[T2] Undercoating removal tip

[Joe Average]

- - - Since you have the undercoating off, are you going to put it back 
on or just use paint? - - -

The whole reason I'm doing all this dirty work underneath is to "protect 
my investment". Don't want to spend all this money and time on exterior 
paint only to have rust appear bubbling a quarter panel or a rocker 
panel. Once the bus is complete I am considering flooding the body 
cavities with Waxoyl or something similar. Plug up the drains, floor the 
cavity and then let them drain. The paint work will already be done so 
in theory no paint problems later.

Once I got into this job I realized that undercoating here and there was 
loose and was basically pimples waiting for water to get trapped in 
there and rust away the bottom of the bus. I had briefly considered 
removing only the loose undercoating and reapplying new undercoating 
over the bald spots and then remaining undercoating b/c I like the look 
of undercoating well enough and like the noise reduction it should offer.

In the end I kept finding loose undercoating and decided that what 
wasn't loose would be in time. I've found a couple of tiny places where 
rust out was occurring but was hidden by the undercoating.

So in the end I'll remove all the undercoating, smooth the little nicks 
in the chassis paint that I cause with the needle scaler, primer the 
bottom of the bus, and paint it with black paint - matte or gloss - I 
don't know. I do like low sheen chassis black paint. So far I'm using 
Rustoleum paint. Seems tough enough for my needs and economical. The 
exterior of the van will be some sort of fleet grade urethane paint - 
more economical than fancy multi-part epoxy or urethane paints and tough 
enough for my purposes while still being shiny. I used some last summer 
on some Honda parts I replaced after hitting a deer. I'm really happy 
with them.

Anyhow in the future the plan is to be able to see rusting as it happens 
under the bus and address it before it gets out of hand.

These vans are old enough and expensive enough now i.e. beyond just 
plain old used car status in my opinion - that I want to preserve the 
bus and my investment. I have no plans at this time to sell it so I'd 
like it to be as solid in a decade as it is when I finish this 
restoration. When i see the custom guys on TV weld in a panel - I wonder 
- do they ever seal the other side of this panel they just installed b/c 
if not - at some point - won't the rust return? Would hate to lose a 
$7500 paint job that I paid someone else to complete (if I was rich) 
only to have rust ruin it five or ten years down the road.

Colors: I think my bus was a factory gray primer all over first, then 
painted the factory's white (for the two tone) and then the lower half 
color (brown). I don't think the bottom of the bus was ever painted a 
color - just whatever over spray reached the frame rails and the fender 
wells while the bottom sides of the vehicle were sprayed by the factory. 
Then the factory appears to have undercoated the wheel wells and 
whatever else happened to get in the way. Looks to me like the steering 
box was installed but not the front beam. Not much of the rear 
suspension has undercoating on it - maybe the rear trailing arms that 
attach to the torsion bars.

Of course some previous owner or dealer might have added additional 
undercoating to clean it up for resale. My bus was originally sold in 
Albuquerque, NM so I don't know if dealers there do any "rustproofing". 
All the rusty parts of my bus (pinhole rust) seem to be areas that got 
no rust prevention (paint) on the invisible parts under the bus - the 
doglegs have a couple of pimples, the rear quarters where the frame 
rails spot weld to the back side of the outer skin, the forward ends of 
the rocker panels but not the rocker panels themselves. Places that salt 
gets trapped and gnaws away at the un-coated steel inside body cavities. 
Too bad VW didn't galvanize the bodies after the bodies were all welded 
up. I had a couple of 1st Gen Mustangs. Both had serious rust problems 
but their galvanized rocker panels were in good shape. I imagine that 
today that's all that is left - two clean rocker panels surrounded by 
mounds of rust topped by the stainless window trim and the glass in a 
field somewhere. ;)

So any good pointers on things I could differently? Missing ideas or 
thoughts?

Chris in TN
'78 Westy 2.7L
'65 Beetle 2.0L
'97 VW Cabrio Highline
'99 CR-V AWD 5MT
Brenderup 1205S