Im going to try and tidy up underneath of my XR3i this winter.

I don't have much money to spend £200 at most. I was thinking of stripping back the Underseal to bare metal and then Hammerite it all 2-3 coats then Underseal on top.

Whats best to soak the nuts and bolts in to clan them up and other parts to get clean??

Also fitting polybushes all round will help I think!

Any tips or suggestiond would be gratefull, Thanks!!!

 

Hi mate, i'm a newbie but i've just done this very thing on my Evo 5.

If you're car is a daily driver then the work done will be slightly different than if its a summer car.

This is what I did :

Clean the metal back to bare metal using wire drill / grinder attachments, then use rust convertor to make sure everything is gone..

http://www.rust.co.uk/rust-converters.cfm

then I use the Epoxy Mastic 121 as a primer. The 121 primer is the best around....

http://www.rust.co.uk/epoxy-mastic.cfm

and then seam sealed EVERYWHERE with Tigerseal (white).....

http://www.bodyshopwarehouse.co.uk/category/tiger-seal

Then I painted the chassis with a few coats of white, you can se what ever colour you want.

I put cavity wax in the whole rear end chassis and the sills and inside the doors, I used Dinitrol Cavity wax....

http://www.rust.co.uk/popup.cfm?p_i=405069&p_n=405069

I have done a proper job on it and not just covered things up. If you can then strip off as many parts as possible, don't just paint round them.

Make sure the chassis is completely dry before painting (use blow heaters if necessary) otherwise you'll just trap in moisture.

NUTS & BOLTS...

It depends on how they look when you take them off ? - with my car I was lucky, the car had on'y seen one UK winter when it was imported so the nuts and bolts were ok, however I did replace 90% of them with marine grade stainless bolts and the "special" bolts were sent to the chromers and chromed.

You can clean the bolts by soaking them in vinegar.

Hope this helps...

cheers

Andy

 

it will all depends on what you find once you strip all the underseal off, i have no doubt you will find some rot which might need welding, so unless you can weld the £200 isnt going to go very far if you have to pay someone to do it

i'd advise you to use new nuts & bolts, any fastner place will stock them and they wil cost pence, trying to clean up old nuts & bolts is a false economy IMO

 

Underneath is absoloutly solid! There was just surface rust before the Underseal went on.
Tbh underneath is very good Im just doing it for peace of mind tbh. Welding isnt a problem.

Thanks for the tips I will definatly follow your advice as much as I can!!!

 

Don't replace load bearing bolts with stainless there not strong enough and could snap, you need high tensile zinc coated bolts