As others have said, doesn't look as bad as described (although I am no expert). Good luck - don't give up on it !
Davidoft, Pretty sure your the man for the job. You're just so far away! Can you recommend anyone in Scotland Failing that if I were to drive it all the way to Portsmouth and leave it with you to do, can you give me a price to do the work a timescale?
**Timescale** you must have missed that... btw it is not even in the top ten of dodgy chassis that I have seen..
Sorcerer I was done too, my bus had a bent MOT unless the tester was totally blind. Unfortunately there are so many arseholes who claim to be "specialists" out there who just bodge wherever they can. Good thing is that once you have had the work done you will know your bus is solid.
I always feel ashamed of myself when i hear storys like this Id love to set up a workshop and do restos to a very good standard Im very happy laying on my back grinding or welding because for me its an escape and a big bout of pride when i finish the job Reality has its own ideas If its an mot you need i can pop up for a few days soon and do the work to get you a pass if you dont mind me sleeping on the drive Im afraid i cant make a better offer than that at the moment
If your extremely kind offer was directed at me sincere thanks but I had the work done last year for the MOT
Where abouts in Scotland are you ? Did you buy the van in Scotland or bring it up from south of the border? There are a good few honest restorers up this way that could help you out without breaking the bank. Im apprehensive about recomending anyone though. Im a bit of a fuss pot and although I can do all of the work myself I decided to ask around to see if I could save some time by getting one of the vans that just needs a few frayed edges sorted done by someone else. In the end I decided that I would probably be best just putting the van on the back burner and doing it myself when one fella said he couldnt match the high standard of work seen on my other bus, all done by myself. Decided then that paying someone else would not be a good idea, it would gaul me to look at the repairs, feel they were sub standard and know I had shelled out for it as well.... Any way, back on track, you need to know how much the van is worh to you, how much your prepared to spend and what your expectations are. If you have high expectations and a low budget, sell the van and buy a better one, you could be better of paying a bank loan on a fixed monthly payment and buying a cracking van for say £15K , have fun for a few years keep on top of it and sell it on for much the same price .... OR keep your current van, send it for resto and open pandoras box... If your going to jump in you might as well do it right first time instead of chasing the rot around the van for the next 5 years and having big welding bills for every MOT ... Your pics show some rot that can be repaired .... or patched up.... patched up will still be £30 + per hour... and need done every year untill it cant be patched anymore and some poor sole is faced with undoing the patch up to find good metal in order to do things properly... or you can rip it apart now get the sills and outriggers/ jacking points and other areas replaced note REPLACED not REPAIRED, and be sure you have a solid base that with proper treatment will last the next 15/20 years.. That might take care of the underside.... and the structural integrity of the van and you wont even have started on the cosmetic stuff.. Cost wise ? thats a big question, depends on the restorer and how much they let you off the hook with... Most restorers probably dont count every single hour, just think how much they would be if they did. Most Ive spoken to bin dozens of hours on a big job which is why they prefer a lot of small jobs than full restos...Full restos are just not cost effective for the restorer or the punter in most cases.. That changes when you enter the exotic car resto field where money in no object and cars worth millions are being restored .... Motors worth 30K can still cost £100K plus to restore properly with every hour accounted for .... If your not minted its a given that you need to compromise, but that doesnt mean cop out, you dont have to settle for snotter welds and welding wire hedgehogs ..lol Im sticking my neck out here, and fully expect some reprimands, but from my limited experience on these vans and my knowledge of the resto industry and local rates I would estimate the work on the underside of you van based on the pictures and alowing for the hidden crud that obviously there under the blunderseal to be in the region of £4000...minimum..... thats a rough guide having counteds the hours I spent on mine and the cost of decent replacement parts.... your not going to get a full resto for that figure, just the underside done to a decent and acceptable standard.. your looking at a full days work scrasping of the underseal just to find out where to start and how bad things really are , there goes your first £300 for labour....and the welder isnt even sparked up yet... Granted Im not fully up to speed on the pricing its more a guestimate but my guestimate for sills on both sides at say £30 per hour wont give you any change from £500 per side and youll have parts on top of that at roughly £100 per side, then consumables say £40.... and you havent got to replacing the jacking points, top hats, cargo floors, wheel tubs etc etc etc .... by the time your underside is fully repaired and the connected panels and mechanical knock on stuff is replaced the bills only get bigger ... All I can say for sure from experience of restoring my own van which is still unfinished, I paid £800 for it and so far the parts bill comes to £11,000 +..... Fortunately there is no labour bill, not everything is perfect ( I would like it to be but its not really practicle ) and it still has some way to go.. Ive spent roughly 500 hours on it spread over the last 3 years..... There are some good solid unrestored imports out there for sensible money, when you way up the alternatives...... You could buy a £5k van spend £5k on it and still have a £5k van at the end of it, depending on how you or your restorer went about it .... its a weird volksworld and the ball is firmly in you court.... appologies for the poor spelling and grammar, typed it in between other distractions..
whs sell the van and get one thats already done or buy an import , when u start it will get worse think of a figure then treble it , that will give ye a minor guide , my came out of scotland , all history reciepts for all the work and it was Marmitee , in my first pic it was just out of mot owen nw http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/shielsy-s-bus.242/
