Date:         Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:21:23 +0000
Reply-To:     J Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         J Stewart <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: vanagon seam rust repair
In-Reply-To:  <01f301c9670e$8f10b650$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

On my '84 Westy that I just sold (:-( I miss the ole girl) I had no visible seam rust, but I had a lot of places were the sealer in the seams had cracked, and where there are cracks you know water had been getting in. What I did was to tape the sides of the seams with blue painters tape and then use my Dremel with a cut off wheel to carefully dig out the old sealant. I then took a very small artists paint brush and painted as far down into the seams as I could with POR 15. Then I resealed the seams with 3M auto body seam sealer (which looks very much like the same stuff you'd caulk your bathtub tub with-it even cleans up with soap and water. I'm convinced it's the same, just packaged as auto body sealer and priced 3 times as much) I then primed and painted the seams. In the end it looked pretty good, hard to tell it had even been done, but at least the seams were now sealed. Will it last? Don't know, thats something the new owner will find out eventually. Jeff

PS Here's what I bought to replace the Westy http://www.veedubguy84.com/chevy.html?1229824781611
It's a '95 Chevy Winnebago conversion van. It's HUGE compared to the Westy, but doesn't have nearly the usable space inside. It handles like, well, as a former power boat owner, the best comparison i can make is that it feels like driving a power boat at slow speeds. Now, the real irony is that my old Westy's cooling system was tight-it NEVER leaked a drop of coolant anywhere-the Chevy started dripping coolant in my driveway the day AFTER I bought it!!