Back in the '80's we had a '76 Bay.  It got rusty enough under the front
that the steering box started to move around when you turned the wheel, not
a confident feeling.  I managed to weld in some reinforcements.
  When we got our first Vanagon and we sold that Bay, it went to a guy we
knew on the south side of Chicago who ran a fleet of them to collect
recycling materials.  The first thing he did was look under the front and
note that I had "already welded that".

Larry A.
 rust is a terrible thing, and it never sleeps

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

>    I think the German vehicles of that era all were heavily prone to
> rust badly.   It seems to be a characteristic of them, perhaps the
> composition of the steel, or something?   My SO told me her old 70s
> BMW 2002 was "making a funny noise"  On inspection (opening the trunk)
> I found the whole left rear suspension had rusted through, no longer
> attached to the body...The rear was dragging on the tire...She so
> loved that vehicle, insisted she wanted it fixed.. I had my race car
> suspension shop build some tube frame members to carry the suspension
> pick up points and she continued to drive it with pleasure till just
> recently...You could tie your shoelaces through the floor of the
> trunk...but I think the paint kept the body looking OK...
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 6:13 AM, J Stewart <fonman4277@comcast.net> wrote:
> > I've been curious as to just how the Bays rusted the way they did. I
> owned a '75 that the body was Swiss cheese while the frame was rock solid.
> I later owned a '77 that the body was nearly perfect while the front beam
> had mostly rusted away. The late Steve Dolan told me it was the worst front
> beam he'd ever seen, yet the rest of the frame and body were in excellent
> shape. Jeff Stewart ----- Original Message -----
> >> My understanding of it is that folks did not clean out the "weep"
> >> holes. Cleaning the bottom of a vehicle is not something most folks
> >> (present company excluded) do when cleaning their car. As a result,
> >> snow, slush, mud,wetness in general got in between the pan and the
> >> bottom of the bus and stayed there. Rust formed that one did not know
> >> was there until it got real bad. If my memory serves me correctly,
> >> frame rails and cross members were especially hard hit. Especially if
> >> one does not live in a dry climate.
> >> Dave B.
> >> On 11/21/13, Richard A Jones<Jones@Colorado.EDU> wrote:
> >> On 11/21/2013 8:09 AM, ddbjorkman@verizon.net wrote:
> >> > VW stopped using those body pans due in part to the horrible rust
> >> > problems that
> >> > cropped up under those pans.
> >> I'm curious now.... When did they stop? How do you know it was rust?
> >> Mine keeps the area 'twixt the pan and the frame-underbody cleaner
> >> and dryer than without. Plus it has several holes that make sure it
> >> drains and doesn't hold a lake.
> >> Does anybody know if non-gas heater Vanagon models of the air-cooled
> >> had this pan? My '76 bay, without any gas heater, didn't have any pan.
> >> If I had a 2wd Vanagon, I'd sure look at putting my spare on it.
> >> Of course, I live in a dry climate.
> >> Richard
>