Bongo Fury

96 on a P plate and yep both need some attention, if I decide to keep it,lol.

July 1995 tintop, been unprotected underneath untill recently, although it has a winter pack it lived in the south of japan.
Arches started to split at the seams, so had them done before it got any worse

Right a couple of pic's of our old rust;

Decided to get them seen to before they got to bad.

So... Some good, some not so great. But at least most owners appear to be doing something about it. Here's the rub... Allow them to get rusty in the first place, or remedial work afterwards? I may be lucky insofar as i use another car during the dreaded salt laying months regardless of whether the bongo has been undersealed or not. (mine's re-oyled yearly).

There's plenty can be done to fend off the dreaded rust, and it may be easier than one thinks... Wash under those arches, remove accumulated crud, don't give moisture an oppotunity to accumulate and hold that moisture in. I class my bongo as a dry weather vehicle ( Yes, i've been known to not use it if it looks like rain ) But when i do get caught out, i hit any big puddles i can see... hard! Then jetwash the underneath (especially the arches) whilst still wet, and yes in some cases whilst it's still raining! That soft, sodden crud washes off really easily when it's good and soaked, and touchwood mine's still rustfree despite being in the UK for quite a few years now...

bigdaddycain wrote:So... Some good, some not so great. But at least most owners appear to be doing something about it. Here's the rub... Allow them to get rusty in the first place, or remedial work afterwards? I may be lucky insofar as i use another car during the dreaded salt laying months regardless of whether the bongo has been undersealed or not. (mine's re-oyled yearly).

There's plenty can be done to fend off the dreaded rust, and it may be easier than one thinks... Wash under those arches, remove accumulated crud, don't give moisture an oppotunity to accumulate and hold that moisture in. I class my bongo as a dry weather vehicle ( Yes, i've been known to not use it if it looks like rain ) But when i do get caught out, i hit any big puddles i can see... hard! Then jetwash the underneath (especially the arches) whilst still wet, and yes in some cases whilst it's still raining! That soft, sodden crud washes off really easily when it's good and soaked, and touchwood mine's still rustfree despite being in the UK for quite a few years now...

Interesting thing I was told once by a colleague who had been doing a UK study for an OU degree was that body rot in cars tended to be less in regions with high rainfall than those with a drier climate. A possible reason being that the winter salt washes away quicker in the wetter regions.

blobber wrote:July 1995 tintop, been unprotected underneath untill recently, although it has a winter pack it lived in the south of japan.
Arches started to split at the seams, so had them done before it got any worse

Were they replaced or repaired ? if replaced what were they replaced with transit or merc ?

Mines a new shape 2001 in white and I am starting to see the odd spot of rust but no bubbling yet. Should I do something now or wait?

Hi M8ongo, they were done by Ian Taylor in Stoke, he fabricates his own smaller steel arches.

Dont know why, but i put July down at the start, it should be May.........

Mine (a 99 Mk2 V6 AFT) has no rust at all anywhere. Even the labels underneath were still visible so I assume it has had a dry life in Japan. Rustmaster did their stuff on it last year with a full coating and a guarantee.

The one thing I have noticed is that the paint is much thinner than any other car I have ever owned. This maybe a contributory factor for some ???

Mine started bubbling around the arches, so I just sanded them back to bare metal, primed and resprayed myself. Then black waxoyl underseal around the inside of the arch. Some minor bubbling came back in one or 2 places, but overall they are ok at the moment. Whenever I see rust, I just jump on it and sand/respray. It's like a continual job on the Bongo !!

If I had the money, I'd get a full body respray - in my investigations I discovered that it has been resprayed before, but then that is probably a good thing on a 15 year old vehicle !!

"The one thing I have noticed is that the paint is much thinner than any other car I have ever owned. This maybe a contributory factor for some ???"

Just a note ref the above point, i measured the paint thickness on my front end before i painted it(original paint)and it had 40 microns on. Normal factory paint on most manufacturers is usually 80-110 so it is a bit thinner than normal. My bonnet now measures about 200 microns as it has high build primer water based basecoat and 1.5 coats of laquer. 1 micron=1000th of a mm.

White bongo's seem to have the thinnest paint... Especially newer shaped examples. The guy at the local bodyshop is now VERY wary of machine mopping them, and uses a low tack masking tape as some old paint has been known to simply peel off with the masking tape!

I dunno ste, i reckon the black ones do too...?!! For the age my arches are OK.. But i do have a little bubble/trouble about 2 to 3 inches back above the bumper line, passenger side!

...& Stuc's could be the possible future of mine if i don't sort it! (Stuc's picture.)

I'd jump on it Jamie and hopefully nip it in the bud... Bud.

If you are ever up my way, i know a man who can.

bigdaddycain wrote:I'd jump on it Jamie and hopefully nip it in the bud... Bud.

If you are ever up my way, i know a man who can.

Already a plan of action dude..



Drawn up ready for a walk round with a print out on a "clip-board" to sort bird doo acid marks/rust, shopping trolley scratches, fox damage to the bumper,


& the blister in question.....

Then the quote!