Club 80-90 Forums

We recently purchased our first T25 and in our fervour failed to notice quite how much rust it had in it. We noticed the stuff on the lower panels on the outside, and saw that as fixable, but now of course with closer inspection I have found a hole under the mats on the drivers side, underneath the leisure battery behind the driver, all along the bottom of the rear window on the inside are some pretty tasty holes and the sliding door now falls off. This on top of all the other small things that we need to look at (pop top problems, starter motor etc) is starting to feel a little overwhelming. So I am looking for suggestions for a future course of action.






The Wheel arches


The door

If you've already fallen in love with it, and either have VERY deep pockets or welding skills and loads of spare time and a garage to do it in, then no amount of rust is too much. These decisions are made by the heart I find, not the head. Mine has more rust than that I think, but I did a welding course at the local college and am emptying the garage into a shed after the summer. I hope you didn't pay too much.

There could be even more rust in crucial areas like rear jacking point areas that hold the rear suspension bracket. That van has been plodded up with filler and will cost a fortune to fix if you have to pay someone to do the repairs. Best to get rid of it.

As said that's what you can see dig deeper and will get better idea of the problems,if you can't weld then get rid as will be expensive .Sell it and with the money you would spend on welding plus other jobs that need doing buy one ready to go,unless you want a project of course.I've been in this situation myself and I can weld still wasn't cheap.

Thanks guys. I had thought something similar myself. Not sure if I can sell it with a good conscience though... Another idea I had was to find a nice (rust free) Caravelle or Syncro and do a transplant of all the camping equipment.

Yes a caravelle is a great base for a conversion , make sure it has factory recessed windows to be sure its a genuine model.

Just as an idea, mine has probably the same amount of rust as that, has had poor repairs done in past, I don't have a garage and I definately can't weld (although I'd love to do evening classes but work away).
I took advice from the good people on here and attacked one section at a time with a wire brush/grinder, dried out the rust, treated it and bought replacement panels where required for our vehicle engineer to weld in for me. He's agreed to do £500 blocks of welding which equates to 1.5 days ish. Ive bought new (already sandblasted) cab doors + tailgate to fit too.
Its a little and often approach, as I've been able to afford, but more importantly - so not to get too disheartened with as a whole.
Ours is going in next week to have the LH side centre panel (sill to window) inner sill, outer sill, B post + front of rear wheel arch done, the external join above the front bumper panel and both panels at the base of the air intakes replaced + cargo floor replacement at a cost which is more than I payed for her but I'm determined to put right 20 years+ of neglect and save it from the breakers yard.
It depends what timescale or budget you have, but if you can do it bit by bit you'll have something to be proud of and to show for all your effort at the end.

Best of luck

Aww i love all your dedication - im so keen to learn to weld as just a small but can cost 100s. The idea of any t25 bus in a scrappy breaks my heart [FACE WITH COLD SWEAT]

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blakeys80 wrote:Just as an idea, mine has probably the same amount of rust as that, has had poor repairs done in past, I don't have a garage and I definately can't weld (although I'd love to do evening classes but work away).
I took advice from the good people on here and attacked one section at a time with a wire brush/grinder, dried out the rust, treated it and bought replacement panels where required for our vehicle engineer to weld in for me. He's agreed to do £500 blocks of welding which equates to 1.5 days ish. Ive bought new (already sandblasted) cab doors + tailgate to fit too.
Its a little and often approach, as I've been able to afford, but more importantly - so not to get too disheartened with as a whole.
Ours is going in next week to have the LH side centre panel (sill to window) inner sill, outer sill, B post + front of rear wheel arch done, the external join above the front bumper panel and both panels at the base of the air intakes replaced + cargo floor replacement at a cost which is more than I payed for her but I'm determined to put right 20 years+ of neglect and save it from the breakers yard.
It depends what timescale or budget you have, but if you can do it bit by bit you'll have something to be proud of and to show for all your effort at the end.

Best of luck

I suspect I could now be on this journey, how much work do you typically get done in those £500 blocks?

You soon fall out of love when you fall in love with another.

my advice is cut your losses and get something with less rust.

what you can see is always the tip of the iceberg.

This needs somebody with welding skills to fix where their time is no object, it's not worth paying somebody IMO

1.5 days for £500 ?
I'm off to put my prices up!!

TheBeaver wrote:Thanks guys. I had thought something similar myself. Not sure if I can sell it with a good conscience though... Another idea I had was to find a nice (rust free) Caravelle or Syncro and do a transplant of all the camping equipment.

Rust free examples seem incredibly rare!!
Just spent the best part of a year removing the rust and replacing with new, and there were still areas where I could have done more!!!
Whatever you buy will eventually need work.
I was fortunate to have the space and the benefit of a previous bug resto to fall back on, but it is still a huge undertaking..
As others have said it’s always at least 3x as bad as you think !!
There were times when I was ready to sell it as was..but it’s now past the worst thankfully!!
Would agree, find the best you can (and afford) as a start point..

restoman wrote:1.5 days for £500 ?
I'm off to put my prices up!!

Lot of money for 1.5 days I generally charge £20 p/h for jobs like that which I think people can afford.

fazzer wrote:

restoman wrote:1.5 days for £500 ?
I'm off to put my prices up!!

Lot of money for 1.5 days I generally charge £20 p/h for jobs like that which I think people can afford.

It’s not expensive for a workshop, it’s fair / cheap really

100leelee wrote:

TheBeaver wrote:Thanks guys. I had thought something similar myself. Not sure if I can sell it with a good conscience though... Another idea I had was to find a nice (rust free) Caravelle or Syncro and do a transplant of all the camping equipment.

Rust free examples seem incredibly rare!!
Just spent the best part of a year removing the rust and replacing with new, and there were still areas where I could have done more!!!
Whatever you buy will eventually need work.
I was fortunate to have the space and the benefit of a previous bug resto to fall back on, but it is still a huge undertaking..
As others have said it’s always at least 3x as bad as you think !!
There were times when I was ready to sell it as was..but it’s now past the worst thankfully!!
Would agree, find the best you can (and afford) as a start point..

I had a virtually rust free shell, couldn’t sell it for £500 with good rear arms and full suspension and electrics