I understand that restoring old cars isn't a ticket to bying your first yacht but what gets my goat is the dishonesty. The fella is a vw specialist who doesn't have any problem getting parts as he has an account/business relationship with schofields, not only that he says he has all the parts he needs. If he has the parts then while I realise he has to make a living he could at least do some work on it! If he doesn't have the parts it comes back to the dishonesty thing again. If he spent an hour a week on it for 3 years then it'd be done by now surely? I'm aware it's a huge undertaking but if he'd have "i'll take on the job mate but I'm gonna take 3 years to do it" I'd have done what I originally planned to do and done it myself! I'm not on my own here it's not like mine is the only bus he has in there either. Surely if you own a classic vw restoration business then you should restore classic vws. I'm just incredibly frustrated that everytime time I go down there's always some excuse. If I was to go to a customers house and remove a damaged component from their central heating having told the I'll be back tomorrow, then got a load of services to do that paid better so kept making excuses people wouldn't stand for it would they !?
1 hour a week for 3 years? nowhere near enough time, it takes more than a month to restore a camper. I understand your frustration. VW specialists restore a van so they have something to do inbetween proper paying jobs, that's a fact. There are a few who do nothing else and go for it hammer and tongs, but I can only think of two or three I'm aware of in the whole of England who do nothing but restore, and most of the successful ones only do early bays. Why? Because they are generally reasonably rust-free imports that mainly need tarting up, earlies (not x-overs) are also made from better quality steel that doesn't wharp when you weld it if you have to do any bodywork. A rusty RHD late bay panel conversion is worst of the bunch for a restorer, followed closely by a x-over that needs new front panel and front arches. This is going to sound ultra-harsh, but having a van restored by a restorer is a very silly and expensive thing to do. It will always cost you more than if you pushed your rotter off a cliff / ebayed it, and bought one already done/not needing doing, plus you see what you'll get and can use it tomorrow, rather than in 3-4 years time. And before you ask, yes I have told all my customers this, but some won't listen and just insist. Or maybe this approach merely makes them think "what an honest chap - I want him to do mine". Or maybe kids were conceived in the back or something. There are thousands of decent, useable campers out there aren't there? I can understand DIYing one which WILL save you money and spread the cost, but that takes years as well as we know, but I don't understand wishing to pay someone else for unknown results. I found if I quoted over £10k inc all parts I simply didn't get any work, but this is not enough. Once you factor in rent, materials, tools, consumables, parts etc etc it leaves virtually no wages. As said above, even when you think you're finished, it needs £1000 of parts and £1000 of labour merely to put it back together. Painting it (if you don't do it yourself, another £2-3K, so there's half your budget gone before any actual restoration. £1500-£2000 of parts/panels etc, 2-3 months rent, you get the picture. It's charity work and "charity case" is a well known expression in the trade. A proper body shop can make more profit in a week doing crash repairs. The main problem, is people who (and I include myself here) don't know how to say no firmly enough!
I understand your point dude but when a company encourages you to give them your van for a restoration in a certain time scale knowing full well you're putting your life on hold (wedding fund) you expect that they will uphold their end of the bargain! It's not the guy is a mate if he was I'd be miffed but realistically i'd have to accept it. The fact is he's a company that provides a service not a mate doing a favour.
I think this is simply about a so called professional not being organised in the way they work. When restoring these vans it's difficult to quote accurate time. But it is possible to keep the client informed about escalating work and to discuss options as you go. Just leaving a client's bus untouched for months on end is not professional in anyway. If I'm paying for experience I'd expect at least a ballpark estimate for time taken and costs surely? An experienced professional will usually quote for complete replacement rather than patching anyway to save cost. For me, someone taking on a restoration on the basis of fitting it in between jobs is a bit of a giveaway IMHO. Nobody running a serious business would work that way. It's just a disorganised approach. Good luck with getting the work done.]
What you're maybe missing here is that if the bodyshop called you and added more charges every time they found extra work the price could easily double, so they take it on the chin and you take the delay on the chin. Talking generally here and above^, not aimed at the OP. I'm just trying to shine a light from a different angle. Not all delaying bodyshops are disorganised toss-pots. Well that's it I'll leave this thread in peace now.
