Chris of Before 'n' After rustproofing in Rugby (previously in Newbury) explains:
Waxoyl, Dinitrol, or Lanolin?
(Page updated in March 2024) Which is better? In 2023 lanolin products arrived in the UK from Australia. An email I received last week from an Australian asking me to send him some CR coatng because lanolin has be be renewed every year says all we need to know about lanolin I think. (My pressure washer will remove lanolin) So Waxoyl or Dinitrol then?. This is the perennial question. The technical term for Waxoyl and Dinitrol is slushing oils by the way. Slushing oils can be in the form of oils, waxes or greases. Whether they come in the form of an oil, a wax or a grease, the basic petrochemicals used in their formulation are very similar. There are at least another 10 similar rustproofing products to Waxoyl and Dinitrol on the market that can be obtained online or from motor factors. .
What's the difference?
Waxoyl is a wax type and Dinitrol is a grease type. What is the difference? A wax type has white spirit as the carrier and a grease type has mineral oil as the carrier. Here are the pros and cons of each type:
Oils: These tend to be more penetrative but evaporate quite rapidly, meaning that the application usually has to be renewed yearly.
Waxes: As the white spirit in the waxoyl evaporates, the film shrinks, gripping the surface. This is called a “mechanical keying effect”. This, in my opinion, is why Waxoyl works better than Dinitrol, particularly on rust.
Greases: These use oil as the carrier. Dinitrol is a grease type. Dinitrol is expensive and by the time you have bought or hired a gun and compressor and quite a few canisters of Dinitrol, you may be approaching the cost of a proper Before 'n' After treatment.
None of the three types are particularly resistant to abrasion of course.
Dinitrol is easier to apply than Waxoyl on a diy or small garage basis as the viscosity of Waxoyl can be greatly affected by the weather. This means that in cold weather it has to be greatly thinned with white spirit. Waxoyl, used with a gun and a compressor can also result in a lot of vapour and resultant overspray. (My specialised equipment makes light of these problems).
The importance of preparation and the importance of good application for successful rust proofing of Land Rovers and other vehicles.
Those who have tried diy, whether with waxoyl, dinitrol or other, know that it only lasts a couple of years at most. See diyer Mathew Ford expain why here in this clip
Matthew Ford tells you why
you should not diy
A treatment done by a local garage will usually be pretty much on a par with diy. On a fairly rusty Land Rover, a diy application may last a couple of years on the areas that don't rust but the coating very quickly disappears on areas of rust. I recently viewed a youtube video of a garage/diy Dinitrol application to promote Dinitrol. Two things I noticed immediately were that a) althought the underside was carefully cleaned with a pressure washer, the rust scabs were not abraded off properly and b) the application, although done with a great deal of tender loving care with an air powered gun, was thin and patchy. If you really cannot afford a Before 'n' After job, then this is at least better than nothing. In my 29 year career of rustproofing vehicles I have seen quite a few vehicles that were previously treated with both Waxoyl and Dintrol and diy and garange jobs really only last a couple of years at that. See this clip where Matthew Ford discusses the difference between his own diy job on his Land Rover P38 and the Before 'n' After job.
Why does the Before 'n' After job last so much better?
The two main reasons are:
- I have a custom built pressure washer of enormous power which can blast off the
rust. See this clip:
and get the underside spotlessly clean. No-one else has this. I have custom built, high pressure equipment which can apply a very thick coat of Before 'n' After improved waxoyl and now the CR coating. No-one else has this. - For a few years now I have been using a secret additive which I add at 2% to the waxoyl to make it impact resistant. I have found that not only does this make the waxoyl abrasion resistant with no trade off in its capability to kill rust, I have found that it also prevents the waxoyl from oxidizing and disappearing over time.
How come Before 'n' After has this secret knowledge?
How do I know enough about the chemistry of rustproofing waxes to be able to use such a secret additive? Well the answer is simple. In 1997 I obtained a loan under the then Government backed Loan Guarantee scheme in order to research rustproofing materials and equipment and to custom build my own equipment. I spent two months full time at the British Science Library (before it moved to its new building) researching. I looked up all the patents for rustproofing materials and I spent hours at home on the phone to suppliers of the chemicals and picking their brains. This is how I found out about my secret, abrasion resistant additive as well as the knowledge of how to offer the KLEENtect system, offered between 2001 and 2010 (no longer offered unfortunately because tighter EU regs mean the materials are no longer available.) and also, how to formulate the new (2015) CR coating. See the history of Before 'n' After here