16" Westy?

[lhd]

Remember when i was looking for mine, there was a "16" westy"on one of the german sale sites, turned out to be a very good copy, based on an ex army van! Sold for 18,000 Euro if i remember.

There you go lloydy if you werent such a tight a*** you could have had the second most expensive van in the club.
Joking aside it does make you wonder what Mudlarks must be worth.
Rob.

[ninja.turtle007]

I recon to convert my Velle syncro to a Westy rep, I will be looking at around a grand or near to, plus price of the Syncro. I bought a cheap Westie and after I have taken all the bits I need, I will be able to sell what's left to recoup most of my purchase price. The only real cost is going to be have the roof swapped. My time is not included it the final costings.

Depends what you want really. Do you want to be a pureist and pay the price? Or get something that does the Job in the same way? I'm still undecided but I know this, A decent genuine Syncro Westy is going to be £12k plus unless I'm lucky like Jed or Rob. If it is £12k+ it would have the be the perfect one for me.

Lloyd,
I spent ages considering the removable unit like the one you have. In the end I fitted a Westy cooker unit. I plumbed this to an unsderslung tank and fitted a 10L water tank behind the drivers seat. I have to carry 20L on the rear ladder.

After an 9 day trip around Wales with lots of wild camping I am so glad I went for this option instead. Mainly for the fact I could stock the fridge and not worry about the battery going flat . I wasn't keen on spending £500 on a Waeco fridge.

After haveing a Westy, I now find for us that the only thing missing is the extra head room. A full witdth bed at the moment suits us 3 until the next is born in September, then the roof chop will be essential aswell as the wardrobe and roof locker.


Please fogive the rambling, just drowning my sorrows after getting back and wanting to be away again!!!!

[lhd]

I recon to convert my Velle syncro to a Westy rep, I will be looking at around a grand or near to, plus price of the Syncro. I bought a cheap Westie and after I have taken all the bits I need, I will be able to sell what's left to recoup most of my purchase price. The only real cost is going to be have the roof swapped. My time is not included it the final costings.

Thats the key, all the money I thoughtI had wasted on my old westy has paid off (timing has a lot to do with this), virtually everything I bought to do up my old van has fetched £50 more than I paid for it.
Even the brand new wheels and brand new tyres which I paid £600 for sold for £450 with scuffs and worn tyres. front spoiler I paid £80 for sold for £150, all the replacement panels (original VW) I bought sold for more than I paid for them.
I have noticed that the best time to sell is before the weather gets going, When people aren't using their van the price of parts seems to be sky high, as soon as the weather is good, and people are spending money camping then the interest drops off like a lead balloon.

The problem with the roof is that apparently they are a "bar-steward" to fit properly.
A Westy is like a convertable car and therefore needed lots of internal roof strengthening to stop it flopping about, this causes problems when fitting the original roof, there is so much internal and difficult to get to structual stuff (not needed on a tin top) that needs welding that it's not just a case of unpicking and rewelding.
Rob.

[ninja.turtle007]

A Westy is like a convertable car and therefore needed lots of internal roof strengthening to stop it flopping about, this causes problems when fitting the original roof, there is so much internal and difficult to get to structual stuff (not needed on a tin top) that needs welding that it's not just a case of unpicking and rewelding.
Rob.

Other than the roof where else is the strengthening?

[lhd]

It's all inside the perimeter of the roof, bar the cross bar which itself has braceing, below the pillars it's all the same. a good heads up is to look at Etka this shows you this in seperate parts.
It's pretty amazing how less there is once the poptop is removed, you just have the overcab area, perimeter, and a cross bar that's it to the naked eye. I have read posts from people who have done it to a syncro and questioned whether it would have been easier to convert a westy to a syncro. So it must be a pain in the a***.
I know there are a few that have done it properly, so would advise search here and Brickyard, and ask those that have actually done it for a definitive answer.
Rob.

[lloydy]

Remember when i was looking for mine, there was a "16" westy"on one of the german sale sites, turned out to be a very good copy, based on an ex army van! Sold for 18,000 Euro if i remember.

There you go lloydy if you werent such a tight a*** you could have had the second most expensive van in the club.
Joking aside it does make you wonder what Mudlarks must be worth.
Rob.

Crazy isn't it. I reckon prices are going to start going through the roof this year, especially the westfalias. Had mine agreed value insured for 15k without a grumble from the insurance company. I'd be very tempted if someone offered me 15k
Its a pity westfalia or VW didn't keep a record of how many conversions they did. as i would like to know how many of my version there are out there, can't believe they didn't really.
Tom.
i know what you mean with the interior, its why i fitted the underslung gas tank(as the unit only had tiny gas bottle, and i can now do BBQ's), fridge wise the one in the plastic unit is 2AH, and as i've got 160AH, it should be ok. the one in the multivan unit i'd have to check on.
I would be very tempted to fit a later grey interior and have everything built in, but don't know if i'd be devalueing my van by doing it? And the cost of a later westy is prohibitive. Would almost be better to sell mine and design my own from scratch. Could also look at permantly fixing the multivan unit and then fitting water tanks underneath, this would then give me as much storage as a full camper version, but with a different layout. (i'd put the unit behind the seat by the sliding door). I'll probably give this some serious thought next year.

[KINGPRAWN]

no idea if its relative but i have a hand engraved small ali plaque on the o/s b-panel with a date and few other numbers date is 3-10-87 no sure what the other numbers mean, could it be a production number

[armyphil]

I'm now thinking along the lines of a 14" multivan pop top and fitting my interior to it so effectively a westy syncro.

They don't seem to be that expensive as a base model either I'll do a bot more saving then get syncro'ed

[jed the spread]

I would have thought it to be harder to find a genuine multivan with Westy pop top than a westy camper.

If your going to do all that buy the time you add up the cost, then all the add ons like lifting it, wheels tyres etc it would work out more cost effective to buy Stans that's for sale and have the real deal. It would be still worth what you paid for it in 5 years time too if you decided to sell it. I bought my doka from Stan and it still worth what I paid him for it three or four years ago, if I sold it now it wouldn't have cost me anything to own.

Jed

[armyphil]

I see hat your saying but with my beer habit I will never have 12k, I would put my westy interior in and make my 2wd a multivan and sell it basically swap the interiors over and fittings?

[syncropaddy]

I am posting these pictures purely to make you all jealous ........

[..lee..]

i think if you want a westy syncro converting a 2wd is still a better option if you can find a good 2wd to start with. the syncro will normally have done a lot more work than its 2wd brother and you`ll probally end up refurbing most of the syncro mechanicals and pulling them of the syncro body anyway. i did it the other way around and i`m still looking for westy specific trim parts that i cant find. to replicate the westy roof pressing is a nightmare.

[armyphil]

That option was going to cost me £6k for the conversion + the price of a doner syncro

[ninja.turtle007]

Lee, why didn't you use a cut form a westy roof? Did you buy the parts separately or a donor Westy?

[Aidan]

Lee, why didn't you use a cut form a westy roof?

because there are so many spot welds to drill out on the donor roof and the receiving shell then the small matter of welding the thing back together again perhaps ?

Sonic has done it though he can advise on the wrinkles, as can Russel

probably easier to syncro a good 2wd westy than swap roofs imho

Rich did it so he got a rhd westy roof camper but had the interior built