Rust can be very deceptive. I have refurbished more Westy's than I care to
think about. Things I've learned: surface rust-there is no such thing,
except for a piece of bare metal that's been left out overnight and has
slight rust that you can scrape off with a fingernail. Many times I've had
a small pin head sized rust spot that when I start to grind on it turns out
to be the size of a quarter or 50 cent piece.It travels under good paint
where you can't see it-get it all, or you will be seeing it again! I've
also had spots that appeared to be "on the surface" that when grinding them
down I found actually went all the way through the metal-again, get it all
or it will come back. Bondo: a pet peeve of mine, Bondo is a brand name and
is total crap. It soaks up moisture like a sponge. Way back many years ago
I used it and always had the repair fail in 6-12 months. I now use fillers
from an auto body shop supplier (Mattos) that are water proof-never had a
repair fail using this stuff, even 2-3 years later. Common
misconception-paint will hide poor bodywork-it's the exact opposite, if the
surface isn't smooth before paint, it will look 10 times worse after it's
painted. I had one Westy, a '77, that I was changing the color on. Much to
my dismay, I found that it had been repainted not once but twice. I ended
up taking the exterior down to bare metal using not only chemical paint
strippers but lots of sanding-NOT fun! But, in doing so I found lots of
rust spots underneath all that paint that had not made it to the surface
yet. Do a job like this once and you begin to understand why a shop charges
$10,000.00 and up to restore one of these vehicles. Biggest lesson learned
through all of this: give me a Westy with a solid body and blown engine any
day-it's much easier to do engine work!

Jeff Stewart
fonman4277@earthlink.net
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vwcampersmidatlantic/
http://home.earthlink.net/~fonman4277/vanagon%5b1%5d?200712