Date:         26 Jun 1996 16:45:41 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Robert King" <Robert_King@qmgate.arc.nasa.gov>
Subject:      Splittie rust repair

                                           4:31 PM             6/26/96


>Hey now,
>        Looked at a '59 today here in Austin (I believe it was posted to
>the list a few days back) and it has some hardcore cancer. Down by the
>jackpoints (or where the jackpoints are on a baywindow, I'm assuming they
>remain constant) there are holes about 2-3" wide. This is on the
>crossmembers that the floorpan rests on. Hardcore. Seems to me this is real
>difficult to repair, any thoughts? The fellow has done a decent job on the
>interior, it's in pretty fair shape, just a few spots with water damage.
>Cute paint job too, real hippied out. The wife loves it, but I'm afraid
>it's beyond me since I can't weld.

Ah,

a topic I'm taking more interest in as I look at more splitties
(and I though California was the rust free state?).
It depends on the asking price of course, most of the parts you
would need are available as repair sections, but it would be a big
one to take on with no welding experience ....

The thing is, the good paint job and the interior are probably
going to have to be redone if you start cutting, grinding, welding
and painting to fix the floor, wheel wells and chassis....

I saw a 21 window deluxe in much the same condition.  The paint was new,
and the interior had just been redone - nice bus you'd think.  I crawled
underneath it and it was 
literally rotten (the guy had put in new floor section so it looked alright
from on top but the belly pans, chassis, wheel wheels, inside rockers
were just *toast* and I mean *toast*).  Talk about doing it all the 
wrong way round.  He was asking $6000!  and really you'd have
to do it all again if it was salvageable at all.  I did tell a young guy who
was talking serious deal with the owner while I was crawling over it
to have a look underneath (is this bad form ?).   I hope that noone
paid over a grand for it (someone probably did methinks) -  it disappeared
from
the paper about two weeks later ...............

Rob K.