Club 80-90 Forums

Whoah there!

But you are in the motor trade Lee and didn't buy it with rose-tinted specs on (you didn't, did you?) which isn't quite Cooper's situation. Having a BIL who is a mechanic isn't the same as a head full of experience and a decent toolkit, never mind having a workshop at your disposal.

OK so loads of folks roll up their sleeves and get stuck in on their driveways, but not when it's your one and only motor. Then again he's in his early 20's and we're all a lot older and wiser (?) and if I cast my mind back, I was forever scratching about at weekends 'cos the ruddy car was playing up again at that age...

You also got lucky with that panel van!

Well if anyone has a syncro in mind or are thinking of taking pitty on me and selling theirs. Let me know. Once i have one im never going to sell it. Its going to be my little friend.

What parts do i need for a 4wd conversion? Exact parts.
How much on average would each part cost?

@Cooper - My personal advice to you seeing as you have little to no experience with a Syncro, let alone a T25 at all, I would highly recommend you invest in a standard T25 as your first T25 experience. Buy an affordable, solid, reliable one, and learn as much as you can from it, do it up, and try to make some money from it by selling it on. By then you will be more experienced, but more importantly, you will know if you like the drive, and feel of a T25.

Cooper wrote:What parts do i need for a 4wd conversion? Exact parts.
How much on average would each part cost?

Take your time and a van will show up. Trawl eBay, preloved and gumtree. Not everyone calls them T25 or syncro so broaden your search terms.

Cooper wrote:What parts do i need for a 4wd conversion? Exact parts.
How much on average would each part cost?

The parts don't come off the shelf, so you'd probably have to buy a knackered syncro as a donor vehicle and recon all the parts anyway. Plus, the chassis of a syncro is different so there will be some professional steel fabrication needed that can impress the MOT man. It will still be a better process to buy a 2wd with the view of turning a profit off of it to fund a syncro down the line.

@ mickyfin

Thats very good advice. The only thing is when i buy a vw i would want to keep it. The things i would like to do to it would be to my taste and i recon i wouldnt sell it so easly.

Im a fast learner.


@ lloydy

What else do people call them if not a syncro?

I was looking at getting a syncro, not because I need 4wd, just because I like the availability of 4wd.

After talking to people at Vanfest last year, and research on prices of Syncros, i've decided I don't have the cash, or the experience so i've bought a 2wd!

Good luck with whatever you buy, and make sure to keep us updated!

Has anyone had experience with a 2wd off road?

Also how do they fair in snow and mud?

German ebay? I thought you said you wanted RHD?
2WD VW good off-road?....... Baja Bug!
FWD?....... Think before typing!

Advice....... Go 2WD T3, It'll do everything a syncro will do, except the laning & looking so cool!! For half the cost!

KarlT wrote:German ebay? I thought you said you wanted RHD?
2WD VW good off-road?....... Baja Bug!
FWD?....... Think before typing!

Advice....... Go 2WD T3, It'll do everything a syncro will do, except the laning & looking so cool!! For half the cost!

Id settle for lhd if i got a syncro.

Fwd do t3/t25 come in fwd or rwd? Whats the best if i was to get a t3 2wd like you said.

Surly one of you syncro guys fancy selling your syncro to me for my price range?

Cooper wrote:Surly one of you syncro guys fancy selling your syncro to me for my price range?

It would appear not

T3 are RWD

Why do you want a Syncro, what are you planning on doing in it? Have you any experience of 4x4s? As said many times before, you are going to struggle with your budget for a Syncro. Think long and hard about this one, please.

There's no guarantee that the best maintained van in the world won't throw up a huge bill shortly into ownership. If you're serious about a Syncro and from what you've said previously, you're going to be needing to keep a healthy reserve stash of cash for the unexpected (but inevitable) bills

Well my father has had many and ive driven a few of them.

Well im going to look into getting a t3.

Syncro ownership is very expensive. I bought my westy Syncro off of Stan. It is very nice and I have the receipts for the £1000's he spent it. I have spent £5k plus on getting to how I want it.

Even if you get something reasonable for £5k you'll probably still need £2k in reserve for running repairs in the first year.

They are not all glamour. I have spent the last two nights untill 11pm underneath mine in -5 temperatures. And I'll be out there again tonight. Fingers crossed it doesn't snow!

I use mine as a daily driver but I have a back up vehicle just incase. I wouldn't want to solely rely on a 20 year old vehicle to gete to work everyday.