go to your FLAPS and get their best 'battery cleaner' is a spray
can...........
it neutralizes battery rust.

and .............the tried and true treatment...........going back to the
beginning of lead-acid car batteries in cars.............is baking soda and
water , applied to battery acid with a brush.

after you get bare metal........
treat it with Rust Stop...........a spray or brush on juice that treats the
metal.
When that's dry, paint those  spots with self-etching primer paint. .
then paint with the paint of your choice on top of that.

there are various epoxy two-part paints too...........that will outlast the
metal or the van even.
Getting the paint to stick to the metal...........that's the 'real trick'
......
get that part right ...........and those spots will never rust again.

another discussion is why battery acid even got to your battery box in the
first place............which is something that never needs to happen in the
first place.
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Rodgers" <inua@CHARTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 1:24 AM
Subject: Battery Box Corrosion

>I need tips and tricks to deal with a bad case of battery box corrosion
> in my 88 GL. This  is vastly different from severe rusting and I can see
> it's going to need something special to stop the corrosion permanently -
> and to protect the surfaces from future acid/corrosion attacks.
>
> Anybody got any good solutions to this problem? I  know that navel jelly
> is a rust killer and when painted on stops the rust  dead in it's
> tracks. But zi haven't a clue as to what to use for acid corrosion of
> steel.
>
> All suggestions are appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Regards,
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver