Chassis Cleaning, Protection and Body Corrosion

Hi All,

As part of my rebuild I now have the boot floor and soon to have the fuel tank out and I know some of this has been done to the death, but there seems to be a big mixed bag of opinion regarding chassis protection, from Waxoyl, engine oil to spilling goats blood and chanting in your underpants.

I just wondered if this seems like a sensible route to cleaning my chassis while I have the boot out.

Pressure wash everything and then to use my karcher drain cleaning attachment inside the chassis rails to push out some of the crud - which is the better way in - from the front or the back? Are there drainage holes in the low part of the chassis on the underside of the rails, or just on the side? Once I have as much out as I can get, run a heat gun / blowtorch down inside the rails for a few minutes to dry out

Then squirt Dinitrol 3125 cavity wax inside the rails. For the outside, wirebrush everything and then coat in Fertan and then paint with Dinitrol 4941 underseal.

Sound like a sensible route?

One other question - some of my body panels have some corrosion - looks similar to electrolytic corrosion, like a white powdery mess. Are they salvageable if I take them back to bare metal and paint? or should I replace if I can.

Joel

I think it all comes down to how much you want to spend. I just rebuilt my boot floor and I just wire brushed the Chassis and gave it a good coat of Hammerite and a coat of Tetraseal Undercoat, more protection than it had when it left the factory. There are drain holes in the lower curved sections but these can get clogged up. If I'd completely stripped my interior out I probably would have pressure washed it first.

I'd rather spend the cash now than when the chassis is completely rotten, or have to do the boot again.

I'm interested in the more protection than when it left the factory Comment as my 96 300tdi seems to have a rubbery underseal all over the underneath which seems to have kept the rust away except for a little bit of the seam in the boot floor, don't all disco 1 have this underseal?

KiwiTDI said:

I'm interested in the more protection than when it left the factory Comment as my 96 300tdi seems to have a rubbery underseal all over the underneath which seems to have kept the rust away except for a little bit of the seam in the boot floor, don't all disco 1 have this underseal?

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The panels do yes, but there wasn't any on my chassis, I thought Chassis were just painted.

I think mine has a very thin layer of silver paint on it, plus some thick black paint around the towbar area

I've had to plate my chassis, all at the rear, in various bits using 3mm plate. Honestly, I think the previous owner must have reversed it into the sea! I even had to replace the big crossmember just to the front of the fuel tank. Regarding the paint, there are bits on my chassis where the paint is perfect, then a few inches along there was a big rusty hole! I'm currently using rust convertor, then primer, then hammerite, then I will spray underseal or similar everywhere I can. Just fitted a complete inner/outer sill and will have to protec this too. I think whatever you do, it will be better than factory! Good luck.

Ok now I look again the chassis rails look they are painted then maybe wax oiled but with a fair bit of what might be just overspray of the rubbery stuff which is thickly coated on the floor pan etc

The rubbery stuff looks to be very effective but once water gets under it as it did due to water leaking through the boot floor its "all over".

JoelC said:

Then squirt Dinitrol 3125 cavity wax inside the rails.

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I sprayed the inside with a mix of 50/50 old engine oil and Waxoyl. Messy but satisfying.