Hello everyone. I bought my first camper last Sunday at the tender age of 43. It’s a 1973 dormobile conversion in blue although I suspect it was orange originally and later purple. One week on I am still waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night. As a Building Surveyor, I have seen plenty of buildings that are in need of restoration however if my bus was a building I would probably recommend to a client that it isn’t financially viable and it should be demolished! What makes things worse is that I have no experience whatsoever and I have never even changed any break pads never mind a full restoration. I have spent the last week immersing myself in restoration books and watching YouTube videos which is helping to subdue the palpitations. I have set myself a 5 yr plan so that I am still able to house and feed my children although I am hoping to have it ready for 2020. Yesterday was the first day stripping out the interior only to find a very damp and corroding cargo floor amongst other nasty's. Even though I unearthed even more work it felt really good and I am dying to get started. I live in Barnsley, South Yorkshire - are there any specialists/stockists local that anyone could recommend? I would also just like to apologise in advance for all the technical and silly questions that are likely to follow. Cheers Richard
It'll be fine Richard, keep taking the tablets! There's plenty of people here that have done some fantastic restorations with no prior experience. Some of the threads are quite humbling with people teaching themselves to weld, fabricate, spray and rebuild all the mechanical parts. As a newbie myself a few years ago I've been talked through all sorts of problems on here and have found it an invaluable source and a great way to meet great people at events like Techenders.
Richard From Sunny Barnsley I took mine to Manchester but the last bit he did I wasn't happy with. Then again somebody on here said they where happy recently, so who knows. I was looking at finishing mine in 2 years, 10 years later it got its first MOT Good luck with the build but you need to try and do as much as you can yourself or it gets proper expensive. Edit- being a Wednesday fan makes everything more expensive
Hi and welcome. There are a couple of others on TLB frum Tarn, including me. Hoever Im at present without a bus. Locally for aircooled experise there is Swift autos at Carlton, who dont admit to being experts but are about 65 years old and were VW trained back in the day, so actually do know everything. Also Matt at Autohaus Dolby near meadowhall, proper enthusiast and knows everything, plus does his own beetle builds and drag racers. Hes a nice chap too.
Hello and Welcome from The Colonial Contingent Don't take offence at the Barnsley jokes on here, it's all because of s couple of southern jessies.
Didn't know Swift were still there. If he is you'll be right about the age thing. Think I'll go down and see
Morning Richard, interesting conversion Strip it right back to a bare shell and see what you've got left to play with! Looks like a candidate for media blasting to really find how much good metal is in there Good luck and keep the pics coming.
these vans are a money pit. so take your time and learn to do it all yourself. Many others on here have achieved so much themselves and enjoyed the hobby. Look around their posts and learn. paying a garage or body shop to do the restoration or repairs for you, would cost a small fortune and you would never get that money back. ask the folks on here who have done it themselves for help and advice along the way and remember to post up pics as you go. good luck.
Greetings from cosmopolitan Sheffield Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions, I’ve asked plenty of divvy ones.
Have a look on schofields website for replacement panels, when you see what's available it brings the heart rate and blood pressure right down. Enjoy the journey and don't forget you don't have to do it all at once get it MOTed and use it, lots of people start off with a five year plan and get fed up after five months
Firstly if you take your van anywhere don’t tell them you’re from Barnsley they will think you are posh and bump the price up, also it has been established on here that the best beer comes from the south, I send @crossy2112 a dozen bottles every week, since he’s been drinking proper beer he’s manned up, he doesn’t even wear a Barnsley red hoodie anymore.... Don’t worry about the camper it will be fine, if you’re not interested in having a show winner then do as much as you can yourself and ask for help on here, they’re a good bunch a bit mad but ok
I am going to enjoy the banter on here as much as doing the bus! It’s great to know there are other insane people out there. Cheers everyone
@T2_Owl I saw one of the best games of football at Sheffield Wednesday, lt was a league cup game we ( Chelsea) were losing 3-0 at Half time, we wanted to go and drown our sorrows but because there had been a lot of trouble before the game the coppers wouldn’t let us leave, good job too,we scored 4 goals in the second half only for us to concede a late penalty, I think it was around 1984 or 85
Welcome along! Looks like you've plenty there to keep you busy. I've been restoring ours for just over two years. Hoping to get the welding done by the end of this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk