Waxoyl/underseal recommendation - South West

[tigger]

Having purchased a very nice condition recently imported 2001 Bongo that had no underseal on it, my first priority was to get it done. My last Bongo was undersealed at Allans Vehicle Services in Plymouth about eight-plus years ago. He did it for a great price - about £100 ish in 2005 if I recall correctly, and the van lasted until October 2013 without ever needing welding. But it was chassis rust that finally killed it (it all seemed to come through in one go), and the arches went pretty grotty too. This is no reflection on Allan - I'd recommend him for all Bongo-related work - but at the end of the day undersealing/rust protection is very labour intensive work so you're always going to get what you pay for.

Having eBayed my old rusty Bongo for quite a bit more than I expected, despite the brutally honest eBay ad with close-up pics of the rust, I had a bit of cash spare to do a 'gold standard' job of rust proofing on the new one. The snag was that winter was fast approaching, it was already getting cold and wet, and I really didn't want my shiny new Bongo going through a British winter with no underseal. And no, I had no intention of doing this messy and unpleasant job myself.

No one seemed to be doing this sort of work in Swansea/South Wales (go on someone - prove me wrong - but I'm not talking about just an £80 squirt of waxoyl on the bits you can see, I'm talking about doing the works). So first off I considered using one of the various rust treatment specialists out there. Several things put me off, despite some good reviews from some Bongo owners. Number one, most of them are 'oop north' - nowt wrong wi' that, except that it's a long way to go from South Wales. Some were so far away that I discounted them immediately, even though they seemed pretty good. Secondly, some of the nearer ones (well one anyway) seemed perhaps a bit unhinged (he has a bit of a reputation it seems), while others seemed perhaps a bit, well, commercial - charging a lot of money but turning the vehicle around in just a day or less - how thorough would they be? Some of them I just didn't much like the look of, and there were some quite scathing reviews about on the web (Landrover forums etc). The problem with this sort of job is that you pays your money and takes your chance - you only find out that the job is a duff one at MOT time a couple of years later.

I contacted Allan and asked about giving it 'the works', he said no problem and quoted a very reasonable price but was reluctant to do it until the spring. Pity - I know Devon is a long way from Swansea, but a trip to Allans can easily be combined with a very pleasant weekend sailing and kayaking in the South Hams. A classic car specialist I contacted in West Wales sounded good and quoted reasonable money, but was so busy (a bit chaotic perhaps?) that he couldn't say when he'd be able to do the job.

Finally I came across Moores Motor Cars in Clevedon, North Somerset, listed as a Dinitrol agent on the Dinitrol website. Dinitrol is a Waxoyl alternative, some say it's superior to Waxoyl (but that's an argument for another day - once again see Landrover forums). Moores are air-cooled Volkswagen specialists, so while they don't know much about Bongos they do know a thing or two about rust… A bit off googling suggested that they were very well thought of but not cheap. From my point of view they were easy to get to, so I contacted them and spoke to Sam. He was friendly and helpful, very can-do but didn't give any hard-sell nonsense. He explained what they would need to do and how they would approach the job, said that the time of year would be no problem as they would do it inside, and was able to fit it in at pretty short notice. He also said that he'd need the car for a few days - I left it for a week. A bit inconvenient maybe, but indicative of someone wanting to do a good thorough job. I asked him to make sure that the insides of the wheel-arches got as much Dinitrol as possible.

A week later and the work was done on time and on budget (he'd suggested a bit of extra work for a bit of extra cost ("gosh there REALLY isn't any rustproofing on it is there??"), to which I'd agreed as it had seemed sensible). When I went to pick it up he talked me through everything they had done and showed me some of the key areas of the work. The car itself was nice and clean, no unsightly overspray or anything like that. Throughout my dealings with them Moores were helpful, friendly and professional. The price was comparable to a top-end job from one of the rust proofing specialists, but I think that the job was perhaps a bit more thorough than some would have done. So not cheap by any means, but I felt that I had got what I paid for. I intend to keep the Bongo, so hopefully it will have been a good investment. Of course only time will tell…

I should point out that I have no links with Moores other than having used them for rustproofing, and I am simply passing on my experience in the hope that it might be useful to other Bongo owners.

[Doone]

It sounds like Moores did a good job tigger and they have a shot blasting facility, which is good. I'll let Al know that the basic underseal he did protected your Bongo for so many years. He had been researching new equipment, which he now has. He's able to do a more thorough job now, preparing them, removing surface rust, then undersealing in all cavities etc. But he doesn't have shot blasting.

Al's seen some very rusty unprotected Bongos lately and MOT failures for excessive corrosion. He's welding around two each month, cutting out and replacing the corroded panels and then undersealing them. It's the ones that aren't undersealed that rust quickest and you're right, it does almost seem to all come through at once. Protection is better than cure as they say.

I know a lot of people underseal their own Bongo and do a careful job too. If anyone is going to do this, it's common sense to wear the right mask to protect your lungs! They're not expensive on EBay or at some DIY stores. You want one that protects against fumes, not just dust. A mask like the paint sprayers use would be good, something like a 3m Organic Vapour Respirator 06941. There's factsheet in the members area if anyone fancies the DIY route: http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/member ... ealing.pdf