Club 80-90 Forums

Hello,

i am buying a 85' T3 that is in pretty good shape but it has some rust spots in between the fiber roof and the metal body. I was wondering if there is a guide in how to reach those spots from inside or in the worst case, a guide to remove the fiberglass roof. 

Are there bolts attaching the roof to the body? or is it just attached with sika/silicone/foberglass?

I will attach some images so some experienced eyes can take an opinion on the possible problem. Please, a help is much needed Thank you.

Fingers crossed you don't.But be prepared to find a lot of rot under the roof once its removed. There are no bolts holding it on.
One member found this horror under his.

viewtopic.php?p=8291420&hilit=hitop+rust#p8291420

Don’t buy that van , looks like the gutters have been cut off due to rot, it will cost more that the van to repair maybe multiple van prices to repair

Agreed. Dont buy with your heart. Nightmares can be waiting for you down that road. Walk away.

That van is definitely not in good shape at all.
The roof is rotten and someone a few years ago has done a very poor "repair" and just hacked the gutters off and filled straight over the remaining hole.

Just focusing on the roof - There is definitely *significantly* more rust than you can see - 20x more! Repairing this to an acceptable standard (that will properly hold the roof on, and not leak) would mean removing the fibreglass roof entirely and basically welding in an entire replacement roof from a donor van, before refitting the fibreglass roof and repairing all the damage done inside. This is weeks of work for an experienced person.

Looking at the bigger picture - It's very unlikely that the roof is the only place that has been bodged like this - the van has clearly been dolled up by an unscrupulous seller some years ago, who has spread filler over every rust bubble and added a thick coat of paint on top. This is the kiss of death for any T25 - filler over rust will hold moisture underneath and massively accelerate it, by the time it breaks through the filler, the van needs huge amounts of repair work.
The person currently selling it has probably realised this.

Don't just walk away - RUN. The van is dead

Hi guys... I was going to go for it on Thursday... the van is actually 6.000 eur. You are making me change my mind about it, I did not know that it could have that much problem inside....

I have identified the rails you talk about that go just under the union of the fiber with the van, I have asked and they were eliminated due to rust. I thought it was a good price for the condition.

Any more insights?

Thank for the replies, helps a lot

Personally fella, I would walk away. You will no doubt end up spending more than the purchase price putting it right. But at the end of the day its your money.

At €1000 it may be interesting but at €6000 it’s a terrible buy , cancel the sale , look around more , where are you located

run away

there will be a better van along in a minute, on mainland Europe there are a lot of vans, some very good; in Ireland there are a lot of rot boxes, but relatively few gems.

Where are you ?

I am from Spain, I am in contact with other sellers which have a bit more expensive units but which are actually in much better shape.

Thanks guys

Good shout, you saved yourself a big headache!

All vans in your budget will have some rust, but that's not the end of the world. A van in original paint with some visible rust is a much better prospect than a van with a shiny coat of paint hiding a lot of rot and bad repairs. Some areas are harder to repair than others and the roof gutters are probably the biggest job.

Its good you came on here to ask our opinion before buying that money pit.

Its the wrong time of year to be buying! Prices always go up in the spring and down in the autumn.
Junk from the previous autumn gets filled and painted over the winter, to be sold to the unwary the next spring.