Rust bucket repaired

Just thought I would post a bit of my (van's) story on here in the spirit of the post that was talking about removing the back seats and runners. This is not going to be a super detailed account, just the highlights, but if there is any info that people would like to know further regarding the process please let me know and I'll do my best to reply whenever I log on next.

So I recently purchased my 1992 HiAce Super Custom Limited from a kind of sketchy guy in LA, who didn't furnish me with all the proper paperwork needed to register the vehicle, and failed to inform me of (if not blatantly lied about) a few problems with the van. I'm not sure how much he knew when he sold it to me, but one comment he made about how the back seats slide, and how "he just had them scooted back to conceal his backpack", makes me think that he knew they didn't slide, knew why, and was brushing over it to conceal the facts. He did well, I did not check the small things like that, and so I inherited these problems.

I went into the project expecting to tear out the rails that the seat slides on, grease some stuff up, and call it good. What I found was an insane amount of rust on - clearly caused by a nice swamp like ecosystem in - the right track.







Long story short, I got the track out of there after chopping two bolts that were solidly rusted in there. It was gnarly. I literally found a dead frog in there.

Started thinking about how all that water could have gotten in there (keep in mind the other track for the seats was pristine, not a drop of water in there) and realized the carpet over the wheel well was nice and soaked. We quickly found the hole.



I realized in posting that picture that I didn't have the track out when I found the wet carpet, but the sequence of events is irrelevant, just thought I'd acknowledge that my narrative is a bit discombobulated. After we found the hole, we followed it. It was not pretty. It led me to rip out the track completely which I already described, so that we could get to what was turning into the real issue.



Water was clearly getting in through the gaping hole in the wheel well. We quickly set about fixing it with the help of my roommate and his mig welder. I did all the grinding, wire wheeling, and finishing work, but without my roommate and his superior welding skills, this wouldn't have happened.








Yeah, his welding is not exactly beautiful, but it sure is functional. I believe he was welding two different guage metals too, so he was trying to not burn out one while still trying to melt the other. Just in case, I sealed over all the welds with a marine sealant, then did a finishing coat of rust protecting spray paint on the inside, and rubberized underbody coating on the outside. We threw some bondo glass in the corners of the wheel wells just to get some gaps before painting, but my guess is it would have been fine without that. Over the top, maybe, but whatever.



After all was said and done, the track got put back in after being de-rustified and re-repainted. My back seats now work perfectly, and there is no more water jumping into the cabin through the wheel wells!! Luckily this was the only one that was this bad, but it also put me on the lookout for some other rust spots I want to treat, before they get to be that bad.






Have a good day out there, and protect your vans against rust if you can! If not, treat it when you can so it doesn't end up like this!

Wow that looks like a brilliant fix!!

To me that looks like a stone-chip in the wheel arch grew into a hole which made the carpet wet and dampness did the rest. Because of your picks I'm going to wash my wheel arches and put stone-chip coating in there!

I have a mint slider here BTW if you want it for free, shame you're not in the UK. However I've decided these vans are best converted so you may not need yours if you convert it too.

My chair slider channels are now full of flooring insulation.

Haha I appreciate the offer on the slider, it is a shame I don't live in the UK as parts are wildly more abundant there it seems. I envision converting this bad boy within a couple years myself, so one day it may be full of insulation as well. In the meantime though, it's real nice to be able to slide those things back and forth and get the whole range of cabin layouts that Toyota intended haha!

You did a great job fixing it up. Your friends welding doesn't look to shabby at all. Nicely done all round. Hope you don;t find any other nasties whilst sussing out your van.
Keep us updated.