• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Spitfire Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of work

Share this page

G

Guest

Guest
Guest
Offline
The following pictures are of my firewall before and after 20+ hours of tedious labor, a whole (large) can of carb cleaner, 3 detail brushes, a roll of paper towels, misc scratches on my knuckles. All because someone decided to coat the whole engine bay in Waxoyl. I assume it is Waxoyl from what I was able to find on the web about it. Does anyone remember the company called "Rusty Jones"? Did they use Waxoyl? I can't complain about the way it protected everything, but after many years, it looked like crap on there. Dirt just clung to it like a magnet.
firewall1a.jpg


The valve cover I painted because the paint was chipped off and was the only part of the engine bay without a coating on it.

Picture005Medium.jpg

Picture029Medium.jpg


This has been a 4 month cleaning process of a car that was brought back to life after 30 years. It has been a lot of work, but I have enjoyed it at the same time.
 
Congratulations on the work - looks like new!. I seem to recall the PR image of "Rusty Jones" - a broad shouldered guy with a big mustache? The treatment didn't have a good reputation for rustproofing, but had a great reputation for adding dollars to the car dealer's pocket.

How'd you get the valve cover cap so shiny? Enquiring minds want to know!

Tom
PS - at least on my computer, your pictures lost the entire right side. If I actually drag the pictures to my desktop I see all your firewall work. If I just see the pictures on my screen, the image stops at the end of the valve cover. Wonder if it's like that to others?
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

Hey, that looks fantastic. Job well done, and well worth doing. Now you just gotta be paranoid about keeping the brake fluid off the shelf!


NutmegCT said:
Wonder if it's like that to others?
Click to expand...
Yes, the pictures cut off for me too, but right clicking and selecting 'View Image' worked for me. (In Firefox, at least, dunno if IE or others have the same thing)
 
NutmegCT said:
How'd you get the valve cover cap so shiny? Enquiring minds want to know!
Click to expand...

I didn't do anything to the valve cover cap. I can't take credit for that, it was already shiney.




<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]

PS - at least on my computer, your pictures lost the entire right side. If I actually drag the pictures to my desktop I see all your firewall work. If I just see the pictures on my screen, the image stops at the end of the valve cover. Wonder if it's like that to others?
[/QUOTE]

I have since resized the pictures, this should be better.
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

I went through a similar experience with my six. Someone on the car's past had it Ziebarted including the engine bay. Looked like crap especially after 20+ years. I used a variety of flat blade screwdrivers and other tools to scrape the majority of the crud off then followed-up with endless paper towels soaked in degreaser. Nice job, you really brought that car back to life.
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

I am thankful that this car was not Ziebarted. I had a car Ziebarted back in the 80's and remember how black everything was. But I also recall seeing a car that was Rusty Jones'd and it had the same almost clear brownish consistency as this stuff. I probably would have already given up if it was Ziebart undercoating.
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

I applaud your efforts...and CURSE those who think that any sort of undercoating on areas such as underhood or inside the trunk is a good thing! Sadly, my current Herald was given a similar treatment by some well-meaning previous owner, and eventually I will get around to rectifying this. Like your Spitfire, my Herald is white, so it's brutally obvious when you open hood or trunklid that someone has coated those areas.

What's really odd on my Herald is that whichever previous owner decided to coat those areas but did nothing (thankfully!) to "protect" any of the underside of the car!
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

100_2972.jpg


Rust-Me Jones in poooiiiizzzon!

Don't know what you guys are complaining about, his treatment works awesome!

100_2860.jpg


Nice work on the Spit!
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

Great job on that cleanup!Be glad it wasn't cosmolene!First thing it had done when i recieved my Calif Spit was to have it Ziebarted & a complete job they did at my request.,inside the rockers,fenders,underside the bonnet,and ALL places that RUST;I we ALL know what places those are.The benifits ARE of course eliminates rust,And a BIG advantage is its a sound deadener,& heat shield.I have no interest in seeing the pretty side of underneith which in my assumption is not logical.My car is a daily driver,& on hot days that Ziebart creeps into places the Ziebarters could/would not reach.SSoo having said that i have no quarrel with my descision to do it.All those owners that didn't undercoat there beauty's drive around with just one more worry WHERE IS RUST GOING TO BREAK OUT NEXT?.
Ken & Whitelightning
PS;I DO remember that 'Rusty Jones'stuff it was lined up along the shelf with all that other DIY undercoating junk.
How many times have we wasted our money on junk like that,Old Rusty probably made a mint on impulse buying,& then chuckled all the way to the bank. Cheers
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

We had the Rusty Jones process available at the dealership I worked at. Rustoleum rusty metal primer applied by splashing it onto the hood hinges and the corners of the car.
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

Andy!!

You made my day!!!

My sides hurt I am laughing so much.
Wendy just wandered into my office
and she also is laughing.
He's a Pedro pic back at ya. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif

Stirkman- Nice job there. Excellent!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

You and I need to get together and swap refurbishing
techniques. Then we need to start a small business
traveling around "improving" other folks' cars that
have DPO messes in them. I ain't so shabby myself at
making something decent looking out of DPO Pedro's messes.

I know just about zip about auto mechanical stuff so maybe
I could swap some refurbish services to get my dead car
functional? later gator!! Well done!!

pedroHub.jpg
[/img]
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

+2 on Rusty Jones... I had an '82 Subaru wagon with 3/4 doors flapping in the breeze by '88 because the car had been RJ'd when new... thus filling up the drain holes in the doors and letting rain water do its evil deed...

I'm sure the system worked wll when applied correctly, but finding a properly trained installer seems to have been difficult..
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

Did you know 'Rusty Jones'Is Andy Griffiths son? remember the 'Andy Griffiths show'? Yup!Yup!Thats him! ;-)
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

I was thinking he looked like a rugged Opie Cunningham too, but with hair... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Re: Waxoyl and Spitfire firewall = 20 hours of wor

Tinster said:
I ain't so shabby myself at
making something decent looking out of DPO Pedro's messes.
Click to expand...

I've been admiring your work for quite a while. That TR is coming out nice. You take a lot more chances than I would though. (the front springs come to mind)

I think most of the members here do a good job keeping their cars looking good. At least the ones that post some pictures.

It always seems that you start one thing and get deeper and deeper into it and it winds up being much more work than planned.

As far as Rusty Jones looking like Richie Cunningham or Alfred E. Newman, now that I'm nearing the end of getting it all off I have to say that it (Rusty Jones or Waxoyl) did a heck of a job preserving this car.
 
Back
Top