Experiences of getting a 3rd-party to rustproof underneath

I am looking at rust treating the the underneath of Nellie, and while I am very impressed (and in awe) at alot of peoples attention to detail and hard work in doing it themselves, unfortunately I am just not going to have the spare time to do it myself this year, and I would prefer to get it done sooner than later so that she's protected.

I am sure I heard of www.before-n-after.co.uk on here somewhere, though I can't seem to search for it on the forum to find a previous thread. I was wondering if anyone has used them before? What were the results like? I'm just suspicious because they say they can do it in a day.... just worried that means that the job isn't going to be the best, and corners are cut. But maybe that's just my suspicious and skeptical mind at play! Because otherwise they look quite good.

Or does anyone know have any recommendations of a good place to go to? I'm based in Sheffield and Nottingham (I move around abit!), though could maybe visit down south as part of a bigger trip.

Any thoughts\recommendations etc would be very welcome. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the info! I take it you were happy with the results? How long did they have the bus for?

Also, what's Dinitrol like? Its not something I have heard of before. Is it like waxoyl etc?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Im in the south and ive just had mine wire brushed and undersealed for £200 not sure what the underseal is called but he put it on for me when I had my resto done and it works a treat,the reason why ive had it redone is becauce of stone chips underneath.If you want more info on him let me know he does a lot of work for beetle link in the south.

 

see the rust.co.uk website for details I'm probably going to do mine myself using bilthammer products

 

Thanks Morgs, if I can I will try and find somewhere a bit closer, but will let you know if I'm going to end up further south

 

Thanks for the link mate

 

Cheers Mork. To confirm, what is zinc etch prime? Is that just something the paint over the rust, or do they sand the rust off first? I've also got bits of old sealant underneath, flaking off in parts, so would need that taken off too. I'm currently abroad at the moment, but when I get home will give them a call and see what they say.

I must admit I prefer the idea of sanding it all down and getting rid of all/most of the rust before painting anything on.

 

I can give a little advice from experience on this!

I've had.cars treated by Before & After and ones treated by Rustmaster.

The thing to remember here is that's its a rubbish job! Messy, time consuming and takes a lot longer to do than you think when you are trying not to get yourself or the home etc in a mess!!!!

Both have done very good jobs for me and I could easily recommend them on here. I believe Rustmaster charge between £360-£600 plus vat and I'd expect the others to be similar. If you factor the cost of the product the time and mess into this never mind having the time yourself in a make shift area always takes longer when bodging! its not bad value.

P.S Chris at Before & after is a little bit mad!!!

Hope this helps!

Thanks
Scotty.

 

There's a guy on earlybay that does it as a job, can't remember his user name, sorry.

 

I had my bus Ziebart protected when it was 9 months old, back in 1977.
The agency doing the job, in Redruth Cornwall had me remove as much of the interior as possible, (for access) to save me money, which I thought was thoughtful of them.
They undertook to steam clean the underneath before drilling all the holes required in body.
The job was not 100%..... but reasonably close.
The paint chipped off around the holes in the sills, and I had to paint red lead primer and spray underseal over this to tidy the job up.
A couple of years later I found that they had undersealed over mud underneath the battery tray each side, and corrosion had started.
I rectified this and sprayed underseal in this area.
Annually, for the next 18 years I cleaned the underside of the bus with a spray of Jet A1 (kerosine), and then gave it all a blast over with Dinitrol.

A few months ago the bus went to "Evil Bens" near Truro for a complete restoration.
Ben says that the reason that the bus is in such good condition, requiring very little welding after 37 years is down to the initial Ziebart treatment and my subsequent preventive maintenance.
Sadly Ziebart went out of business years ago.
Tony

 

Cheers for the help guys.

Does anyone know, for services like Before & After and Rustmaster to be most effective, would I need to try and get it all sanded down to bare metal first? Nellie isn't a rust bucket underneath, but she definitely has a thin orange coating underneath there. Or are these things ok going over a little rust? I always thought you had to get rid of it all first? Looking on their websites they seem to clean it up a bit, but definitely not to the level I have seen guys on here do where it is spotless before treatment (I am still in awe!).

 

Wow, great story Tony! It just shows that if you look after these old girls well they will keep going!

 

Its like being married, you have to work at it, or it will just rot away.
Tony

 

Before and After from memory has had issues - there were huge threads on Landrover Owner International LROi and I believe the Jaguar Owners Club - carries 3 page adds and most lately in Motor Home Monthly. Do your research carefully .

 

Cheers for advice everyone.

Just to ask again incase anyone knows, for services like Before & After and Rustmaster to be most effective, would I need to try and get it all sanded down to bare metal first? Nellie isn't a rust bucket underneath, but she definitely has a thin orange coating underneath there. Or are these things ok going over a little rust? I always thought you had to get rid of it all first? Looking on their websites they seem to clean it up a bit, but definitely not to the level I have seen you guys on here do where it is spotless before treatment (I am still in awe!).

Any thoughts much appreciated