Club 80-90 Forums

Hi
I am new here but woudl appreciate thoughts on this T3 a pal is selling, opening showed me the state of rust. Engine is refurbished 30,000 miles ago and is throwing in a new rocknroller and fridge. Asking for £2k at the moment. Would want to get it water tight, could it be done for £3k? 

IMG_2339 by george bainbridge, on Flickr


IMG_2338 by george bainbridge, on Flickr

IMG_2336 by george bainbridge, on Flickr

IMG_2333 by george bainbridge, on Flickr

To do it all properly, and I mean back to factory standard, I would expect £10k or more! Roadworthy and watertight is another story of course. It all depends on how far you want to go. Seam rot in itself can me cleaned up within reason, depending on how far gone it is, and that looks fairly nasty! Sills and jacking points will be big money to get right.

really just campable in - watertight like - not necessarily concourse condition; I am in Bristol way but struggling to find a garage that might be able to give me a quote. 

I bought my first van with considerably less visible, yes visible, corrosion than the pictured vehicle.  I probably shelled out ~10k in fabrication & rust prevention in two years and it still needed a complete respray.

Have you had a look at damage done by condensation behind any fixed units, inside wheel arches, bottom of sliding door and opposite panel?

There are many factors you need to consider before purchasing, one of which is could you do some if not most of the repairs yourself and do you have the space to do it, ie off road.  They all need some sort of maintenance including ongoing to keep them on the road.  Check the MOT history this is easily done on line for free and check if previous MOT failure items have been rectified with the paperwork to show it.

Sills are expensive to do, the panels are cheap to buy though. I had an inner and outer done but labor for it was 1.5k there abouts.
It's a big job.

Hi. Concur with all that has been said. Mine is currently being resprayed (just outside Bristol) and is going to cost north of 8k. It's been stripped out so ALL the rot can be seen and assessed and then had the rust cut out with new panels/fabrication done. We didn't have to do it but decided we want the van for the next 10 years so better to get it done in one hit and know where we are than constantly chasing our tale to keep the water out/keep it roadworthy.

You need to think about what you want. If you're in it to keep it then it'll cost. If you just fancy camping for a couple of years before shifting it on then focus on any structural rot that is liable to fail an MOT. Last one for me was one of the steps. I was surprised this would fail an MOT but it did so had to fork out 3 figures for the garage to weld up.

You can camp without it being watertight - plenty of us do! If water is getting in via windscreen/windows/roof then this is a sign that the rot has pretty well set in and goes way beyond what you can see. My windscreen has been leaking since I've owned mine (4 years) and looked rough on the bottom corners. Never bothered getting it sorted as I had the windscreen out on my previous van and that on it's own ain't cheap. When the windscreen came out on my current van there was rot on the bottom corners and two further holes on either side about 20cm in that needed sorting. Oh, and the windscreen smashed, as it did on my previous van!

Without seeing it 3k should get you MOT proofed but it'll still leave plenty to do.

If thats the worst bits it dont look to bad, what it like around the rear suspension mounts? Any units inside?

looks pretty goo, thats scrap money for a van really, £3000 should get it useable