New to the site, any advice gratefully received

Are you hell bent on a UK van?

Very very few don't have or have had rust issues - same for imports depending on how long they have been hear and treated.

It's a good time to buy right now, or just after Xmas.

 

Agreed ^^^
I`m in Teddington which is only a good bowmans shot from Richmond Park and would be happy to look it over but i`d thoroughly recommend @davidoft . David has decades of repair and maintenance experience on these vans and their engines - he`s your boy

He won`t do it for nothing but as mentioned before will give you a good honest appraisal .

First impressions ??
I`d be interested to know where he thinks that work could be done to a reasonable standard around here as judging by my experiences of `specialist` VW garages they`ll pop out the windscreen fill the bad areas and blow it over . Same with the doors and any other scabby areas , it`ll look great for a year or so then the rust will start eating through , as it is now - the poor colour match speaks volumes and suggests to me its been done in the recent past ...
I`m not saying the seller is trying to pull the wool over your eyes but someone has made repairs without cutting away the rot and repairing the doors etc properly .

12k max , bearing in mind two new doors will be a grand or so that once you start grinding away the steps etc it`ll be worse than you could possibly imagine ...

I`ll have a look for nothing but Davy-boy will give you a true appraisal and roughly how much it`ll cost to sort out .

EDIT - welcome along - you`ve come to the right place

 

Yeah, to be honest, the original budget was £10k ish, that would be stretched a bit for the right van. I was expecting something pretty solid, but probably needing an awful lot of cosmetic work internally and maybe a respray and some light repair work externally for that. The reason this made us stretch so far beyond was that it appeared to my very inexperienced eye to be in fairly good condition from pictures, with the problems I thought to be of manageable proportions and to the areas you'd want them to be. But mostly admittedly as it's pretty much our dream van. A Westy with most of the original interior/ parts etc is something I've wanted for as long as I can remember. I wouldn't have stretched for any other conversion to be completely honest. I'd be happy with other conversions don't get me wrong, it's just they're not my 'ideal' as such, so I wouldn't stretch as far. I know that probably doesn't help aid the understanding of my thought process

 

No, I actually had a look at a left hand drive Brazilian splitty that looked like it had about 6 inches of underseal to the bits that hadn't rotted away completely, so I didn't bother looking at anything else on that one. But I'm by no means strictly RHD, I just want peace of mind that I'm putting such a large investment into something solid.

 

This

 

Thanks! I'm looking forward to getting involved properly, as an owner at some point...... although I'm hoping that's not because I'm constantly looking for advice on how to fix the wreck I've bought haha.

I think if David is available then it would be a no brainer for me to get his help with it, but the general consensus in here appears to be to steer clear. So I'm certainly glad I came here for some advice on it before I just proceeded with an RAC report and then more than our lifes savings! I try to keep a good balance of heart and head when making decisions... but it appears I might have let myself drift too far towards heart with this one

 

@davidoft has decades and decades and decades of experience because he is very old....

 

At least you’ve done the right thing coming on here before you’ve bought anything

 

aomost

 

Dry state American buses, or Australian buses tend to have less rust - but that isn't a universal fact.

UK bases, unless utterly cherished by all owners will tend to have had fairly major work, or need it.

 

In hindsight , it would make a great rolling resto which looks very usable giving you time to repair as and when you decide to get work done -IF- you get it for the right money and the sills are good . Knowing what work will be needed is not necessarily a negative as you`ll be able to use the van and decide a realistic balance between using the van getting the work done .

I was being kind ....

 

If it’s your dream van mate, then... I guess your job is to batter the price down. Wonder how long it’s been for sale for? At least you aren’t just buying the first and only one you’ve ever seen - guess who did that once? Have you read the guide to new bay owners on here? Or ‘read before you buy’ it might be called. I reckon you’re getting good advice anyways...

 

Soz-missed the nuance of your post.

 

Welcome, please don't be put off, but you will spend plenty of time fixing and maintening any Bus, even a good one, after all it's can old vehicle

Welcome to the mad house, by the way

PS. You will get used to the sense of humour, eventually.....

 

I'm in SW19 free after 11am

 

Mods !!
Shouldn't this be in the classifieds ??

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

How would you put a price on that?

 

If you are still keen Get Davidoft to take a look ...get an idea of work cost required and deduct on the offer .
A lot of it seem tidy ,but i would have preferred more pics of the underside ..The dark side as i call it .