Chassis Rust

[torchy]

Has anyone seen the following rust patterns? This is on the chassis by the front wheels where the subframe bolts on. The chassis at that point has some vertical "coregations" and the Rust has formed on the top of each valley. Is this normal? are the "coregations" part of some crumple zone or maybe the van has had a bash sometime it it's life??. The opposite side of the Chassis is OK, so I'm wondering if it is necessary to have it cropped out and welded as there are no holes and it seems fairly solid but it will mean taking out the whole subframe to get at it. Any advice much appreciated.

[lloydy]

Relatively common I think, there is a write on campervan culture on Jake's van being fixed and welded up

[Aidan]

that's pretty normal, Edna has it to do as soon as I can take her off the road, for some reason the offside is the worst offender no obvious reason as to why - this is the interesting stuff I want metalmick8y to do

[hotpod]

by the looks of it, i would say that there is another plate spot welded to the inside. the welds will be in the "valleys" and it has trapped water between the welds and the rust has expanded and broken through at the peaks.

[jed the spread]

Yeh it's got a few layers. Like lloydy said Jake did a feature on it on http://www.campervanculture.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; so take a look. I think it will be under the tec section.

Jed

[torchy]

Yeh it's got a few layers. Like lloydy said Jake did a feature on it on http://www.campervanculture.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; so take a look. I think it will be under the tec section.

Jed

Yes that's it! looks like I'm going to have to drop the sub frame. I guess they are doubler plates the same as in the rear cross member. Thanks everyone for the feedback, great pics and very helpful Jed thanks.

That was a great job Russel did.

Russel any chance you can do it again please if you read this??

....and I thought I was lucky having a relatively rust proof van....Dream on

[max and caddy]

A rust proof van? none about...think you mean rust free?

[Aidan]

Russel any chance you can do it again please if you read this??

if you drive it South Africa I'm sure Russel will be happy to do it

[torchy]

A rust proof van? none about...think you mean rust free?

Yep I did mean Rust free..........but we can dream

[syncroandy]

Tristar Connection are listing what appear to be original VW parts to repair this section of the chassis, eg. item number 110982311809. Unfortunately they are rather expensive.

I've had a look on the parts catalogue, but haven't been able identify this part. It'd be interesting to find the part number and check if Classicparts have it any cheaper than Tristar Connection. Has anyone got any more info ?

[HarryMann]

Bloomin 'eck, they know how to charge! ...but we knew that anyway

That seems totally over the top anyway. We were discussing this at Coney, as Jason wanted to know if his was cracking or rusting. After a while and unattended, the rust bulges between the spots plit and join up, but wouldn't say it's stress cracking.

I'm going through the top layer with a 1mm disc and butting in a 2mm rectangular plate, but it does get difficult at the front near the suspension tower...

Looks like Jake's was a whole lot worse.

Have to say that's not good design on VWs part just there, though 50% of those we looked at were clean seemingly rustfree there.

[syncroandy]

Thanks Clive. Sorry I missed that conversation. I'm planning a restoration on my pickup and that's one of the areas that needs attention.

The pics of Jake's repair are very useful, and I'd be keen to see any more pics that people might have of their repairs, or hear about their plans.

It's frustrating that nice original part is so costly from Lars. I bet a couple of years ago it might have been massively cheaper from VW, had one known the part number and had the foresight to acquire it. I'm thinking maybe a local fabricator could produce a nice repair channel, or maybe improvise one from a chassis section cut from elsewhere on a breaker van.

[Plasticman]

well thers onlky one way to sort it, not really difficult more fidly and time consuming , lloydys needs doing ? if i recall so will document that though it may not be as bad as the whole lot perished ,we shall see
mm

[lloydy]

One side of mine looks affected for sure (bubbly looking underseal)

[Plasticman]