Date:         Fri, 13 Jun 1997 10:09:56 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         vwbus@netbiz.net
Subject:      Vanagon RUST DESIGN FLAW

I've decided to make this a general post.  I've noticed something 
that will trouble people in the salt areas (rust/snow belt, and beach 
combers).  It is a common Vanagon rust area which I had not given 
much thought too till this past weekend.

Hey this brings something else up depending on how long you intend to
really keep that silver beast I've noticed a critical design flaw that
hits us in this area.  After noticing all my vans and Eriks have rust
beginning or beginning to get severe at the joint under the bottom
grille from body to bumper support I started wondering, as the rust
does not start from the outside but comes from behind.  The cause is
obvious when you get to looking at it.  The joint is and overlapping
spot welded affair that looks like this.

        |  ^ up to body and grille
        |
     |  |  < RUST STARTS BEHIND HERE WORKS DOWN JOINT
     |  |  < spot welds
     |  |
     |  |______   \/ Eventually bubbles out the bottom of joint here
     |________________________

                            ^ out to bumper support

The problem with the design is that it is not well coated or painted
from BEHIND as it is up in there and not easily sprayed at a downward
angle.  This gets exasperated by the fact that in the winter around
here, salt spray will get blown up the slots in the lower grill and
drip directly onto the joint.  The rust starts from behind down the
joint the by the time you see it on the outside way too late.  I'll lay
odds even a '90 is already rusting like this (my Texas van excluded). 
Pull the lower grille and look at this joint, hope you are not too
bad.  Then do something immediately, I imagine some cleaning,  good etching
primer brushed on followed by some seam sealer then a good topcoat. 
Although the joint runs the full way across (and you might try to get
to it all along from behind, I notice the problem is primarily
concentrated under the grille as one would expect, however it clearly
happens all along as the '81 (sans lower grille) is the same way but
it spent it's life on the beach (even worse for salt settling on badly
designed joints). 

Anyway everyone who intends to keep a van in the rust belt that does 
not already suffer from this better take a hard look at it now  from 
my experience an '87 could be looking bad already, an '85 could be 
irreperable, and a '81 could be just poor with big holes.  To repair 
this correctly would be murder and basically mean removing and 
replacing the bumper support.  The funny thing is this was always a 
trouble area, BUT I think the bay design with it's overlapping drip 
rail design was clearly superior.  VW steps back in progress like on 
so many things.

John
vwbus@netbiz.net