Rustproofing an EP

Jay

Admin
This topic has been pressing on my mind for a while now so I thought I'd ask for other people's opinions and experience on future-proofing the body shell against corrosion.

The weakspot of the chassis seems to be the sills.

They start out with some very light surface patches:

null_zpsd9c1f264.jpg


null_zps9bf6c117.jpg


(Cheers Ross for the pics)

Which then progresses to moderate rust after several years if untreated:

IMG_0299.jpg


Which then turn into what I'm currently tackling on my own EP:

dsc0114qy.jpg



dsc0115dh.jpg


dsc0116eb.jpg


dsc0117ux.jpg


dsc0118p.jpg


dsc0117ux.jpg



In this case I attacked the passenger sill with a wire brush. It promptly fell off and lay on the floor..

dsc0111kj.jpg


The car has been stripped, a fresher set of sills were sourced, she's currently in surgery so I'll be getting a repaired shell back that needs protection.

DSC_0089_2.jpg


DSC_0094_1.jpg


DSC_0096_2.jpg


6_1.jpg


So using this car as a template for all the cases to come, what sort of tips can anyone offer? Also if you are at stage 1, how do we treat the early signs?
 

dac69er

Super Moderator
Mine was a bit past your stage 1 pic. I'm never going to stop it, but I had a go at slowing it up. I wire brushed as much as I could inside (outside was spot on atm). I then treated it as best I could with kurust. I then sprayed it with galvanised spray and then a little bit of waxoil and some other thinner stuff in the hard to reach places.

my other Ep's are pretty spotless as I never use them in the winter. They have had a treatment of waxoil where I could.

It's innevitable unfortunately. All you can do is slow it up.
 

Jay

Admin
Totally understand it's impossible to stop but I'd definitely like to slow it down as much as possible. We are going to see a lot more of this in the next five/ten years I'd imagine.

Sooo, block up the drain holes and fill the sills with waxoil, leave it for a week then drain whatever hasn't stuck into a container. Sound good?

I've heard bad reviews of the manual pumps so a cheap compressor driven spray gun would be the better option I'd imagine.
 

rab

Lifer
Paddy said for your car wax oil in the sill and lower quarter panel and waste oil for underneath the car a bit messy to do but we'll worth it.
 

dac69er

Super Moderator
i would use a bit of thinner stuff first to get right into the cracks and crevices. the use the waxoil. might be worth waiting until a bit later in the year so its a bit warmer and the waxoil will flow better.

ive heard waste oil is pretty good stuff. my dad used to know a bloke who welded his sills up and filled them with waste engine oil . his sills never rusted. the floor rotted out though ;)
 

Jay

Admin
Don't worry Rab, that car will be sponsored by the stuff..

Also heard good things about Bilt Hamber. Anyone used any of their products other than the clay bars?
 

jfj

Member +
wire brush in drill ,grinder or by hand next etch primer,epoxy primer & 2k paint best method to protect from rust
 

pc18

North West England Area Rep.
Are replacement sills available for these cars Jay? either from toyota or panel suppliers?

The best solution is cut it ALL out and weld new steel in its place properly. Rust treatments are temp measure and may only slow things down.

Ive been cleaning up the bottom of my GT4

nothing like that gt but some surface rust and old underseal which wasn't applied properly so it was flaking off.












thats as far as ive got for now. im jsut doing it in sections so i get it all cleaned up and its not sitting as bare metal for long. then once its all covered i will give it another coat of primer then the stone chip, primer, bodycolour. I plan to get some sprayed inside the sills and cavitys also.

I used a twisted wire wheel in a grinder for most of it, and a smaller one in an air grinder and then smaller bits in a drill to get into harder bits. then i used the bilt hamber gel stuff then wire wheel it all and then repeated that again to pull any pitting out of it.

After that deagrease and wipe it down then i got lechler 2k epoxy 29107 and had it tinted to the body colour. mixed it up and sprayed with the gun. after this i will be applying Upol gravitex stone chip which is over paintable. then more primer and then 2k body colour ontop. The lechler epoxy primer is very good stuff same as the gravitex stone chip. ibe heard lots of good feedback on it.
 

dac69er

Super Moderator
the problem i find with all that effort is if you chip anywhere on re-assembly and it is back to the bare metal the rust will get underneath it and you may as well have not bothered :(

with the amount of layers you have used, you should be ok if your careful when re-assembling.
 

Jay

Admin
Already explored buying new sections but no-one can source them. Discontinued from Mr T unfortunately..

I'll have to tackle the arse of this ep too so those pics are a good heads up on what lies ahead. As Duncan says, it's a lot of work but it's worth doing. Not looking forward to dropping the fueltank out of the way though.

As for paint matching - I'm painting everything black. No concours approach required at this stage!
 

pc18

North West England Area Rep.
dropping the tank wont be so bad on an ep. the gt4 has a fair bit more suspension and running gear to get out the way first. Just make sure you unscrew the fuel filler cap before you drop it! The first tank i dropped i didn't and it shattered when the tank was released as all the weight was on it.

i will be undersealing my ep82 after the gt4. its mint underneath though. only a small bit of rust on the tank. ive not removed the side skirts yet though!
 

dac69er

Super Moderator
i did my fuel filler pipe over the winter as it was pretty rusty. found a few bits of surface rust behind the cover in the rear arch which i dealt with before it became an issue. the tank isnt looking amazing rust wise, i may have to drop it and give it a coat of paint in a few years time.
 

weeJohn

Lifer
I used Waxoil on the 85, used the manual pump thingy and the confined space sprayer and it seemed to work ok. Got right up the sill until it was running out the drain plugs and reached halfway up the chassis legs so got it covered going from both ends.

Think you need to get it in there as it wont turn rust good but will stop the rot. From what we are seeing on MR2 sills, those Toyota drain plugs dont drain very much.
 

rosso321

Member +
No bother jay. Glad to help. I was going to strip mine down and spray the wax oil aswell. The chassis legs and and in around the front start to rust. As jay say next 5 to 10 years be like mater



thing to be looking for a mint gt or glanza is to pop rear door cards off and check on a ramp to tell it's a good one or not if it is it be treated and looked after. There at that age now they need stripping and fresh coat off paint especially on the front like crash bar bumper bar etc...
 
Top