I also understand that there will be those that will only put their bus into a spray shop. I'm a realist, and any knowledgable T25 owner (in fact owners of any vehicle over 20 years old) will tell you that no matter what you do, the rust worn will make its presence known eventually, particularly down seams. For many, the hand rollered finish, even without flatting suits them fine, shrugs off the British weather easily and at the same time slows down corrosion. You can also match (and even surpass) a sprayed finish if you build layers slowly and use a little elbow grease. I guess you could look at it as the same kind of spruce-up carried out on narrowboats, protecting it from the elements and giving it a new lease of life.
For me, a £2k spray job (whilst great looking) is a rather short-lived result unless you're willing to put it back in the shop at some point to sort out minor rust bubbles and scrapes, as well as matching the colour again. The cost starts to stack up then - nothing lasts forever. Rollering is a more practical approach and you can even give it an extra coat just before the winter on areas that are likely to face salt and grit with little extra prep involved. The technique works particularly well with Rustoleum Combicolor and theres a wide range of colours to choose from as well (if you want to go that far) the possibility for mixing your own or matching an original VW shade.
For T25 owners over in Ireland, Paintshop.ie will give you a discount if you're painting a camper and give them my name - they know the WIKI article and Youtube video well but wherever you buy the paint, the cost is significantly less that a sprayshop. You can spray it of course, but rollering is within most peoples budgets/expertise and its helping to keep these wonderful vehicles going for a great deal longer.
Ralph - CovKid
P.S. The other good thing about rollering is that if you have to do a major repair (see below) - repainting the area takes a few minutes at most!
