Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Supernube]

Hello all. I hope you are all well.

I am new to the forum and have signed up as I believe the wealth of knowledge and experience will save a lot of searching and joining of other forums.

I have a VW T4 van...not exactly a classic I know but its my classic....and I am also hoping to win a VW Beetle on Ebay over the next 24 hours lol.

I have rust on my wheel arches and want to sort it out as well as I can with what I have.

Due to lack of knowledge I originally rubbed them back to bare metal and then covered them with a normal aerosol primer...anti rust primer...which I now know is not the way to go.

The rust is showing through and I am obviously going to have to get it back to bare metal again and then do it correctly...correct treatment..correct order...ect.

I believe lots of people use Epoxy primer...bare in mind I do not have any spray equipment...at the moment anyway.

My question is this...what should I do lol...what can I use...and what should my process be ?

Thats three questions but ...

Thank you very much...any advice will be very much appreciated.

Daniel

[MikeEdwards]

The first thing is to properly get rid of the rust. Unfortunately with a lot of arches, the rust is coming through from the inside where moisture gathers between the inner and outer wing panels. I don't know the vehicle so I can't say whether that's possible on yours.

If it is, unfortunately the solution is to cut the rusty metal out and replace it with new, unless you can get to the back of it with rust killer. As the two panels are usually welded together, that's often impossible.

I've started using "Hydrate 80" rust treatment on the recommendation of someone else. It's too early for me to tell whether it's going to be any good, but the chap who recommended it has been using it for some years and is in contact with the vehicles he's used it on.

Epoxy primer is a good choice because it's waterproof, where a lot of other primers are not. That can help if your paint gets chipped, or if it could get damp after you prime it but before you can put top coat on.

[Supernube]

Thanks for the reply.
I believe the wings are bolted on...no second skin so to speak...not in direct contact anyway.
I basically just want to get rid of the rust spots before they turn in to a problem I cant put right myself....the arches are not ruined by any means...just starting to show in places and rotted through on one spot I believe.

I was thinking about my personal position really...Im not able to dedicate days in a row on the van ...as much as I would love to...so like you mention maybe the epoxy would give me time AND protection while I get the job done.

Is it possible to get an aerosol epoxy ? or maybe use a brush ...I heard that doesnt leave a great finish though ?

I do intend on getting a compressor and spray set up asap.... and a welder lol.....think I might need it for the Beetle


I'll put some pics up maybe.
Thanks again

[Supernube]

If these pictures work...then it shows the general state of my arches...nothing major at all.

I would imaging you all deal with much much worse than this lol...but Its something that becomes worse isnt it... thats why I wanted to do it now.

Thats why it was more about the product / procedure...than the work.

Also there are much worse areas on my van than this that I will be sorting out ...and as I keep mentioning...my first Beetle lol.

https://flic.kr/p/2janJjc

https://flic.kr/p/2jaiPz6

[Rick]

[MikeEdwards]

I can't say I have any experience of aerosol-based epoxy primers, I based that on what I read while I was doing the hatch. I didn't dig into whether there are good and bad epoxy primers, otherwise I'd never have got going with the job.