after looking at vans at GM day and on ebay etc it seems rust is a real problem in the roof /gutter area of our vans, my van has a clean rust free roof and i would like to keep it that way. I have had a look at a van without a head lining and you can get to the sides easily but getting down into the front corners is difficult, has anyone got any ideas on how to get rid of rust and rust proof this area.
my advice would be to peel the hood lining in the cab section off at the front and sides ie lower it without removing. then id soak it with fishoil. there is a large shelf on the inside. other than that... dont ever get your van wet and dont leave it without cover over the roof (condensation, dew etc is a problem too)
im one of the lucky ones too. 3x vans with no roof or gutter rot
BQZ
Pull the headlining back and spray stuff in!
From my experience I think the factory sealant on the inside at the font is well... A tad crap.
Mine was leaking from the front gutter internally, I also had rust keep flaring up on the usual spot (drivers side corner) so even when I sanded back to steel and repainted it was back in a month or so.
I got sick of getting wet pants while driving in the rain, pulled out the hoodlining. What I found was there were sections of the internal join where the sealant had failed or was never there in the first place. I replaced this with lots of sikaflex that I then used a finger to really push it into the join. Since then not only have I not had anymore leaks I've also had no new rust (well not in this area anyway).
A couple of other things I've noticed in a lot of vans at shows etc.
Many seem to be missing sealant in the body joins (ie ute van seam)
Many have great paint that is extremely thin in the gutters themselves.
Both of these issues are always going to cause rust.
I strongly recommend against always parking in sheds or never driving in the rain. We're talking about glorified plumbers vans that need to be enjoyed, not oil paintings.
thats the easy part, but im sure they rust from the inside out so i would like to get rid of any rust that has already started before i spray anything in there, i guess its a bit like trying to stop sill panels rusting or that annoying box section they put inside the doorsOriginally Posted by HK1837
Thats the ticket!
well said!
mate of mine owns a large panel shop. best advice he gave me was to not wet my cars unless i have to.
ie don't wash off dirt. use a tack rag and then damp chamois. rust needs moisture and oxygen to blossom
he has an FJ with a 25 year old paint job. never wet, plenty of use cruising, shows etc => no rust
HZ used as a daily, rust was plated, fish oiled, left in the rain during the day and garaged at night - he has to redo the rust every 2-3 years. its ok for him as he owns the shop. probably not ideal for someone on the site who has just spent 10-15k on panel and paint to have a rust bucket parked in their driveway after 3-4 years of use. just some friendly tips for those who don't want to set fire to their hard earned money
BQZ
So this has been bugging me a little this week because I don't think fishoil over the lip is really going to save the situation unless the the sealent is fixed first. Plus where the gutters rust is quite accessable from inside the car.
So here are a few photos to show what I'm talking about.
First up my dodgy repair showing how accessable this is from within the car, but is not where the fishoil is going to run.
Next up, a rust repair section showing the start of some failing factory sealer. (The bit in the middle is starting to go)
Cross section view that shows that it's not a box section or anything.
Everything else on the car the rust repair section is from was pretty well rusted out but the gutters actually looked fine. You can see however that from the back that gutter is starting to go. I don't care how much fishoil you put in your car, unless you get in there and remove all the rust and re-seal it, it's going to rust out. Or as they've said you could just never drive in the rain and hope for the best, personally I'd rather fix the problem.
Get one of those scourer wheels and take it back to bare metal..if you can reach all the spots. Fish oil it ..then seal it!
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