Alright, this is really 2 related questions!
I was thinking about having my new car Waxoyled after seeing the extent that rust can eat a chassis after just 7 years on old Fiesta. But is it worth it on a 2002 Fiesta? Has rustproofing come on such a long way as to make Waxoyl a waste of money on a new car?
Does anyone have any ideas on what may be a good product to protect the rear wheelarches from rusting on the car? My last one suffered badly and I really don't want this one to go the same way...
Any thoughts appreciated...
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"But is it worth it on a 2002 Fiesta? Has rustproofing come on such a long way as to make Waxoyl a waste of money on a new car?"
In my experience (all 40 years of it) the corrosion protection built in by car manufacturers has indeed come a long way. I don't know specifically about the Fiesta, but my April 1999 Focus is showing no sign of rust at all after 60k miles. For the first 3 years of its life it did about 18k a year, during which it endured a daily commute of 50 miles on the A1 and M62 which included 3 winters of being being subjected to road salt. Whereas 40 years ago the first thing I would do with new car would be to have it "professionally" rustproofed, nowadays I don't give the subject a second thought. I do fit mudflaps all round though, because I think that these give protection against stone damage.
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Blue,
Difficult question. Only time will tell with the Focus. What I do know is that they got it badly wrong with the Fiesta from the 1990s.
I look after loads of 1990s cars so have a very good idea what is good and bad. Without fail an early to mid 1990s Fiesta will be the worse car for rust of its age. Take a Citroen ZX or Peugeot 306 and they will usually be perfect. Even a 1993 VW Golf can have more rust than the Citroens.
Nissans look good from the top but can have unsightly seam rust, often though this never gets a major problem before they are scrapped for other reasons.
Renaults are only fair, some Vauxhalls suffer with corrosion earlier than you might hope.
Mercedes, BMW and Audi are usually excellent.
If you are keeping the Focus less than five years then no need to bother for yourself. If you are keeping it longer then Waxoyl will be worth it. The only problem is that you really need to know the specific areas where they will suffer the most to make a point of treating that.....and that will only be known in time.
David W
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As a regular user of Waxoyl since 1975, I will make a few comments as follows.
# As has been said, much less need these days for waxoyling. I won't bother with it any longer. Hosing the underside to get rid of road salt after the winter and keeping the inside of the wing edges clean is probably more effective.
# The main difficulty is getting the stuff right down between the spotwelds because this is where corrosion affects the structure of the car. Very difficult to do this, unless the car and the waxoyl are both very hot and the waxoyl is also thinned with white spirit. If you don't get the waxoyl right down into these inner cavities, it will partially seal in moisture that gets down there and slow up its evaporation, thus speeding up corrosion.
# Likewise, where the waxoyl hasn't covered a complete panel, moisture that would normally appear on inner surfaces as condensate and then evaporate will instead run off the treated area and collate on the untreated area. I'm sure this is what happened to my Triumph which I had waxoyled several times since it was 2.1/2 years of age but still corroded very badly in localised areas. Some test samples left on my garage roof for a few months proved this collation theory, these being treated with various paint finishes and various coverages of waxoyl and then propped up at an angle. Those that were not completely covered with waxoyl suffered far greater corrosion of the missed areas than the samples that hadn't been waxoyled at all.
Hope this helps.
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Yep, I got the impression that it would be a waste of time, if God had wanted my Fiesta to have Waxoyl he would've made it so in the first place! :)
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