Leaks & rust - preparing your van for conversion
So you’ve just got a van and are ready to start your conversion - here’s what you’ll want to do first!
I’ll be honest, this bit isn’t overly glamorous or sexy - it most definitely doesn't make many people’s Pinterest boards, and most van life influencers seem to skip over it to get to the good stuff. But regardless, it is super important so whether you’ve got a beat-up old girl like ours or a newer model, here’s what you want to do before you jump into the fun stuff.
Clean her up!
Unless you’ve bought your van new (you lucky person), the first step of your van conversion journey will involve cleaning… lots and lots of cleaning.
Now, you may think it a bit odd to clean the inside of a van when you’re going to turn it into a building site, but cleaning your van is about so much more than just getting rid of dirt and grime. It’s also a chance to find dents, holes, weird nooks, and crannies you may want to make use of later and to get a feel for the space you’re about to call home.
While cleaning our van, we found the original floor had been screwed down into the metalwork below, leaving holes we’d need to fill before we laid our own. We also found a couple of small leaks we’d have missed if we hadn’t gotten up close and personal with all her weird corners and crevices, plus we found a ton of rusty old Stanley Knife blades which had worked their way into the cab floor, under the mats and even inside parts of the walls. (Our van was a carpet fitter’s van in her previous life.)
So get cleaning!
To-do list:
Remove all the old wooden panels (even if you plan to use them again later)
Brush out large debris and hoover up finer dust and dirt
Use degreasing cleaner to clear away grime (we liked Method as it smelled amazing)
Circle any rust spots, holes, or damage with a marker pen to help you locate them later (having a white van made this easy. Use a permanent marker, or it will rub off too easily)
Find any leaks.
If you’ve got a spanking new van, then hopefully, you can skip this part, but for the rest of us, this may just be the most crucial step in the whole conversion - getting your base right!
Even if you’re pretty sure your van doesn’t leak, you don’t want to find it does after you put in £££ worth of wood and fixtures, so grab a hose pipe - we’re going leak hunting!
How to find leaks in your van conversion
Ideally pick a dry day so that you know 100% any liquid you see on the inside is from this test and not from condensation or from your boots.
Empty the van and strip it back as much as possible - do this after you remove the old paneling and have given your van a good clean - dust and grime can hide wet patches.
Shut all your doors and windows, grab a hose pipe, and go to town. Don’t force it into the door's seals, but give everywhere a good soaking, focusing on areas where vans are known to leak, like around the rear tail lights, along the gutter trim, etc. Then stand back, let it sit for a minute or two, and do it again. And again.
The aim here is to mimic the heaviest rain you will ever get, so the water needs to pool in the gutter trim and really drip down into all those nooks and crannies.
Next, grab some blue towel or kitchen paper and get inside the van with a head torch on. The head torch is important as it will be dark in there, and you need to see well into some tight spaces.
Work your way methodically around your van, visually inspecting for leaks and testing by dabbing areas with your blue towel or kitchen paper. If you find a leak - mark it with a marker pen.
Hopefully, you’re all good and dry, but if you’ve got leaks, it’s time to find the source.
Grab a friend or partner and ask them to hose the outside of your van near the leak. Meanwhile, you stay inside and wait. Try to watch where the water is coming from. Is it dripping from an area above and pooling? Is it seeping slowly from a crack? Put on your detective hat and work together to find out.
Now you know where your leaks are, and it’s time to fix them. Even the most minor leaks can cause trouble later, so it’s better to fix them now rather than hope they don’t become a problem.
Wait for the surface to be completely dry, grab some sealant (we used Tiger Seal), and fix those cracks and holes. Then re-test as you did before - et voila.
To do:
Test for leaks
Fix leaks
Re-test for leaks
Treat any rust.
The last part of this trifecta of preparation is to treat any internal rust (external rust is important too, especially in structural areas, but we’re saving that for a later post).
Like leaks, even small spots of rust on the inside of your van can become a problem if left to worsen, so it’s vital to get to the root of them now and protect them against future damage before you start building out your van.
Now, there's no shortage of advice about rust on the internet, and we feel like we read it all! So here it is in a nice concise list.
To treat rust properly, you need to grind it back to bare metal. Yes, Hammerite and other brands claim to be direct to rust, but if you can be bothered to do it, getting back to bare metal is best as it guarantees better protection and not just surface treatment.
Yes, you can wire brush by hand, but it sucks - get a cheap drill and use brush attachments.
Wear a face mask and eye protection. Rust in your eye is no joke, and neither is rust in your lungs.
Hammerite can react with exterior paint - so do a test patch! We used Hammerite all over the inside of our van with no problem, and on the outside. It didn’t react with the original white transit paint but it sure did when we later re-painted the exterior of our van.
Hoover up your rust dust as soon as you can. It will mark and damage the surfaces it lands on.
To do:
Grind back any interior rust with a metal brush until you can only see shiny, fresh metal
Apply Hammerite or other rust-protecting paint
Clean up rust dust immediately
Wear protection
