Date:         Mon, 24 Apr 95 22:12:27 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         ja@decws3.coe.wvu.edu (John Anderson)
Subject:      Re: Galvanic rust protection, rust repair

> 	VW uses zinc gasket/washers between the front fenders and the
> unibody on the waterpumpers- A1 and up. 
> 	I've noticed there are two bright 'silvery' metal bolts that
> don't seem to do anything in the leading edge of my Corrado's
> door. They COULD be adjustments of some kind- the 914's door-window
> channel was ADJUSTABLE for tilt by a nut-and-screw business a lot like
> a rocker adjuster at the bottom of the door...
> 	Or those bolts could be sacrificial electrodes. I should
> ask the parts guys.
> 	A sacrificial electrode on my single-cab would be a good
> deal... I'm going to look into it.
> 
> 
I'm going to say the system is not overly effective because every
piece of gold colored (zinc?,cadmium?) plated metal on water pumpers seems
to become a sacrificial electrode in the salt belt, fuel line ends, a/c
line ends, door locks, door lock posts, every nut bolt etc, first a
whitish ozidation through the plating then rust, a friends '78 Dodge
Challenger by Mitsu has what appears to be the same plating on all
hardware and it looks new, go figure.  IMHO VW really needs to work
on this stuff as I feel it's almost worse than no protection at all,
this has happened every water pumper I have seen around here.  In fact,
stainless hardware would not come amiss, plus hell the lock striker
plates on both my Buses, '71 and '76 are still fine looks like a step
back to me.  Definitely worth investigasting in order to keep the rest
of the Bus in one piece though.

John Anderson
ja@coe.wvu.edu
'71 Westy, '90 Corrado G60