New member, New Bongo - Advice on rust

[Chief Brody]

Hi all. Love this place and have learned loads. Signed up for the members area and was happy to see a lot more information there. Just hoping someone can offer a little advice. Purchased a Bongo recently. 1998, Automatic, 4WD, Diesel, 72,000 miles. The van was under sealed upon arrival in the UK in 2014 but hasn't been done since as far as I have been told. I have money budgeted for this but I'm a bit dubious of the £165 I've been quoted. I do worry that they won't do a thorough job but I really have no idea.

In pretty good condition inside and out other than a few small rust spots on the exterior, see pics below. Would like these fixed but used up most of my savings on the Bongo so hoping to get something done that might last a couple of years and then see to it properly when the time comes. No real experience with car diy myself. I know it's hard to tell from the pictures what the best option might be but I can confirm that, after prodding about, there are no holes behind the spots and everything seems solid enough. I've read all about the wheel arches rusting from the inside so unsure what the best option would be to deal with this. Is there something I can do that would look nicer and hold the rust at bay for a while? Thanks in advance for any help offered.

[Roy748]

Hi and welcome
As a quick fix for appearance, I would buy some T-cut and clean away the rust stain, rubbing in a circular motion over the rust patch should clean away a lot of the mark. You could then touch the actual rust spot with hammerite curarust followed by an appropriate colour touch up pen.

[ade33]

Hi and welcome to the site.

Your first pic looks like a stone-chip that has been left, pretty easy to fix with a rub down and touch up.

The other two pictures look like classic Bongo rear arch corrosion. This starts on the inside and works its way through so, while you can see the evidence on the outside of the arches, it needs looking at from inside the van before it gets out of hand. Luckily if you remove the interior panels over the arches you'll be able to see (and hopefully treat) from inside, then tidying up the outside should last a good while.

But now is the time to investigate, as it looks like you've caught it early. If you search round this site for arch repair you'll find some scary pictures of arches that have literally dissolved, having been left to rot because they didn't look too bad. If in doubt, wing it down to a bodyshop and get some pro advice, preferably one with Bongo experience, there are some about.

[Chief Brody]

Thanks for the replies. I thought there was a chance the first pic was a stone chip or something. So, on that mark, would I rub down with emery paper then touch up with kurust, then touch up pen?

As for the others, yes the dreaded rear arch rust. As you said, I have hopefully caught it early enough. As my bad luck would have it, half the fixtures and fittings are directly behind that arch. I am loathe to remove them. Is it easy enough to do? I know it is the only way that the source of the issue can be treated but I was hoping to perhaps get to it some other way to treat it, like through the rear light cluster. Money is tight since the purchase of the Bongo but I think a bongo friendly garage would be best to have a look at it. I'm a quick learner but I not sure I can do a decent job. Once the source has been treated, is it a matter of rubbing down the outside, treating it and touching up? I am really hoping I can avoid cutting out sections and welding for a while. Thanks again

[teenmal]

HI Chief , my advice would be to BUFF down the Rust marks , cut out the bad metal and replace. You might be lucky enough to have caught it in the early stages, but you wont know until you unleash the BUFF ..


Take care

[Chief Brody]

Well, cutting out and replacing is far beyond me. Hoping to stop by Campers Scotland tomorrow and get their thoughts. Was really hoping for a cheap keep it at bay fix for now till I get some decent savings together. I'll see what they say though. I enquired about getting the underseal re-done with them and they mentioned using U-pol. Anyone familiar with this at all? The search engine won't let me search as too few letters.