Autosleeper body rust: Leave it or work on it?

[richbeery]

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Hello everyone! This is my first time on the forum. I bought a '89 autosleeper a year ago, all looked good, she had 98,000 miles and since then I have taken her to France a couple of times as well as many UK jaunts. She has a body kit and big white bumper that I am not too keen on but otherwise all good.

Although I keep her garaged rust has started to come through around the fuel filler cap where there is an obvious filler repair, then more appeared around the rear right panels and now near the water filler cap. I missed the fact that the seller had covered the problems with paint and filler and blended it all in. I also worry that the body kit hides a multitude of sins!

Having read the forum a bit I think the advice may be to enjoy the van until big work is needed, is there anything I can do to slow the process? The bumper is damaged and I am very tempted to take it off along with the plastic side fairings and replace with an original black bumper. Obviously many holes would need filling and painting.

I am tempted to get a total new paint job, is it a bad idea to move away from the original AS Trooper beige? I don't imagine if I get the work done I will see her on, so not worried about resale price.

Any help, advice and previous experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks is advance,
Rich

[richbeery]

A couple more photos!

[jimpainter]

Body kits can hide lots which you won't know about until you remove it, but there is the problem that if you remove it where do you stop if it's crusty? As for the other bits usually it's a case of strip back to metal, blast if possible, or wire brush, then vac tan or similar and paint over the top. However if there is obvious filler there it has got to be hiding something, so it could be a can of worms.

[Plasticman]

looking at the way some bodger has pop riveted the side plank on then i would worry about whats beneath, i suggest it looks better now than it would with them off
as to the rust.. well its rotten so more a case of what your longer term intentions are .
mm

[richbeery]

Hi Jim and Mick,

Thanks for you help, would I be right in thinking that if I worked at the rest at the panel seam, there is a fair chance that it is behind the seam and then would be into taking them off? Or would blasting and anti rusting externally help?

It's MoT next month, so will see how that goes, enjoy the summer then think about it the body kit in the autumn. I agree that it is bound to lead to more trouble in the short term. But I think small black bumpers would look a lot better (and give better ground clearance). Are the JK bumper kits ok? I hear some negative chat about their products.

She was only £6000 so I have a bit of spare left for work, I couldn't could sell on without being honest so wouldn't get a good price. Would it be prohibitively expensive to get a pro on the job do you think?

Or maybe the roller paint job shown above!

Thanks again!

Rich

[jimpainter]

Most rot on these starts on the seams, usually from the inside out, if you want to enjoy the summer use it then start digging over winter, unless it fails mot miserably. As for a pro job, it's difficult to price on pics and to be honest if I was quoting I would want the body kit off to give a proper quote which then comes back to what's under it.