Paint it Pink Now finish it, off get in to the Yorkshire countryside, which you are surrounded by and fekkin enjoy
If you can get the engine sorted and an mot then you can either start driving it and maybe gain enthusiasm again to put an interior in, or, be able to sell it and buy an already finished camper that's not a Vw. Two of my friends have Bongos and are v happy with them.
eerrr your westy and the crew cab ,neither was finished... I can get paras bus on the road in a week...
Get some wanted ads put in here for used engine bits, make up an interior from reclaimed or used stuff and take a month to finish it. You will have a lot more cash to put into a new van if you do that.
ThE crewcab was beyond my control tbf. And the westy was on the road for three years after the resto. And still is. It just wasn't painted and filled to show standard. To be fair to para his resto has been far more detailed than mine and I would have either had it finished by someone else or not tried to get it to that standard. Given his financial restrictions he is probably right to think of moving it on.
Para I have a turn key 1600 tp here, You can borrow it till you build your new engine then just give it me back when your done, You would need tinware and j tubes and probably a good sevvice, its located in North Wales close to the chester wrexham border. Yours if you need it dude, think about it will get you camping..
That is a very kind offer indeed Id be to worried if anything happend to it whilst it was in my van though
Send him one of your children as a deposit. (Thinking about it, you could send him one of mine) (Actually he's welcome to two or three of mine if it helps.)
I am at the Grill n Chill today at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Kent and I am inspired by all the different VW vans here and talkng to owners and seeing the vans make you realise that most vans are far from perfect and all have issues. One or two vans are pristine but they are just for show and shine. There is loads of rust and dodgy paintwork and scruffy interiors to be seen but the owners don't care. They will do the jobs eventually. The main thing is they are out and using their vans. I am well retired now and bought my first bay in 2014 and spent far too long trying to make it perfect and fretting over it and it took my son to wake me up and use it. It is not finished but I now use it all the time and love it. I think a rolling restoration is the best way to do it rather than have the van laid up for months being worked on. Do the minimum for the Mot and make the rest of the work a long term project.
Its a chance we take , end of the day its sitting on my garage floor in the way, I kept it for a project that I'll probably never get round to doing, If it goes bang whilst you are using it I'll buy the bits to rebuild it you can re build it in you own time Think about it any engine especially an old one can go at any time, I'm prepared to take the chance if it gives you the chance to feel the love again
You do have time, you only need a crank, chase Rob up. You don't need much money to finish the engine either.
What we need here is a DIY SOS, come on para tell what bits you need and we can see what people have spare and we'll all come round and fix it
