Areas that rust - General
List of usual rust areas
Dugcati: The usual places on these vans are:-
- Seams - they all always suffer from seam rot of varying degrees
- Door steps - take a little longer to rot but they still do in the end
- Wheel arches - these rot from the seam out
- Around the petrol cap area - This is a big one as mud etc gets stuck up in the corner above the pipes and petrol breather tanks and not only rots the filler cap area but the post and the surrounding steel if left
- Rare but worth keeping in the back of your head - on older vans the fuel tanks can rot through from the top down, if the owner says he/she never fills up the tanks then be wary - not difficult to replace the tank but it's an additional cost
- Check around the windows for bubbling paint - especially around the front window
- Lift up the boot and look in the corners at the inner face of the boot - they can rot here
- Look under the bottoms of the doors and the sliding door too - classic rot area on all VW vans
- If you are up for crawling under the van look at the sills - if these are rotten walk away (unless your a welder or very rich!) this is big work to repair properly and requires a lower half respray afterwards as your cutting into all 4 wheel arches
PS. If you're looking at an aircooled the heat exchangers are worth checking (for corrosion) - if they leak you will have stinging eye/sleepy syndrome in the van (Carbon Monoxide, amongst others!).
Kitchen/fridge panel
mhilton: Vendor is saying he has the panel behind the fridge painted every 3 years (from the outside)...
I can't help wondering whether is rotten from inside out if it is the fridge.
HarryMann: Yes, it can be and very often is, if no-one has ever taken the trouble to kill it at source properly. It isn't uncommon that the whole panel needs replacing, and possibly down into the sill area.
No substitute for good drainage and ventilation in kitchens... some bonded insulation inside that panel would also go a long way to prevent condensation
Dugcati: I can vouch for that! the area behind the fridge - the whole lower part of the panel on mine and the posts were really rotten.... I have had weeks and weeks of welding to do on mine.
