How to Build a Van Dwelling: Repairing a Rusty Bumper

Second hand cargo vans served a commercial purpose when new quickly racking up substantial mileage over Minnesota roads. Probably quite a few of those miles were over gravel creating quite a few rock chips on the black painted bumper protecting the front of the vehicle.

Compound the issue with winter driving, there's a reason they call the northern states the RUST belt. The front bumper on my van has a good case of surface rust that has been blistering paint and pitting the metal. With the rest of the van in almost new condition it's time to jump on that bumper rust and return it to it's original luster.

The first step is removing the blistering paint and surface rust. The best way would be to sand blast the surface as it will remove all remnants of rust leaving a pristine surface that can be easily treated and repainted.

Without benefit of a sand blaster I will be using a 4" wire wheel mounted in a 3/8" electric hand drill. Once all the old paint and rust has been removed a final sanding with a vibrating hand sander should provide a surface clean of debris and ready to paint.

To prevent the rust from returning through the new paint the bumper will be primed with two coats of Rust-Oleum Rusty Metal Primer. Rust-Oleum states this primer will act with any remaining oxidation (rust) and stop the chemical action that eventually would dissolve the bumper.

Two coats should provide all that much better protection. The final layer will be Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover spray paint in a the original black color. It's hoped that this will return the bumper to its original condition and finish.

It appears no significant pitting has taken place, but at the point I have removed the old paint if there is noticeable pitting that would show through the final smooth black paint surface I may rethink the final coat. Switching to Rust-Oleum's Hammered Texture spray paint, the varying texture of that paint would camouflage any irregularities the rust may have caused.

Without the benefit of a garage to work in I plan on taking on this small repair on a sunny warm day. To place the bumper at a more convenient height the Van will be placed on a set of oil changing ramps. A bit of newspaper will be taped to mask the front end of the van as black overspray wouldn't look very professional.

With any luck this should be a straight forward repair costing slightly over $10 and taking no more then a couple hours to accomplish. The end result should last indefinitely and surly be more attractive then the present pitted and blistered surface.