Underseal or stone chip plus paint?

[OldSkoolRS]

I'm going to remove the front wings on my '79 RS2000 to do some small repairs to the inner wings. While I have access I thought I might strip off the original underseal (and years of dried out mud & dirt) and refinish the front wheelarch area. There is only light surface rust in a couple of places so this is more of a cosmetic job, but I don't want to get bogged down doing the whole underneath just yet, so I plan to do the front and the rear arches for now. Eventually I plan to drop the rear axle and tidy that up, so the same treatment to the floorpan as the arches will eventually happen, likewise I'll drop the 'box at some point as well and do the middle section of the floor.

Given that this is going to be done piecemeal I was wondering if it's worth going to the bother of stone chip plus body colour on top (car is black anyway) or just refinish with a modern underseal? If I take plenty of pictures during, then this should show that I haven't just covered over rust with underseal, but I wonder if longer term it might put future buyers off? Equally I'm thinking that it could be a slippery slope towards a trailered concours attempt if I go too pretty on the underneath. I haven't driven the car in the wet during my ownership (15 years) and it was summer use only when my parents stopped using it as a daily driver in 1985, hence the good condition (but dirty) underneath.

Just interested in people's opinions, arguements for and against or even alternatives such as smoothrite perhaps?

[OldSkoolRS]

Just a shameless bump. Anyone got any comments?

[PJ S]

For rust prevention and treatment, look no further than www.bilthamber.com - Dynax UB (if not on the site yet) is what you'd be looking for, for sealing the underside.

[belleair302]

If you have the finances (not silly money but a couple of hundred quid) and the need to properly underseal your car then speak to Michael at Rustmasters. He runs a business which have the license to use Waxoyl 120-4 cavity protection and to apply professionally a hardwax underbody seal. A quite amazing process and well worth the investment.

[OldSkoolRS]

Thanks for the replies, as I'll be doing it piecemeal I'll probably look into the bilthamber stuff as it wouldn't be worth getting some one in for each stage as it'll be very spread out and I'd like to use it in between, like a rolling restoration.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 25th June 18:27