The rover God's must be smiling on me because my '03 disco with 82k miles has been mostly trouble free. However, my disco has a fair amount of rust on her belly. I do no off-roading with her - just my everyday car.

What are some trade secrets to preserve her from rusting out? I've read that waxoyl is really good stuff. Is applying waxoyl a DIY project? Are there other products on the market that will "melt" the rust off so that I can apply a carriage protectant of some sort? Also, we know there are a ton of nuts and bolts on the belly, is it worth the hassle to work them free and replace them? Probably take me a life time to do this, but I'd like to keep the disco in as healthy of a condition as I can afford and pass it on to one of my kids when they get old enough to drive (another 10 years or so). I live north of Boston, so if there are any leads of car care companies that remove rust and apply protectant, kindly pass them along.


Found this guy who is about a two hours drive west from Boston.
Waxoyl--the best rustproofing for your British automobile

Thanks fellas

 

Your situation speaks directly to what I've been saying on this board for awhile. With DI's the bodies rusted off the frames. With DII's the frames rust out from under the bodies. It's a disgrace and I'm surprised there hasn't been a class action suit against Rover over this matter.

Check the seams on top and bottom along the length of the frame rails. They tend to swell and then separate. Not good for the strength of the chassis. Check all along the side walls of the frame rails, especially behind the catalytic convertors, near the motor mounts and along the rear. You may be fortunate and find nothing but you may also find that the chassis has reached a point where it's not worth saving.

I sold three rolling chassis this summer. Two were to a former Land Rover tech who related tales of badly rusted DII's. The chassis he bought were for an '04 and an '03. It was his opinion from seeing tons of these trucks, that the last years of the DII were particularly bad with regard to rust.

That "guy" you found when you googled waxoyl is John Robison. His shop is well known within the Rover community. He's a regular contributor to the Rovers North monthly news magazine. His shop does quality work and specializes in exotics and especially British vehicles. I've heard nothing but good things about they way his shop applies waxoyl.

Waxoyl is a DIY project but it's best done with use of a lift (prepping takes longer than the application) in an area you don't mind making a mess in.

In your area there are a number of Rover specialty shops that can do the job for you. There's Cityside Garage in Boston, East Coast Rover in ME and a few others in NH and southern ME whose names escape me at the moment.

Good luck, especially with keeping your truck going for another ten years. New England is a harsh place for old cars.

 

I've too, read good things on the waxoyl. Never used it. I use reformer and undercoat as a, bi annual, spot preventative, but I'm in God's country. it is rare to have salted roads for more than a couple of weeks in the winter. fwiw, I think I have seen waxoyl in Zack's sig for sometime, might be worth asking his thoughts.

 

Waxoyl is great, though I am a bit biased because we are the N.A. Waxoyl distributor.


There are a couple places you can have it done, or if you got the aerosol cans you could do it yourself(would take quite a while). You'll need a lift that you can get super wet(you'll need to pressure wash the undercarriage and deep clean it). If Alan Elliot at Cityside garage is willing to do it, I would highly recommend him.


I also suggest the soft wax, which is amber in color and is sprayed into your door cavities at a super high PSI so it nearly vaporizes. Way quicker job, but prevents rust on metals.

 

Had to take it out, too many things in sig

 

I really don't know if Cityside does it or not. It is a messy proposition. I offered Alan as a resource for general service. Mike and ECR might do it but the wait would be interminable and he may want to restore the truck while he's at it! My friend Kevin Murphy down in Southport, CT uses waxoyl but he's even further than John Robison. Aren't there a couple of other small Rover specialists in the southern NH, southern ME area that would do the work?

Is the New Hampshire Land Rover Club website still up and running? That would be a good place to start.

 

SNHLR - Southern New Hampshire Land Rovers

 

ECR's wait list is a couple years, so I don't suggest going there for a waxoyl job

Waxoyl is just about the dirtiest job there is. When we did my truck, the whole 3 bay shop was a cloud of black haze, it is terrible in every way.

 

Kevin was going to do one of my trucks BUT he wanted to do it at my garage. When I saw what was involved, coupled with my utter lack of sentimentality over individual trucks, I balked. Maybe, if I were to bring a southwestern truck up to New England it might be worthwhile but, since all the trucks I wind up owning are from the area and have enough issues, the proposition of waxoyl is less than inviting.

 

Yeah you really have to do it before the rust, or at the least grind off all the scale/rust and do it.