New to the site, any advice gratefully received

that’s the tailgate

 

That’s a pretty original looking van , looks very solid , doors are easy to replace and relatively cheap in comparison to other repairs , are these pictures of just the rusty parts ?

be nice a bit cheaper but

The door including fitting painting etc will cost around £1000 to sort properly

The rest looks ok, but I’ll look on the big screen later

 

Looks to have moisture under the paint. May have had a quick blow over.

 

Weeellll, it sort of is , the rust is in all the right places , I’d rather a rotten door , tailgate than a sill

 

that’s look a very old paint job , I would say it’s had a cover on

 

Looking at vans is way more complicated, expensive good ones are easy to buy if you have the money

cheap ones are easy to buy because they’re cheap and you can’t lose

the middle ground stuff like this needs a good eye along with knowledge of costs etc , what’s hard /expensive to fix what’s not


Rusty door is no big deal , a rusty sill or front panel can get into thousands quite quickly

 

Yes, these are the pictures of the bus as listed. The seller sent me the other pictures of the issues he knows of and said he's been quoted £3k from a place in London to do all of the repairs. The interior looks in good condition. From my very limited knowledge which has been garnered from hours and hours reading through this forum for the last few months and no real life experience, I did think all the problems appeared to be in the places you'd want them. But like I've said, my fear of falling into a horror story of buying something with thousands of pounds of repairs required has made me very wary and why ultimately I was looking at paying RAC or other recommended to give it a once over for me.

Thanks for the input all! It's admittedly making me more confused, but I appreciate it nonetheless haha

 

I think it needs a good looking at. A few bits were skipped when it was done but that's not unusual where parts are borderline, you have to stop somewhere. Or maybe it was done in chunks, the colour matching looks a bit off, but maybe the photos. My guess would be it had a new from panel and the doors got a quick tart up to make it look nice.


Your problem would be if there are small bubbles on most panels which inevitably means a complete respray at some point.

 

Yeah, the seller said it had full restauration in 08, but he had the front panel and both doors resprayed 5 years ago and the colour wasn't an exact match. I assumed if 12 year old spray that it would require another one in the next few years

 

I think your £1k per year keeping it up to scratch is probably not far wrong - I find I spend about that whether it needs it or not.

 

I think that front panel looks way to good to be a replacement, looks like the doors and steps have been tarted up , perhaps front panel painted for colour match

 

You've got some eye for detail! I've just gone back through the messages and he did actually say the doors and front panel were resprayed 5 years ago, not replaced as I thought I'd read. But he said it was a poor colour match so the £3k repair quote was for the repairs to the doors and all of the rust spots around the van, and respray both doors and front panel to match the rest. He said the right door, whilst not as bad as the left, also requires similar work. He didn't mention the steps though. Apparently there's also some small bubbles to the near side sill

 

Best thing you can do @JayKay is to message @davidoft and agree a price for him to pop up and carry out an appraisal. There are few people that know these vehicles better than him, he does it for a living, will be thorough and honest and isn't too far away. Much better than an RAC jobby.

 

Hi Jay - welcome from West Lancashire. Good luck with your search.
We budgeted similar to you 6 years ago when we bought ours and have mainly kept to it - you are quite near us and you are welcome to look round ours to compare notes .
We were thinking of selling ours next year as we are now in our 70s so getting a bit old for basic camping expeditions now - and this year was to have been our last year for getting up to our favourite sites in the Lakes but it has been a washout for camping .

 

its his,..... isn't it....

 

Thanks Cunny, that's very kind! I might very well take you up on that offer soon enough, as you are pretty much on the doorstep. I went to uni in central lancs so I passed through your neck o' the woods most days for a few years. The way our search has been going, we might well still be looking when you come to sell yours next year! haha

 

Alright mate, welcome. I don't know everything by any means but I am very familiar with rotten steps and cab doors. That door is obviously shot and the step is either on the way or full of filler and already shot. Some magicians can stitch in bits of metal and patch them up - check out the restoration threads on here. The rest of us have to cough up for others to do the work for us. I can tell you that your £1k a year will buy you two rot-free cab doors in year one - with a bit of change far a swift half when you get home. If you're lucky, they'll be the right colour! I can also tell you I was - this year - quoted £5k to replace steps and inner wheel arches on my bus. That might be an outlier in terms of cost but it was a real price. Looks to be a bit of rust elsewhere too and, to me, for fifteen grand I'd want it to need a bare minimum of work doing and to dispense perfectly made drinks 23 hours a day. I'd say walk away but given you are already miles away from it... What was your thinking for it being a good candidate? Not having a go or sneering, just curious to understand your process...