How much rust is too much rust?

[mrshawn]

I am wondering where the line falls between harmless rust and nightmare rust (described in the post "WHERE SPORTSMOBILES (AND DREAMS) GO TO DIE". How does the rust in these photos look? The van's undercarriage was rusty from the salt/de-icer used on the roads in Kentucky. The new owner out west had the underside steam cleaned and undercoated, then replaced propane and gas tanks. Some remaining screws, etc are still rusty. My girlfriend says any rust is too much rust. What does the forum think?

[WVvan]

Rust? I don't see any rust damage.

Now this is rust damage.

[Ford_6L_E350]

Looks fine to me also.

Mike

[geoffff]

If you use your van it'll get (surface) rust. Mine might have looked like this as it rolled new out of Fresno,



but it pretty quickly looked like this:



I do camp on beaches.

-- Geoff

[Bigduke6]

Looks good to me how many miles on it? I wouldn't worry about it, but ifyou must you could
try to scrape off any blistered areas (I didn't see any) with a small wood chisel or ice pick if you can find one. If there is significant metal loss maybe replace that part. Looks about typical from what I saw.