Bongo Fury

Does anyone have any idea of likley costs invovled in de-rusting a 1996 Bongo - the rust is visible all the way along the cills and just starting to come through on the rear arches. I can put my finger through in a couple of places on the box cill underneath the sliding door.

I'm presuming:
a) that this is a job that can;t really wait any longer!!
b) it's a new section/panel job rather than being able to trreat the rust that's there
and c) does it mean that the rest of the van is likley to start crumbling (i.e. do i really want to sepnd £££'s if it;s going to die anyway! the rest of the van is clean as a whistle)

van was waxoyled on import

happy days!!!!

any advice much appreicated

cheers

Hi
Yes, they do rust...find out whether the Waxoyl was applied by a garage....if so, there may be a guarantee of sorts with it....the price some establishments charge, there should be. If there is a guarantee, then if the term hasn't expired you should be able to claim for repair, and yes, it will need new panels, or part-panels...sometimes from a breaker.
Cheers
Helen

Welcome wilf1234, albeit under these difficult circumstances. If you put your location in your profile it may help direct you to specialists. If you were near Wigan for example I'd say get it along to Wheelquick and get a frank assessment, as they know Bongos and will give you a staight answer on how bad it is and what prospect of a cure may be (and costs). I had to have a plate welded on my n/s cill at the front, where it had gone right through, and they did it. It was a v. neat job and v. well priced. And, as one owner on here who had previously run an old VW said: you have to get used to patching up an old campervan, but they can go on for years like that.

On the waxoyling front, I think its tricky. It may stop new stuff from getting started but it can't turn the clock back on what happened in the years before it was done, so guarantees are barely realistic. Bongos from Northern Japan seem to suffer more from rust - is yours the twin battery / cold start option model?

I've seen some b awful skirt kits on ebay, but might they be a possibility? Chatting with Weston Warrior the other day he was saying that if you have the rear arches chopped and replaced, it'll go quick enough along the weld, being different metals, and be more unsightly. At least a skirt kit is plastic. And when they do eventually ping off it could be stuck back.

It makes you wonder if it is worth undersealing a 12 year old vehicle.

Cheers Malc.

thanks for all the advice
It pains me to ask this, but do you have any links to suitable body kits - just had a quick wizz round ebay without success.
(can;t face going the bodykit route but if it's the choice btwn ££££ or ££ then ........?!?!?)
cheers

teenmal wrote:It makes you wonder if it is worth undersealing a 12 year old vehicle.

Cheers Malc.

If it's a good one, my pal has just had his 1970 Fiat 500 done.........cos it's worth it !......
My Bongo was done on import in '07 and I am going to "top" it up annually even if it adds a few pounds to the 2 tons so she stays on the road for a good while.

I suspect this is a classic case of Waxoyl being sprayed on the exposed underside of the vehicle, but not where it's actually most badly needed - inside the cill sections and in-between the inner and outer wing panels.

For the former, you need to prise off the 3 or 4 rubber plugs which are spaced along the cills on the vertical inside edge -ie: accessible when you are under the car and looking back out towards the sides!

For the latter, you need to remove the front and rear sidelight assembles, and spray through the access holes gained there, and also down through the rear side pockets which remove with a single screw - this gives great access to the rear panel join seams.

It isn't the water which splashes on to the car which causes rust (when was the last time you saw the centre of a car wing, door or other panel rust?! Me neither...), but water which is drawn into these tiny gaps by capillary action such as the seam where the inner and outer wings join and are spot-welded, or water which gets in behind door, cill, and wing panels and sits there for ages before drying out - the inner surfaces of these panels are not as well protected as the outsides.

There's Waxoyling and there's Waxoyling...

Is it worth doing to a 12-year old vehicle? Yes, of course it is - it should stop rust in its tracks. If rust has yet to start bubbling through your exterior paintwork, then it shouldn't do in the future after a proper Waxoyling.

My bongo which was waxoyled when I got it two years ago had started to loose bits of waxoyl and turn brown in places. Rather than get the waxoyl touched up I opted last month to have it all removed and the underside of my Bongo treated and sealed before being undersealed again. At £430.00 it was not cheap but it all comes down to how long you want to keep your Bongo. There are only a few places in the country that can do this Classic Car restoration treatment, one is near Manchester Airport and another is in the South of England. Quite a few bongo owners have taken this option to keep their Bongo in tip top condition for as long as possible.

Tony

The only way I can see that being successful is to have the underside completely sandblasted to remove the brown rusty bits before sealing it - quite a job and also quite a job to seal everything up that doesn't need blasting - is that how they did it Tony?

dandywarhol wrote:The only way I can see that being successful is to have the underside completely sandblasted to remove the brown rusty bits before sealing it - quite a job and also quite a job to seal everything up that doesn't need blasting - is that how they did it Tony?

Dry and perfectly clean is the only way to underseal as dandy says,its a big big job.

wilf1234 wrote:thanks for all the advice
It pains me to ask this, but do you have any links to suitable body kits - just had a quick wizz round ebay without success.
(can;t face going the bodykit route but if it's the choice btwn ££££ or ££ then ........?!?!?)
cheers

Are you thinking of fitting a body kit as an alternative to fixing the rusted sections?

wilf1234 wrote:thanks for all the advice
It pains me to ask this, but do you have any links to suitable body kits - just had a quick wizz round ebay without success.
(can;t face going the bodykit route but if it's the choice btwn ££££ or ££ then ........?!?!?)
cheers

http://www.westwardleisure.co.uk/otheraccessories.php or
http://www.bellhillgarage.com/bongopartshome.htm

That was just from doing a quick online search

scanner wrote:

wilf1234 wrote:thanks for all the advice
It pains me to ask this, but do you have any links to suitable body kits - just had a quick wizz round ebay without success.
(can;t face going the bodykit route but if it's the choice btwn ££££ or ££ then ........?!?!?)
cheers

Are you thinking of fitting a body kit as an alternative to fixing the rusted sections?

I was thinking the same thing,remember the rust problem could affect the MOT in the future.

.................and remember not to sell it in Bongo fury.............