little help needed....

[GTA320Y]

Hi guys. So elvis is having a new paint job. Whilst in the garage my guy has told me couple of issues. First which I knew about is it needs new gas struts for the roof. My van is a 83 DEVON SUNRISE. with the side elevating roof. Ive been told there is actually a couple of diffrent sizes u can get? Does anyone know what size ill need. Its the struts that keep the roof up.. the other more concerning thjng is the hose pipes under the van are a little coreded. They go from front to rear ive found some in brickwerks but they are stainless steel ones and quite expensive. Is there any other way of doing the job, ive been told the later vans had plastic pipes. (Only hearsay) can these if true be used on my van and where could I get them, correct ones, any help would be great.
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[RogerT]

Good idea to get those pipes done, they are a large enough bore that if they fail then you can lose all your coolant pretty quickly (mine took less than a minute...). As I recall plastic pipes on VWHeritage are more expensive than stainless steel on Brickwerks. Mine were plastic, they have metal inserts in the end. In the end they corrode and fail too. But mine were 28 yrs old...

[Smosh]

I have coolant pipes made out of copper. They were on my van when I got it.

[Cecil]

I have coolant pipes made out of copper. They were on my van when I got it.

Previously owned by a plumber , no dought.

[Cecil]

I am happy with my van's plastic pipes . I did have a minor leak caused by a metal insert corroding and causing a lengthwise split which I repaired successfully by adding in a rubber section using 2 jubilee clips at each connection in lieu of not having barbs on my freshly cut plastic pipe ends.Needed short section of plastic pipe to join new rubber hose to engine hose so I used 6jubilee clips!

[GTA320Y]

Cheers guys. Theres only a small section that looks a bit iffy... thats what i was thinking kind of repair a section rarther than full pipe change... will have to have proper look when van goes back up on ramps. Maybe need to just change them then there done with.