Hi , Can anyone advise me here, I bought a late Bay back in November 2013 the chassis 'looked' ok and it had been MOT'd in October so I thought the van was good. Turns out now the chassis is rotten 'front to back' and would require extensive welding if it could be fixed? Is it possible to buy a complete solid chassis and just drop the complete body of this van onto it? I've spent a fortune on the interior ,engine, electrics and body panels so it's a good van with a rotten chassis. Does anyone know a specialist that could sort this?What should I do ?
Sorry to hear you have had a bad experience with your van.. Unfortunately it seems to be a fairly common occurrence as these old VWs are popular and less scrupulous individuals see that as an oppertunity to rip people off with poorly repaired or bodged up busses ... But to help calm you it would be safe to say all is not lost since it appears, if you look on the restoration posts in here that pretty much anything can be repaired. Its obviously going to cost you more to get to a stage where the bus chassis is sound. Depending on what you paid for the van and what you have invested in it now, it might be worthwhile biting the bullet and having a reputable firm do the work for you . If you bought the van from a dealer I would also consider taking them to task through trading standards, if it was a private sale your kinda stuffed, its buyer beware . These old vans are always best approached as being rust buckets. Its better to have an independent assessment before you part with your doe, even if its a private sale. If the owner isnt happy about that, its safe to say they probably have something to hide. To late for you now but something for potencial purchasers to think about. Good luck with the repairs to your van, you might find its not as bad as the MOT tester is describing... hopefully. Post some pics of your van from all angles, including the underside and the bad bits, im sure you will recieve an honest assessment from the members of this forum.. most of all dont panic, worst case is you wont get on your holidays in it this year
I'm sure there will be plenty of comments to follow on this one, you need to put some pictures up really so people can advise. I'm currently restoring mine and reading an old mot failure sheet from a few years back it sounded unrepairable, but was repaired and mot'd two weeks later! My actual chassis rails needed a few small repairs here and there but not much, I suspect whoever has looked at it maybe referring to the jacking points, outriggers, top hats and cross members as the chassis, all of these are readily available and can be replaced as required. I would be surprised if the chassis rails are completely rotten from front to back. As said pictures paint a thousand words.
It's repairable everything is, just depends of viability, some pictures would help. Where your based too, I have repaired / replaced a few chassis and it's not a ten minute job, I'm near Portsmouth and can do it for you
Unfortunately this is all too common!! I did a van a few years back, and the guy who owned that had only owned it for a few weeks, but he knew the chassis work was a little rough, but it was plastered in underseal... I spent 6 weeks just welding that van was a proper nasty job... But as said, it is fixable...
seen this on VZI if you need to go that far.... http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=1094322
six weeks is long... I spent a week once ,doing all sills ,all jacking points,all cargo floor,all tophats , ,all outriggers ,various closing pnls ,front inner /bulge panel ...A day was spent grinding all the stuff off..
My advice, read this thread through http://www.thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/womballs-74-project-daisy.19502/ then have a read through some of the other resto threads & in the meantime take some images and post up, as has been suggested and wait for the advice to flood in..the guys on here love a challenge & will help you get sorted
Hi Paul , Thanks for your comments. I will get some pictures later in the week as best I can and post them. Where are you based? I'm in the North of Scotland. Sorcerer
you'll have to join the queue... at this rate I'll be booked up to 2016 for restos I'm just near Kelso in the Borders It was: all JPs & O/Rs chassis rails between front and rear JPs front and rear cross members top hats above JPs sills, inner, mid and outer front arches rear arches rear corners rear valance complete front panel inc airbox front tub repairs rear tub repairs metal in the rear window frame bottoms I might have some pictures somewhere - But the majority of the time spent was undoing someone else's bodges and plates
If I was you @Paul Weeding I would make a list of people who don't deserve free advice - starting with the three above this post
