Not sure if this is exactly the right place for this thread but as this is a resto I thought I'd go for it! I'm painting the engine compartment and will be using the same body colour, Ceylon Beige, or something close. I'm a fairly new owner of a Latebay but even I know that the battery tray is a weak point. Mine has been replaced at sometime but again is showing signs of rust I was going to cover this with the Hammerite underseal and Wax Oil product but the downside I can see is that this will act as glue and the battery will become stuck in place . Spraying is going to need some special primer treatment to stop this rust! So; who has the answer to stopping or at least slowing this rust down to a crawl Recognising that I have access to anything on Halfraud's shelves or ebay, no compressor! The other side has a leisure battery and is covered in the black paint you can see here but doesn't appear to have suffered, so I am going to paint over that.
Spray can painted mine, then sprayed with wax and made sure there are drain holes between battery and back end, also drilled holes just in front of the back seams on both sides of van. No more water sitting there!
Don't under seal it. Clean it up, treat it with ku rust or similar anti rust agent. Then put some paint on it. Currently mine have a coat of bonda on which is like redoxide but non porous so will protect it until I get round to paint. I depends on how nice a finish you want in the engine bay, but some people use rustoleum in their engine bays which you can hand paint or roller. This saves dropping the engine out for spray jobs.
Thanks guys, I wasn't overwhealmed with the idea of underseal. So paint it is then, wire brush and I think I have some Jenolite somewhere, before priming. My engine is out and the bay is a mix of black and original van yellow, not a pretty sight! So, as long as it's all the same colour and a bit shiny I'll be happy Ford Ivory is the closest I've seen on the shelf to Ceylon Beige , I'll have a test with some of that
If you have the engine out then spray it, if you are using rattle cans give St Helens auto paint a call, I've used them many times and will mix the paint to what ever vw code you have. Always a quick delivery and colour match is good.
I recently tackled an engine bay refurb, as mine was covered in waxoyl/under-seal and not pretty at all. I've painted it in Rustoleum because it is easy to work with and has rust preventative properties a bit like Hammerite. The battery tray was, like most peoples, quite rusty inside, so I gave it a coat of lead paint first then over painted with Rustoleum. I sprayed under-seal to the underside of the tray . I noticed that water was settling underneath the battery so I have drilled several holes in the tray to allow for water egress. It is amazing how much actually does come in through the air vents!
Cheers, if mine looks anywhere near that good I'll be made up ! I'll look into Rustoleum for the base
I've just painted mine with epoxy mastic 121, as the trays take a real beating with water gushing in. Metalready first (or Jenolite's fine), 121 then rustoleum over the top.
