preventing eurovan doors from rusting

[postjosh]

both the doors on my '93 eurovan have serious corrosion at the bottom. i'm dealing with it now but i want to make sure it doesn't happen again. a couple of things i've noticed:

since, having the driver's side door window replaced, there is a tiny gap between the rubber seal on the door sill where the glass should be touching. i looked at the hardware inside the door to see if there was an adjustment but i didn't find anything. is the rubber seal available? mine is very stiff and probably would seal fine if it was new and flexible.

water pools at the bottom inside the door. should i drill a hole in the bottom to create a drain? also, i will probably coat that are inside the door with some oil to prevent rust.

any thoughts?

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'93 EV Wkndr – 5 cylinder – 5 speed - 280k+ miles

[paddygarcia]

There's no way to 100% keep out water so should already be drains in the bottoms of the doors - my 2003 is out on a trip else I'd post a pic.

Body drains are often blocked by leaf mulch or dirt and should be inspected once in a while, else, well, water pools in the space and then rust blocks the drains.

[VWinny]

Once you have the water drainage sorted out, scratch it up with a wire brush and spray some white rust-o-leum on it.

[CdnVWJunkie]

I'd be willing to bet that these doors are so rusty in the fashion they are is they sat in water. I'd say water sat in the plastic foot step well for a long period of time and caused the rusting.

[postjosh]

it's amazing how wet the one on the drivers side gets. i'm parking outside this summer and after a few hours of heavy rain, there was about a 1/2" puddled at the bottom. i'll go take a closer look today and try to figure out what's going on.

[postjosh]

it definitely appears to be coming in through the fingernail sized gap on the window sill rubber. it looks like busdepot has it as a special order item for $80. if i don't get the doors replaced this summer, i will order it.
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'93 EV Wkndr – 5 cylinder – 5 speed - 280k+ miles

[CdnVWJunkie]

Every T4 front door has drains in the bottom. The doors were quite often waxoyl sprayed inside. With heat and age, this wax drips down and clogs the drain ports. On doors not oil/wax sprayed, debris is often the cause of the drain blockages. The frequency in which those drains should be cleaned is directly proportional to where the T4 is parked ie: under trees- higher frequency. In the high desert- not so much..