Rust spots on the roof.

I’ve just had my Symbol professionally cleaned at home. A local company, 2 guys, brought their own pump, water, ladders, snow foam etc. All done in an hour for £70 which seems pretty reasonable, and it looks better than it did the day I collected it from Marquis. So I think I’ll get them to do it once a quarter, and not buy any equipment myself. 

Anyway that wasn’t the point of the post. They say that there are several rust spots on the roof, and it looks as though there is little or no lacquer on the roof either. Has anyone else discovered something similar? The van is theoretically brand new, but in reality was built in February 2020 and converted in November 2020, so it’s spent a bit of time sitting around outside. It’s going into my local Marquis on Thursday to look at the faulty solar charging, and I will bring it to their attention, but it wasn’t what I expected to hear!

v8oholic wrote:I’ve just had my Symbol professionally cleaned at home. A local company, 2 guys, brought their own pump, water, ladders, snow foam etc. All done in an hour for £70 which seems pretty reasonable, and it looks better than it did the day I collected it from Marquis. So I think I’ll get them to do it once a quarter, and not buy any equipment myself. 

Anyway that wasn’t the point of the post. They say that there are several rust spots on the roof, and it looks as though there is little or no lacquer on the roof either. Has anyone else discovered something similar? The van is theoretically brand new, but in reality was built in February 2020 and converted in November 2020, so it’s spent a bit of time sitting around outside. It’s going into my local Marquis on Thursday to look at the faulty solar charging, and I will bring it to their attention, but it wasn’t what I expected to hear!

Lets hope you hear something to the positive from Marquis. I wouldn't expect it from a 10 year old van never mind a one year old! 

Take a look at the transformation of this 32 year old Mercedes.....but then the paint had been put on properly in the first place and the car just neglected over the years.

The small bits of rust could be caused when a grinder was used to cut the holes for the skylights and the grindings and swarf   have not been cleaned away properly and have embedded them self in the paint when hot

Here are some pictures I took from an upstairs window. It definitely needs fixing!

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I've had this on 2 A/s van conversions caused by someone in the factory cutting the roof openings and being too lazy to either cover beforehand or vacuum up afterwards. Of course after a few months the bare  metal swarf rusts leaving nice rust spots on the roof and its paintwork.  They never learn and from others similar experiences it seems to be an ongoing issue. I removed the spots using a gentle cutting compound and applied a good wax to protect in future. Paintwork was undamaged.

I hope that’s all it is, loose metal flakes corroding rather than the paint layer having been breached. The only cause for concern is that the detailer said that the clear coat doesn’t look evenly applied, which could point to a paint defect originally from the Peugeot factory.

I would not be happy with that as rust will damage the paint, especially if hot direct from a angle grinder. Also is those 4 brackets all autosleepers use to hold the solar panel?

As with all marques modern paint will be water based to be kinder to us and the environment. These paints are nowhere like as durable as good old cellulose in the case of the old Merc  above . Twenty years ago I sprayed using A and W  Gipfast a 2 pack paint filled with cyanides and cyanates and all that lovely toxic goodness. It was so hard a finish  when dry that if someone took a key to the side of your finished car it would blunt the key rather than scratch the paint finish!  Unfortunately without full air fed masks it tended to do rather nasty things to your lungs when inhaling the vapour during spraying.....                  Remember these are cheap commercial  vehicles designed and intended to be worked hard over a relatively short life span and are not exactly finished to RR standards. Unfortunately leisure converters throw some mdf furniture in them and charge upwards of £65 K for what is still a crude base vehicle intended for heavy work over a short duration. 
      If you look closely at each ' rust '  spot you may see the tell tale mark of what is left of the metal swarf at its centre. It can sometimes bury itself in the clear coat probably from being hot when it landed. Jigsaws and nibblers produce hot swarf , would be surprised if they used grinders to cut roof holes. If spots are confined around the openings etc that may be a clue but I had them even  in the gutter edges where someone had either swept them or taken an air line and blown them away from the immediate area of the cut. Fingers crossed that is all it is as I can't see an almost new van suffering in this way without obvious impact damage at the centre of the rust spot breaching the coating and allowing water to contact bare steel.

I hope your solar panel is secure, dosn't look to be fixed like others including mine with large corner fixings and a wind deflector at the front.

Sorry to hear about your rust spots, I had some also, but put it down to where I drilled the roof to get the cables through.
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Richard

rgermain wrote:I hope your solar panel is secure, dosn't look to be fixed like others including mine with large corner fixings and a wind deflector at the front.

Sorry to hear about your rust spots, I had some also, but put it down to where I drilled the roof to get the cables through.
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Richard

It’s exactly the same as mine is fixed Richard. Must admit I was surprised that they only used 4 brackets when I first went up there but I was up on the roof only recently and the panel was still solid.

When I finally get round to adding another (smaller) 80w panel however, the fixings will definitely be more robust.

Dbvwt wrote:

rgermain wrote:I hope your solar panel is secure, dosn't look to be fixed like others including mine with large corner fixings and a wind deflector at the front.

Sorry to hear about your rust spots, I had some also, but put it down to where I drilled the roof to get the cables through.
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Richard

It’s exactly the same as mine is fixed Richard. Must admit I was surprised that they only used 4 brackets when I first went up there but I was up on the roof only recently and the panel was still solid.

When I finally get round to adding another (smaller) 80w panel however, the fixings will definitely be more robust.

Sorry for causing any worry.
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Richard