Underseal at Zeebrugge.

I know there are lots of places that do a proper job of aftermarket undersealing but I worry about getting somewhere that doesn't and doing more harm than good, as per Nige's post above.
As mentioned previously I have had a "very competitive" quote; so competitive in fact that I just can't bring myself to go for it!

SteveS said:

I know there are lots of places that do a proper job of aftermarket undersealing but I worry about getting somewhere that doesn't and doing more harm than good, as per Nige's post above.
As mentioned previously I have had a "very competitive" quote; so competitive in fact that I just can't bring myself to go for it!

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As long as they don't use the old stuff that goes hard and forms a thick solid "wall" you should be OK? You might be better off spending the money on wax injection to the edges of the hood, trunk and doors? Some modern processes use sealant around the edges before they're folded, obviously the zinc cannot get in between the sealant and metal so some protection here would be worthwhile, but I'll bet it's done in the factory?

Failing that, do it yourself? The kits are cheap and waxoyl lasts for years. I thin it with white spirit when I do my cars, which ensures it gets into the tiniest of gaps.

Gloucesternige said:

As long as they don't use the old stuff that goes hard and forms a thick solid "wall" you should be OK? You might be better off spending the money on wax injection to the edges of the hood, trunk and doors? Some modern processes use sealant around the edges before they're folded, obviously the zinc cannot get in between the sealant and metal so some protection here would be worthwhile, but I'll bet it's done in the factory?

Failing that, do it yourself? The kits are cheap and waxoyl lasts for years. I thin it with white spirit when I do my cars, which ensures it gets into the tiniest of gaps.

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The Raptor stuff that Mike used at Modurstang is like rubber
If you want it done with the Best stuff then Mike is the best.
Yes it's around £500 but for me, who had a S197 that was 9 years old and had NO underseal and was spotless it made sense as I want to keep the car for many years

Another thing to consider here guys.. some of the seams and joints on the underside will be filled with the underseal. This may be a bad thing if they are designed to "air" or drain through these seams?

Just sayin...

Gloucesternige said:

I'm sorry to argue here, but you'll find the reason the old cars rusted so badly here and wherever salt is used, or conditions were damp was because they were bare steel under a thin layer of paint and primer with no zinc or galvanising treatments. All of the internal skins and box sections remained untreated.

Even as recently as the late 80's a few cars I can think of suffered with rotting A pillars, from the inside!! The Mitsubishi Lancer was one of them. Which leads me on to another point.. usually, those older cars rusted from the inside out, the underseal sometimes formed a seal allowing moisture to creep along between it and the steel which had nothing more than a thin layer of paint and maybe red oxide or the like?

These days cars are dipped so are totally coated inside and out in anti corrosive coatings. The designers are now able to use thinner, heat treated steels in the body shell to achieve the same strength but lighter than days of old. I used to make a fortune welding up old Escorts and Sierras, I can't remember the last time I heard of anyone failing an MOT on rust, even cars up to 10 years old.

In my opinion, undersealing a Mustang, or any modern unibody car for that matter, is just giving your mechanic a nightmare every time he needs to work on your cars underbelly. Thats coming from a guy who did exactly this on his brand new S197, only to discover it was a pointless exercise... now, painting the bare metal drivetrain components under your Mustang.. that is a requirement in my opinion.

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Thanks, Nige. I'm sure I won't be the only reader to appreciate your comments.
Thanks also for the tip to paint the drive train. Did you use any paint in particular?

Mustang50 said:

Thanks, Nige.
Thanks also for the tip to paint the drive train. Did you use any paint in particular?

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You're welcome sir.. I'm not a mine of information on the S550 (yet), but have 40 years experience "playing" cars.

For the propshaft and diff casing I would paint with black smoothrite, or any colour you wish? On the sheet steel propshaft it would be benificial to put an etch primer on first as Smoothrite sticks like glue to castings, but doesn't seem to bond so well to sheet steel.

If you want to spend a bit more, check out Eastwood products as they do a whole range of underbody paints. I've always used satin Black Smoothrite with great results.

Today was the first day I had a look under the car and I know now why my car only spend a couple days in Zeebrugge. Only the exhaust has been sprayed. Nothing else...figures

Sudaf said:

Today was the first day I had a look under the car and I know now why my car only spend a couple days in Zeebrugge. Only the exhaust has been spayed. Nothing else...figures

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Differential?

slowhand99 said:

Differential?

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Haha. Spayed? More like sprayed and no, only the exhaust is sprayed. Very nice job in fact...

Just seen someone on FB is getting Ford to do theirs for free... :shrug:

Take 4 cars from 2002/03/04. All galvanised from the factory, two covered in black stone chip type underbody protection, two not. All old enough now to show signs of age/wear/rust etc.

1. Saab 93
2. Volvo S60
3. Ford Focus
4. Bmw 3 Series (e46)

Pretty much any 3 series from this era and most Focus' will look pretty rough underneath, or be rotting through on the wings by now where the stone chips penetrate the zinc coating.

The added layer of thick nordic stone chip protection stopped any debris damaging the zinc layer on the underside of the old Saab and Volvo I own. Both are pristine underneath after huge milages, and the same holds true of every Nordic car I look at. Now look online at photos, peer underneath cars in car parks, go to a scrap yard and look at the underside of all 4 cars listed here and see for yourself. Check MOT failure percentages: 1% for the focus due to the structural and general category, 0.4% for the Volvo.
The Ford and BMW don't appear to show signs of rust in areas not likely to be contacted by stones.

My conclusion is that traditional dripping wax type coatings (to prevent moisture contacting the metal) are indeed redundant now, as long as you don't let moist dirt collect in seams. However every effort should be made to prevent damage to the zinc coating. Be that with a hard wax, stone chip layer, a plastic under tray, or frequent paint repairs to impacts. I suspect the modurstang bed liner may be a good choice of product in this respect.

Agreed, I have had loads of Volvos over the years and im currently running a 2004 S60 as a winter car.

They have all been, without exception, absolutely immaculate underneath at 10-15yrs old and 100-200k miles.

Well its gone in this morning, picking it up tomorrow.

Theyve given me a Cactus. Wonderful! ;)

(It is better than public transport / walking though)

kapiteinlangzaam said:

Well its gone in this morning, picking it up tomorrow.

Theyve given me a Cactus.

(It is better than public transport / walking though)

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Only just:lol:

OK so i've go the car back

First things first, no pictures (yet). He couldnt get his PC working when I was picking the car up, but he should send them to me tomorrow and ill stick them up on here.

He did have a couple of interesting things to say though.

The same body shop have done one previous S550, a 2015 model.

The 2015 was missing *everything* when it came to protection. None of the wax/inhibitor (or whatever you want to call it) was injected inside the doors, or boot, or in the seams on the underside etc. The TSB that is floating around is mainly to address this missing protection, rather than the under-body protection we are talking about.

Now, on to my car.

- It already had the required protection inside the doors/boot/seams etc, and he said this was done quite well. So Ford at least did something better for 2016.

- He couldnt see the point of the crap black stuff that had been sprayed on at Zeebrugge... it basically had no relevance to anything (other than maybe catching Ford a tax break). It certainly does nothing for the car.

- On some areas of the underbody there was a clear/transparent coating acting as a protection barrier. He said if this is applied properly, its also fine as a permanent solution. This was not applied 'haphazardly' to my car (if that makes sense), its just some areas had been purposefully coated, and others not.

- Where this clear protection WAS applied, it was done to a poor standard and was already starting to peel/flake off in places. It could be pulled away by hand or knocked off with a screwdriver quite easily - it was basically brittle and not applied well.

- In other areas of the car, there was nothing at all, just bare metal.

This is an independent business with zero link to Ford... I chose it and he had no reason to embellish one way or the other. He said if nothing had been done to my car the underside would be showing at least quite serious surface corrosion within 5yrs, and if you get unlucky, perhaps worse.

My advice based on this would be:

- If you have a 2015, you might be missing all the protection, including the injected stuff. Id have that checked out.

- If you have a 2016 or later, you should still seriously consider having the car sorted.... especially if its gong to be a daily that may be used in the wet or when there is salt on the roads.

Ive quickly poked my head under the car this evening, and it looks very very good under there now... will hopefully be bale to update the thread with pics tomorrow.

As a reminder to others attacking this in future. Although I had mine sorted eventually through goodwill from Ford's PR dept here in NL, the lawyers letter/legal route would have worked. You need to send a letter with the demand/explanation to your supplying dealer, as your contract is with them and not Ford.

Here in NL, the lack of under-seal (or any defect) which you wish to go legal on needs to be notified within 3 months of purchase (or so I was told by my legal insurance). Whether thats an EU or a specific NL thing im not sure, but its worth bearing in mind).