Date:         Tue, 28 Sep 1999 11:00:05 -0300
Reply-To:     Malcolm Stebbins <Malcolm.Stebbins@MSVU.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Stebbins <Malcolm.Stebbins@MSVU.CA>
Subject:      Re: Lots of talk about Rust...
In-Reply-To:  <686ef062.25213fb3@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Lots of good advise so far on this.  As I posted a few weeks ago, I took
EVERYTHING out of my westy to get at the rust problem as a preventative
measure.  I found rust in the inside of the bottoms of many of the panels
(especially the ones just forward of the rear wheels, and rearward from there!)

I also noticed that straight down from the rear air "intakes" (just rear of the
rear side windows) at engine level, there are flat surfaces, for many of you,
this will be behind some cardboard partition.  Water enters the air-intakes
and sits on this flat surface and I might offer a conjecture that this might be a
source of the dreaded seam rust. I put a a lot of rust inhibitor oil in there!

I do believe in having the van sprayed with the rust inhibitor oily stuff (I prefer
Krown over  Rust Check) every year.  That is why I took everything out of my
van  - to spray the rust inhibitor oil in everywhere.  I also took off the camping
utility covers (flue,water,110V) and there was rust around the covers  of each
of those.   Next week I take off the rear bumper to get at some rust behind
there.

If I can get at the rusted parts, I sand the rust with a circular disk (on a drill)
and then use "rust converter" paint then anti rust primer, then spay paint
then wax.  It will be many years till I find out if this works or just hides the
cancer.

Malcolm S   Halifax NS,  91 Syncro Westy

Ed wrote:

>   Does anyone care to talk about how to prevent rust problems for those of us
> who haven't had the pleasure of dealing with that problem?