As the former owner of a VW Vanagon Westfalia, I know how hard it is to keep that white fiberglass top clean. And mine was about 40 years newer then, than this late T2 is now. I did keep my tires inflated though.
Another mildewed campertop. I took this photo a few months ago; since then the owner has given it a good scrubbing. It’s a daily driver that lives around the corner and drives by my house regularly.
This Ford exhibits the top down rust that is so common in our mild climate coastal town.
Interestingly, the paint on this “Hardbody” Nissan has held up better, but the hood itself is perforated and the bumper is going fast. The roof covering is creative to say the least
There’s that mildew again, on a white Ford van, this time on the painted sheet metal. It provides a fine canvas for graffiti artists. But behind it we finally see serious rust.
I don’t know much about rust repair, but surely this T1 pickup is not salvageable. Or is all the sheetmetal available as reproductions from China or Mexico?
Another white German utility vehicle. One of many Sprinters in our neighborhood, but far and away the most weathered.
Over 40 years old and just a bit of surface rust. I bet you won’t see this in New England … or old England. The round headlights indicate this N40 Hilux is a 1979-81. There’s another 4WD N40 daily driver around the corner from me, in very nice condition, with the ‘82-83 rectangular headlights. The color of that one is a very attractive rusty brick red, but that’s its factory paint, not oxidation.
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Nice collection of rust examples. Since automakers stepped up their use of galvanized steel and better rust inhibitors around the early 1980s, the serious rust I see on cars, often appears the result of owner neglect. Never/rarely washing/waxing the surface and underneath. Prior to then, owners simply didn’t have the resources to stop the rust, as manufacturers generally didn’t do enough, to prevent the most serious oxidizing. And cars in road salted regions, rusted from the inside out.
As a kid, I regularly washed and waxed my uncle’s 1975 Thunderbird circa 1976 thru 1979, but it literally rusted to bits… from underneath. I actually snapped off the hood ornament, while washing it, due to corrosion. I remember being absolutely terrified to tell him, I broke the hood ornament on his T-Bird. When, I realized later, it was ready to break at any time. One of several cars back then, I recall being able to shake the body or bang a fender, and lose rust (flakes or powder) would consistently fall to the pavement. Well beyond most owners means, on relatively new cars.
A number of the early Sprinters I see here show serious rust. For modern commercial vehicles, they may have inferior manufacturer rustproofing.
I remember the “rust shower” from slamming a door. One was a 52 Chevy a relative drove to and from his job as a school principal in the early 1970’s in northwest Ohio. He would not park it on his concrete driveway for that reason, only out along the edge of the gravel road where the constant shower of rust flecks would not hurt anything.
Another was around that same time period – a 1964 Studebaker Commander sedan that had become kind of an extended family loaner vehicle for my Studebaker-loving neighbors down the street. My friend’s mother HATED that car because the rust showers stained her new driveway. My friends and I played in the car once, and after we were done (a time that involved several door slams) there was a ring of rust powder and flakes all around the thing.
Remember this well! If you didn’t sweep or wash away the rust, a semi-permanent dark red stain would ensue.
Do you also recall the volume of rusted and abandoned cars parts you’d see on the sides of highways and freeways? I loved to walk and bike as a kid, and the sheer volume of ‘fallen off’ parts was pretty insane back then. Primarily exhaust pipes and mufflers, but also bushings, suspension parts, sheetmetal, block heater cords, tires, you name it.
I still wax my cars. I haven’t seen anyone wax their car, in a long time.
My dad considered exhaust systems a service item. 2 years for the pipes, 4 (if you were lucky) for the muffler.
Sprinters are notorious rusters.
I live in the worst salt belt in the country…..the Lake Ontario snow belt. A family friend bought a brand new 69 Chevelle and I remember holes in the lower front fenders by the winter of 71/72.
We never had concrete drives, so rust staining was not a problem, but my first car (1965 Austin 1800) had holes in the rocker panels where you inserted a bar from the jack. It probably seemed like a good plan as it was more stable than balancing on a small jack. The last year I had it i used the jack to change to my winter tires. It was going well until I noticed the paint flaking off around the jacking point. I quickly lowered the car before it anll collapsed and went to a garage to use a floor jack. It promptly punched a hole through the outer skin of the rocker. I think that thick English enamel was all that was holding it together.
Nope, we don’t get the top down rust thing here in New England….and I guess I’m glad. I know where the bottom up rust comes from, I can only imagine that the top down kind comes from sitting in pretty much constant rain and moisture. Which is sort of depressing to me.
Great pictures though. That T1 seems to have made the jump from vehicle to sculpture. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a surface like that outside of a junk yard.
It’s not really the rain, as we get much more of that in Oregon, without the top-down rust. It’s directly the result of proximity to the ocean, whose salty air and condensation causes it.
There are special building code requirements for within a mile of the ocean, requiring stainless steel fasteners, for this reason.
I think someone would fix that T1 now that VW bus-derivatives are worth a bunch.
Edit: I just looked online, and roof repair panels are available.
A great assortment – That T1 pickup is indeed rusty. But I would bet that a skilled metalworker could fabricate and weld patches if the rest of the panel is salvageable.
Those Sprinters seem to rust in my area just like this one has done – there is something about the way those bodies are built that has little rusty areas and streaks all over the place.
Rust never sleeps. Especially in coastal CA 😉
One of my projects this summer was getting the rust out of my VW Eurovan’s hatch. It looks like sometime in its distant past, that someone opened up the large and heavy hatch and doinked it, busting the seal’s integrity around the glass. That had led to a big bubbling of rust underneath the paint, perhaps the size of two fists.
I ground out as much rust as I could and used POR-15, a great preventative. That will greatly slow down any future buildup if not, hopefully, stopping that from happening altogether.
That’s NOT A T1 ~ it’s a T2 .
Coastal air and fog is also always heavily salt laden .
I remember the rust showers,also feet going through the floor boards, seats ripping out and flipping over back wards….
-Nate
Nate, here we go again, for the 14th time. It really is a “T1”, meaning Transporter gen 1. You’re conflating “Type 1” (Beetle) with “T1” (Transporter/Type 2). I can assure you that everyone who owns or works with Transporters calls them T1, or T2, or T3, etc., as a way to readily identify which generation they are.
From wikipedia:
The Volkswagen Transporter, based on the Volkswagen Group’s T platform, now in its seventh generation, refers to a series of vans produced for over 70 years and marketed worldwide.
The T series is now considered an official Volkswagen Group automotive platform.[1][2] and generations are sequentially named T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7.
The first Sprinters were designated T1N. Perhaps that was a subtle homage by Mercedes to the T1 as the archetype of German vans: T1N for T1 Neue (or should that be”neu”? I’m never sure about gender in German). Aside from their utility function, both T1’s became popular for young travelers.
I recall three good examples of this kind of rust since I was around it. The first a college friends early 70s GM C10 in that puke green. Rust around roof lip, A pillar, and cowl. He was from Palos Verde and while at SDSU lived in Mission Beach. Rust didn’t take long. Time 1975 so young truck.
The my girlfriend’s Datsun 620 in 1983. Four or five years old and rusted holes in the A pillar, cowl, and hood lip. She lived in the Richmond District of San Francisco 20 blocks from Ocean Beach parked under a four unit apartment building her parents owned.
The last, when I lived in the Richmond District from 89-98 was another 70’s GM truck parked outside on Anza somewhere between 19th-21st. I had never seen anything like it as the whole truck was perforated with holes top to bottom. The sheet metal had to be less than 50% on the body as it sat there. Only years later did I put 2 and 2 together to realize it was the hoarder living at 21st and Clement who parked old rusted hulks all over the blocks and moved for street cleaning only. He had dozens which could occupy and entire block both sides and then the next. What he stored under the 3 story apartment building was even worse when found after he died… hundreds upon hundreds of old tires.
As I’m sure you know living in the area, those Bay Area rust zones were like our famous “microclimates”. Growing up in Berkeley I never saw much rust, but when I decided to buy a Vega in 1976, one of the first examples I looked at was in Pacifica. 3 or 4 years old and already lots of rust around the windshield and rear window. By contrast, the ‘73 Vega I bought in Orinda was just fine. Of course by 1980 when I sold it, the rust was creeping in, around the fixed glass front and rear. This despite living in the East Bay all the time. Even here in Santa Cruz it seems to vary by make and model of car, and I’m convinced that the surf rigs that carry boards on the roof get it worse than cars which are just subject to natural coastal drip.
and my parents lived in Orinda from 1972-1995.
As to the coast you could smell the salt in the damp morning fog that would create the June swoon in San Diego near Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, and some of Pacific Beach. That moisture permeated everything outside with dampness.
You ca buy an entire split screen VW van aftermarket repop all you need is a vin.