hi Guys from belgium
been off the grid for a while... wife was driving the car for 2 years
anyway i got is back and repainted the wifes dinged wheels ....
and i decided to rust proof the car even if it lives indoors most of the time
its a 99 version with soft window and in rather nice condition
before i had extracted the lower wishbone bolts and greased them so they wont rust in place
and painted all the suspension arms
generally speaking the underside of the car is in good nick , but some of the bolt heads and screws were starting to corrode
these i treated with linseed oil
the exhaust bolts were all seized so i had to cut them out and they were replaced by stainless bolts
the collector heatshield bolts were all seized and they were ground off and replaced by stainless
the rubber profile on the rear arch was removed and the dirt brushed away and the area sprayed with linseed oil
i managed to access the inside of the rear arches via the trunk and sprayed linseed oil all the way around
in this case i now have no fear of the arches rotting from the inside out which is a common issue in wet old europe
this being done i hope the car will be rust free for many more years
one tech issue i had a few weeks ago was a lumpy idle
what i found was that the idle air valve was jammed with soot due to the mrs just doing a commute
i cleaned it out but found that the servo motor is held in with 5 point torx screws
its a b--tch to try to buy these in the EU and i had to order a set from china via a friend there
have fun
paul

 

Sounds like you have done a lot more than most to protect the car and those parts should stay great for a long time to come.

I just did a complete IACV cleaning and just used a small slot screw driver pressed in however I could to turn those screws out. You could also always dremel a small slot in them as well. Well worth the effort as my car started running smoother than it has in years after this simple quick fix. Good luck!