Coming up with a plan for my resto project!

..to me it looks like it needs a LOT of work and I mean a LOT! of work…not mention the money part..nothing that can’t be done though but..agreed that chassis ain’t that solid (what ever it means these days) too..but good luck with it anyway


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It's a funny old world. This interior is up for £7,999 and has 43 watchers!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162866777907?hash=item25eb9dcf33:g:qG0AAOSw8W5aZ4sf&LH_All=1

It's little wonder people are confused about the value of vans.

 

My Nevada bus. Solid.

 

Just about to post similar

 

Good lord, and not a westfalia badge in sight!

 

I had a customer who went for an interior like that and spent over £10K. She wanted one of everything available. While I was working on it I'd text her and say "it needs this doing and will cost that". The second time she replied that I should stop bothering her and just do whatever I thought would be good. She didn't care what it cost because as she put it "If I need another £5K I'll pop up to London and work for a couple of days but if you blatantly rip me off, remember I'm a barrister". She had never even seen the van - she sent me off inspecting them. I told her the chosen one was a bit shonky, but we'd (I'd) looked at 2 previously and she wanted to get on with it. Newly painted all yellow, she wanted the top half white - that was the first job. lol

 

Thanks all for comments. Hard to hear but good to know now before I spend any more on it. Time for a rethink.

 

Buy Mick's for £7k. £7k at your restorer won't get you anywhere near that far and his is original unrestored I believe, which is better for many reasons.

 

No further questions then your honour! Bet she used it every weekend...

 

@3901mick might know - she lives or lived on the Isle of Wight and they're all related.

 

..I would deffo go this way..solid unmolested rustfree shell (even tho its lhd which is better imho) just „reshell” it and enjoy it..lifes too short for long never ending resto


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Just thought I'd say that I've known since shortly after I bought it that I had paid a few 000s too much, and made a litany of mistakes such as not getting it checked over first, not seeking proper buying advice, buying from a private seller, online transfer etc. By the way, the paint job pre-dates that seller, and I don't think he was fully aware of what a state it was in underneath, much of which came to light when a couple of mechs and I investigated the rustier bits. It really doesn't look too bad in most parts, and you realise I have just posted pics of the worst parts.

Over the last couple of months I've accepted that I've made a mistake and wanted to make the most out of the situation I am in, and perhaps stabilise the worst bits and just enjoy her. To be honest, I did take some heart from the responses from LBF to my intro post, along the lines of - "at least its moving, body work can all be fixed", "you've done ok to find a rolling van under £10k" "you should see some of the rot boxes being restored on here, anything that isn't cut in half is unlikely to be scrapped around here" and so on.

So yes a bit crushing to realise after all that it turns out the first mech was right when he said he had scrapped better buses, and to hear the unanimous condemnation and my bus and judgement - ha ha!

Anyway, I can't face the drama of selling her as a dodgy wreck right now and just to be cut up for scrap. So I am just going to enjoy her company, fix what I can as I go and go on the occasional trip.

All the best

Jo

 

I appreciate its gauling to hear. On the other side of it, everything is repairable it just takes time and money - more money if you're paying someone else.

If it were me and I was going to keep it to enjoy I'd start by investigating the underneath and satisfy myself the chassis was solid. Then I'd start collecting panels. Perhaps a better sliding door and at least one of the cab doors where the bottom is falling off. A roof or rear cut may be most sensible.

In parallel I'd speak with a few people in the scene to get some quotes to stabilise her. I may be wrong but the front arches don't look too bad from what I can see which is good.

Finally, as daft as this sounds I would clean her, polish and wax to get rid of the rust marks and make her shiny. This will make her look tons better and psychologically would give you a boost.

 

Thanks for this. Yes, I haven't got around to cleaning her up yet, but you're def right there. I have a couple of panels (rear roof section, rear arches and corners) which I have a bit of time to decide whether to keep or send back if I decide to just can the whole project.
I have a friendly mech at the end of the road who works on my Jazz, and is keen to give her a look over and maybe help with body work. I'll ask him to check the chassis.
Have a nice bank hol weekend.

 

As soon as possible, do something to stop the water getting in via the roof. That's numero uno job for obvious reasons. It doesn't need to be pretty (though gaffa tape isn't really enough for more than a few weeks).

 

strip out the interior, cut out the front wheel arches, remove the windows then get the whole thing sandblasted with soda and start the restoration. you only need one pinhole in the roof to rust out the entire front end and a pillars like on mine

 

To be fair all those areas are the typical rust places and panels are easily available … your biggest issue is finding someone that won’t rip you off when doing any work on it … stopping any water ingress is a must …use it and do bit by bit

 

you cannot just cut out panels and replace them bit but bit. The issue is all the rust behind those panels and the damage caused by removing those panels to surrounding panels. Not all panels are available. the issue is that you will need to fabricate the inner panels however they will not be visible.

With my restoration, I was only planning of cutting out the rust and patching in new metal. however to remove all the rust including what you cannot see, you need to remove a lot of metal and it then becomes a massive job like mine.

look at mine https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/vw-t2-1974-restoration.91926/

 

This resto only makes sense if you are in it for the challenge of doing the work yourself and saving another Bay. Ideally it needs total disassembly, mounting on a roll over frame and taking back to bare metal/rust then lots of cutting and welding. If you do not have a zest for this sort of work and loads of spare time then it would not go well. Financially this is a one street as any level of disassembly will diminish the current value and recovery will only be possible after most of the work. Outsourcing this sort of skill will be very costly. If you want to love your Bay this might not be the one.