It's coming up to the time of year when the climate is a 'little' drier and the sun starts to shine. It's an ideal time to take advantage of the weather to prep your car for the winter. We're going to run a two part series on protecting your vehicle, or perhaps more importantly the chassis, in time for all those wintry showers and heavily salted roads. In this first part, we'll be looking at the whole process of Waxoyling and then in the following post, prepping and protecting things like bumpers and cross members.

Waxoyling

Waxoyl is a self-healing, rust-preventative fluid. It is used to slow down the formation of rust, by excluding water and air from contacting bare metal as well as slowing any existing surface rust using phosphoric acid oxidation inhibitors. Waxoyl is a petroleum based product, made up of wax particles suspended in white spirit (which evaporates after application) leaving a protective, semi-cured coating. That's the sciencey bit, let's just say Waxoyl is good at what it does, that is, killing and preventing rust from forming. It doesn't necessarily have to cost an arm and a leg either, as a tin of Hammerite Waxoyl runs at roughly £30.00 currently.Whether you have a 60 year old Series 1, or a brand new Defender, it's a good idea to consider using Waxoyl to protect your Land Rover from it's only enemy.

Many professional Waxoylers will have you believe that applying Waxoyl requires you to have specialist equipment, training and expertise (and charge you £500 plus per application). We believe, that with a little research and practice, it can be applied by anyone with the right tools. Yes, you will need an air-compressor to get the most from this product, but nowadays, they are very cost-effective, or can equally be hired / borrowed when needed. Here's a full list of equipment you'll need, other than 2 to 3 hours time:

• 1 x 5 Litre tin of Hammerite 5092949 Waxoyl [Link] (we've gone for the yellow tin, containing the black and not clear Waxoyl. Hammerite now produce an under seal waxoyl, bur apparently, whilst it is more abrasion resistant, some of it's rust killing properties have been traded off.
• 2 x Heavy duty wire brushes [Link]
• 1 x Tarpaulin sheet big enough to park your Land Rover on [Link]
• 1 x Suitable Air Compressor. We chose one of the Wolf Air Compressor offerings. They are well priced, workable units (and we'll be carrying out a review shortly). Nowadays most tool companies offer re-branded air compressors, all look reasonable and can be picked up fairly cheaply. Just make sure that the compressor can supply 90PSI at 8CFM, as this is the level a sealant gun runs at. Failing to do so will mean you either get insufficient spray and coverage, or that you have to wait for the compressor to refill every 10 seconds.
• 1 x Underbody Schultz sealant gun (such as the Clarke CUB1, or Sealey SG14) with a lance extension for spraying chassis cavities.
• 1 x 1 Litre Tin of Schultz to use with the sealant gun, for some reason these were the only tins we could find to fit. The 1 litre Waxoyl tins thread does not fit.
• Access to the underside of the vehicle, e.g. a ramp, axle stands or just a safe, level surface to jack it up on.
• A steam cleaner, or local steam cleaning service.
• A set of Disposable overalls, masks, goggles and gloves (don't scrimp on PPE)
• A couple of buckets and paint kettles, as well as an actual kettle.
• Some bin bags or sacks to put over the axles
• And last but not least old rags and plenty of white spirit to wipe up accidental spillages.

It's a pretty extensive list, but if you want to do something, do it right. The total cost for the above (including the cost of an air compressor, if you don't already own one) is roughly £170.00. Compare that to the cost of one professional application and you've saved hundreds. Purchasing the above also means that each year, you can renew the coating, with minimal outlay. Year on year, factoring in potential welding and chassis repairs, you could save thousands.

Step 1: Steam Clean

If you can, get the vehicle properly steam cleaned. Using a four post lift, they are able to get right underneath the 90 and really give it a good clean.

Even better, try procuring a 4 post lift to use when waxoyling. It gives much better access to the chassis.

The first step to a successful application of Waxoyl, is get the vehicle clean. First off, if the vehicle has never been undersealed or painted before, take your wire brush and go around the vehicle removing any loose pieces of rust and corrosion. These brushes have a pointed nib to allow you to knock and chip of any moderate corrosion. Then, work your way round the vehicle wire brushing down surface rust. This is an essential process, as it minimizes the amount of rust that Waxoyl has to work on.

Note that Waxoyl is good, but it cannot magically repair heavily corroded areas of chassis, that would otherwise require welding. Should you have holes and pits in the chassis, then it would be advisable to have these repaired properly first. Then continue with the process.

Next, it's time to wait for a nice, dry day (preferably with a couple more predicted afterwards) or if your lucky enough to own a workshop, you can ignore this step. Take your vehicle down to a local steam cleaners (or hire one in if you wish). Steam cleaning helps remove any grease, mud, salt and other general contaminants from the chassis. We are quite fortunate in that we happen to know a local steam cleaner who agreed to de-gunk our 90 for £5! Make sure to ask them to go over everything, the wheel arches, the chassis rails (inside and out), you name it. Any gearbox, engine or diff oil could stop the waxoyl from fully curing. Most steam cleaners will use an industrial soaping agent then rinse with the steam, this is preferred as it furthers helps in removing potential contaminants. Going one step further, you might wish to remove things like the wheel arches, any guards you can find and equally prep the inside of door panels and inside body panels for Waxoyling. However, with a lance on your spray gun  you should be able to reach into most areas.

We then decided to take the vehicle home and give it one last going over with the wire brush and a pressure wash with clean water, in every hole, cut out and box section. We're aiming to get the vehicle as clean and dirt free as possible, but there's no need to strip it entirely back to fresh, bare metal. The Landy was then left for a hot day to dry out. Trips and outings should really be minimized, as you don't want to start collecting traffic films and dirt over your sparkling under carriage. If you're impatient, use a blow gun from your compressor and dry it by hand.

This might seem a bit like overkill, but you want to create the  perfect conditions for Waxoyl adhesion.

Now your Landy is spotless, it's time to crack out the WaxOyl

Step 2: Prepare the Waxoyl

Get your stuff together and jack the Landy up.

Waxoyl sprays best when it has been warmed through a little. It's best to avoid adding white spirit if possible to try and thin down for spraying, as this will effect the consistency of the product. The simplest way to warm the tin up is to get one of the buckets you've purchased and fill it half full with reasonably warm water (around 70deg F or 20deg C). Place your can in the warm water for 5 minutes and keep topping the level up with warm water. Do this for both the gallon tin and the 1 litre tin, or whichever combination you've purchased. This helps gently warms the Waxoyl, making it more fluid and easier to spray. Waxoyling on hotter days will also help with this.

Park your truck on a tarpaulin sheet to save your drive from been covered with a thin layer of the waxy product.

Whilst the Waxoyl is warming through, start gathering up your tools. We chose to work around the car in quarters, concentrating on each corner, so as to get the best possible coverage and make sure we didn't miss anywhere. Jack up the vehicle and remove the wheel on your first corner.

Remember to work safely by using axle stands, a pit or a four post ramp if you plan to go underneath the vehicle. Always place the wheel you've removed under the chassis rails as a fail safe should an axle stand fail.

Split the vehicle into quarters so as not to leave any un-coated areas.

Once you've jacked the first quarter up and removed the wheel, place a bin bag over your brake disc and hub, then secure that in place. This will stop waxoyl getting on to the brakes and making them ineffective. This is important!

You should now be ready to start spraying. Grab your 1 litre schultz tin of Waxoyl and use this as your spray canister. You'll need to keep topping it up from your gallon can, but this way you don't have to purchased 5 small tins at £10 per tin.

Step 3: Get spraying

You've prepped the Waxoyl, your air compressor is on, now all that's left to do is attach your lance and get spraying. Start from the inside of the chassis rails. The lance can probe through any cut outs in the rails (and there are dozens) and be maneuvered around inside to get a good coating. Obviously you can't see inside so just do this by feel and try to stay as methodical as you can. Work from the left of the wheel arch to the right spraying in each hole, up, down, left then right. You'll get a really good covering then.

Once you've coated the internals of the chassis, move onto the outside. Remove the lance, so you get a more broad spray pattern. Keep the sprayer close to the surface your coating, within 5 - 8 inches. This will help cut down on over-spray, as this stuff goes everywhere! Also, by spraying from the edge of the wheel arch into the center will also reduce excess over-spray. This process is very simple, just time consuming. Work around each corner, jacking the vehicle up, removing the wheel, covering the axle, spraying e.t.c. Don't forget to keep the Waxoyl warmed through. Spray the wheel arches, chassis rails, any exposed metal. Just try to avoid spraying on suspension components directly and any mechanical or moving parts.

Give the job one final once over, just to be sure

Once you've completed the application, Waxoyl should be dry to the touch in around 6 hours depending on the weather and temperature applied in. However, before you pack everything away, give the vehicle one last inspection to make sure you've not missed any patches of metal. If you do, these are susceptible to rust as before. Avoid driving the Landy for 24 hours after, or the heat from the engine and other components could slow or mess with the curing process.

The final finish

Waxoyl does a good job of protecting large services with just one coat.

Step 4: Clean up

This is going to take quite some time, but using some white spirit on a cloth will remove Waxoyl from most surfaces. Likely, it will have gone everywhere on your vehicle, but the key places to remove it from are any windows, as it will smear if left in place and the windscreen wipers are used. Remove the Waxoyl as soon as you can, otherwise it may become tougher to remove. After a few days have passed, give the paintwork a wash down and the vehicle will look as good as new, both on the exterior and underneath.

Depending on how the Land Rover is used, you may need to repeat the process once a year (for heavily off-roaded, well used machines) or once every 3 years for Land Rovers that seem more tarmac than green-lanes. Based upon our own application, we'll be re-applying this year, or at very least touching up any exposed patches, that do seem to occur on the bottom of the diff pans, where the axle has rubbed along the ground.

One final note, Waxoyl never fully cures to the touch (i.e. it's almost tacky) and thus when working on your vehicle in the future, expect to get more messy than usual. However, it is easily removed with some White-spirit.

When done, your Landy will look like new & be protected for next winter