Fuel filler rust prevention

Thought this might be a useful tip for any mk1 (1996-2008) KA owners.

When we were looking for ours we saw so many with bubbling around the filler cap and all the buyers advice is that it's caused by detritus gathering behind, thrown up from the rear wheels into the arch.

Seeing as the one we bought had no sign of rust I decided to make a pre-emptive strike.

Took out the filler neck rubber/plastic (easy to do - remove filler cap, undo 1 screw, then rotate the filler flap & rubber about 1/5 a turn anticlockwise to release then pull out) then cleaned away all the considerable collection of dirt that had built up behind with soapy water - easy to see why they rust here.

Then liberally sprayed the whole area with Waxoyl before refitting.

I'll be repeating this process every 6-12 months and hopefully that should prevent the rust appearing here. It's such an easy job - took me 10 mins this time, next time it will take me 5 mins. Really ford should have included it as part of a major service!

So next job will be to do similar behind the sills and around the rear wiper spindle - though the latter is already bubbling on ours so that may be too little too late.