OT - VW Campers
Discussion
I know i could have found a forum about these things but i wanted a view point from you mini guys with experience of classics, not from those necessarily biased in favour of VWs.
Some friends bought a camper, decided it was rubbish and managed to get back the £6k they paid for it, then bought another one for that money then sent in away for a bit of welding, a year and £10k later still no sign of it being ready to go for the interior to be fitted out, or to be painted let alone being ready for the summer.
We were debating if they'd have been better off paying say £20K for a better example, and after having spent all this money they may not end up with something reliable. How much does it cost for aging hippies to live the dream and are these things ever that reliable or a complete nightmare?
Some friends bought a camper, decided it was rubbish and managed to get back the £6k they paid for it, then bought another one for that money then sent in away for a bit of welding, a year and £10k later still no sign of it being ready to go for the interior to be fitted out, or to be painted let alone being ready for the summer.
We were debating if they'd have been better off paying say £20K for a better example, and after having spent all this money they may not end up with something reliable. How much does it cost for aging hippies to live the dream and are these things ever that reliable or a complete nightmare?
On the hole it is cheep to do the work your self then to get one already done and the most expensive is to get the work done by some one else. There are a some exeptions to this. If done correctly and looked after as they should be (more work than a moden car/van) they should be relible VW or mini.
What they want to do is get a rust free one.
This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
This is where all the silly prices on ebay come from.
Wrestling a 40 year old campervan with a welder is no fun.
For starters, you are paying several thousand for a rusty "needs lots of panels and welding" project.
Utterly mental.
They have gone utterly stupid in value. Rather like minis.
You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
This is where all the silly prices on ebay come from.
Wrestling a 40 year old campervan with a welder is no fun.
For starters, you are paying several thousand for a rusty "needs lots of panels and welding" project.
Utterly mental.
They have gone utterly stupid in value. Rather like minis.
You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
Tangent Police said:
What they want to do is get a rust free one.
This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
This is what a mate of mine did, he got a single cab flat bed shipped over from California, straight as a die and no rust. He's sitting on a small fortune with it now.This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
Tangent Police said:
They have gone utterly stupid in value. Rather like minis.
You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
I agree with this, you only have to look back 2 years to an old Miniworld mag classified section. You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
Probably caused by a couple of reasons, its been out of production now for nearly 10 years (Heritage shells aside). The vast majority of owners like to modify them, and, every mini's arch enemy, rust.
haynes said:
We were debating if they'd have been better off paying say £20K for a better example, and after having spent all this money they may not end up with something reliable. How much does it cost for aging hippies to live the dream and are these things ever that reliable or a complete nightmare?
There is one other option, but, it depends on whether "the old skool" split screen look is important to your friends or not.You can still buy a brand new camper van from these guys, it has all modern running gear but fitted into the old "bay window" shell. A former colleague at work has one and they are extremely well put together.
http://www.danburymotorcaravans.com/models/volkswa...
rufusruffcutt said:
Tangent Police said:
What they want to do is get a rust free one.
This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
This is what a mate of mine did, he got a single cab flat bed shipped over from California, straight as a die and no rust. He's sitting on a small fortune with it now.This involves selling what they have for what they can get and going to a dry state (US) and getting a decent one and shipping it back.
Tangent Police said:
They have gone utterly stupid in value. Rather like minis.
You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
I agree with this, you only have to look back 2 years to an old Miniworld mag classified section. You can't get a cheap mini with a decent shell anymore. Looks like I'll have to look after mine.
Probably caused by a couple of reasons, its been out of production now for nearly 10 years (Heritage shells aside). The vast majority of owners like to modify them, and, every mini's arch enemy, rust.
It's a tad more than that now. Utterly mad how moderately crappy City E's are now there and more.
Tangent Police said:
I bought my mk1 on here about 5 years ago. RESTORED WELL for £1500.
It's a tad more than that now. Utterly mad how moderately crappy City E's are now there and more.
Crazy isn't it.It's a tad more than that now. Utterly mad how moderately crappy City E's are now there and more.
5+ years ago you could look in Auto Trader every week and there would be 20 to 30 minis that you could go and look at. Now your lucky if there are 5 listed.
Used to be well into my aircooled VW's had a 68 bay window & a 65 beetle. I brought photographed and documented restorations. VZi is a general aircooled forum, earlybay for 68-72 bay window vans and the SSVC for the pre 68 splitties. If you like the dropped and blinged look then pop over on UK restowagens.
My understanding (although probably well out of date), is that a top notch concurs van could be done for about £30k and be worth £5k-£10k less depending on how unique or mass appealing the finished result was.
It will always be cheaper to buy one already done unless you can do everything yourself and time isn't an issue.
The size and fit out of a camper means that pure volume of stuff to do is a major headache and adds to the overall cost significantly. Then when you realise the amount of nicely engineered rust traps there are it is amazing that they haven't disintergrated with a puff of wind.
That said they are generally simple but intensive to do and there are a significant amount of aftermarket opportunists making serious money in the upgrade & restoration game, making parts relativitly easy to source if your not to worried about complete originality, but no where near mini cheap in terms of price.
Edit: Campervan crisis (1st series) is a good program to watch to get a insight in the size of a restoration for what most do which strip and assemble themselves and retail out the main jobs.
My understanding (although probably well out of date), is that a top notch concurs van could be done for about £30k and be worth £5k-£10k less depending on how unique or mass appealing the finished result was.
It will always be cheaper to buy one already done unless you can do everything yourself and time isn't an issue.
The size and fit out of a camper means that pure volume of stuff to do is a major headache and adds to the overall cost significantly. Then when you realise the amount of nicely engineered rust traps there are it is amazing that they haven't disintergrated with a puff of wind.
That said they are generally simple but intensive to do and there are a significant amount of aftermarket opportunists making serious money in the upgrade & restoration game, making parts relativitly easy to source if your not to worried about complete originality, but no where near mini cheap in terms of price.
Edit: Campervan crisis (1st series) is a good program to watch to get a insight in the size of a restoration for what most do which strip and assemble themselves and retail out the main jobs.
Edited by OneDs on Thursday 15th April 14:25
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