the Rockapotamus is born.... slowly

[trentjim]

So i've had 3 weeks just getting to know the bus, but after a jaunt out for the bank holiday the time had come to start messing up/ restoring the van... Its going to be a long gestation though I guess
Maybe i should point out at the start that I'm pretty new to all this - so ill be learning as i go along. I'd also like to do everything myself... but recognise thats probably wishful thinking...
My first objective (Phase 1) is all about figuring out what needs doing… and while I’m there I’ll be cleaning up the rust and get Vactan on to stabilise everything as best I can. I’ve decided to work from the front towards the back, partially because some of the worst bits are on the back half - so i will at least have been desensitised a bit before i get to those
… so the starting point was some crusty bubbles on the seam behind the bumper. getting at these meant taking the bumper off, not too much of a chore, unfortunately to get it off meant taking the skirt/front spoiler off. The fixings on the front were clearly corroded, and stubs of cut plastic around them showed that they were knackered last time somebody was here.


The Hex headed screws which replaced them released with a bit of persuasion, and the bumper was free, while down there though I also removed each of the side sections which took considerable effort – on one side I used a dremmel & a chisel to take the heads off the screws – took ages and was damn hard work. So for the other side I brought out the anglegrinder. Of course, the heat from the grinder melted the plastic behind the washer a bit – which is unfortunate…

Decided to get the side planks off too, and can see this one has has had a historic repair.


left hand plank is still on, as is the rear bumper, and on the pieces i've taken off I’ve got a few broken bits to contend with, and some historic glue here and there but they will tidy up eventually. The bus looked weird with the fixings left on, so since the kit will be off for a while I drilled out the rivets to get the supports off too.



… So eventually... much later than I had planned... I was finally ready to get to work on the bottom half of the front end.

Behind the bumper I mostly used a wire wheel in the drill to grind off the rust, though I also used a small grinding wheel on the dremel to get into some of deepest pitting and clean tight to the seam. The panel above had one or two areas that suited the wire weel, but for the most part they were stonechips more suited to the precision approach of the dremmel, a bit of a touch with the dremel brought the rust spots back to white metal. Despite the observation that they looked fine, I uncapped a load of old stone chip touchups, finding a spot of rust beneath every one which I polished out. Once everything was back to shiny metal it all got a coat of Vactan. Its not bad, but there are two or three swollen bits which will really try and fight back. I must say i don't fancy splitting the bumper at this stage to really get to the root of the problem - would it help to just cut out the worst bulges from the top or would that be pointless. Also, to help satisfy my curiosity - was is/was the red plastic circular bit that you can see in the first pic? there were two of them, broken, or perhaps one broken in half. Oh, and any other comments are welcome - you can click on the pics for high resolution versions if you need a closer look..
cheers,
James

[trentjim]

next up was the bonnet and the two vertical seams on the front. Started with the seams. first observation was that the first few mm of seam by the corner of the windscreen was metal rather than seam sealer. Hints that this corner has seen some new metal in the past. experimented with a few methods of extracting the seam sealer. A couple of passes with the stanley knife, followed by raking down the seam with the back of the blade worked quite well



once I’d more or less got to the back of the seams I used a narrow wire wheel in the Dremel to polish out the bit of surface rust and properly clean it up.



The backs of the seams were attacked with a little wire brush, reaching through the indicator openings and the space left by removing the headlights



Again, every blemish was dremmelled into submission, and some larger areas were attacked with the wheel in the drill. So I gradually went from this…





to this





it cleaned up much better than I expected… though it took longer than I’d expected too! Finished off by vactanning it all. I need to get the screen out to go any further on the front… I also need to get the plastic gutter trim off from in front of the doors - how dies this come off? heat gun?

so next is going to be a good look at the cab floor… I already know there is ancient soggy newspaper under there… so I’m a bit apprehensive about what I’m going to find once I get the carpet up…

[trentjim]

Passenger Side floor & step.
It was always obvious that both steps were going to need welding, but I wanted to have a good look to see the extent of the problem, and suss out what else would need doing back here. After taking out the carpet and removing the insulation (& on the drivers side a soggy rotten newspaper from August 2010)I gave everything a good brush out and a wipe over. there was still a sticky glue like residue left so used petrol and a nylon brush to scrub it off... this was what I was left with...



I started with the rusty seam beside the gearstick. it didnt take too much prodding with the screwdriver to turn this into a small hole. After wire wheeling and grinding with the dremmel I was left with this.



Not major but looks a bit fiddly to fix. I'll need to drop out the spare tire at some point to clean up the other side. This disconcerting bulge is in the seam sealer in front of the passenger seat box. There was another with a bit of rust breaking through in the adjacent corner by the wheel arch



I set about investigating them with a screwdriver. picking out the flaky bits before grinding back to shiny metal



next up was the cab step. this looked pretty grotty before I started, but there was more solid metal left than I was expecting



a few other spots of surface rust elsewhere on the cab floor were attacked with the Dremel, finishing up with the floor looking like this.



finished it all off with a coat of vactan for protection... looks like the drivers side is going to take a bit more work...

[trentjim]

Cab floor & step, LHS
here is what I found once the carpet, insulation & rotten paper was up…



The floor is covered with a bitumen sheet, I could see a bit of rust so started picking at it, revealing this hole…. corrosion is no big deal, its not deep, but got me wondering what else this bitumen layer might be covering up…



So I started picking it off.. not an easy job. I started with a screwdriver but wasnt particularly happy with the way it was scratching up the pristine factory primer which I was finding uner the bitumen. It was also only coming up in little bits and was taking too long. I switched to a sharp flat blade, a little better but still hard going. I ended up using the hot air gun to soften the bitumen and a plastic knife to get under and scrape it off. A bit of petrol worked well to remove the last stubborn bits



This corner of by the wheel arch was clearly different – filler rather than bitumen. Bit by bit I ground it off until this stunning bit of repair work was revealed in all its glory…



picking through the underseal beneath finds the rusted remnants which were plated over – I dont think the original problem area can have been very big, but i guess the heat from the weld disturbed the underseal so there is rust under the floor and in the wheel arch following the line of the weld. There is rust breaking through in the corner of this repair on the wheel arch seam. This isnt the only hole I’ve got to contend with on this side. Picking off another suspicious bulge in the seam sealer on the seam in front of the seat box found this….



which ended up like this once all the loose and flaky stuff was out of the way.,,



The surface rust around the washer tank cap, accelerator pedal and a few other spots cleaned up ok, though I’ll need to drill out the rivets on the pedal to finish the job off properly, and check that the other side is ok.



overall its a little bit nasty – on the bright side its all hidden away when the carpets down, but it needs tidying up in due course regardless

[trentjim]

RHS B post

moving back from the cab the 'B' post was next… I’d seen enough post mortems of this bit to know that I should expect trouble… of course, despite this area looking good at first glance I wasnt going to get away scot free here… it was inevitably worse under the surface.

So, before I started I had a relatively clean seam and the first touch of surface rust showing around the filler. if you look closely at the pic its clear that this is one of the areas which has had a little paint in the past. the bottom bit of the post looks original, but higher up there has clearly been some spray and if you look closely at the seam some pitting is visible beneath the paint



I reckon this is a good few years old, and the rust hasnt generally broken through, but the real issue lies beneath. I carefully seperated the filler tube from the neck and years of accumilated crap, making sure that none found its way back to the fuel tank. the rubber neck is perished so another item goes on my list of parts to replace.

The front side of the seam cleans up easily – much more easily than the front seams did, probably because corrosion had debonded the seam sealer. I knew that I had to get to the back of the seam though, and this took more effort. the rubbery factory underseal that VW put on 20 years ago is difficult to shift, but as it was clearly compromised it had to go… though I restricted my efforts to the bits which were already knackered… I think the whole lot should be removed really is there a solvent to do this? Anyway the next two pics show the holes that eventually emerged inside the arch on the b post






but on the plus side the jacking point looks sound… as do both the inner and outer sills… on this side at least


and aside from the inner half of the seam the filler panel was in really good nick once it had had been seen to with the wire wheel & Vactan.

[JJJackson]

Hi Jim,

Looking good. We were both looking for a bus at the same time, you sent me some details of a Bluestar on Pistonheads. I ended up with a Westy Cali with a fair bit of rust that needs sorting looks abit worse than yours. You must have upped your budget to get the Whitestar but looks worth it especially with the tdi. Good luck on the resto.

Regards

James

[trentjim]

hey James,
funny how you were looking for a multivan and ended up with a camper... and I was looking for a camper and ended up with a multivan... Felt like the right van though, even with the bits that need sorting.Worse is a relative term, there are plenty of crusty bits still to come & i've got a weird intermittent slow starter to get to the bottom of.

[trentjim]

LHS B post & crusty sill
well, eventually I summoned up enough courage to take the side plank off the Left hand side and get a good look at the crusty bits I had gingerly poked at and tried to pretend werent there for the last few weeks.



not so bad... from below…



base of the b post looks ok



but this is the uurgh bit – tinworm has parted the inner and outer sill for a section in the middle… plently of flakyness here doesnt bode well.

so drilled out the side plank hangers and cracked out the sponge & a bowl of water…looking better already



the seam towards the bottom of the post looks pristine, seems like original paint too… the rust above on the other hand is breaking through newer paint, just like the other side its been applied without removing the plank. Stripped down the seam with a blade and wire wheel before taking the surface rust off the wheel arch and jacking point



sent flaky metal flying once I got the wire wheel into the mid section of the outer sill. you can see from the pic below that the rot is very localised… it even seems pretty solid around the spot welds and by my reckoning the inner sill is still fine. its like the outer sill has rusted and peeled away from the inner. prolonged grinding with the wheel opened up a small hole from the worst spot just above the seam. overall a bit rough, but I was prepared to find worse



all vactanned now so ready to carry on digging...