Drilling discrete holes and filling panels with waxoil - good idea? what is the best method?

Tipo/Tempra onwards, unless they're mangled (or you're counting the subframes).

But I've seen undamaged, rotten 164s, especially bulkheads near the fusebox and windscreen surround.

Richard

Did someone say Ford Ka?

I've noticed the Seat Cordoba can rust rampantly if it's not been looked after.

Lin Chung ( snipped-for-privacy@the.Water.Margin.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

You seem to be missing the fact that this is a largish Merc van... the fugly one bigger than a Sprinter (of which early ones (96ish) are also looking bloody tatty)

Yes, they were. One had been kept in dry storage and never gone rusty. It didn't rust for 13 years after waxoiling and topping up every year or two. The other was a rebuilt car I only had for 2 years and had been waxoiled 2 years prior. It was fine when I sold it.

Russell

Dunk by sections? Maybe. If the original description mentioned zero- perforation warrantee for six years, then it is almost certain that the van/truck/minibus was fully galvanized. It is indeed a large vehicle; the dip tank has to be huge, but is not impossible given the resources of the Stuttgart giant. I looked it up: Mercedes 609D

Lin Chung ( snipped-for-privacy@the.Water.Margin.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It's nothing to do with size...

It's everything to do with the fact that commercial vehicles don't have such long service lives as cars, because of the huge mileages they do - they're shagged out much earlier. So they just don't bother to rust proof 'em anywhere near as well.