Rusty bottom

Hello Everyone,
The problem with the leaky drain plug solved, (still can't believe it and keep checking) I am now hoping for some words if wisdom regarding dreaded rust.
At our last MOT, our 1996 Harmony only passed after several patches were welded to her undercarriage by our helpful garage. The very bad news is that she will never pass her next MOT without having a whole new underneath, they say. 
This will be a major expense, and given our age (78 and 79) and our Harmony's we are wondering what to do.
We have a few months to think about it, but would welcome your views and advice, as I know from reading other member's queries, this is a problem with Boxers of this vintage.
Hope lots of you are away in your cherished 'vans enjoying this weather.
Gran

It's a problem that a lot of us have had to face, and there is no simple answer I'm sorry to say. For a start it's difficult to know whether the garage is exaggerating the scale of the work - they sometimes do that if it's too complex and they don't want the work!

In reality all you can do is take to a number of body repair places and see what they quote. It's seldom financially better to sell as an MOT failure, and a well repaired van will sell for a ~lot~ more than a ratty one - but of course you need to stump up a lot of cash to get it there.

I should add that I recommend taking it to general car body repair shops, ~not~ camper van "specialists". You will typically pay a large premium at the latter, but the work is likely to be exactly the same for either...

Gran wrote:
At our last MOT, our 1996 Harmony only passed after several patches were welded to her undercarriage by our helpful garage. The very bad news is that she will never pass her next MOT without having a whole new underneath, they say. 
This will be a major expense, and given our age (78 and 79) and our Harmony's we are wondering what to do.
We have a few months to think about it, but would welcome your views and advice, as I know from reading other member's queries, this is a problem with Boxers of this vintage.

Hi Gran,
My van is a '95 Symphony based on a Boxer like yours.
I've had to have welding done around the rear outriggers and I've had the front jacking points repaired. I've also done bits of welding myself, but on the whole, the chassis is pretty sound, I believe most Boxers are.
I would get another garage / bodyshop to have a look at it and give their opinion, it could be, as Mojo suggests, they don't want the work.

Another thing to bear in mind is that a certain part which is rusty might not be 'important' to the strength of the van, but the position of the corrosion means it would cause a failure.
As a true example of this, my van failed the MOT last time due to corrosion on the outer sill within a prescribed area. The sill itself is not a structural part of the chassis - according to my MOT bloke BUT  it was corroded within 12" of the drivers seat belt mounting, which caused a fail. I could have patched it up with fibreglass and it would have passed, but that's by the by.

If someone said it "will never pass her next MOT without having a whole new underneath" to me I would just regard that as a ridiculous exaggeration, walk away and go elsewhere. If it was that bad, it should not have passed this time.

Hope lots of you are away in your cherished 'vans enjoying this weather.

Gran

Pouring down here  

Frank

-mojo- wrote:It's a problem that a lot of us have had to face, and there is no simple answer I'm sorry to say. For a start it's difficult to know whether the garage is exaggerating the scale of the work - they sometimes do that if it's too complex and they don't want the work!

I should add that I recommend taking it to general car body repair shops, ~not~ camper van "specialists".

Sound advice!

I once took a punt on a camper which i knew had no MOT, but the price was right. I knew i'd need to spend money to get it sorted but the Garage i took it to wrote it off as scrap....but one of the mechanics slipped me a gem. He told me of a small one man welding business who might take it on. It was in the next town only a few miles away. He spent ages going over everything before telling me he could do it but he'd need the van for at least a week and it would cost me £500....and he'd get it mot'd! I snapped his hand off!!

That was over ten years ago and i've long since sold it on yet it's still registered on the MOT database as taxed and mot'd. A testament to that guys welding and proof the original Garage i took it to simply didn't want the job.

So "Gran", follow mojo's advice and take my own experience as an example and you won't go far wrong. Try a small independent. Good luck.

I would agree with all advice so far, it's very unlikely that your van is beyond repair, my advice to anyone buying an older van is to find a good local garage/bodyshop, there are still plenty around, some of the back Street mechanics are still 'old school' and are much happier working on older cars and vans.
I am fortunate that my '97 symphony is pretty much rust free but I have a local mechanic who will undertake any job on any van or car at a fraction of the price of the average larger garage and do an excellent job.


Dave

Hello and thanks to all of you for these very upbeat replies.
I guessed that no one belonging to this great forum would be likely to give up on their 'van without a darned good reason!
We do love our Harmony. She replaced the campervan we had stolen from our drive and we decided then that she was our forever van. Thanks to your helpful suggestions, we'll be looking and asking around for one of these clever people who can deal with the repairs needed before the next MOT. If we do have to part with her it will be because we aren't fit to drive her and we hope that is still some way off! Thank you. Gran

That's the spirit gran.

John.

Hi Gran, just a thought, where about in West Kent are you? I might we able to point you at a good welder that's reasonable.

Good luck, Mike