Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Shortly after buying my Delica, I discovered three very small rust spots on the roof of my van. Its a Super Exceed with CL roof. I think I've read a thread on here about condensation coming from the inside from the skylights? and this causing the roof to rust from the inside! It was a little scary when I went to fix it this weekend and the pin head sized spots of rust went straight through and turned into pinhead sized holes in my roof! ( I fixed the holes with a good paintable silicone stuff)
I have been thinking of getting it Rhino lined or doing a DIY kit from Lordco.
But my question is this in a few years will my roof just be rhino liner covering a flaked out pile of rust?
I can just imagine touching the roof and feeling the rusted metal go spongy under the Rhino liner.

Any Ideas? Thoughts, experience,?
Thanks!
Lenny

The only person that seems to have rhinoed their deli is jrman. I'm going to do the same for mine before the rainy season. Unfortunately, it won't stop the "moisture from within" but at least it won't be compounded by the bubbling on the outside. Good luck to you and I hope you find a better solution.

Removal of the rust and replacement with good sheet metal is of course the best route in a perfect world. But have to believe that a coat of Rhino will slow the degradation of the roof by blocking out the moisture.

On the other hand - once it's on there - don't even think about taking it off...changing to Rhino is a permanent change as far as I know - so be sure about your choice before proceeding.

I'm very pleased with the result for my van - but I was only covering up that whitish sun damaged roof (delaminated paint so it's called apparently). $300 and done in less than 1/2 a day.

According to Steve at the North Van Rhino shop - he's done 3 Van's now...mine was the only non crystal lite roof..which made him smile due to the simplicity. Maybe he's even done more by now.

Good luck.

jrman, do you have a picture of your new roof that you can post? Would love to see what it looks like on a roof if it's what I think it is...

I did rhino on the roof too after meeting Sean (jrman) to cover bad paint. I did not have any signs of rust though. Along with looking good there are 2 more advantages: rhino does not conduct heat as good as metal and therefore the roof is not hot inside; on a rainy night it is much quieter in the van.
Warning: North Shore Lining who did the job for me ripped off the rear piece of trim on the left gutter while removing the paper wrap. They did not even notice that and found it in garbage badly damaged when I came back next day. I will try to take a picture and post it.

Here we go. I did not have a ladder to get high so I did my best from the ground level.

Thanks for the pics, seems to work well with your dark paint job!

Looks really good!! I'm still weighing the options....

Nice, I've been waiting to see how it turned out. Looks really good actually. Much better than I had expected. Definately the route I`m going to take as it will compliment the basket too. Thanks for the great photos...

-dan

I have been toying with the idea of having the front, sides and back of my van "skinned" (you know the advertising skins they put on some cars now) in the same colour as the van to help protect the paint from further damage from offroading, leaning fatass DH bikes against it, having small kids and what have you. I think it will cost much less that a paint job. sort of off topic but close :)

Howdy folks

Was just giving my van a good polish the other day and I noticed 2 or 3 loonie sized rust bubbles on my top as well. I was thinking of taking it to a body shop for a repair, not a repaint or anything as not many people can see the roof anyway (high roof crystal light). I figured that it wouldn't cost that much... am I wrong and is this useless to prevent it spreading? I figure fixing a few blemishes would be cheaper than rhino lining the whole thing.

Any input?
Thanks Gary

Hey I found the same thing on top of my roof too. I just used my little rotary tool with a grinder bit, ground off the bubbling paint, then used a rust remover to remove any outstanding rust particles, dried it off, then painted the small spots with a can of white rust stopper paint.
Seemed to work fine for me. I didn't have a hole, just bubbling paint, I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.
Planning on getting the entire van undercoated and rust proofed this fall.

I've noticed there's a small amount of bubbling under the rear window too. Just a tiny little bit, about an inch long from right to left, and no more than 1/8-1/4 inch from top to bottom. I remember seeing either on this site of the UK one someone that removed the entire rear window and repaired this common rust spot/location.

Anyhow, try the rotary tool option - worked for me.
Steve

Hey Fellas,

I recently bought a 1991 delica starwagon and noticed the roof has a bit of sun damage(delaminated paint). Rhino lining it interests me but I was curious how much it costs to do a L300's roof with no Crystal Lite but it does have a sunroof.

Please advise. Thanks

My roof had tons of rust and i rhino lined mine... it was pretty easy just make sure you get rid of all of the rust if you do it yourself. It took me a day to do it.

I am also suffering from bubbly paint. I was thinking of dealing with the rust and then rhino line it. Then paint the roof to match the rest of the van again. Hopefully that will do.