Rust advice required

[Tobyt25]

Last year i made the mistake of buying a newly painted camper. No rust and good bodywork.....or so i thought. Now the cowboy i bought it from kindly sprayed it a custom brown/orange. Rust is starting to crop up everywhere under the paint.
Do i a) strip back the affected areas, treat and try and get someone to mix up some matching paint.
B) full strip down and re-spray
C) sell the van quickly and run
D) other
Help and advice much needed with my Lemon of a camper.

[lloydy]

more qualified people will arrive, but that will be quite bad. As for what to do... What camper conversion is it? How much money are you able to invest in it? how attached to it are you?
One thing to remember is ALL vans are rusty no matter how nice they look, unless they have had a recent proper fixing. So, by selling and getting another you could be buying another heap of trouble

[Tobyt25]

more qualified people will arrive, but that will be quite bad. As for what to do... What camper conversion is it? How much money are you able to invest in it? how attached to it are you?

We are very attached to our 1980 air cooled devon. Its had a recon engine fitted, 6mths ago. New gearbox and clutch. Complete new disc brake set up, and some new interior. Body seems solid in foot wells and underneath. and the rust seems on the surface. Not sure i can afford a full re spray.... The rest of the paintwork looks pretty good.

[lloydy]

Then just do what 90% of people do and just drive and enjoy the van. Fix MOT fails and advisories as they occur. No problem with that, you can only do what the budget allows. Just don't be tempted to have a pic at the rust scabs, as it will never end
But there is no such thing as surface rust, it comes from inside and works its way out.
To give you a idea, have a look at the bodywork needed to mine... And mine kinda looked ok...
http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=126173" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Plasticman]

aye.lloyd's given solid advice, that van will be rotten as they come under that, so dont fuss , dont play with it, just get on and enjoy the van as you will not cure that with a seam scrape and coat of paint.
mm

[itchyfeet]

aye.lloyd's given solid advice, that van will be rotten as they come under that, so dont fuss , dont play with it, just get on and enjoy the van as you will not cure that with a seam scrape and coat of paint.
mm

You may not cure it but any work you can do will make it look better and slow it down
i go around mine every hear scrape off any rust spots (inside and out) treat with vactan and paint

if i hadnt done that i would now have big rusty holes, ok better to cut out the rust mm style but we dont all have the money for that and tge last time i got my van welded it was bodged, hard to find somebody to trust.

[Tobyt25]

Thanks 'itchfeet' that sounds like good advice. I don't really want it to get worse. If i could keep it a bay until i could get it done properly.

[lloydy]

I still think it's a bad idea to touch it

[jimpainter]

I'm going with lloydy and metalmick8y. Looking at the rust patch just in from the seam it could be filler hiding a hole/rot that's been done to sell the van on. Also maybe a possibility of the floor that side being rotton unless you have seen behind the units. Mixing to a custom colour can be difficult and there is no guarantee of a perfect match.

Jim

[faggie]

or sell it and buy a totally rust free van in original paint it will work out cheaper in the long run

[Plasticman]

Yep second that but....suggest ,no visible rust as opposed to rust free

[max and caddy]

They are all rust free....no one ever charges for it...well except the splitty folks but they have "issues" anyway.

[what2do]

Dig in and dig deep! If it's full of filler and looks terrible - so be it. We all gave different priorities and budgets. At the cheaper end of the scale, cut it out, treat it, paint it and pop-rivet a patch on it until funds permit a proper job. If you end up riveting several patches then you'll have a series I Land Rover appearance to your van - they're a classic too!

Just a thought.

[pmoc_2001]

Hi,

I was in your boat 3 years ago. Only just started painting. I had a lot of fun and tears doing mine. I had zip experience, just a lot of determination. Oh and I get Friday afternoons off - the only enemy is time and weather.

http://forum.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=85759" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kevtherev]

Devon didn't use panel vans they used buses.
So the factory rust proofing was a lot better than the former.