... when looking at a bus with all the belly pans in place? Most have the chassis etc open to see but occasionally not, and I wonder if I'm unnecessarily rejecting buses out of hand just because the chassis is hidden. Are there any "tricks" to this or is it just a case of going by history and external impressions?
Smack it hard underneath wearing gloves. If your hand goes through... If it sounds like stuff rattling around... Otherwise knock £4000 off the asking price as thats basically what mine cost to fix. (Both sills all 3 layers, centre chassis rails, and throw pans in skip.) On second thoughts just drop the asking price and you might be in luck sometimes.
There was a thread where someone said "I'd never buy a bus with a welded on pan". I inferred that some people were welding pans on to hide stuff, but I later found out that the pan was a official VW option, and usually fitted when the bus was going to a conversion company, for more torsional strength once the roof was cut. Until some point during the Late production (was it 75?) they were switched from being welded to being bolted in. So a good proportion of Bays will have pans, unless they have been cut out, like I'm going to do to my early at some point. BTW - I bought a borescope camera from amazon for about 30 quid, its already been useful for checking the condition of the heater tubes (I have a welded pan, remember), but I intended to feed it into the chassis to have a look around above the pan.
Mine has pans screwed on - several large self tappers each side. When buying it the PO showed me a list of welding done and I could see what parts of the chassis rails had recently been welded as it was still in red oxide primer. I took the pans off later to paint over the red oxide - all seemed genuine . Reminder to self - about time I took them off again to check all is still OK.
There are side pans and side pans. Earlier pans had no holes in them. These are the ones with the bad rep. Later ones had a row of large oval holes towards the chassis and these are no problem in my experience.
Mine originally had no pans, but when it had its inner & outer sills & arches replaced, it came back with belly pans as another layer of protection.
Can't say for sure but a P reg one I owned had pans with holes and above all was pretty good. The N reg I have now had pans without holes and the rust was bad. So 74-75 ish perhaps.
My old 76 (P reg) had pans, if I remember wended at the sides and bolted down the centre (it probably started life as a Devon ) , my current 73 Westy has no pans.
Do you remember the green Dormobile I sold to PMACS? That had vented side pans and really the only rust was where it was attached to the inner sill and outriggers. My present one had solid side pans that were falling apart, it needed chassis and top hat repairs and all the sills. The vented ones do a good job I think.
Weeeeell, I think I know what everyone will say after looking at the following photos ... as they have a "barnacle Bill" look to them ... BUT: A '72 Danbury (funky GRP pop top) so possibly added for the conversion? Blue paint job done at least 20 years ago (current owner has had it for that long) and for a change its not hundreds of miles away.
If you bought it, would you ever be tempted to cut off the pans? If the answer is yes, don't buy it. I can't see any problems but that's the problem right there. Paint looks poor but it's there making the sill look whole. Buses that sit rot from the inside.
I'm basically "averse" to the possibility of a @mikedjames type experience, I'm not keen on the colour, it's a 72 so welded pans, case closed. The 79 however .......
I'll take a stab that those are aftermarket pans, I think I see fixings. All original side pans I've seen were welded. If we're honest, welded pans provide more rigidity which was their prime purpose...I think.
The owner has offered to quiz their long term mechanic about how things are under there but I've said the onus is on me, and if they're bolted they could be taken off for potential buyers
@gninnam cut his pans off for a look at least 12 years ago and he's still restoring. Cracking job too.
Is that the 17 year resto?! No thanks!!! There's a very straight looking and sounding bus 500+ miles away .... but it's £4,000 more.