. I only pay £150 for underseal including all the cleaning etc.

And thats not me doing either.

[Judd]

Old thread i know, but times have moved on in the rustproofing world, and this last winter and the amount of salt used will have taken its toll, if you haven't been under your car yet since the winter you might be in for a shock when you do.

I had  a brand new Hilux professionally rustproofed and whilst it was a decent enough job it was nothing to write home about considering it was over £400, i thought then and know now that i can do a better job myself.

I have rustproofed cars before with good old Waxoyl, but its such a filthy horrid job, what with having to thin the stuff down and heat it up on the cooker to get it to flow, plus the inevitable splashes in the kitchen you can soon get in trouble with the boss.

I'd heard of but seldom used Dinitrol, but i did read about Bilt Hamber's rustproofing products, and on one forum a chap had tested various sheets of unpainted steel with the various maker's products, and after subjecting the panels to a good salt bathing periodically left them out in the open to see how they fared.

The BH treated panels were far less rusty than the others, the worse of which you might as well have not bothered coating at all.

So, up to now i've treated 4 vehicles with Bilt Hamber's products, from their rust destroyer/converters and zinc spray paints through to their superb underbody and cavity waxes, i alos use their wax polishes and car and wheel washing products, finished rustproofing the Mrs' Forester this last Sunday.

Where BH win hands down on the rustproofing products is the large aerosols and the simple but very effective probes for cavity wax application, over the 4 cars treatments i've never had one single blockage, which will be music to the ears of any users of previous generation products where you spent half the time unblocking the pipes and wiping up spillages.

BH is not cheap stuff, but IMHO the quality plus ease of use and far less wastage when compared to the previous stuff, makes it no more expensive in the long run, and the smell doesn't last for more than a few days after treatement.

Typically you will spend around £130/150 on aerosol waxes and zinc paint to treat a Subaru well, maybe a little more to do a thorough job of an Outback sized car, roughly £220/250 of product to do a Landcruiser well, that's coating the ladder chassis fully inside and out as well as cavities and the whole of the underbody and inside all doors etc.

For a Forester sized car i suggest 4 to 6 750ml cans of harder underbody wax, 2 or 3 cans of softer setting cavity wax and maybe a couple of cans of zinc spray paint to coat surface rust on the subframes before you start wax coating, and pick up some really hard chassis paint, i use a two pack which is hard as hell.

The most important job is preparation, you must clean the car thoroughly underbody, i have a right angle lance fitting for my high volume pressure washer which is ideal to get the under body clean.

Then get each wheel off and the car up in the air....get a large thick polythene sheet and drive the car onto it before you start...and get to work with wire brushes and glass paper, rubbing down all the surface rust on the suspension and subframes, then i sprayed the derusted areas in zinc, then painted them in hard black 2 coat paint the following day, you could allow this to dry then for a week and the following weekend you'll whizz the wax sealing process off in about 3 hours.

I poked the cavity wax probes up inside the doors through the drain holes, into the boot, inside the bonnet strengthening frame and inside the wheel arch liners from various points, if you put the near enough meter long probes in as far as they can go and press the trigger you'll hear and feel the spray as it passes along and the fine mist will appear from any holes nearby, a very satisfying sound that is too, also useful those cavity probes for getting the product into the suspension/subframe nooks and cranies.

Body box sections you will find various rubber bungs which can be removed so the cavity stuff can go all the way along, refit bungs.

I unclipped the kick treads and did the insides of the sills, we have a boot liner in cos its the dog carrier, when the liner comes out for cleaning i shall unclip the trims and feed the probes down into the insides of the wheelarches and inside the rear wings.

Don't forget to whip the spare wheel out and see if any damp has got in and been trapped near the rubber centre bung, now is the time to treat it.

The underbody wax is obvious how and where to apply.

Before waxing though no harm in painting the exhaust in heatproof paint whilst you're there.

There you go, you've rustproofed your car as good as or maybe better than the professionals and saved yourself lots of cash, its still going to be a filthy job, so good overalls, latex gloves and preferably goggles (which can be a pain as they steam up) and a breathing mask and a hat of some sort...baby wipes are good for getting drops off your face which you will inevitably collect.

Then just give it a good wash underneath every spring, then have a quick poke nose see what needs topping up, half an hour later you're back on the road.

I have no association with Bilt Hamber other than as a very satisfied customer, and i get no freebies or discounts other than taking advantage sometimes of buying several tins of product to get the slight bulk discount they offer on their website which anyone can, if you have access to spraying equipment then they sell their products in bulk packs too, so you save even more.