winnebago project

The project is to remove rust and repaint this Winnebago leSharo and repaint some new strips. Its not a full restoration.
On first inspection It did not look too bad, a few small bits of rust here and there.
I started to do abit of grinding today and with the hope of welding on a couple on new parts I’ve fabricated…

THE WINNEBAGO

The main problem areas are 1. The rear wheel arches 2. The rain guttering above the driver and passenger doors. 3. A few odd bits of rust on seams and around the windows.

The wheel arches seemed to be a good place to start as I have already made some new parts for them. I cut out the unusable bits and then grinded down to bare metel. The panel on the right is Aluminum. I`ll weld the new part on the left and use pop rivets on the right. And use bonding over the top.

See the pile of rust on the ground? that’s what remains of what ever was supposed to be behind there. The arches have been filled before which seems to have let in water. Much the same story on the other side.

Next the bonnet which didn’t look bad from the out side just a few bubbles of rust you can see in the top picture. On lifting the bonnet it’s a whole different story.

The bonnet is badly rusted and needs fairly major work. It had to be removed. I’ve not yet grinded it out but it looks like I’ll be fabricating two new corners.

The rain gutters also need removing and replacing.

Fabricating new parts

I Have made two new parts to replace the rusty bits of the two rear wheel arches.

There nearly ready to weld to the van i`m going to paint primer on the rear of the new panels. I have also made two new ‘rain gutters’ for above the doors. I shall weld all these new parts on tomorrow and then complete the bonnet. I think the best and easyest way to finish the bonnet will be to use fiberglass, Which is the next job. then on to painting.

The Bonnet Repair.
Step 1.

I have ground out all the rust on the bonnet applyed some ‘rust killer’ and its now ready to fiberglass.
Step 2.

I`m realy pleased with the way the fiberglass has gone its definatly the way to go if your repairing a rusty bonnet like this. The fiberglass is rock hard in about two hours and best of all it will not rust.
I have applyed filler to the top side of the bonnet to level off the ground out areas.

Step 3.

Primer is applyed over the repaired areas and at last the bonnet is RUST FREE.. I will apply white basecoat and laquer when the van gets paint hopefully within the next few days.
Next job welding on the new parts (weather permiting)

Welding on the New Parts
After some fairly bad weather (too windy for welding anyway) I managed to weld on the new bits I have made. It was 32 degress yesterday so not a very pleasent for welding and grinding with a thick jumper, leather gloves, jeans and welding mask, However I have finished the welding and grinding.

The new part has been welded on and is now ready for grinding, priming and filling.

I have already prepared this part for paint, Ground down the welds and added some filler to smooth out the panel.

I ground out both sides of the guttering and oh dear more holes.

After much thought, I and the owners of the winnie, have decided that it would be a good idea to use Gel coat rather than paint and Laquer.
This is becase it gives much better protection and presents less problems when painting over Aluminum steel and fiberglass.
The problem is it takes longer as you need apply more coats and you have to wait 8hrs between coats. Also if you dont get the next coat on before 12hrs then you have to sand it all back down again.

I have chosen to use Hempel PolyEnamel 10000 White mixed with Hempel 55100 PolyEnamel Cream 55100 polyenamel catalizor and thined with Titan Yate thinner (the expencive one in the blue tin)

Before painting can start all the rusy joints were ground out and bonded with Krafft Poliflex plus. Not the best as its impossible to sand but its all I could get my hands on.

This the van after the first gel coat.
As I said it takes a while to build-up the four coats but its well worth the effort. Its worth remembering that the panels are now very well protected from the outside but theres nothing really to stop rust from the back of the panel in fact It will, the van needs a good undersealing or wax oil applying to the whole underside.

Now all the gel coating is done my job is almost complete so its time to start on those stripes.

Heres the bonnet already masked up I used ‘k – line’ 3mm fine line tape its abit on the expencive side and I had to get it from the US. but you can use 3M blue fine line instead. I only used the fine line tape on the curves. I use auto masking tape for the stright bits on the van I find that bleed though is not so much of a problem if you apply thin dry coats.
It took the whole day just to mask up the van for the stripes.

I used Ferrari Azzurro California Code (666010) for the top stripe and Ferrari Azzurro Monaco code (666036) for the bottom. Then two coats of Clear.
Thats it, I spent today compounding the whole van (the bits I could reach) and I managed to get the old shine back and got most of the color back its now more of a Gray/white than a yellow/white.

The whole job has taken ages not helped at all but countless rusty holes and sweltering heat but its done and i`m pleased with the result its turned out better than I expected.

Would I do it all over again? Ask me again when I`ve finished my drink!