Wet Sponges hidden in my van

[Hypnovan]

What you'll need to de-sponge your van:

Pink or blue rubber Marigold gloves. (yellow is just so 90's)
A crosshead/ Philips screwdriver.
A plastic bag.
A torch.
Rust treatment.
Wire brush (small)
A good reason not to do this first thing tomorrow.

While out tinkering with my van this afternoon, I took the rear light clusters off to clean them and to see what was behind them.

Foam! Spongey, thick,wet foam stuck all over the place. My guess is that it was put there for sound deadening reasons but when I ripped it all out, I found it to be totally saturated with water. I could find no other reason for it being there so I decided that i'd rather have a little more road noise than a rusty van. And you wonder why your wheel arch seams are rusty? What were they thinking when they did this?!! Where the foam had been sitting, soaking wet at the bottom and in contact with the other (upper,inner) side of metal that forms part of the rear wheel arch space, it has rusted a small-ish hole. It's been in my van for 18 years!!

I have rubbed it down, put rust treatment on it and I'll have a patch welded over it soon. Lordy I need some garage space, a lifting jack and about a week to go over the whole van dealing with such things.

If there is some technical reason for leaving this foam where it is, do you know of a different way to deal with it?

Here's what I did and maybe you could benefit from this too. Take your rear lights off. My battery is on the left hand side at the back and yours probably is too. There is a space between the back of the battery and the rear wing. A very nifty little hiding space it is too. In it you will find foam. It will be filthy dirty and probably soaking wet. It's been there for a long time. Rip it all out and throw it away cos it's probably rotting your seams. There has to be a better way of dealing with road noise than wet sponges in yer rear panels and other spaces you can't normally see.

On the left hand side (looking from the back) there is an air intake pipe connected to my air filter. next to the rear window on the left hand side is a plastic vent/slotted grill. There is an identical grill on the other side but I can only guess it's there for cooling or venting the engine. It's held in place by 2 small screws. Behind the vent panel is a plastic air collector which should be connected to a pipe (mine wasn't) which runs down the inside of the rear panel and is then connected to the air filter. Mine is connected to the filter at the bottom but not the air collector at the top. Does this matter? Where it bends at the bottom to connect to the air filter, I found more foam. It's probably there to stop the pipe rattling about and maybe for sound deadening too. Whatever it was put there for, it's a major culprit for rusting my van and it must die!!. Nothing serious on that side though- remarkably - even though it too was soaking wet so i've ripped it all out anyway.

Hope this helps,

hv

ps: as i say, if you know of a good reason for the foam being there please let me/us know and i'll find another solution for it.

[Rozzo]

air is a great insulating layer.
it's also good at cooling engines

[Hypnovan]

I must have the only van with a wet sponge cooled engine then.

[Bilbo Blue]

Belive me, you did the right thing rippin that foam out. The bloody things rust quick enough as it is without the added bonus of sommit holding the moisture on their delicate bodies.

[Hypnovan]

How can I tell everyone about this? If they cause more damage than they do good, why doesn't everyone rip them out?

Are there any other places i'm likely to find wet foam in hard-to-reach places?

hv

[caveman]

I couldn't believe how wet they were when i pulled them out. Like you said, no wonder they rust at the seams, there's a continous soaking of the body from inside out. I would suggest also removing the ones that are at the front end of the transmission under where the floor rises

[Hypnovan]

Sunday will be de-foaming day.