Dying (or dead?) bug

You are not going to do the work yourself so you are going to pay someone to do the work. IMHO 3 to 4 hundred pounds seems too good to be true.

I had a small welding repair done to my bay front chassis. Very good job done by a home jobbing welder who has done previous work for myself and other club members in the past. So the welder is known and he is experienced with VW vans.

He has to travel to my home and back. He has to jack up the van, set up axle stands, cover surrounding areas for protection, prepare the work, cutting out rot and getting back to clean metal, doing the welding repairs using his steel sheet cut to fit, making good, painting over. Good job done. 5 hours work. Cost £280.

In this case, the area of corrosion was confined to a chassis rail and the surrounding areas were sound.

With your bug it looks pretty bad to me and could be a whole lot worse and I cant see it costing only 3 to 4 hundred.

My son had MOT fail on his T25 due to serious corrosion at the rear sill and suspension support areas. Similar to your pics. The fail document stated 'Dangerous' twice.

The very kind friend who did the repairs pointed out the extent of the rot was far beyond what could be seen from the outside. Also the rear trailing arms were very corroded and had to be replaced along with new bushings, Also new jacking points were needed. Sill repairs and wheel arch patch repairs.

When we first looked we saw some rust and a couple of holes and thought not too bad, easy fix, bit of welding. Not so.

 

With the greatest respect @mgbman you're in Tunbridge Wells, Kent and Ermintrude is oop north where it's grim and prices are rather different.

 

That's not a bad price at all, if it's to much maybe it's goodbye time

 

Hi zed, yes I know what you are saying is correct. Its all relative and Ermintrude did say that even a £15 hourly rate, it was going to be too costly.

So unless someone does it for free, then how are the repairs going to be funded? I would be worried if Ermintrude went ahead expecting a bill of £300 and it turned out to be far more.

If the funds are low I personally would not spend anything on the bug at all. The fact is the bug has a market value and even as a project it should fetch a few hundred,

 

bug is 1972 GT... The bodywork is tatty so will need more doing eventually... the chap didn't mention new floorpans only to 'take a pattern off', the sills are remarkably solid but needing a back patch on that side. funds are incredibly tight due to new camper injun and house of doom.

 

Time to take some weight off your shoulders then, as Rickyroo would say... scrap it.

 

Unfortunately, I agree that you are unlikely to get it done any cheaper than has been quoted Ermintrude. To do it properly, as has already been said, the body needs separating from the pan,(which can lead to more work itself when the captive nuts break off) even if you are just going for rear 1/4 pans. I had to patch one up in that area for a customer on a budget last week, and to be honest it takes so much faffing about it doesn't really work out any cheaper.
If you really cant afford to repair it at the moment, maybe stash it somewhere till you have some spare cash? Or sell the bus....

 

TBH Lisa, I reckon you should flog it. Looking at the pics, I think the bloke's being optimistic - there's likely more where that came from, and as the others have said you likely couldn't fix it properly without taking the body off.

Stick it on eBay, shed a tear, and spend the money on your house or van.

 

i did read it as thousands ,get it done a drop in the ocean....

 

Let it go, it will sell and you'll get over it.
Use the cash to buy a sensible euro box with a heater for the winter.
This is not what you want to hear but it's the most sensible option.

 

Very true, nothing to see up here so stay where you all are, I'll send you some lemonade if you all promise

 

won't one of these fix it? https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/bee...or-x-member/?crumbStartPage=1&crumbStartRow=1

 

You could take it my MOT man ,cost you £40

 

If you want ta keep it keep it , storing it is not good advise as this will cost unless you can get it stored for free but then its only going to get worse if your not careful , borrow some money perhaps off some rich fellow whos sold a property darn sarf recently maybe n lordin it upt norf

 

nooo. want it safe but as i'm not sure what it needs to do that or how much it should be... and the mechanic where it is doesn't seem to know much more about vw than i do... though i'd hop that welding is the same for most cars????

 

Safe?? wouldn't drive a 40yr old vehicle then with no airbags etc

 

Yep, that'll do the job.
Maybe i'm wearing my rose tinted glasses but that doesn't look that bad to me. Could be because mine failed with a 2 page fail sheet for corrosion. I've still got it though.
Looks like it needs a floorpan half as in your link, a bit of a repair to the rear of the heater channel and bottom plate (if the channel is as solid as you think) and a new closing panel on the back of the heater channel.

 

Take snotty's good advice, please.

The extent of the rot is unknown so the final cost cannot be fixed. Cost will be high. You cant afford it. Your garages are not interested. So common sense says sell it as a project and move on.

Its not a person you are saying goodbye to its a car, just a load of metal.

If you kept the car, it would rot even more and you may end up just getting £40 or less scrap value.

First car I ever had was a morris minor. it rotted, couldnt afford to repair it, sold it, bought another more modern car. No regrets. Years later I had a mini, that rotted, same thing, cost too much to repair, sold it, moved on.

I had a 51 plate vw polo, failed mot, needed major work, not worth it, so I gave it away.