Having mistaken massively thick mud for underseal when I bought the car (amazing given the cars limited use), an arch clean-out this weekend revealed that I could do with applying some form of underseal which is better than the pants OEM effort. Thankfully everything looks well coated in terms of the OEM paint protection so I think now is the time to protect it rather than leave it a few years till it actually begins to corrode.

So here's the list of products I'm intending to use (using Bilt Hamber as have had good experiences in the past with their stuff):

Arches:

Surfex HD (washed down afterwards)
Epoxy Mastic
Dynax UB (in crevices and rear of arch lips)

Bolt on pieces (e.g. crash bars etc):

Deox C (if corrosion present)
Electrox
Epoxy Mastic

General Underbody:

Deox C (if any localised corrosion present)
Hydrate 80 (if all corrosion can't be removed via manual methods)
Electrox
Epox Mastic

Inside Sills:

Dynax S50

This is a preliminary list as having had a crawl around underneath at the weekend I couldn't see any underbody corrosion so I may not need the Deox C or Hydrate 80 but better to have it in stock just in case.

Would appreciate it if anyone could comment on the suitability of this approach and any other areas like the sills where i'll be able to spray the Dynax S50 internally? Planning to have both bumpers off, arch liners out and to coat as much as is realistically accessible.

I'm not particularly interested in doing the wishbones, subframes and other bolt on stuff as they'll all be getting powdercoated or painted when I have the bushes all done next winter (bushes are currently all fine and geo within spec).

 

Have a read of this, Chippo has done a lot of this sort of work recently:
https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/992...y-did-i-start/

 

Have been looking at that thread for inspiration. To be honest mine won't be as extensive a job as his as I'll be leaving the wishbones and subframes on until it gets rebushed next winter.

I'm hoping with mine being a later car, low mileage summer car and mostly garaged that the amount of corrosion to things like brake lines and fuel tank will be minimal. Time will tell.

The one thing I'm not clear on (and something he mentions in that thread) is pumping waxoyl (Dynax S50 in my case) in to cavities and box sections. Apart from the sills I'm not sure what else you can get access to for this? Anyone know?

 

i believe a lot of the box sections on the S2 have little plugs you can pull out.
otherwise you can drill a pilot hole

 

Poobah, there are box sections and hidden bits all over the shop under the car , for a start there are all the structural members of the X bone stiffening to the monoque all of which are full of holes, where your can squirt salty water or wax !

You need to take the 2 plastic part liners off from the front of the rear wheel arches, lots of holes under these , and rust traps

When you remove the arch lip protectors you might be lucky like me and find that there is no rust under the protectors, however Mr Honda forgot to put any underseal down near the rubbers and this is where there was some surface rust. Have a clean and then use a mirror or get your head in the wheel arch with a light and have a look.

Tank had couple of bits of surface rust and rusty mounting bolts

The worst rust was under the crash bar

Even though subframes have been blasted and powder coated I still have waxed in the cavities as powder will not have gone right through.

There are lots of holes in the floor pan near the cills with rubber bungs

Havent started on the front end yet

 

Chippo, that's a really helpful response. Thanks.

I had the rear arch trim pieces off at the weekend and cleaned the inner lip (and about 2 inches in) and there was no sign of any corrosion which was pleasing to see. Phew!

I assume there's no way of getting to the tank without having the rear subframe off?

My underbody project will have to be done in a couple of stages as i've inspected all the bushes and they're all reasonable and the geometry has just been done so figure I'll leave that bit till next winter.

I've planned on using the brush on versions of Electrox and Epoxy Mastic as I figure this will be easier to apply in the tight spots I'll encounter by not removing the subframe. Seem reasonable?

 

Poobah, go for it, glad your arch's were not rusty.

I looked at the Bilt stuff to , but just couldn't make my mind so virtually just tossed a coin , and went the POR15 route. All I know is I still have POR15 on my hands from Sunday , it sticks like the perverbial to a blanket.

I went for Dinitrol Underseal. I am using aerosol cans and the silly trigger thing frosts supply , surprise , it works really well, much better that jamming your thumb on the little spray cap on the cans.

Nope tank access is only with subframe off i would think , the silly tank protector is in the way to, mine was rotten as a pear, so I made a new one from stainless steel, might be able to get more of these if any one is interested.

In some ways i wish i had shot blast the suspension arms, but it has kept me out of trouble for a couple of week ends.

I honestly think most under-seal projectS on older cars are a waste of time. Unless you properly remove or treat rust prior to application it will continue underneath the underseal. Or have the car undersealed from new. If you look at the pics of the front of the cill seams at the rear bottom of the front wings, when this first appeared i squirted wax on it and then a coat of underseal just to keep it at bay knowing i had intentions of doing what i now am. Waste of time rusted like mad under the underseal.

Soe one else did say you need to treat rust like cancer, cut it out and blitz the dam stuff.

 

totally agree. I think that's why I'm so keen to get mine protected now. It's not that old (low mile Jan 06) and aside from some surface scab on the wishbones the underside looks decent so hopefully I can get it stripped back to the original paint coating and then fully protect it with the aforementioned products. Hopefully head off any corrosion before it ever arrives. Fingers crossed.

Perversely I'm actually hoping I do find a little corrosion as I'm interested to see how the Deox C and Hydrate 80 products deal with it. some of the results with Deox C are amazing frankly! As you say, it needs to be dealt with before you even look to coat it with any underseal.

Would be interested in a stainless tank protector for when I do eventually drop the subframes. Let me know if you intend to go ahead with having some knocked up.