1987 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg

Rust Repair

The antenna:  I purchased a VW antenna from Camelback VW.  It is similar to the original, but a little different. The only problem I ran into was that the new antenna would not fit through the hole in the sheet metal. I ended up grinding the aluminum piece that fits inside the body so it would fit w/o severely tweaking the body.

Altogether, I am very happy with the results, it was apx. $900 for the body work, plus parts and some materials. I replaced the antenna, the rain gutter covers, all gaskets, sprayers, sprayer tubes and some other odds and ends. I will be rust proofing the front end as well as the back of the seam with 3M Rust Fighter I wax based internal panel coating, it's like the yellow/tan stuff VW used on the back of the panels. The Rust Fighter I was $15 for a spray can, but came highly recommended.

There were half a dozen pinholes from the rust around the base of the windshield.  The rusty metal was removed and holes were welded closed. Fiberglass was used to fill after the welds were ground. ICI Self-etching primer was used where there was bare metal.  Dupont paint was used for the color and clear coat. The seams were primed, then 3M seam sealer was used. The 3M seam sealer is very similar to the original seam sealer.

I had some rust around the base of my windshield and a cracked fiberglass bumper repaired.  I also had the seam behind the bumper and the seam behind the drivers side front wheel cleaned up. The nose was painted from behind the bumper to the tops of the A pillars. I also replaced the sprayer nozzles as well as the tubing. All of the bodywork was done professionally; I did the removal and reinstallation of the accessories and trim as well as the windshield sprayer system.

The bumper was repaired with fiberglass on the top, then was ground and painted the same as the body. I also decided to go with body color on the bumpers (3 front). The body is LB7Y (Vesuve Grey Metallic), the bumpers were originally LOV7-NO4 (Cloud Grey Metallic) LOV7-NO4 is almost the same as LB7Y, but a bit darker and more green. The LOV7-NO4 proved difficult (impossible) to find, so I decided to paint the bumpers body color.  This will also make future repairs simpler.  After seeing the body color bumpers I'd say the original color looks like it was supposed to be the same but just didn't match, the body color bumpers look much nicer IMHO.

The original windshield was reused.  The gasket was replaced with a VW gasket (sans chrome trim grove) from The Bus Depot. They were very helpful and friendly and the gasket was only $50.  The new gasket looks great with no more brown-yellow discolored chrome strip.  3M beading/sealing compound was used to seal the windshield. According to Dan, the body guy, the windshield gasket was pretty tough to get in, but did go in with some effort.

The windshield sprayers were not as difficult to install as I had expected. First I dropped the washer fluid tank, three screws, pump connector and the sprayer tube. Next, I took a piece of twine, threaded it through the holes in the sheet metal and grabbed it from the inside. The tube I used was purchased at a local hardware store, 1/4" OD clear rubber tubing. I tied the tubes to the twine and pulled it through coming out near the instrument cluster. I left the old tubes in for now, they are not easy to remove. I put a T connector in the tubes between the heater duct work and the heater controls, near where the original T was. I left apx. 6-8" of tubing coming out of the body in front. Next I pulled the original tube running from the tank to the T out and removed the rubber gasket where the tube goes through some supports. I put this on the new tube and routed it about the same as the original tube. Next I hooked up the pump.  The new nozzles and tested it. $#!*, it's not working!  Well, when I removed the old tube I noticed the tube was almost completely smashed, not much room for the fluid. I think what may have happened is this created a high resistance and put a strain on the original pump.  The tubing is apx. the same ID, the nozzles are new and not clogged. I did notice that one nozzle was getting more fluid than the other, I attribute this to the unequal length of the tubes, but the factory setup had a similar mismatch. I have a new pump on order.

The work was done by Walt's VW in Columbia, MO, I highly recommend them, they've always done an excellent job.