I got our LTV's exterior "refreshed" last month. Over the seven years (can it be that long) that we have had it and the 103K corresponding miles, the exterior has taken some dings:
- 1. Brushing against an extra high curb while parking (about a 3" scrape on the fiber glass running board just in front of the rear wheel on passenger side).
- 2. Driving up and over a roadside shoulder in Alaska that had too small of a radius (bent the passenger side running board angle iron support and compromised the fiber glass and paint).
- 3. Nudged up against the slope next to our cabin driveway while turning around (caused a break in the center of the ground effect fiberglass below front license bracket).
- 4. Backed into an overhanging tree limb while parallel parking on a side street (pushed in about 4" of top right back corner of the body on passenger side).
- 5. Many very small dings (guessing 50 or more) in the paint on the small Sprinter hood that had chipped the paint but not the primer. Most were very small and hard to distinguish from bugs.
- 6. On our recent Feb/Mar trip, I heard a flapping outside the driver door and as I looked out the rear view mirror I saw the rubber mat from the door step go flying down the highway.
- 7. Pulled too close to a US Mail drop box and the box bounced along the side of the van on the driver side beginning at the refrigerator cover as I pulled away (about 3 dings in the side that went through the paint and primer to bare metal in the area of the LTV decal in that area). This just happened in March and was the first assault on the exterior that brought rust.
- 8. Windshield dings. We have had the windshield replaced three times over seven years due to dings too big to leave or patch. We again had five dings since the last windshield change. The previous three windshield changes had resulted in paint compromises around the windshield opening and rust was beginning to extend out from the bottom of the windshield gasket (the only place on the van with any rust except for #7 above).
All but the last three had been there for some time, but it seemed time to fix the results of my carelessness and the inevitable results of driving. The first step was to call LTV about a decal that would be needed after fixing the body for #7. I got what they said was the last one they had for our model and at less then half the normal price since they said it had been around for quite some time and was less than perfect (it worked perfectly after being applied by the body shop).
I found a body shop that seemed to do good work, could handle the size of the LTV, and was priced reasonably (though not cheap) since all but the windshield replacement would be on my dollar.
The result is our LTV is back to its out-the-factory look. The body shop sanded, primed and painted the windshield opening as part of the windshield replacement and painted the hood as part of that process.
Ready for the next 100K miles.
