Rust repair patch panels

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UKmtrsp

Active member
I'm needing to repair several areas on my T1N Sprinter. For those who have used patch repair panels, can you recommend a supplier or manufacturer please. Looking to purchase the best patch pieces that fit well and aren't a make it fit proposition.

The places I am looking to cut out and replace are the bottoms of the rear wheel arches, the rear of the left front wheel arch, bottom of the drivers door, and possibly bottom of passenger sliding door.

A side note: My T1N has factory sunroofs that I would like to replace with vent fans. However the sunroof dimensions are wider than the standard 14 x 14 vent....looking for suggestions on an approach that won't leak. thx
 
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Johnbyrdgates

Vanosaurus
It may be too late for your purposes, but mill supply has good quality sprinter panels available online. I bought some panels from them for my VW vanagon and they fit perfectly. John
 
Garandman

Garandman

Active member
Related question. New here, looking at a 2003 Sprinter this weekend. There is a rusted out spot on the body and I’m trying to figure out what it would cost for a body shop repair? I’m thinking it would be well over $1,000 after painting?
 

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billintomahawk

Guest
Home brew!











A good autoparts store will sell you a bent door corner panel made of mild steel.
The other patches are roofing aluminum scrap.


Cost $35 plus rivets.

I swore an oath to, "Never run my new/old Sprinter in the salt."

bill in tomahawk
 
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Garandman

Garandman

Active member
It’s going into the body shop 4/18. They are going to replace the rusted panel, remove the windshield and clean up the A pillars, and inspect everything in case there are areas I didn’t find.
 
Garandman

Garandman

Active member
They’ve pretty much finished the driver’s side. I’ll be checking in next week with thrm.

All new metal around the bottom.
 
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endgame

New member
Garandman said:
It’s going into the body shop 4/18. They are going to replace the rusted panel, remove the windshield and clean up the A pillars, and inspect everything in case there are areas I didn’t find.
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Can you let me know how much the windshield removal and a-pillar work costs?

I spotted some rust under the moulding. Caught it early I think, and for now just cleaned out the crud so the water could drain like it's supposed to.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Garandman

Garandman

Active member
Yes. Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of how much rust ther was in that area. I’m guessing $700 to $1,000.
 
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mountainphotog

New member
How did this turnout?! I'm looking into bringing my van in to have some rust repair for the bottom panels around the van and was wondering how much it cost you? Did you end up purchasing the patch panels and then having the shop do the work? Thanks!
 
Garandman

Garandman

Active member
mountainphotog said:
How did this turnout?! I'm looking into bringing my van in to have some rust repair for the bottom panels around the van and was wondering how much it cost you? Did you end up purchasing the patch panels and then having the shop do the work? Thanks!
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Purchased panels, had shop weld them in. They also took out the windshield and repaired any rust there, as a "Just in case," then painted it.

It was thousands of dollars. I bought the van pretty cheap so it was worth it to me. Mechanically and structurally it was good.

The bottom of the driver's door (which they didn't work on) has rust now, gotta figure out what to do as I'm not sure they're open during the pandemic.
 
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jmwgoff

New member
Did you have any difficulty finding a shop that would weld in panels you supplied yourself? I know mechanics are usually reluctant to do this but I don't have any experience trying this with body shops.

And did the thousands you paid include a paint job or just welding in the panels? I need my rocker panels replaced but I'm going to paint the whole van in raptor liner afterward, so I could forego the paint job. Wondering how much effort/cost that could save...
 
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jmwgoff

New member
Follow-up question (for Garandman or anyone else)... I just took my van to a pretty reputable (if you trust Yelp) body shop in Denver, and the guy encouraged me not to bother with getting new rocker panels welded in. His take was that given how thin the sheet metal is on sprinters, making a horizontal cut across the body and welding in new panels wouldn't go well. He said if I were going that route, they'd pretty much want to replace the whole panel top to bottom, which is needlessly expensive. I thought that was surprising since the body work done to the lower half of Garandman's sprinter looks pretty good to me. Think they just didn't want to bother with the work?

His alternative suggestion was to just sand down the rockers and any other rusted spots and then get the whole thing coated in bedliner. I was actually planning to go the bedliner route anyway but thought it would be smart to look into doing some body work first. So if I can trust his judgment, that's music to my ears and would save me a couple thousand bucks in body work. Just trying to decide if his judgment is sound. Anyone have any thoughts?
 
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Deleted member 50714

Guest
jmwgoff said:
Follow-up question (for Garandman or anyone else)... I just took my van to a pretty reputable (if you trust Yelp) body shop in Denver, and the guy encouraged me not to bother with getting new rocker panels welded in. His take was that given how thin the sheet metal is on sprinters, making a horizontal cut across the body and welding in new panels wouldn't go well. He said if I were going that route, they'd pretty much want to replace the whole panel top to bottom, which is needlessly expensive. I thought that was surprising since the body work done to the lower half of Garandman's sprinter looks pretty good to me. Think they just didn't want to bother with the work?

His alternative suggestion was to just sand down the rockers and any other rusted spots and then get the whole thing coated in bedliner. I was actually planning to go the bedliner route anyway but thought it would be smart to look into doing some body work first. So if I can trust his judgment, that's music to my ears and would save me a couple thousand bucks in body work. Just trying to decide if his judgment is sound. Anyone have any thoughts?
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Depends on age of vehicle and how long you plan to keep it.

I'd go with his suggestion. Otherwise, IMHO, you'll being throwing good money after bad.
 
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jmwgoff

New member
Bobnoxious said:
Depends on age of vehicle and how long you plan to keep it.

I'd go with his suggestion. Otherwise, IMHO, you'll being throwing good money after bad.
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Thanks. It's a 2006 with 170k miles and in pretty good shape. Since buying it a year ago I've put on new struts and tires, replaced the EGR and intercooler, and it's driving really well. And more importantly I've already converted it into a camper so replacing panels on the cargo area is practically a nonstarter. I thought it could be possible to just weld in new rocker panels without having to deal with the upper panels that have insulation and such behind them but maybe not.

I have no real aspirations to make this thing look beautiful (though I bet it'll look way better once the bed liner is on). I just want to slow the progression of the rust so I can hopefully drive it another 5 years or so. Sounds like scraping off the surface rust and probably putting some bondo patches / filler on the rocker panels before applying the bedliner is probably the most sane route...
 
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locksmith72

Member
For me I always wonder why one van rots away when the next to it doesn't ? A friend bought 2 new one at the same time, one seems to rotting away & the other is still nice .Both used for deliveries of the same thing , Wish you the best in your repairs
 
Garandman

Garandman

Active member
YMMV. Northeast uses a lot of road salt, assuming you are in CO the panels may be more solid.

I did repair the bottoms of the doors, localized and a relatively easy fix.
 
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