AutoSleeper Frisky

Hi Everyone,

A relation of mine has just aquired a 1988 Ford Transit 2.0 petrol- Auto Sleeper Frisky with a pop top roof, providing 4 berths.

The camper is in reasonable condition for its age, however is in need of some TLC.

It comes with lots of history inc many years of MOT's, 80,000 miles on the clock. It even has the original Auto Sleeper crockery set.

Main causes of concern are with the Transit itself, where it is starting to rot and rust. it needs cills, front wings, probably new front doors and possibly rear doors.

If these were re-newed does anyone have any idea of what a camper of this age would be worth?

Also he is thinking of having a re-spray, however has an urge to change its colour to silver, would this be OK, or is it best to leave it as an Auto Sleeper colour??

Any advice would be most welcome, as we are both newbies to motorhomes, I do own a touring caravan, however this is the 1st step of any type of touring by my relation.

I'm sure we will be on here with many other questions about the Frisky and general motorhome questions over the next few months.

Many Thanks,
Andrew.

It's impossible to know without looking at it.

But the fact is that body repairs - if done properly - are incredibly expensive, and for a typical vehicle of that age, will exceed its value when repaired. You only have to look at classic car repairs - where the final value of the vehicle is much higher than any camper van - to see that buying a car that someone else has rebuilt is ~always~ a better bet than buying a basket case cheaply.

If not done properly, body repairs (a.k.a. bodywork bodges) are not worth doing unless you want a quick sale and can find a mug buyer.

The problem is not parts cost. Front and rear wheel arches can be had for less than £20 each. It's the labour that will be the killer.

Full respray in a different colour? Don't even think about it.

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with the previous post. At that age I would only consider a repair job if I intended to hang on to the vehicle for quite a long time (5+ years) and virtually run it to the scrap-yard.

Enjoy.

Best regards,

Thanks, Guys - for your comments, I think he still intends to carry out the repairs as he fancies himself a project. He has said he doesn't intend selling the van, but hang on to it for a while.

I have tried to put him off a re-spray into a different colour of which he is thinking about.

Again Thanks, and no doubt I will have more questions soon.


Cheers
Andrew.

it's always worth trying to retain the standard Auto-Sleeper appearance, once you lose coach stripes / decals and alter colours it will devalue the van enormously, the value is in the Auto-Sleeper brand otherwise it's just an old transit camper van