I think there's no doubt in my mind that
the end of this campervan is definitely going to be because of rust.
Welcome back to the channel guys ever since me and Cayleigh bought this sprinter t1n
we have been dealing with rust right from the start when i first went to look at the vehicle
it really worried me but since we were getting it for such a good price i thought i could deal
with it and try to tackle this rust problem as best as i can and i have learned a lot of
tricks along the way that i wanted to share with you i know there's a lot of videos out
there with rust and they're all fantastic the real world tests are great to watch
and i would definitely recommend doing a lot of research but i wanted to share with you
the things that i've learned and specifically to the sprinter t1n as well let's get into it make
sure to stick around until the end of this video because i'm going to be showing you a
spot that i'm going to be treating on the inside of our door it's really in a hard place to access
but i'm going to be showing you my steps and how i'm going to be fighting this rust
as best as i can the thing about rust that i've learned is it is almost impossible to get rid of
unless you cut it out completely fighting rust is kind of an ongoing process you're never going
to be able to completely eliminate it the best you can do is kind of stop it in its tracks from
going any further so there are four ways to treat rust the first is going to be to encapsulate it so
these are going to be using products like POR15 or Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator these products
are basically designed to go straight over rust and stop any oxygen or moisture from getting at
the rust therefore halting it these products do work quite well and there are certain scenarios
where i would recommend using them i have used POR15 in a few places that i will show you guys
the thing about these are they do dry to a very hard ceramic like finish so if you use them on
a body panel on the outside of your vehicle or van and the body panel flex's or heats up a lot in the
sun the coating will crack and then moisture and oxygen will get in there and start to rust again
so you want to avoid using these in these places POR15 also isn't uv resistant so using it in
places that are exposed to the sun aren't a good idea at all it is also somewhat difficult to paint
i've tried a lot of different ways of painting it and it usually ends up flaking off and cracking
the paint and not adhering properly to the POR15. i wouldn't recommend painting it i actually have
some of the POR15 metal prep right here i just recently ran out of the can that i had but this is
part of the multi-step process that you want to do when using POR15. the second way to treat rust
is by using lanolin based lubricant my go-to is fluid film just because it's very easy to access
where i'm at and it tends to work quite well this is one of my favorite ways to stop corrosion or
prevent rust so by applying a film to the outside of the metal it basically removes all of that
moisture and displaces it on the outside of the film the thing about the lanolin based lubrication
methods are the fact that you need to apply them at least annually uh so they do end up washing
off over time they do stay as like a liquid tacky base this one actually has a bit of an odor just
a forewarning but they do work quite well and because they stay as a liquid form they can heal
themselves over so rock chips things like that if there are scars this will basically creep and
cover that area that gets exposed on this vehicle i tend to use this in places that don't get washed
a lot that do end up getting rusted i'm gonna end up treating probably most of the undercarriage of
this vehicle in this to help stop the corrosion and prevent any future corrosion from happening
the third way to combat rust is by converting it to a phosphate state so this is by using
products like Rust Kutter or Ospho Corroseal does a similar job but these products you can basically
spray right onto the rust and they convert them to a phosphate state that you can then paint over
with a primer or you can apply a lanolin based lubrication like the fluid film i would always
recommend applying a rust converter just to try and tackle any remaining rust on the surface that
you may have and then applying products like fluid film or a primer and then a paint if you
plan on painting over the area the thing about the rust converters is they aren't a final step
and you do need to prime over them to stop rust from spreading further they are only designed
to treat the rust on the area they aren't designed to prevent rust in the future
the last way to treat rust is obviously just to cut it out now i would recommend doing this in
places where you can't reach the rust or it's completely inaccessible so when two metals meet
and they are together and rust is starting to creep into the surfaces that you can't access
that is one of the areas that you're going to need to cut out if you want to treat that another place
that i would recommend cutting out the rust is if it's completely rotten through the metal
or while you're trying to scrape the loose rust away and you accidentally go through the metal
this metal is basically rotted and you're going to need to fill it with a bondo or fiberglass filler
anyways so you might as well just cut out that rust and fill the whole area with bondo and prime
it and treat it all right so i'm going to take you outside now and show you where all the problem
areas we've treated rostar on the outside of our sprinter and there are quite a few so there there
there there there there there there there there there there there there there there
there now i wanted to talk about when and where to apply which treatment and how to decide
my experience with rust is it's always better to keep an eye on it and not to encapsulate it
if you can the reason for this being is most of those products only last a couple years maximum
depending on the environment and then you'll just have to work harder to grind that product
off when using products like fluid film you do have to apply them more regularly but they are
very easy to apply and it doesn't take very long you can also still access that rest if you want to
treat it further in any place that you don't have to coat over it i would just recommend leaving
the rust grinding as much off as you can obviously applying a rust converter like Ospho or Rust Kutter
and then applying a fluid film over top of it especially in areas that aren't going to get
pressure washed or you need to access often if you are painting over the rust like i've done on the
outside of our van with the raptor liner i would recommend grinding off as much rust as possible
using a wire brush or i like to use a grind and just completely grind down to bare metal
and then i like to use the rust cutter to convert the rest and then apply a good 2k epoxy
primer over top of it and then you can apply your raptor liner or your paint if you wish places
where i have used encapsulators like POR15 are on the exterior metal mirror mounts i actually
coated those with port 15 and those are exposed uh to the sun obviously the port 15 has faded a bit
and you can tell it is uh disintegrating a bit i guess but it has done a very good job another
place i've used it is actually on the steps in the bumper those don't get exposed to as much
sun because they're kind of hidden underneath the bumper and the POR15 has actually held up super
well it has completely encapsulated that rust and the matte black finish actually looks pretty good
another place i've used it is on the bracket for the sliding door and it has held up very well the
reason why i used the POR15 in these three areas is because these metals were very rigid they were
very coated with rust i mean seriously rusted and they are easy to access and replace
i didn't want to put a lot of effort into these areas so coating them with POR15 was the easiest
way to just make them look better and also provide a good rust preventative coating to them
i'm not too worried about them scratching or getting beat up more because they're already
in such bad shape places that i like to apply the rust converter and the fluid film are places
like completely underneath the van hinges any place that basically isn't easily accessible
are places that i'm going to be using that fluid film where i'm actually going to be using
just the converter and then a primer and then a raptor liner is going to be on the outside of the
van or anywhere that i am painting these are the places that i'm gonna try and grind away as much
rust as possible and cut it out if need be i can't stress this enough it's super important that you
treat all bare metal and existing rust spots as soon as you can because the rust will get worse
very quickly and we put so much effort into building out these camper vans
the last thing you want to do is have your van rust out completely just to give you guys a little
update on the van too finally got blinds for the skylight they took quite a while to come in
and we had to order custom ones these are double cellular blinds that are actually
designed for windows but we installed them on the skylight and check that out so super easy just to
slide back and forth i basically just installed a magnet and we can just pull them right across bam
magnetized just so nice at night these will also help keep the van cool during the summer
time and warmer during the winter time so we don't have all that heat escaping through the skylight
and all the heat coming in during the summer time oh she's so excited they are
so nice now to this nasty little rust spot i actually have two rust spots they're about the
size of maybe a little bigger than like toonie but they're on the bottom of this sliding door on
the side and i'll try and get a good shot for you actually here the rough spot is like right there
and it's right on the bottom of the door there uh super just a super common place on these sprinters
as well like right along the bottom door seams i am going to possibly pop this bottom bracket off
so the door will wiggle out a little bit more giving me a little bit more space
and then i'm going to go ahead and grab my grinder and just start grinding off
all the rust and the paint around the area making sure to get as much of the rest as
possible first up i'm actually just gonna clean it using some of this uh
super clean degreaser just to try and get rid of some any grease
or dirt i know i'm going to be grinding it off anyways but just want to make sure that
the area is as clean as possible you can see that the paint is just super bubbled up
in this area so it shouldn't be too hard to get in there with the grinder
so it is basically down to bare metal i'm gonna go underneath the door and try and get
underneath there as well just as much as possible i have uh grinded this right down
to bare metal you can see it's nice and shiny now i'm just gonna grab the Rust Kutter and
make sure that the area is thoroughly coated like that
and then that is basically just going to dry overnight i'm going to leave that for as long as
it takes to dry you'll notice when you apply it to really rusted areas that the rust actually ends up
turning black and you don't really have to worry about it and then after this dries it's going to
be kind of a a white powder can sometimes form as well you're just gonna wipe it clean and then i'm
just probably over this area anyway i'm probably just gonna do a quick white primer a couple coats
maybe two or three coats of primer and then i'm gonna keep an eye on it over the next year and
see if the rust comes through if it does i'll have to grind it down again and treat it again but this
way you've got rid of as much rust as possible and you've treated the remaining rust if there is any
and you've turned it into a phosphate this is the best way to do it in my opinion and then of
course you can coat over top of it if you want to use a rust encapsulator like a POR15 now
that is totally up to you you can do it i've tried it in other other places but again that
rust usually comes through and that POR15 does tend to crack in some places so that's why i don't
like using it the primer is a little bit more flexible and the fluid film is also obviously
super flexible the only thing is you have to reapply it or be careful about washing it off i
hit this with three coats of just a white primer and it's probably been about two to three weeks
and there's been no rust that's come through which is really nice to see i kind of debated
on whether or not to hit it with the fluid film after doing this and i think i am going to just to
give it that extra coating on the surface but it looks really good so far so hopefully this
will last a couple years at least before the rest starts slowly coming through again
this wheel well is another area that gets super rusted i coated this with POR15 last summer and
you can see the rust is starting to come through so now i'm gonna have to grind it all off again
and treat it but what i'm going to do this time actually is probably clean it apply some Rust
Kutter to the inside of the wheel well because i'm not sure how well that is coated because it's
tough to see and then i'm probably going to hit it with some fluid film and hopefully that will
displace the moisture and stop it from rusting any further i hope you guys enjoyed the video
if you found it useful be sure to subscribe and like and thank you guys so much for watching also
comment below on what you've used in the past to treat rest i'd love to hear from you it's always
good to learn about new products and new ways of treating rust i'll see you guys in the next one