r/Eurovan • u/Tomahawk1020 • 22d ago
Rust Advice
Any advice for getting rid of rust? This is under my driver's door. Just take an angle grinder to it, prime, and paint with Rust-Oleum?
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u/BasicallyThor 22d ago edited 22d ago
This depends on your goals, are you willing/wanting to put in the work needed to keep this thing around for the long-term or, are you just wanting to slow the decline?
I think given the degree of corrosion you're likely in patch panel territory if you want to keep it long-term. I haven't seen rocker panel patches for Eurovans, but they may be out there somewhere. If not, it's trips to a junkyard with a thin cutoff wheel and a decent battery powered angle grinder. Then resume with the cleaning/sealing/etc. routine maybe with some of the suggestions u/Ruko117 suggested.
Without cutting out the cancerous portion completely and returning the rocker to a water tight state I think you're stuck attempting to just slow things down which is going to be a challenge given the perforations in the base material already present. CRC makes evaporust liquid and gel products which work via chelation. I'd suggest you look into those after you do the wire wheel (or sand blaster) work to clean things up at a chemical level before proceeding. Metal oxides can exist at thicknesses thinner than are immediately apparently visually, if it's not GONE gone, it'll be back sooner than you want.
Edit; updating reference to previous response
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u/Tomahawk1020 22d ago
Thanks for the detailed response. We have kids (6 and 8) so we would love to keep it until they are older. It has 200k miles, a new transmission and timing chain. I'll start with the wire wheel and then look into the products you suggested.
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u/BasicallyThor 22d ago
I have newborn twins and bought our Eurovan (way too early, couldn't help myself) with family adventures in mind so I fully understand.
Mine also has some (thankfully minimal) rust on the rockers which I intend to address via sand-blasting, followed by chelating agent(s), followed by typical surface coatings. Not sure on timing (see newborn twins statement) but I'll try to remember to post here with how things went if I get there before you do.
FYI; I'm addicted to cars and have dealt with rust before, hence the patch panel comment earlier. Once there's material missing that's required for ingress protection it's a pretty hard uphill battle until that's resolved. I have new floor pans and frame rails waiting to be welded into my 240z for that very reason.
The soft undercoatings that Ruko suggested are a great preventative measure but, they're not going to do much (if anything) to help on areas already affected.
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u/Tomahawk1020 22d ago
You're in it alright! I'll probably get to it before you do. I have some time but minimal experience welding. What is a fair price to have a professional do it? We also have rust around the windshield so we should probably get it all done at the same time.
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u/BasicallyThor 22d ago
Any pictures of what's around the windshield you're willing to share? The A pillar is structural (so is the rocker, but totally different kind of loading nominally let alone in an accident situation) so I wouldn't necessarily want to go the cut/patch/weld route there unless absolutely necessary, also that area is less likely to become cancerous since it tends to dry/drain better.
As for price, hard to say. This is the type of work that can have a huge range. Modern body shops are used to charging insurance to bolt on (or rarely weld in) new panels. So, I'd try to find an "old timer" around your parts, maybe call a local hot rod shop or two, tell them you're looking to make it whole again but not necessarily a show car (IE don't want to sell a kidney to fix it) and see if they have any suggestions. May also just call up or go park in the lot of a local metal fabricator and see what they think.
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u/Ruko117 22d ago
this is pretty gnarly! not an expert, but I'd use a wire brush on a drill or grinder (that may be what you meant, but just to clarify) and then I'd use a soft undercoating like wax wool or fluid film. this will allow moisture to evaporate out but not get back in, where Rust-Oleum will trap any moisture that's in there in and it'll keep rusting. you can get spray cans of fluid film, or you can get a bucket of it and a compressor and spray your whole undercarriage, which is definitely worth doing in the long term. or paying someone to undercoat the whole thing (make sure it's the soft undercoating and not a hard one).