As everyone says you may be surprised and what can be done. We bought ours and took it for an MOT and a really good local garage, they gave up after the fail sheet ran to two pages, we were devastated! Anyway to cut a long story short, after a bit of encouragement on here I found the right guys. (Balls'd in Mildenhall) When they saw the MOT, the said no problem, sorted out the stuff to get it through the MOT for about 2k there is more work to do but we're enjoying the summer in it and will probably spend another 2k on finishing it off in the winter. (Some pics are on a thread I'm not superstitious but...) Good luck
I'll bow to the greater knowledge here, but wanted to help with answering some of your questions directly. Firstly, no, there is no seperate chassis...like you see on beetles and older cars like Morgan's where the body comes off as a single unit. So no, you can't buy a new chassis. What's probably throwing you is the fact that the chassis legs etc look like a seperate unit, they aren't...of course you can cut them out individually but the form part of the whole shell monocoque. You can cut the top off but would ruin it bigtime as its welded on. We call it a chassis as its s generic term to describe the underpinnings, but not correct in its purest definition. On your bus, did you have any other panel work done and who did the engine and gearbox? Did they pay no attention at all to the chassis and advise on you spending bucks on the rest with a shagged chassis?
It'll be repairable-look at my resto thread-you'll have seen better in the scrappy but I've almost resurrected it. Find the right repairer-get a second opinion.
I've tried the other link just in case. This is the underside of my Van. I know its difficult to see and quote a price to fix but would any on you resto guys be interested?
davidoft I can get them from the last 2 links but if you want to send me an email I'll attach and reply lee-radford@hotmail.co.uk
I've looked at worse it's a bit crusty you need to find a mot centre that isn't after sh!t loads of work Can't see where the mot bloke has put his screwdriver through
Your 'professional welder' is a lazy bar steward!! I was expected hell on earth after reading the rest of this.. Mine is miles worse than that, and is being fixed. Womballs was miles worse than mine (!) and has already been fixed to an amazing standard.. Take it somewhere else, Davidoft for example... And a word of advice, get SEVERAL second opinions about anything to do with these old buses, as 50% are trying to rob you blind, 40% just havent got a clue what they are talking about at all, just think they know cus they welded a bad patch onto a mini once... and the other 10% actually genuinely want to help. And that 10% you will find here.
Sorcerer, daft question but does it drive? If so why not bite the bullet & take it to one of the guys that have shown an interest & are keen to help. For a tank of fuel & a day or so at least you'll know what you're dealing with. I can fully recommend Paul Weeding, did a round trip from Doncaster & half a day later Lola has never run better, prior to that I was dancing round so called experts in the local area & got
Here's a good example of what can be achieved , yours looks not to bad, from the pictures http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20949
