Rusty Bits
Paying the price of winter driving in the Vw bus.
Since restoring my 71 Bay Danbury camper in 2003 I've pretty much used it every free weekend and holiday that I can.
I had thought that totally soaking the underside of the camper in Waxoil would prevent the rust from appearing even with use in the winter.
This has worked very well for the last 7 years as I have kept coating it up with fresh waxoil everytime I'm underneath.
The van has started to rust around the seems on the wheel arches and I'm not sure whether this is stone chips or just moisture from the constant wet summers getting in between the panel and not being able to escape.
This weekend I tackled the job, stripping back all the paint and rust from the wheel arches, removing anything loose and cleaning them up.
The areas were then covered with a rust treatment to seal and prevent any more rust forming.
I'd had a little incident with a boat trailer in 2009 which caused considerable damage to the near side rear arch. This was repaired at a local body shop, they did an amazing job and I was impressed by the only small skim of filler that was required to finish off.
I decided not to fill the edges of the arches as they were too rippled to achieve a smooth finish. The arches were coated with Hamerite which was nearly a perfect match to my paint work. Hamerite products help prevent rust and adhere to most materials without prior undercoatings.
The painted areas were then coated with primer and painted with the colour matched paint for my van.
Whether this is the right or wrong way to deal with the rust I don't know but it should hold it at bay for a few more years until the van gets it's next paint job.
I will be re-covering the underneath of the van in yet more Waxoil once the weather has warmed up and it can be poured easily from the can.
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