Van guttering (rust)

Post by **yellowpinky** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 10:45 pm

My rusty guttering has been bugging me for years, but i am finally on the case with it. It seems i have two options.. To cut it out and use replacement panels or filling with fibre glass. If anyone has any experience of this area any advice would be useful.

Post by **FrankM83** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:37 pm

filling the rusy area with glass fibre will be a complete disaster!! someone did that on my front wings!!

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:16 am

Basically theres two choices for a long lasting job, either a: buy new guttering and possibly other repair sections for the tops of the van sides, and cut out all the grot, and weld in the new bits, or b: buy a new GRP roof with guttering and replace the entire roof. Both jobs are involved and both may well involve repairs to the tops of the van sides.
By all means use fibreglass, but it will be a temporary job and it will rust through again round the edge of the repair.
Up to you, regarding time, budget and skills available.

Post by **dunketh** » Thu May 01, 2008 4:01 pm

Using GRP (or any other kind of filler) will still require the same prep as welding.
You'll need to cut out the rot, bare metal the area and then apply the stuff.
Fibreglass is actually very tough and can result in a decent job if you put the effort in.
The thing is - it'd be far less effot to get it welded. Getting a smooth finish with fibreglass is going to require a significant skim of filler and a lot of messing about with sticky fingers.
I personally hate working with it. One trick is to wear multiple pairs of gloves so you can peel off the top pair when they get too sticky to work with.

If you intend to simply 'fill over' the rusty area - please, for the love of all thats good, step away from the van!!

Post by **IaininTenbury** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:23 pm

I quite agree, fibreglass is horrid to work with - sticky and messy, and from patchup jobs I've seen its difficult to get it to bond to steel in a long lasting way without proper prep. Easier and simpler to weld bits of steel in, even if you have to learn how to weld...

Post by **chickenjohn** » Fri May 02, 2008 7:21 am

I agree with Iainin, fibre glass repairs are not repairs- they are poor quality bodges. Repair steel with steel is really the only way to go if you want the car to last.