Club 80-90 Forums

Hello all I’m just about to start prepping the van ready for rollering with rustoleum.

Here’s a few pics of where the vans at the mo



The plan is to sort out all the rust out first, I’ve got most of the tools together still need to sort a few bits out.

I’m gonna start with the roof, it’s in pretty good shape with only a handful of rust spots.



I’ll get the rust spots down to metal, vactan, prime and fill, flat the whole roof back with 600 grit wet and dry then apply the first coat.

First question! The next photo is underneath the roof guttering, I can see the beginnings of the brown stuff starting to appear, I don’t fancy taking the roof off!

Any tips or pointers would be welcome here.



It looks to me that there is some kind of seam sealer underneath the roof guttering, is this correct?

I’ll post my progress, it won’t be happening overnight, I’m hoping to have it done by the end of summer.

Cheers for any advice, tips and pointers, and thanks to Ralph for all the info regarding the roller paint job.


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Bit of welding needed there 'ole fruit

Aye that all looks pretty familiar. Of course you may be lucky, but the rust is probably working it’s way from the inside to the outside (rust on the seams due to internal condensation, as well as perforated arches etc). If you try thinking of this job as primarily dealing with the rust in a thorough fashion, with the added bonus of being able to paint it afterwards, you will maybe be saving yourself a lot of heartache.

Buy a welder, and look through the restoration threads... cancel that, look through the restoration threads and then think about whether you want to take the van off the road for months, and buying a welder. You never know, you might enjoy it!

There’s some welding to be done for sure

The rough plan is to sort out the top half of the van, roof to below the windows. As in all windows out cut out the rot and weld in new metal and fit new seals.

I’d love to take it off the road to do it but it’s not an option at the moment as it’s used most days.

Some of the bigger welding jobs like the sliding door rails I’m thinking II’ll have to take it off the road for a week or so.

I’ve been hammering the resto threads on here to get some idea of what I’m up against, I’m pretty confident on the windows, the areas of worry are the b pillars and the sliding door stuff.

I’m hoping to get the roof done first as it needs the least work in the way of welding and once it’s painted I’m hoping it will kick me up the jacksy to crack on with the rest!



I picked a welder up off gumtree for a 100quid it’s an old snap on one so it should be good for this job.

I’ve nearly finished a part time classic car resto course at the local college, only a couple of hours a week for ten weeks, more of a taster for the full time course, definitely doesn’t make me an expert by any stretch but it’s gave me a bit of confidence to sort the van out.

This weeks target is to get the roof fully prepped and one coat of paint on.

Cheers folks, I’ve included a photo of my workshop!!!

I’m using the Tapatalk gubbins so can’t post smilies.


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All sounds good, I’m sure you’ll be fine! Sounds like you’re going in with your eyes open...

Cheers Roger T, got the rust spots on the roof ground back and vactaned today, also flatted the roof back, used an orbital sander on it all and then went over the lot by hand, forth bridge springs to mind!

Had a bit of trouble with the filler for the rust spot repairs, with it being so hot today as soon as the filler hit the vans roof it was going off!

Flatted the filled rust spots back and still needs some attention before paint, ever so slightly un even under the fingers, could high build primer be used here?


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