Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

"I'm still wondering however if I am to miss a spot of rust and then cover it with rust proof paint will the rust continue to spread or should the paint take care of that?"

Nick
If you can't access all the rusty roof metal you'll need to weld in a new roof section. If the rusty interior is totally accessible then sand and wire wheel to shiny bare metal. Use a dentist pick, magnifying glass and a bright light to remove flakes of rust. Don't be gentle...

Expect to see light through the roof.

Do one small section at a time and epoxy coat the bare metal immediately otherwise it will rust again, soon. Same on the exterior, then bondo the holes over. If rust returns redo it, it's tough to do perfectly. New metal is still the best solution.

PM me if you like, I have some other solutions.
Good luck
TLGF

Thanks thelazygreen fox. I'll see if I can access it all when I get a day off and it's sunny.

I'll re-post one of the pm's I've sent since the actual process for repairing the roof is not shown in this thread...

"The rust is quite extensive on the I interior side of the roof. Without removing the roof entirely you won't be able to get at 100% of it. What I did is, sand down the outside portion of the roof completely, focusing on the rust spots (don't worry when you see a hole right through the roof). Then remove all of the interior trim, sand down all the rust you can reach, then spray rust proof / inhibiting primer everywhere, especially in the little nooks and crannies, then repeat the process with rust proof paint. then move to the exterior again, sprain rust proof / inhibiting primer and paint into the holes in your roof, then fill the holes with bondo, sand it down as best you can, then spray the roof with spot filler primer, let that dry for at least a few hours (possibly a good time to re-install your interior trim), then sand and clean thoroughly. After that you are ready to put on your final exterior coat. You can paint it normally, or use rhino liner (what a few people on the forum have done), or I used hippo liner which is essentially the same but has a smoother finish. I applied 4 layers of hippo liner and then put a coating of ez liner on top of that which is a spackle type of spray and did a good job of hiding imperfections."

It took me about 3 days to complete this but I had some late starts, I believe it could be done in 2 full days.

Here is the link to pictures of what is described...
http://www.delica.ca/forum/hermione-s-m ... 06-15.html

In the future for filling the hole if you don't weld them you want to use short strand fiberglass filler has much more structure to it and then top coat it with zinc based primer then then rust proof paint.

Just an idea

Dustin

Holy Crap what a big job this has turned out to be. Removing the headliner and all the ventilation and electrical components was actually the easy part. The front skylight is the issue. The metal frame of the skylight is tack welded onto the roof and has come away at a few areas and rust has gotten WAY in there. I expected the holes through the metal of the roof around the skylight but getting at the inner side of the skylight frame is sort of impossible. I'm painting on rust eater liquid but can only get so far into the frame. I guess I go as far as I can and then sand and lay on the rust proof primer. I'll add some pics soon.

The nice thing is I get a chance to replace a 12v box that the window cover motors run off. Is that a fuse? Clean the vent tubes. I also want to replace the florescent tube but the length is a little odd. Anyone?

Todd

toddtomorrow wrote: I also want to replace the florescent tube but the length is a little odd. Anyone?

Todd

There's another recent post covering the tube replacement - it is an odd shape but you can adjust the housing to fit the size of tube that is readily available here