Rust on Fiamma bike rack (1 Viewer)

[pengy]

Hi all

I purchased a new to me 2006 Adria Twin a couple of years ago. It had a bike rack on the back, but I don't have a bike so I took off the rack leaving to the two support rails in place. I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but, where the rails go round the corner of the door they have gone rusty. The rust is really quite bad and it's running down and staining the paintwork.

At one stage I thought of putting the rack back on, but it won't cover these wrap around parts!

What I'm wondering is:

Should I take the rails off the van? But then the holes that were drilled in the rear door will be exposed!
Or, should I clean up the rust, how??!!! and then paint it with something?

Anyone experienced this before??

Thanks

Yvonne

 

[The Wino]

Hi all

I purchased a new to me 2006 Adria Twin a couple of years ago. It had a bike rack on the back, but I don't have a bike so I took off the rack leaving to the two support rails in place. I thought this wouldn't be a problem, but, where the rails go round the corner of the door they have gone rusty. The rust is really quite bad and it's running down and staining the paintwork.

At one stage I thought of putting the rack back on, but it won't cover these wrap around parts!

What I'm wondering is:

Should I take the rails off the van? But then the holes that were drilled in the rear door will be exposed!
Or, should I clean up the rust, how??!!! and then paint it with something?

Anyone experienced this before??

Thanks

Yvonne

Do you have a photo my worry would be the rust is from the door where the holes are drilled rather than the bracket might be best to get it off and see whats behind . You could then either get the bracket back to bare metal and paint it before refitting to neatly cover the holes or just put blanking plugs in depending on the condition of the door.

 

[pengy]

Thanks for your quick reply! I've just taken three photos with my phone. One is of the left hand side, which is really rusty. The right hand side looks like it's just starting to go rusty. For the other photo I opened the door and took a photo of where the rail goes round the back of the door. I took photos of the top rail, but the bottom rail is in the same condition... I do think that it is the bracket....

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[mitzimad]

Those are clamp on brackets and usually have no screws into the van take of the plastic caps and you'll see the clamp screws or bolts to slacken of to remove
If there are screws into the door as added security I would put new pan head self tappers back in the holes with some sealent and then touch up with matching paint

 

[pengy]

Thank you!! I shall tackle it this weekend. It would be really good if no holes were drilled into the van. I shall find out!

 

[pengy]

Thought I would update! Only the top rail is attached to the door by bolts as well as the clamp brackets, so that is good news. I decided to get new brackets (£7.50) rather than trying to fill the holes left by removing the bolts. Now I know they can rust I will be protecting them!

Thank you again for your help!