Bodywork: Preservation vs Restoration

[Manners79]

I have a 1986 VW T25 van that used to be my own vehicle but is now an asset of my business and does have to earn its keep. It is mechanically in good order and, over the years, I’ve ’kept on top of’ the bodywork. However, it now needs more professional bodywork - nothing structural but the usual stuff with these, rust around the (aftermarket) windows (which will no doubt be worse than it looks), rear quarter panels breaking out around the bumper mounts, and so on. Now, I’ve taken it to a few of the ‘Classic VW Restorers’ but they are all only interested in full restoration with costs and timelines to match. I get that, as if the market supports that I’m sure it is a much more pleasant and rewarding way to make a living than cutting out rust and making up repair panels. I guess as well, in the 13 years I’ve owned the van, they have well and truly become leisure vehicles meaning there is much less market for the “keep it going and looking decent but doesn’t need to be a show vehicle” type approach.

The trouble is, in that time, it seems that the slightly ‘back street’ body shops that would do this kind of work have all but disappeared. I guess bodywork on modern cars is mainly a case of crash damaged whole panel swaps, thankfully the days of 3 to 4 year old cars needing rust repairs are (largely) behind us! Of course one answer is to do it myself and, with a bit more welding practice I probably could. Except I am very “time poor” due to aforementioned business. I could also be sensible and just change it for a newer van but there are useful legal tax advantages to running an older commercial and it adds a bit of interest to the business, plus I’m attached to it and, hey, logic doesn’t always have to apply, especially with a classic.

So, where can one find places that will preserve rather than restore and that don’t mind getting their hands dirty in the process??? Has anyone else noticed the same or am I just looking in the wrong places?

[aeropilot]

Yep, the old small bodyshop/repair places started slowly disappearing in the late 80's onwards, when the small shops that did a bit of a mix between crash repair and resto work got swallowed up by the big accident repair chains, as older guys retired and sold up.
There were half a dozen good small bodyshops near where used to live in West London back in the 1980's, but by the late 90's they had all gone, or been taken over by bigger chains that were only interested in mainstream insurance repair work.

I'm sure there are still some around, but its a case of finding them, or rather finding them in you location.