Olympic "Rust" Medal, and Engine Milestone

 

If they handed out Olympic medals for rust, my little van would certainly get the gold. For example, after it was recently sandblasted. The blaster removed some patches of filler that had rust underneath. It seems very logical that what happened is that tree branches dented the roof, and that these dents were “repaired” after a longer interval with polyester resin. The resin was removed but the dents and rust remained after blasting. These can be seen in the inset photo above. What to do?

 

There’s lots of rust killing products in the marketplace, but many require washing afterwards. Aaron prefers Mar-Hyde One-Step, a Rust Converter Primer Sealer, which we ar told, “Chemically reacts to convert rust into a hard, black primer sealer. A water-based latex containing rust modifiers. Designed for application directly over tightly bonded rust on iron or steel. Shortly after application, the rusted surface will change from white to purple to a stable, black coating.” In the above photo, it is obvious that this is exactly what happened. The area circled in red is of the section visible in the larger photo.

 

Yesterday I took the engine out to be redone at a shop in Westminster – okay, “New Westminster”. It’s a cluttered little mess of a shop (see above), but I liked “Trevor” (see photo) the moment I met him. His dad works in the shop too, and they recognized my motor as soon as they saw it. They even knew it was adapted from the Austin A series, which is some pretty obscure motorhead information.

 

This weekend, Steve D (Duncan’s owner) and his friends from the Old English Car Club (“OECC”) are coming are to Aaron’s shop. It’s a field trip they do once a month. I’m familiar with the club but not a member. It’s something that popular amongst sports car guys mainly. I wonder what they’ll think about my chunk little van? Similarly, I wonder what Steve will think about it? His van is a lost worse off in many areas than Victoria, though more complete. For instance, he only has to source one rear door! He'll have to do everything I've done, and in places, more.