I guess you could just lift the rubber, sand it back as best you can, apply a rust treatment of your choice, blob some silicone in your hole, and paint it. And then treat any rust you can get to under the dash. That's about as good as it gets till you have the time to do it properly.
Or you could leave it as it is, cover the van up and do a proper screen out metal repair and paint, next Spring. After all you have not been using the van for a while and probably won't use it much in the coming winter. A bit more rusting won't make much difference.
Thanks, so that's a sealant...should I treat the rust with something first or is a good rub down, (the van not me), good enough for now and the sealant on top.
Good rub down, then treat with rust killer ( it won't kill the rust if it is thick or on the inside where you can't reach) Then use sealant, I find Sikaflex to be very good, It takes a little time to dry. You smooth it with a gloved finger dipped in thinners immediately after application.
All good advice above, but at some point the screen has to come out and a proper job done on the top end of the panel at least. What’s the rest of the the front panel like. Do you have any pictures?
I really wouldn't rub down or poke any of that as you will end up with holes. If you are not ready to fix it I would tape over it or cover it with sealant this will stick and hold the rust together.
The rest of the front clip is pretty pock marked, found after I removed the bra when it arrived on my drive. It’s a shame as it’s the only bit of rust on the whole van, but it’s a big bit of rust...
I wouldn't waste time, money and effort on trying to patch it up, looking at the full picture, the panel is shot. Ok, there are products out there to kill surface rust but that's not surface rust, its rot. As others have suggested, you would be better off leaving it as is, cover the van, windscreen out and new panel and paint next Spring.
Thanks all, my problem is that if i do the front clip I'll want to re-paint the whole van to keep it matching, and then if I'm doing that then I may as well decide whether to use the opportunity to cut the roof and add a pop top, and then I may as well re-do the electics loom and perhaps drop the engine and re-furb...I wish I could be comfortable just doing half jobs... OK, off to see how much I can get for a kidney on the black market...that should fund it all.
What's the rest of the bodywork like? I'd say try and keep it a rolling resto and do jobs like this over the winter to keep you using it. You should be able to get the paint colour matched to match the rest of the body.
Doing the front panel on its own is not doing half a job as you seem to think. You could get a new panel with advice from here or maybe the existing could be repaired on the van depending on how rot overall it is. I would have thought cutting out the rust and welding new metal would be easier and less cost than buying a new panel and fettling and welding that in. Lots of folks on here have done screen surrounds. You seem worried about new paint not matching, painters can do a perfect match, you certainly don't need to paint the whole van.
It looks like the PO drove that bus in a gravel pit or something. Those marks are stone chip, hence the bra ! so attacking vigorously with a wire brush and rust converter may bring up a mostly intact panel. Rather than Sikaflex which can trap water, even think about rust converter - some may actually give you rough steel rather than rust. It could be worth giving it a skim of filler and some paint.
Much as I don’t want to contradict our resident doom monger, apart from around the screen, it looks like a load of stone chips to me. It hardly looks “shot”. Repair the screen surround properly then prep and paint the full panel. Job done. A repro panel quality will be Shiite in comparison.