Date:         Sun, 23 Mar 2003 07:12:55 -0500
Reply-To:     Jeff Stewart <fonman4277@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Stewart <fonman4277@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Vanagon Body Construction
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Good Morning Folks,
          
          From years on the type2 list, I know anyone who dares to question VW engineers is flamed. But, I do have one issue I'd love to have VW engineers explain to me: why was it necessary to make the Vanagon body with so many small pieces welded together? Especially the rear wheel arches and the rockers on the drivers side. Every Bay owner knows what a weak point this is for rust, and the Vanagon actually has more seams than a Bay. If you compare the Vanagon to my Chevy van, which has much larger panels with no seams, it is obvious it is possible to stamp out larger steel panels without seams. My '84 has light seam rust in a couple of places, and I know from experience light rust at the surface usually indicates much more rust below. On my two Bays, since I repainted both of them, I cleaned the seams down to bare metal and filled them in with a high quality body filler (NOT "BONDO"). Not good I guess if you are going for a first class restoration, but I never had any seam rust problems after that. How have others dealt with the seam rust problem?       Jeff