HOW TO BUILD A CAMPER VAN:
RUST & LEAKS
In this section we’ll cover :
The best and worst van rust treatments
Rust removal techniques
Leaks in an LDV Convoy roof, windscreen and windows, among others.
Let’s get started.
Contents
Rust removal
Best rust treatments
Fixing a leaking fibreglass roof
Water in footwells
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R U S T & L E A K S
Rust removal techniques
There’s a reason why we call ourselves From Rust To Roadtrip. It’s often been said that LDV Convoys leave the factory with rusty panels, and it’s an unfortunate truth: LDVs rust like a ship’s anchor. It’s the main downfall of these otherwise (t)rusty vans.
If you’ve bought an older van that you’re planning to convert into a camper van, odds are one of the first areas you’ll be tackling is any pre-existing rust. Or you may have had your van for a while, but need to keep up with the rust maintenance on it to stop it dissolving back into the earth (read: LDV Convoy problems). Or if you own an LDV, you more than likely have water leaks coming in one place or another.
Over the past five years, we’ve encountered numerous problems with our LDV Convoy, and through a process of trial and error we’ve identified some of the best ways to treat LDV rust issues and leaks.
Common areas of rust include the roof joins, the sills (the bottom part of the body panels), the wheel arches and the steps. But ultimately, rust can appear absolutely anywhere. There are steps you can take to prevent this which we’ll get into later, but now we wanted to talk through our tried and tested method for removing and treating rust on a van.
(As a side note, it’s virtually impossible to completely treat and prevent rust once it appears, aside from removing and attaching brand new panels or else cutting out the affected areas and re-welding them. But the amount you can delay this rust from reappearing varies greatly by method and products used).
For large, flat areas of rust, we recommend using an angle grinder with a flap disc attachment. These make light work of removing flakey rust, and you should grind it down gently keeping the disc at a slight angle to allow the flaps to do their work. In terms of angle grinders, we recommend the Mac Allister angle grinder, which is affordable and reasonably high-powered.
This tool is great for removing rust on wings, steps, sills, roof joins, chassis, floors and just about any panels.
For more difficult-to-reach areas we recommend using a wire brush. It’s the same principle as the angle grinder, although admittedly not as effective without putting in some serious elbow grease. A wire brush is a good tool for getting into corners like on the chassis, in the engine bay or on the slam panel.
Make sure the area is free from dirt and grease before applying a rust treatment.
We have used these techniques on both our LDV and our Bedford with much success, but using a rust treatment is just as important as removing the rust to begin with.
TOP TIP: Jet or pressure washing your van can significantly increase the likelihood of rust springing up in rust-prone areas. A gentle hand wash with a sponge and old scourer will get most of the dirt off and preserve your van’s bodywork.
R U S T & L E A K S
Best (and worst) rust treatments
We’ve had many trials and tribulations with rust on our own van, and let me tell you- when you spend hours grinding and scraping away the rust and applying treatment, you don’t then want that rust to reappear after just a few weeks or months.
Converting vs removing vs preventing rust.
The key difference between rust treatments is whether they convert, remove or prevent rust.
Rust converters contain phosphoric acid which converts iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate, which is black in colour. This type of treatment is best suited to heavy, flakey rust and not bare metal, so it’s not ideal if you’re looking for a smooth finish.
A rust remover however simply speeds up the process of removing rust from a metal surface. Oxalic acid reacts with rust causing it to separate away from the metal surface, which can then be ground or sanded off. Once the rust has disappeared you are left with a stable surface for priming and painting.
A rust preventer is a product designed to slow down the oxidisation process by creating a barrier between metal and oxygen or water. It is not a substitute for a rust removal treatment however it is good insurance for the future when applied to clean metal and typically contains oil which is an excellent repellant for water. Under body sealants such as Waxoyl and Tetroseal are probably two of the most widely used rust inhibitors.
OUR TOP PICK:
Buzzweld
PROS:
+ All in one corrosion stabiliser, primer and topcoat.
+ Lasts for years.
+ Available in a tin or aerosol.
CONS:
− Requires very precise working temperature and humidity
− More expensive than other rust treatments
We’ve had many trials and tribulations with rust since we got our LDV, and let me tell you- when you spend hours grinding and scraping away the rust and applying treatment, you don’t then want that rust to reappear after just a few weeks or months.
Out of all the rust treatments we’ve used, Buzzweld is hands down the best.
We treated the entire Bedford chassis with it in 2018 and as of writing in 2021 it’s still virtually rust-free, even in the salty Cornish air.
Buzzweld was originally designed for treating Land Rovers but we’ve found it to be a wonderful catch-all for rust treatment.
Buzzweld CIO is semi self etching, containing Impregnated Toughened glass flake to help it bite into the metal you’re applying it to. It stabilises corrosion and acts as a primer and topcoat all in one. Best of all it can be brushed, rollered or sprayed on, but it requires a minimum of two coats. We also like its smooth black satin finish.
There are only a couple of downsides- it Is more expensive than rust treatments like red oxide and Kurust, but that’s because it does the job. It must also be applied at a temperature of no less than 10ºC, as we found out when trying to treat our metal subframe in the depths of winter. We ended up hiring a powerful space heater to warm up the garage while applying, and let me tell you the fumes from the paint and the gas combined were heady.
With that in mind we’d recommend applying when the weather is good outside for minimal effort.
OTHER TREATMENTS:
Hammerite Red Oxide Primer
PROS:
+ One coat application
+ Good primer for painting
CONS:
− Rust starts reappearing after several months
Our second choice for treating rust is red oxide primer. We’ve used this a lot over the course of the past four years to treat rust on our LDV and it’s not bad. It does do a decent job of sealing bare metal areas and will protect rust from reappearing for 6 months to a year.
It’s best used as a primer to go underneath paint and not as a standalone product, hence why we ended up switching to Buzzweld CIO when rust-treating our Bedford’s chassis. We began by treating the entire surface with Hammerite Red Oxide Primer and this is what we used on our LDV every time we came to repaint, but living less than half a mile from the sea in Cornwall means the air is insanely salty and rusts everything and anything.
In terms of red oxide primer we’d recommend going for something a little more heavy duty like the Buzzweld Red Oxide Primer if their Chassis In One paint is out of your price range.
Kurust
PROS:
+ Assists in removal of rust
CONS:
− Cannot be used as a primer
− Treated surface needs removing before painting over
When we first converted our LDV back in 2015 we were rust novices, and used Kurust to go over the areas we’d wire brushed down. While Kurust does work to react with and convert the rust by turning it black, this is only a preliminary step as only helps in the removal of loose rust and requires a primer and then topcoat to be applied before painting.
It’s not ideal to use as a standalone treatment, and we found the rust on our LDV just reappeared several months down the line.
If you do use Kurust make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions and apply a primer or topcoat soon after using.
Direct to rust metal paints
PROS:
+ Good range of colours
+ Easy to apply
CONS:
− Does not treat or prevent rust
Products such as Rustoleum and Hammerite Direct To Rust are somewhat of a false economy, promising a rust treatment, primer and topcoat all in one. While they are certainly a good option if you like the colour and want to paint your van with them, they are not however a good treatment for rust even with the correct preparation, and as such we would say to avoid them as an all-in-one solution.
Rust tends to appear through the paint within a year even after two coats, although the fact that they can be easily brushed or rollered on is of course a plus.
R U S T & L E A K S
Water in foot wells
Whilst the following section relates to our personal experiences owning an LDV Convoy, we’re sure they aren’t the only vans with these problems. If you’d like to see how we’ve solved the issues, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of all the steps taken to reduce water in the cab of our van.
If you’re an LDV owner, you’ve undoubtedly noticed by now that LDV vans were designed to have paddling pools in the footwells of the cab. If this isn’t to your fancy however, then here’s our guide how to stop the common water leak problem in an LDV Convoy.
Unfortunately there is no one answer, and this process requires many different approaches, some of which may work better for you than others. Water leaks are notoriously difficult to find and stop, which is why we’ll be going through each method we’ve tried and what the results were.
Water leaks in our LDV Convoy have caused us many problems over the years, from damp to a full on breakdown which turned out to be water in the ECU! For this reason we’d always recommend protecting your ECU with a plastic bag and copious amounts of tape.
Windscreen seal
One of the most obvious areas of damage when inspecting our LDV was the join between the fibreglass roof and the windscreen. The plastic is prone to UV damage from the sun and over time the two surfaces begin to separate allowing water in.
You have two options here: Smear any and all offending cracks with either polyurethane sealant or Bostik Flexacryl, or change the rubber windscreen seal altogether. The first method is obviously a lot simpler, but if worse comes to worst the second may be your only option. We recommend using polyurethane sealant over Sikaflex or any other products, as we’ve found Sikaflex tends to turn to powder after a couple of years of exposure to water. We talk more about Bostik Flexacryl in the next section.
We contemplated changing our windscreen seal but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle in the end, but the rubber seals do have a habit of drying out and cracking over time and eventually allowing water to enter. Which brings us onto our next approach…
Door seals
Another common area of water entry is the seals around the doors; this goes for the driver and passenger doors as well as the sliding door too. Aside from replacing the door seal altogether, we’ve found that adding weather strip around the insides of the doors where they meet with the bodywork is a good way to prevent water ingress. By doubling up on the seal and causing them to squish together when closed you eliminate any possible avenues for water to creep in.
Holes in the bodywork
Another very common cause of water leaks in LDVs is simply holes in the bodywork in areas that are prone to rusting through. These include the windscreen gutter (visible when opening the bonnet at the rear of the engine bay) and the wheel arches. A good visual inspection of these areas is needed and if you find any holes you will need to treat the rust and either weld or fill them with fibreglass resin or body filler (this is what we are using on our Bedford to create a smooth finish after welding up the wheel arches).
Wiper rack
A much-touted solution online to the dreaded LDV water leak is to replace the entire wiper rack and linkage as water can ingress through the wiper spindles. This solution is so common that LDV Convoy wiper racks can be like gold dust to find, however we did manage to locate one in a scrapyard for a reasonable price.
The chances that this will fix your water leak problem are low, unless you can identify that the water is definitely coming from the spindles where they protrude through the bodywork. Plus wiper motor removal on an LDV Convoy is a pain in the bum.
Roof fan leaks
Another frustratingly common problem with LDVs is that the roof fan leaks like a sieve, a device usually seen on the minibus model. God knows why LDV thought this was a better solution for ventilation than simply opening a window, but we imagine these things have leaked since day one, and are particularly fun when they pool water which then splashes down onto your bed at night. Nice.
We ended up removing our roof fan altogether and aside from absolutely heaping it with sealant, we’d advise that this is probably the best method.
It’s just two simple wires which un-click, and a few security screws which can be undone with a kit like this, then you simply need to cut the sealant holding it in out with a knife. Then the whole unit lifts out, and you can replace it with whatever you like. We chose a sheet of blue perspex which we attached using polyurethane adhesive, and added a decorative metal plate to create a porthole.
R U S T & L E A K S
Fixing a fibreglass roof
Having a fibreglass roof is possibly one of the most annoying parts of owning an LDV (aside from leaky foot wells and never being able to find parts). Fibreglass roofs are nothing but problems, but over the years we’ve tried and tested many different products and methods to stop a fibreglass roof leaking. Here’s our favourite.
Prep
Firstly, check all the seals where the fibreglass roof joins to the metal bodywork and the windscreen seal, and clean out any mud, moss or algae that’s accumulated in here. Give the roof a good check over for cracks and remove any old sealant.
Sealant
You now have two options: You can fill any new cracks with a good bead of polyurethane sealant and allow to dry. Or for larger areas you can use this amazing stuff called Bostik Flexacryl. Although designed for flat roofs we’ve found that it works wonders to seal a leaking fibreglass roof thanks to the small fibres in it which add strength. It’s very sticky and heavy so wear old clothing and use a disposable brush, and it does tend to melt in the sun when still wet so choose an overcast day to apply.
Topcoat
The next stage is to apply a coat of Topcoat fibreglass resin. This comes in several colours, but we went for white. You’ll need to measure out the small bottle of hardener and add it into the topcoat when you’re ready to apply, but work quickly, especially if it’s hot and sunny!
This stuff can be rollered on which makes repainting your van roof a breeze, and it helps to refresh the colour if it’s looking a little worn and faded at the same time. Once the Topcoat goes off, it’ll provide an excellent seal against water, and we’ve not needed to repaint our roof again since.
