The Red Menace!

[New2Skool]

Rust, Rust and more Rust.

Ok, today I cut the worst section of rust from the wheel well.
I cut the interior wall to form areas to patch.
As, I did the rust continued to appear.
By the time I was done, I removed the lower interior wall between two spans of ribs.

I have a clean start for the wheel well and interior wall to patch.
The problem is, the exterior wall sections is pretty much solid rust and bubbling through behind the outer body horizontal ribs.

What do I do with that?
I cant access to wire wheel or grind the rust.
I am scared to start cutting out body panels because I don't think it would ever end.

See Pictures below.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Please help.
Thanks

[Dapplecreek]

Here are your images:



(Opened the imgur.com link, clicked to get a bigger image, right-click and copy image address, then post using the photo link iption (second from the right, above the message entry box).

Can't help with the rust: I'll leave this for the big boys. But points for you for exposing the problem and getting advice on how to proceed. I wish you the best...

[New2Skool]

I have been testing a few rust treatments.
Naval Jelly from Loctite.
CLR has worked well for helping getting the heavier stuff to break up.
That is handy when the area is too small to grind or address by hand.
I have been testing a rust dissolving product on bolts and parts to modify my mirrors.
It has been working well.
Tomorrow, I will try apply this dissolver to the wall sections and let sit over night.

Due to an eye injury I have been a little gun shy about grinding the floor.
I will weigh the possibility this upcoming weekend.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by New2Skool

I have been testing a few rust treatments.
Naval Jelly from Loctite.
CLR has worked well for helping getting the heavier stuff to break up.
That is handy when the area is too small to grind or address by hand.
I have been testing a rust dissolving product on bolts and parts to modify my mirrors.
It has been working well.
Tomorrow, I will try apply this dissolver to the wall sections and let sit over night.

Due to an eye injury I have been a little gun shy about grinding the floor.
I will weigh the possibility this upcoming weekend.

Try Ospho is you haven't, its amazing and so easy to work with. Cheap, too.

[barbar0ssa]

I have similar issues and no idea how to deal with them. In hindsight, my bus was too rusty to mess with, but at this point, it's what I have. Is there a thread for dealing with common rust issues for newbies? Or will more people answer these questions?

[New2Skool]

Barbar0ssa,
It has been a while since, I was in this stage at the time of this post.
There was a time that I thought my bus was scrap due to rust.
I was crushed.
I looked here and asked a few people and checked out my frame and other critical areas.
Once, I resigned myself to reskinning my bus and replacing a few floor sections, I got to work.
The floor below the driver seat was bad, same with the rear wheel areas. One wheel well was pretty much destroyed.
I replaced it all.

As far as rust, it depends where it is and the level of rust.
I spent a ton of time with a wire wheel on my grinder, removing surface rust from the floor of my bus. Some was pitted, most of it was very minor surface rust. A lot of nasty dust, wires flying off and stabbing into your arms, legs and torso. Once, it was done it was amazing.

The best rust removal tools I have found are;
Physically removing the rust with a grinder disc, wire wheel and replacing bad metal.
I tried rust removers, chemicals, treatments, sprays, everything with little or not real success. A bath solution would work wonders if you could drive your bus into twenty thousand gallons of rust remover haha.

Don't give up on your bus. If the frame is good and the mechanical aspects are good then stick with it. The body work is not bad at all in hindsight. Replacing the skin was a learning experience but well worth it. I replaced it all and primed it white with oil based primer and a power sprayer. Did a roof lift and currently I have no rear wall. This weekends project is the rear wall structure and framework. Followed by new skin in the upcoming future.

I went from a red ring on the ground around my bus to bright beautiful white everywhere. Well, some gray too but mostly white. A very impressive transformation for a eight month project so far.

So, keep it up and don't hesitate on asking for advise or if you need to vent. We are all in this together and it should be a labor of love.