Bodykit falling off

[boscofinnigan]

Hi guys.

First of all thanks for this great website and all the info its been really useful. This is my first post so ill give you all a bit about our T25 first.

We bought a 1985, 1.6 diesel transporter with remo high-top. Its very striking and we love it (pics in the garage). Had the van for about 3 months now and funnily enough it has been a very busy 3 months. So far we have:
stripped the interior
painted all the cupboards
Upholstered all the seats and cushions
covered all the interior panels
fitted a new lock to the drivers door
painted the exterior handles

oh and I almost forgot, traveled about the country at the weekends, the fun part.

Just had it back from the garage today after a failed mot, new starter motor, brake pipes, filters, so it running like a dream.

Now to make the big decision of tackling the body work. The body work is in good nick but someone in their wisdom has fitted the camper with a fiberglass body kit which is falling off in several places. There is rust along the seams where the adhesive has been used to stick the body kit on. Also im unsure how much rust there will be along the bottom the van if I choose to take the body kit off.

Has anyone had any experience of this, even if you haven't, what would you recommend. Leave it on, if so what adhesive would you use to stick it back on. Take it off and see what lurks beneath. My worry is that it would cost a fortune to repair the original body panels due to the damage the body kit has caused.

Any comments or suggestions would be great. Cheers guys.

[android]

hello....I had a similar body kit to this on my van and the same worries you had (white van in my garage, the grey van is the same van).
I removed the side plasticy bits which were screwed into the body and also attached with some sort of grip fill! I guess if you wanted to keep them on then either rescrew into the body in different places at the expense of more holes in the van or grip fill back onto the body, again at the expense of possibly damaging the panels underneath.
I removed mine all together filled the holes and think it looks much better without the side bits. as for damage and rust, the only damage was were the screw holes were and some gripfill marks which were easily removed...there was no rust were the panels had been but i guess i could have just been lucky:) the side bits do protect from stone chips a bit but i personaly prefer the look without them. hope this helps anyone want some side skirty bits? xxx