MG ZS 180 - Rust Repair, Undersealing & Corrosion Protection

It was cheap for a reason! Yikes!
Repairing some pretty large rust holes in the structure of my performance bargain 2003 MG ZS 180, followed by protecting it at least a little better for the future with some underseal and Waxoyl cavity wax.
We're not going for full concours restoration here, just patching things up to a semi-reasonable level and getting a bit more life out of it!
Title music:
"RetroFuture Clean"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons...
Background music:
"Wrong"
Dan Henig
KZbin Audio library

[@herridge819]

Great video, looking forward to the next 'phase'. Used to be a manager at an MG/Rover dealer and used to have one of those, along with a variety of other MG/Rovers as company cars.

[@alexyo3927]

I drove the whole x-power range at a track day and I was extremely impressed

[@samijokinen9246]

Nice work! When protecting older vehicle where rust is already set in place I prefer thin and easily penetrating cavity wax like Dinitrol ML. That is as thin as water and runs capillary between stitch weld seams. After this thin cavity protection I add underbody protection in places where it is needed. Underbody protection prevents stone chipping and wear, that does not prevent rust. Thin cavity wax for rust inside cavities and under the car. Forgive me my bad english, rust is swearword in Finnish.

[@InitialDave]

Thanks! Yes, I used the Waxoyl because I had this available, so it did not cost me anything to use. If I were buying some, I would probably get Dinitrol or Bilt Hamber products.

[@Spac8]

Great video. 180 owner myself. Just so you know. It's as easy as pie to get the bumper off and back on on your own and would have made that front section so easy!

[@mickyanderson3639]

Ive Got 2 zs180s 1 rotten as hatch for spares and #2 of 10 a blackolive saloon which i love. URWIN BOLD GRIPS! Worth every penny..

[@carlsagan2371]

Mine developed a hole in the archway because of a stone or something. Ate it's way through the floorpan thanks to the salty sea air... didn't even know about it until the MOT pointed out it was missing some key infrastructure. :D

[@coryn1980]

Welded all the jacking points and wheel arches on my zs

[@davidvickers4228]

Tremendous videos well done 👍

[@TheMentalblockrock]

Thumbs up for using Irwin bolt grippers, these are fantastic, however, you somewhat skipped over the welding part. I hope you cut out ALL the rust and BUTT welded in the repair sections! Plus using weld thru primer on any spot welded seams and in any cavities you re-instate.

[@ChipZilla69]

My god, that could be my old car. I had a ZS180 in Silver. Bought it with 26k on the clock and gave it away with 130k on the clock five years later. The engine is pretty week by today's standards given it's size and as for fuel economy forget about it. Reliability also wasn't great. All that said I loved owning the car and the driving experience was good. After this I had a Maxda 6, 2.0 then an M235i and now an M240i.

[@rovamota]

What about the jacking points? There's nowhere for the wheel change jack to fit into, which wouldn't be nice at the side of a busy road.

[@robertgibson7716]

hope you dont have to weld it again FIRE FIRE good job enjoyed your vid

[@stephenlaskey63]

Mine has gone a bit Krusy, do you know anyone who supplies or make sills, i have a 180 saloon. Many thanks

[@chriskwakernaat2328]

how did that get through mot ?

[@kanatsizkanatli]

hmmmm I think the degree of rust on the front chassis legs didn't look repairable to me...its a shame you didn't show exactly what you did there, hopefully didn't leave a death trap behind!

[@ryano8768]

How much would this sort of thing cost in a garage?

[@sammytheseal2307]

If you look at the MOT history it failed seriously on rust in July, then mysteriously passed with different advisories a few days later. Clearly had a dodgy MOT put on it.

[@InitialDave]

You're literally watching a video of it being welded up! But no, nothing dodgy - my MOT guy is completely straight. What it was there was a previous repair wasn't quite as good as it needed to be, so while it looked ok, it hadn't lasted and needed re-doing - but it was only a small job to sort, I could probably have got it back in with them the same day if it hadn't also needed the handbrake sorting (they're pretty bad on these cars) and some other minor niggles.

[@sammytheseal2307]

@@InitialDave Oh sorry, I thought you bought it with a new mot. That's why I thought it may have been dodgy. I see and completely understand :)

[@TheUltimateToad]

Any recommendations for those without an air compressor?

[@InitialDave]

You can get aerosol cans of anti-rust treatment, though it's a more expensive way to buy it. Bilt Hamber Dynax has a good reputation.

[@TheMentalblockrock]

NO! Don't ever use under seal, its horrible stuff, use an underbody wax such as dinitrol 4941. Under seal will flake off in a few years and breed EVEN MORE RUST. Use seam sealer over welded seams and joints instead. -1 point for underseal, +1 point for using cavity wax.

[@InitialDave]

I'm not a fan of old "hard" underseal that seems to be very bad for cracking and getting moisture behind it, but this stuff seems to stay relatively "soft", so shouldn't be quite so bad for it. If I were looking to do things optimally, I'd probably use the Bilt Hamber Dynax products, which seem to have a very good reputation.

[@TheMentalblockrock]

@@InitialDave It will after a few years go hard and start to separate, then the rust will return, I've used Tetrosyl underseal and it did exactly that. please. if you want to apply something other than underbody wax, a good anti rust primer followed by stone chip coating then chassis paint will be much better than horrible old underseal.

[@InitialDave]

Yes, quite possibly - but if I were doing a "proper" job on a car that justified the work involved, I'd have taken a different approach. This is very much a quick tidying up of a cheap car to make it usable, not an attempt to get another 10+ years out of it. If I wanted it absolutely A1, well, I probably would've started with a half decent one rather than a car I could put my hand through structural parts of!