Has anyone replaced their side belly pans and bolted them on? I want to put them back on but not welded this time but can’t for the life of me work out where I’d be putting the bolt holes; through sills and outriggers? I’m definitely replacing them but would prefer not to weld them on this time.
Never done it myself, but I believe folk put rivnuts in the inner sills and chassis. Not sure it would be as sturdy as welded on pans, but sturdier than not having pans I'm sure.
If anyone's interested, I've got a small supply of genuine Westfalia 8mm bolt holes. £12.50 each, posted.
But schofields say you can bolt em, but not where. I want to be able to take them off for inspection. More importantly, fit them at techenders
While you’re there @snotty, I need to get some rust converter and paint something on all the metal soon. What do you recommend?
As fitted by a PO - Mine are just held on with large self tappers - one in each corner and one in the middle of the long side.
Ooh, not sure. Think I’ll call schofields and mechanic on Monday to check what’s best. Welding them on won’t be a big deal but I did like the idea of being able to remove them to see what’s going on. Maybe extra storage too!
Rust treatments and paint options are many, but I went with Vactan to treat surface rust followed by brush painting with Rustoleum Combicolor gloss anti rust direct to metal paint. I did 2 coats of Rustoleum and a third coat 2 years later. Did all underbody and wheel arches and the engine bay. I like paint and never use any form of sticky underseal, paint is easy to wash down.
Dunno about the rust converter stuff but i sprayed the finished underbody with RAPTOR - bloody brilliant , even better now yours is up in the air as had to do mine laying underneath ... Cavity wise @snotty recommended some good stuff , think it was DYNAX ?? Whatever you use it`s worth buying a proper particle mask , even with the cavity wax . I forgot mine once and was coughing up lung butter for days ... I`ve got an unused mask sitting around - your if you want it ??
Will check those things out. Mask is always useful, I need to get my own welding mask for next week too! He’s going to let me loose with the welder, woohoooo!
Regarding rust converter, there’s so many bits I can’t get in to do will be sandblasting those. The sandblaster isn’t great so thought I’d then spray in some rust eating stuff just to be as sure as I can be. Then followed by some rust killing paint. I’ve got use of a spray gun too, just need to find the best rust eating stuff.
I’ve used Vactan as a rust converter on surface rust, seems pretty effective at that- but have no idea if it’s up to the job on deeper stuff. I think FE 123 by Rust Buster is much the same. Being water based they are easy to thin and I think you can therefore spray them. I guess phosphoric acid is probably the best for rust eating, but not sure whether you have to neutralise it afterwards if you plan to paint on top of it? @snotty must know?? Where are you man? Are you lurking in Waitrose again, waiting for the quinoa and spirulina quiche to be marked down?
I bet he is, you know! Oh yes, forgot about the neutralising bit. The stuff I can’t get to isn’t deep rust but i can’t even get in there to remove the surface stuff. My knuckles are now a distant memory
If you cant get all the rust off you might be better with oil/ wax sprays than rust converter as that only converts the surface of the rust. Slapping paint on that rust may just seal it in and trap a wave of rusty blistering in future. POR 15 for instance is so waterproof it is great on perfect metal but on rust it stays until the rust blows it off. Over in the USA I notice that mustie1 on Youtube uses chainsaw oil - sticky like gearbox oil but thinner. Use rivnuts but be aware the usual cheap ones are aluminium and will cause corrosion of the steel. If you use stainless ones you will need a professional scissors type insertion tool to fit them and you would need the bus up in the air to get space to work the tool. They will go to the chassis rails and into the sills and onto the undersides of the outriggers.