I have the front panel off the car to do another job. I knew the engine bay was shabby and the plan is for the car to have a professional "upper body restoration" in due course which is likely to be several years away. I know that in an ideal world the engine bay needs to be stripped to bare metal and painted appropriately. I do not have the equipment to take the engine out or the time to strip the engine bay anyway. I have a busy job and I do not have unlimited time (or money!)
With the front panel off I can see corrosion especially on the right hand side of the engine (looking from the front). I think this is because there have been leaks over many years from the bottom radiator hose.
The metal is solid and sound but I wonder if there is anything I can do as a running repair? It seems a real missed opportunity to do something with the engine bay so easily accessed.
Stephen
IMG_9781.jpeg (4.23 MiB) Viewed 942 times
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Mine was similar but not quite so bad. I got rid of all oil/grease on the floor with gunk de-greaser and then, when dry again, wire brushed/sandpapered it all to get rid of loose rust. Then I painted with black hammerite before painting over that with the proper colour of the car. This was about three years ago and still is good.
myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 11:37 am
Mine was similar but not quite so bad. I got rid of all oil/grease on the floor with gunk de-greaser and then, when dry again, wire brushed/sandpapered it all to get rid of loose rust. Then I painted with black hammerite before painting over that with the proper colour of the car. This was about three years ago and still is good.
That sounds promising. I can't be moving brake pipes out the way but I can probably move electrical cables to enable proper preparation. I am thinking about what I can achieve in a long weekend (3 days) because I don't want the car off the road for weeks. It will be a spring job as it is too cold at the moment. Too cold for me and also too cold for paint to dry.
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Now, I've not used it myself, but I have seen others (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TOfUo9JLXo) recommend it (or rather the non-gel version) and having used two bottles of Jenolites' non-gel version (1 bottle worked great, the other did nothing and at £20 each that's not a good investment), I'll definitely be trying it in the future (if only such things weren't needed ).
Once it takes it all back to bare metal, then I'd use a zinc primer and then finally a rust beating paint.
Last edited by Chief on Sat Feb 24, 2024 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wash it all down to de-grease and clean, then apply 'Fertan' whilst wet. Can be re-wetted to prolong the rust conversion process.
The 'Fertan' will creep under brake pipes and get into the cracks so not much preparation to carry out. Can be left applied to work till the better weather comes around and then paint when ready.
I use 'Fertan' all the time and it is the best rust converter 'IMHO' that you can get. https://www.fertan.co.uk/product/fertan-rust-converter/
philthehill wrote: ↑Sat Feb 24, 2024 2:19 pm
Wash it all down to de-grease and clean, then apply 'Fertan' whilst wet. Can be re-wetted to prolong the rust conversion process.
The 'Fertan' will creep under brake pipes and get into the cracks so not much preparation to carry out. Can be left applied to work till the better weather comes around and then paint when ready.
I use 'Fertan' all the time and it is the best rust converter 'IMHO' that you can get. https://www.fertan.co.uk/product/fertan-rust-converter/
Great. Will do. I have some Fertan which is just as well as it's very expensive.
I am not going to make much effort with the engine towers because I am going to buy new ones, paint them up and have them ready to swap when I eventually swap over the engine front plate. At that point I will be able to access the area under the towers for paint but I can get the Fertan in there now. I met the chap who invented Fertan about 15 years ago. A chap called Alan between Portsmouth and Southampton.
I don't know why but I have never taken the front panel off the car before. Why I struggled with so many jobs when I could have taken off the front panel and made it all so much easier I have no idea!
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
Depends how far you want to go, as a minimum treat the rust and then coat with some sort of protection wax to stop it getting worse (something like Blt Hamber UC), alternatively brush a coat of thinned epoxy primer and some topcoat over it after the rust treatment.
I watched a video of Edd China yesterday using nearly 2000 litres of Evaporust on a Land Rover chasssis. Seemed to get a very good result from it.
Personally I've used Jenolite rust treatment to good effect. It's like milk that you brush directly on to the rust and it turns the metal black. I do give it a little bit of wire brushing in advance though. Unless I could dunk the front end in to a big bath of Evaporust, I'd give the Jenolite stuff a try and then chuck some black Hammerite over it.
rocco wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:24 am
I watched a video of Edd China yesterday using nearly 2000 litres of Evaporust on a Land Rover chasssis. Seemed to get a very good result from it.
Personally I've used Jenolite rust treatment to good effect. It's like milk that you brush directly on to the rust and it turns the metal black. I do give it a little bit of wire brushing in advance though. Unless I could dunk the front end in to a big bath of Evaporust, I'd give the Jenolite stuff a try and then chuck some black Hammerite over it.
Thank you. I use Evaporust for small part de-rusting. It's excellent but expensive. I dread to think how much 2,000 litres of it costs!!! The advantage of Evaporust is that it completely dissolves away the rust leaving bare metal. Like any treatment that leaves bare metal it must be painted very quickly or it will flash rust (I have watched parts flash rust within 20 minutes).
Many of the rust converter products are based on phosphoric acid and convert the rust to hydrated iron phosphate (which is the blue/black colour). They only convert the very surface but they do provide a stable surface to paint. Fertan is another rust converter but it is not based on phosphoric acid or citric acid. In an ideal world, the car would be stripped to bare metal and treated with modern rust preventing coatings but I am yet to win the lottery..........
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
svenedin wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 11:03 am
or it will flash rust (I have watched parts flash rust within 20 minutes).
I was repainting a car, had to strip it to bare metal first. The job took longer and the daylight fled too quickly. In the end I had to leave it overnight, outside, near the coast.
I spent the next morning sanding off the flash rust
The weather is foul and the forecast for tomorrow is just as bad. The car is reversed into my small garage and if I'm not careful I will get soaked. I will give the engine bay floor a scrub perhaps up to half way up the engine bay with degreaser (Gunk), then Fertan treatment and put the front end back on for now. As Phil has suggested, the Fertan can be left for some months if necessary but the intention is to prime and paint when the weather warms up in spring. It really isn't that bad but looks awful. Numerous oil leaks have preserved the metal rather well.
Finally, I think I am reaching a point with my car where it is actually going to be in a better condition than it was when I was 17 all those years ago.
The refurbished Lucas M35J starter motor works beautifully and the car now sounds very different when it is started. The old original starter motor must have been very worn. I noted not to have any oil on the Bendix. I took this off with my Bendix spring compressor, cleaned any trace of oil and have used a spray, dry PTFE lubricant. Dirt will not stick to this dry lubricant.
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
les wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 5:47 pm
2000 litres, nearly 500 gallons ! are you sure ! Cheaper to buy a new chassis !!
That's exactly what I thought when I saw that it's 50 quid for 5 litres. With him being a bit of a celeb, I imagine they gave him the whole lot for free and put it on the marketing budget.
Well done.
Those engine mounting rubber look as if they could do with replacing.
I would suggest that you get some NOS engine mounts from club spares as then you will know what you have.
New engine rubber mounts tend to be made with harder rubber these days whilst the original ones are just right in that they support the engine yet are flexible enough to absorb vibrations and engine movement.
The ones I got from club spares are just right and if I remember correctly they have a Shore rating of 75. I did compare the Shore rating of the genuine BMC rubber engine mounts currently fitted to my engine and those from club spares and they were reasonably the same.
I find that coating rubber parts with either rubber grease or silicon spray extends the life of the rubber item considerably.
Phil
les wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 5:47 pm
2000 litres, nearly 500 gallons ! are you sure ! Cheaper to buy a new chassis !!
That's exactly what I thought when I saw that it's 50 quid for 5 litres. With him being a bit of a celeb, I imagine they gave him the whole lot for free and put it on the marketing budget.
Check my maths because something doesn’t add up ! At £50 for 5 litres it would cost £20,000 to clean the chassis ! Why not buy another Land Rover.
philthehill wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:08 pm
Well done.
Those engine mounting rubber look as if they could do with replacing.
I would suggest that you get some NOS engine mounts from club spares as then you will know what you have.
New engine rubber mounts tend to be made with harder rubber these days whilst the original ones are just right in that they support the engine yet are flexible enough to absorb vibrations and engine movement.
The ones I got from club spares are just right and if I remember correctly they have a Shore rating of 75. I did compare the Shore rating of the genuine BMC rubber engine mounts currently fitted to my engine and those from club spares and they were reasonably the same.
I find that coating rubber parts with either rubber grease or silicon spray extends the life of the rubber item considerably.
Phil
Thanks Phil. Yes. I hope to do the engine mount rubbers at the same time as swapping over the engine front plate. I do not have an engine crane so I am going to have to try to do it by jacking up the sump with a trolley jack or two trolley jacks and a piece of wood. I will also be changing the two engine towers for new ones and at the same time I can address the engine bay floor under the towers. I have thought it through and providing I do all of the high torque stuff like removing the crankshaft pulley and the camshaft sprocket before lifting the engine I think it should be possible. On the other hand, and much safer I am looking at the Clarke CFC100 1 ton folding engine crane but it seems a lot for something I am not going to use very much. I might be able to hire one. There is a place nearby that hires out an engine crane for £28 for 2 days.
Stephen
1969 1098cc Convertible “Xavier” which I have owned since 1989.
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