1989 VW T25 - Journey to anywhere

Thanks! Ah yeah? Whereabouts are you based?

Pretty happy with the bodyshop at the moment but I'll hold fire on sharing details until the work is complete

Picking up where we left off, the DG engine has now gone on to live another life in another van. Great to meet you Dan.

I’ve been focused on sorting some of the rear suspension parts out, all of which are in a pretty crusty state.

The rear hub nuts on these are tightened beyond FT, even beyond FFT (500nm) and this left me with a problem. How was I going to undo these now the arms were off of the van? Various sketchy practices were tried until I decided to invest in something I’d been eyeing up for a while...

Yeah that’ll do it. Took them off like they were finger-tight. Will be a handy tool to have in the arsenal and actually pretty reasonable as I already had batteries and a charger. 



Finding I'm having to level up my tools a bit compared to working on the Golf. Bigger sockets, breaker bars etc. No idea how I'm going to retorque 500nm!

Set about cleaning all of this rusty guff up. The trailing arms are actually in pretty good nick structurally (hurrah, something I can actually reuse!) but obviously the bushings are fubbard after 30 years of service.



Wheel bearings looked to be original VW parts too but to clean these up properly they need to go. I’ll save you the grubby CV grease escapades.



Armed with various buckets of suspicious coloured liquids, everything is soaking nicely in a bath of Deox C. The powder seems to work pretty well, the gel not so much. Maybe user error.

If Pablo met Dexter…





Bushings...these things are toast! Completely fused from rust and not going down without a fight. After spending an hour or so trying various methods to get one of them out, I gave up and ordered a butane torch. If in doubt, burn it.



Dog agrees. (that's garden mud she's plastered in by the way, not CV grease/van debris!)



Tune in this weekend to see the results of the p*ss coloured rust bath and putting this small fortune of parts to good use.

£800? Wow back when things were reasonably priced. Nuts how mad scene tax has gotten.

Haha yeah, mine's the same to be honest. I tried hard to make sure she was desensitized to as much as poss as a pup, including the sounds and smells in the garage. May have backfired slightly as she's not scared of anything

Thanks! Appreciate the comments. SUCH a long way to go still but if I can get the van solid, painted outside and underside, and have a decent watertight rolling shell by the end of the year I'll be very happy.

Awesome project Sir! Is it necessary to use wire wheel after Hydrate 80 or it can be painted straight on to it with Electrox?  

The reason why you shouldn't use a rust converter under Electrox is not due to lack of adhesion, but the fact that the Hydrate 80 will electrically isolate the zinc from the steel, so you aren't getting the benefits from the Electrox. It'll be no worse than using any normal primer over the top though.

Been a bit 'out of sight out of mind' on this the past couple of months but thought I'd pop up to check on the van at the weekend.

I'm in full-on save money mode at the moment with this and my wedding doing its best to bankrupt me. This means no spare cash to buy parts for this unless it's body related.

As mentioned earlier, fabrication-wise, the front is finished and we're into digging into the rear. Some of this I was expecting to be bad such as the trailing arm mounts and it's nice to see new strong metal going in there.





What I wasn't expecting was this mahoosive bodge on the side panel that's been globbed full of filler. GAH. Properly weird place to rot here, the seam you'd expect but the main bulk of it is further in than that.





Arches had loads of rot as suspected so good they are being chopped and sorted. No doubt the other side will be identical.



Rear valance and both engine bay closing panels are fubbard too.



£350 later in MORE panels...nevermind, we push on! Hoping to have the rolling shell back to me by August. Then I can crack on with the epoxy/raptor work underneath and start the actual build phase.

There's always some interesting stuff up there - this time an Uno Turbo, Escort, Bristol, and this rather weird and wonderful Beemer:



Until next time!

I've written before about the acceptance but frustration, of not having the skill set to repair bodywork to the standards needed. This led to the inevitable financial and emotional rollercoaster of car restoration which I'm sure many of us are all too familiar with! Project creep to say the least...

I'm pleased to say we're nearing the end of the first tunnel though! Bar some repairs to the lower of the sliding door (full of filler...quelle surprise) the fabrication chapter is nearly over. Bodyshop has done an awesome job to be fair.

The rear has had:

• Trailing arm mounts
• Sill strengthening repairs
• Rear arches both sides
• Rear valance
• Side panel repair
• Side panel electric hook up removed
• Engine bay closing panels both sides
• Rear seat belt mounts
• Rear arch closing panels both sides
• Battery closing trays both sides
• Sliding door frame rail repairs

It's back on its wheels and will be rolled off for paint prep end of the week. If everything goes to plan I should be able to collect my freshly painted, solid shell at the tail end of August.

Then I can gather all of my parts scattered around the bodyshop, take stock of everything I have/need, and take some control back of this resto. I've literally put every spare penny I have for the last couple of years into this and my wedding next month - I can't wait 

If you're still reading thanks for bearing with me!

Love this build,
It's going to be stunning when it's finished,
Nigel

2 years.... 2 damn long ol years since this trundled off to have a 'few patches welded up'.

Got sent some pictures over the weekend and I'm pleased to say the van is now one colour again and primed up. My Nardo Grey loving mate wasn't happy when I said I'd gone for the same colour as his RS3

Hopefully, the colour coat is being sprayed as we speak and I will be getting this back sometime later this month. By that time, I'll maybe have recovered from the cost of a new rot-free tailgate

Then the real work on my side can start...

Looking absolutely fantastic. 👍

I nearly bought a new “Kombi” one back in 1991, but the payments were eye-watering. My brother in law had an A reg panel van from new in ‘83, and by 1990 it was looking pretty scabby. I just couldn’t commit to the outlay on something that looked like it would take me longer to pay for than it was likely to last.