Help on Bus Restoration in Wales / South West

[Louie73]

Hello,
I am a newbie and am looking for any recommendations for good restoration services in the south Wales / south west area. I live in Cardiff so don't want to travel too far.

I have a LHD 1973 Camper imported from California. I bought the van with a recon Vege engine fitted from a dealer who specialises in VW imports or should that be just imports a lot of VWs (I'm not naming names! :mad: ). The van is totally rust free and was externally resprayed before I bought it (although 2 yrs on there are cracks between some of the panels and it seems to chip / flake a little bit too easily). Foolishly I assumed the dealer was fairly reputable and accepted his assurance that the van was mechanically in good condition. Since purchase, I discovered that the servo had been disconnected (dealer claimed the servo-assisted brakes were working fine), I had to have the brakes and suspension overhauled and the gearbox removed and rebuilt, and now the starter motor is playing up. To add to this, the VW garage who currently services the van advised me it was probably worth just over half of what I paid for it!!

Not being mechanically minded, I knew such an old van would require tlc and money spent on it, but not to this extent after what I paid for it (to spare my blushes, lets say it was more than £5k but less than £10k). I have a six month old in the family now and want a fairly reliable van to go away in. So I am trying to decide whether to persevere with my bus or to buy new from brazil (although it seems that production will soon be ending).

I love my bus and have waiting about 16 years to be able to own one so don't really want to part with it. From my limited knowledge, I think he needs the electrics overhauling, a new gearbox, together with new interior (units and seats), and possibly a complete respray. If anyone has any ideas on someone in my area who could do all of the above, I'd be grateful for any advice you can provide. So far, it seems that O'Connors Campers in Devon are my closest complete resto service. Also, any advice on rough cost would be good - I know that it's a bit finger in the air though!

Sorry about the long-winded first post - but the wife is increasing the pressure to sell what she views as an expensive ornament - seeing as it doesn't always run and is a bit too tatty/grotty inside to camp in!! (She is secretly after a new Brazilian version!!)

Cheers for reading this (and staying awake to the end) and for any words of wisdom offered.

Louie73 :confused:

[Illboy1927]

I'm fairly new to this and based in Riverside, so in a similar position as yourself - just had to get a new starter motor, should be going in today, fingers crossed. My van is generally not too bad, but there's a few bits that need sorting and I'm too looking for a garage.

There's somewhere in Roath, but not too keen on T25s apparently, I think it's called Cardiff Classic VW - tel 02920 666300, Dave Rodgers is your man.

I've used a garage near the Magor Junction of the M4, who was ok, I'll try to find their details, but not sure if they do restoration.

In Barry there's meant to be a very respected VW garage that's been around for years, but again don't know the details - it was recommened by an AA man after I snapped my only key in the ignition !

Also there's the Caravan Hospital on the A48 between Culverhouse Cross and Cowbridge, on the right, near the tv/mobile transmitter if my memory serves me right - they're meant to be good with the fridge and internal stuff.

So far that's all I've got, but will repost if anything else comes up - I'm sure I've seen your van around, there's also someone near Ikea who appears to have 3 T25s, so maybe they do a little work on them as well.

Good luck

[Mechanoid]

Hi Louie.

I'm sorry to hear of your problems. There are always people out there will to take advantage of other people.

I think that if the bodywork is sound on your bus, that is the main thing. Quite often Californian buses are less than mechanically sound as they don't have MOTs out there as we know it. I purchased a complete front beam for my bus and although it was totally rust free with original paint on it, mechanically it was shot! I had to replace all the suspension and steering ball joints and the swivel pin.

I guess that you had to change the suspension ball joints on your bus? I would say that having the braking system overhauled should be looked at as a good investment anyway whether it was supposedly good or not. Yours and the bus's life depends on it!

The starter motor problem is probably mainly caused by the ignition switch and/or wiring from the switch to the starter solenoid. Do you have problems starting the engine when it is hot? (This is the main symptom). If so, you can overcome a lot of the problems by fitting a relay so that the relay is operated by the ignition switch and the relay switches the power to the starter solenoid. Even if you have a new starter motor fitted the old problem can soon return.

As for the cost of a restoration!! Well the sky's the limit! If the bodywork is sound and you want to have a respray then to have the old paint removed back to bare metal, the surface blemishes sorted and resprayed, I would think you would be looking at around £2 to £2.5k. It is a lot of work as all the windows have to come out, new rubbers bought and fitted. To have it done properly is the way to go but only worth it if the bodywork IS rust free!

If you have to have panels replaced, window surrounds repaired etc you will have to budget extra for this. If the bus is 'not too bad' then I think the total cost should be around £5k for a resto but without seeing how much work is needed it is impossible to tell for sure.

[Illboy1927]

German Car Specialists
Unit 2 Woodham Road
Barry,
CF63 4J

Tel: 01446 742781

Try this, may be of use.

[Dude's Bitch!]

I recommend Phil Barker. His workshop is based in Taffs Well.

I have spoken to him about your bus and he would be willing to do it all.

He has previously built a bus from scratch and can meet all your requirements from respraying to electrics etc...

Obviously you would need to discuss the cost with him, but he's very reasonable, in fact my bus is booked an for respraying with him later on in the year! He also resprayed Stretch's race car Betelgeuse, it's magnificent!

Phil's number is: 07986 350824

Give him a call!
Cheers

[Dude's Bitch!]

By the way, I would personally avoid Cardiff Classic VW as they are rather expensive.

[Louie73]

Cheers for the advice and for speaking to Phil about my van - it's appreciated.

Do you know if Phil does MoT's?

[scooterdoc]

try

www.dubdoctors.com

[iesugrist]

or take it over Fishguard / Swansea and get nice Irish guy to do work for you?

crazylegs on www.type2ireland.org - but you need to register to get into boards - just like on here.............. :)