newbie (lurker) surf bus or more $?

[smadaa]

i have lurked on here b4

after many years of gentle and not so gentle campaigning my hubbie has agreed what we really need in our lives is a t25. hurray! first & foremost of course is mechanical/structural/etc (despite being a girly, who loves to look at nice interiors lol) we are struggling to decide...

i wanted some users gut feelings on whether newbies with some practical diy experience (well a fair bit) but no mechanical experience should try to find as much $ as poss and buy a bus with ood interior as well as the important bits...

or.. buy a 'surf' bus - and slowly fix (and poss pay experts) for some of the interior, as & when funds allow (other than heater (planning to wait till feb as thats when funds will alow, but by then i will REALLY want to get on the road)...

realistically in 8-10 yrs we want to sell the van (only to buy another!) & we dont want to reduce the value buy doing a shoddy diy job.. but it aint an investment vehicle (excuse pun), but of course one of my lobying points to hubby was that t25s depreciation is gen slowing as they become an attractive alternative to all of us who cacnt afford a t2 (i know some of u guys would rather have a t25 any day mind u )

general thoughts appreciated. i am v serious, but bear with me, unless i have one of my silly moments i will not be a proud of owner for a few months yet!
p.s. quick profile - 1-2 hours of gen tinkering per week is what we're epxecting as maintenance (obv. doing up is more). i have haunted these websites for a year or so, have a passion, bought several books, started to read up on in egines in bed (husband not so plsd with that development!) a mate with lots of vw fans, & am a little clumsy but pretty practically minded (13th birthday present was a philips screwdriver set, so u get the picture lol) ... camper Use - w/e's & couple days week max - only live 4 miles from work, so about to sell my little ancient 106 & get a bike! looking for all-yr round w/ending, so dbl glasing etc ,and heater a must (if a surf bus that's be no.1 priority) drawn to idea of 1.9 tdi diesel (happy with 1.6, but hubby insisting on +0.3), & thinking about using veg oil (an environmentalist with a hubby who commutes, so to me, personally, it's worth the it poss - will check out alt fuel forum)

thanks for reading feel free to lambast
annie

[smadaa]

oops just to say read the wiki & searched & browsed.. i know newbie's asking same old q's can get a tinsy bit irritating... so - sorry if i have cross posted - if i have, do feel free to lambast - any signposting gratefuly appreciated.. umm if anyone ever wants to know anything about tropical hardwood sourcing (ply included) i can wax lyrical for aages

[1664]

I would suggest having a look at the various professionally converted vans. The easiest way of doing that would be to attend a VW camper show or turn up at an 80-90 meet and ask the owners for a quick look at their vans. The vast majority of owners will not object in the slightest - in fact some are so 'house proud' they virtually drag people off the street to have a look at their campers!!

Once you are familiar with a few different conversion companies, their various models and their quality of conversion you can make a much better informed decision when looking for your own. It's a lot easier to look when you have already narrowed down your choices.

If you still want to do your own conversion you will pick up lots of relevant information by this process anyway. Happy hunting!!

[fatwomble]

Thought I would say hi, can't offer much in the way of help as despite having previously owned a T25 for 3 years all I did was drive. Had my new van for about 3 weeks now and find myself much more drawn to maintaining bits myself.

Good luck with the search my only suggestion would be to ensure that the bodywork is as rust free as possible.