Cheers Martin. That was the issue, I didn’t seam seal the lip between the skin and frame so will be thoroughly doing that this time and even more cavity wax! I suspect our two buses have lived slightly different lives over the last few years. Mine has been parked outside in a coastal town all year round and used as our only car. Going forward I’ll be tucking her away over winters to avoid the worst of the rain. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I learnt eventually that there is not really any such thing as borderline treatable rust on a skin panel too. It's a temporary arrangement. Mine lives outside too and I drive it on salted roads with no way of washing off the salt apart from driving in the rain.
Back on the bus after nearly a month and half of not doing anything on it! I’ve welded in the last fiddly repair in the tailgate seal channel and am now prepping all the bits I’ve been fixing for some fresh paint.
A little more progress on Iris. Both cab doors shaped and rubbed down ready for some primer as well as the A pillar. Starting to clean up the Passenger front step where some water got under the rubber mat and started eating at the metal.
A big push over the last few days to get everything into primer that I’ve been working on. Now just to sand it all down, seam seal and get some colour on it over the next few weeks!
Hurry up summers coming , I recall that tailgate one but mine was on the other side on my XO, Once you have taken one of these things apart like yourself with the little bits and repairs that come back again over time bubble bubble to say hello again.
Aiming to get her back out middle of next month hopefully. As much as I love the baja I prefer the driving position of the bus. A right pain in the backside, but better to give it some TLC now rather than leave it for a few years. I'm going to absolutely drown the seal channels in cavity wax after I'm done to try and give it another layer of protection.
Are these all bits than kinda cleaned up ok, got treated etc?. Those "doesn't seem bad enough to go through the hassle of replacing" bits? Got some on mine, they always seem to bite you back later but at the time, compared to the stuff you ARE replacing they seem minor?
Those rubber step mats are a twunt for collecting grime,dust and staying damp Over time it wears sections of paint away and holds moisture against the metal work. I’m tempted to make some out of chequer plate for mine and bond them on and seam seal around the edge.
Yeah it's always a tough call. I've tried to be as sensible as I can as I don't want to miss the summer camping and using it. Anything I knew wouldn't clean up nicely got chopped out and fresh metal let in: Bottom of both cab doors Seal channel on the drivers door (you'll notice I reprimed the whole door that side as even being careful welding in the channel a bit of distortion transferred into the door skin) A pillar lip Section of seal channel around the tailgate. Everything else I cleaned up as best I could using either Hydrate 80 (rust converter) or Deox Gel (rust remover). The rust on the passenger step wasn't too bad at all, so I just ground it down as the metal is nice and thick. The rust on the bottom of the driver's rear corner had some pitting but not too bad so by the time I'd treated it, a few coats of epoxy and high build primer hid the pits. I'm hoping my decision to garage it over winters will mean a bit longer between these "touch up sessions!".
Always when renovating vans, under those rubbers would be... crust, the worst corrosion of any part of the arch and main cause of whole arch replacement (because the step parts are so bad). Just toss them over @snotty 's fence nd leave the holes for ventilation, you can't use the steps without falling over backwards anyway?
I'm tempted to do away with them and just fit some bungs to the holes instead. Another crappy bay design "feature".
An even better idea! I found a small hole in the bottom of one of the doors that has now been drilled out to become a "vent hole".
Ah gotcha. Almost all of the issues I'm sorting are due to me not being thorough enough with seam sealer and cavity wax I believe (live and learn!). The A pillar repair was definitely an issue I was aware of the first time around, but didn't spot until I was close to paint. By that point I just wanted to get it painted so slapped some rust converter on and forgot about it. It did ok for 4 years but by the end of last winter I was forever looking at it and picking rusty flakes off it. Pretty sure it drove Max crazy every time we got in the van as I'd point it out to her (her response "Either fix the damn thing or sell it!").
That is exactly what I did with my step rubbers (well they aren’t even rubber more like horrible hard plastic)because they do indeed hold water underneath
I made mine from chequer plate but bolted them on with an air gap. Obviously that'll need cleaning out occasionally but that's easy enough as it's just a couple of bolts.
Loving the attention to detail. I'm getting a lot of inspiration and handy things to look out for from this thread with my resto, so appreciate the updates. Hope you're feeling satisfied with your work
