Corrosion of the front roof panel and roof

[Vantastic2]

Many years ago starting before 2013 Cali's, Someone on here spotted corrosion on the front roof panel. There was also paint bubbling of the aluminium roof too.
Mine was one and the Cali's that had to go to a so called specialist nominated by VW. Was told VW was paying out over 4K for ever Cali to have the repair. After VW so called 'specialists' failed on first type of repair, they then fitted a polyurethane cap over the top of the panel, mine failed and lifted during heat after the one yr warranty ran out but again thanks to being with VWcaliforniaclub a member helped me finding an adhesive that he tried himself and worked which I did and no more panel uplift, no more water coming in.
So was wondering seeing new cali's local if VW sorted out that problem where they had steel making contact with aluminium causing a reaction to lift the paint off (starting with bubbling) and owners not knowing if they bought over 70K's worth of rubbish?

 

[WelshGas]

Many years ago starting before 2013 Cali's, Someone on here spotted corrosion on the front roof panel. There was also paint bubbling of the aluminium roof too.
Mine was one and the Cali's that had to go to a so called specialist nominated by VW. Was told VW was paying out over 4K for ever Cali to have the repair. After VW so called 'specialists' failed on first type of repair, they then fitted a polyurethane cap over the top of the panel, mine failed and lifted during heat after the one yr warranty ran out but again thanks to being with VWcaliforniaclub a member helped me finding an adhesive that he tried himself and worked which I did and no more panel uplift, no more water coming in.
So was wondering seeing new cali's local if VW sorted out that problem where they had steel making contact with aluminium causing a reaction to lift the paint off (starting with bubbling) and owners not knowing if they bought over 70K's worth of rubbish?

The front cap Galvanic Corrosion was addressed by a change in the Alloy used for Model Year 2015, so from about.July 2014 .
My late 2014 California had no problems when I sold it at the end of 2024.

 

[Meoncoast]

Our 1st van 2012 the issue of paint bubbles on the front cap and had the full repair fully cut off new replacement not the plastic cap stuck over when it was 18months old about. We sold it at the end of 2016 and remained as good as new. Our late 2016 showed no issues when we sold it at the end 2024.

 

[owen_h]

My 2012 also had the full front spoiler section replaced ( not the plastic cap ‘fix’). I’ve still got the van and have had no issues with that part of the repair. So for that section the issue was quickly identified and solved for new vehicles. This fix was very expensive and time consuming and only 4 or 5 bodyshops could do the work hence the move to cover with a plastic cap.
The elevating section took longer to identify the root cause I would say. Here the bubbles were smaller and confined mainly to under the rubber seal. In my case the repair was only to treat & repaint the edge of the roof up to roof rack track. After a few years this painted section was noticeably duller than the rest of the roof and bubbling had returned in a few places . There was then a campaign to fit an isolation tape to the edge of the roof ( rubbing back and repainting any bubbles first ) . For me this wasn’t done well at all and a year later it all looked worse with big areas of lacquer peel. I ended up having the whole elevating section repainted at my own expense.
In some respects I’m impressed that Vw are / were still prepared to fix older vehicles. But I suspect the shops doing the work were on a low fixed price so did the bare minimum and fitted the work around other better paying jobs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Viktorgeorge]

Many years ago starting before 2013 Cali's, Someone on here spotted corrosion on the front roof panel. There was also paint bubbling of the aluminium roof too.
Mine was one and the Cali's that had to go to a so called specialist nominated by VW. Was told VW was paying out over 4K for ever Cali to have the repair. After VW so called 'specialists' failed on first type of repair, they then fitted a polyurethane cap over the top of the panel, mine failed and lifted during heat after the one yr warranty ran out but again thanks to being with VWcaliforniaclub a member helped me finding an adhesive that he tried himself and worked which I did and no more panel uplift, no more water coming in.
So was wondering seeing new cali's local if VW sorted out that problem where they had steel making contact with aluminium causing a reaction to lift the paint off (starting with bubbling) and owners not knowing if they bought over 70K's worth of rubbish?

I don’t know if the ‘sales per annum’ statistics are available but I have the impression that the number of T6.1 (ie more recent) California is comparatively high and that there has been quite a lot of selling on too with many new members joining the forum.

Given this, and the end of T6.1 production and the inevitable sense that VW will want to move on and avoid claims, if someone was to ask me what is the most importantly thing to bear in mind with their new (to them) California, particularly if they are looking for long term ownership as I am, I would say don’t worry about the newer two layer pop top fabric too much - if VW won’t replace with the 06s version under warranty just Acqutex the whole thing if it leaks, and if that fails speak to Kernow Campers (lots of info if you search) - but do worry about the pop top’s aluminium roof edges. There are lot of posts about essential (in my opinion) maintenance starting with this perhaps:

Post in thread 'Roof Seal Corrosion T6.1'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/roof-seal-corrosion-t6-1.50464/post-726186

As @WelshGas confirmed in #2 above the front cap problem was isolated to early T5 and might best be separately researched on the forum for anyone looking to buy that California model.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Later vans had protective tape applied by the factory under the front roof trim which acted as a barrier to stop the metals reacting with one another, known as galvanic corrosion. (Alu roof ‘v’ steel body).

It’s easy to fix, but you must find a repair shop with a dedicated bay for spraying aluminium. If the panel is sprayed in a booth used for steel then steel particles will get into the paint and cause corrosion a later date.

 

[Viktorgeorge]

Later vans had protective tape applied by the factory under the front roof trim which acted as a barrier to stop the metals reacting with one another, known as galvanic corrosion. (Alu roof ‘v’ steel body).

It’s easy to fix, but you must find a repair shop with a dedicated bay for spraying aluminium. If the panel is sprayed in a booth used for steel then steel particles will get into the paint and cause corrosion a later date.

My MY23 van, built September 2022, does not have protective tape on the front edge, but it does on the back and sides. I understood from other forum posts that “later vans” are all the same (ie no front edge tape) but please correct if I am wrong.

My VW approved body shop fitted VW’s tape to the front edge as part of a warranty repair when I discovered rusting (from the rubber seal reinforcement) after only a few months ownership from new. I am not along with this issue on an almost new van, given other posts for example by @Perfectos). Hence my warning to new (to them) owners to be attentive on this.

You make a good point @Ch1pbutty about spray booths and steel ‘rubbings’ though I would like to think that anyone taking the care I now do to maintain their pop top aluminium roof will never need to get to the point of needing a spray booth. “Easy to fix” perhaps, but a ( ideally VW approved) spray booth respraying a pop top sounds to me like substantive expenditure. If you are talking of the front cap in earlier California (as #2) rather than the pop-top roof top, then from what I have read the costs and fix is a big job. My own VW approved body shop told me they had turned that work down because it was so problematic to sort out really effectively.