Club 80-90 Forums

underseal - DON'T

HarryMann wrote:underseal - DON'T

Ok, what would you use, just a rust proof type paint? I've seen a few comments in other threads saying they painted 2nd hand trailing arms before fitting.... would the same Blue Rustoleum im painting the van with do the job????

Rustoleum fine providing arm is clean and de-rusted. Did that to mine. Agree with Harrymann on not using underseal - hides too much on an important area. If you paint it, you can keep an eye on further rust ingress etc. Rustoleum is quite tough stuff as it goes. Did my outriggers and inner sills with it too. Easy to hose clean - stands a pressure washer no sweat. Smoothrite is another alternative but not as good in my opinion.

Must get some black Rustoleum - otherwise whole bus will be blue at this rate

CovKid wrote:Rustoleum fine providing arm is clean and de-rusted. Did that to mine. Agree with Harrymann on not using underseal - hides too much on an important area. If you paint it, you can keep an eye on further rust ingress etc. Rustoleum is quite tough stuff as it goes. Did my outriggers and inner sills with it too. Easy to hose clean - stands a pressure washer no sweat. Smoothrite is another alternative but not as good in my opinion.

Must get some black Rustoleum - otherwise whole bus will be blue at this rate

Cheers CovKid ...I know what you mean... I would paint the engine with blue Rustoleum if I could LOL.

Im actually a bit worried about whether the trailing arms are good enough to weld the repair plates on! ..there is surface rust all over it, but there are no holes or really weak spots (after much tapping with a screwdriver) so might just patch it up and paint it for now to get through the MOT and then next year get some 2nd hand arms and replace them.

.there is surface rust all over it, but there are no holes or really weak spots (after much tapping with a screwdriver)

No problem from that description!

The real way (other than a good sand-blast) is a twist-knot wire brush on a 115mm/4.5" angle grinder (check Wiki on H&S ) to attack where you think the rust is too ingrained for a manual wire-brushing to get into it. If you find a seriously rust thinned area or the twist-knot can actually rip a hole in it, then you're talking a proper welded plate repair (supposedly not allowed by MOT). It'd have to be a bad arm before the number of those made a replacement really necessary IMO and where exactly the thinned metal was - anything half way towards or around the pivot bush housings - dodgy indeed. Or the shock absorber fitting. Plating a decent area on the top say and a Brickwerks style spring plate repair kit - done properly, should be acceptable.

If you really mean just surface rust, then Rustoleum/Hammerite or something like Dinitrol RC900 spray and any tough chassis paint over that.
Don't forget to dry out, clean and wire brush inside, just spraying with RC900 would be enough.
The important thing is there's no heavy rust scale and it's very dry anmd grease free before painting or treating. It's had years of muck, get it all off and all out of it.

Check the solid brake pipe is not corroded where it sits in the plastic clip, I've seen one burst there (quite an easy pipe to change)

Both trailing arms have had repair plates welding on and have been painted in a lovely matching blue (rustoleum) and look as good as new, well they look a lot better anyway!!! Very pleased with the job and didnt take too long either, got the spring back in and all sit nicely.

Next job is to wack on 2 new shocks (old ones were a MESS - rust holes in both of them!!!) and get the brake back plates on and finish the brakes then its the dreded MOT time!!!

Loving the blue trailing arms look pretty damn cool actually!