Pricing my bus project help (1975 Westy) rust, engine, etc.

[andrewtf]

judging from the photos, my bus was very much in the 'mikedjames' category of bus when I bought it...........which is several steps above yours. It was fairly well eaten on the bottom all the way around.

look here:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=659925&highlight=

My bus looks pretty good in the first few photos.
But..............................

My bus was nearly 2 years in the body shop and I will not tell you how much it cost. But a lot of labor can be used up in two years.

My advice.....listen to the advice you have been given
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'75 Riviera - 'BIG EMMA' (Pan American highway trip paused for a make over)
'77 Riviera - Murphy' (being reborn.... slowly)
'63 Austin Healey

[JaimeH]

[ImAddicted]

I’ll agree with everyone here. Living in the rusty north, what we think of “too rusted” to touch is different than say Arizona, and man, that’s too rusted to fix and still be able to eat. Pick it up cheap, strip the good stuff off it. Use the carcass to learn how to weld. Watch for a stripped shell to use as a platform for your bus. I know Randy’s up here in Maine had some sitting around, not sure if he would part with them but pretty sure everything he has, has a price if pushed. What you don’t want to do is disappear out of deflated hopes. Stick around, network with people, learn. You’d be surprised at the helpfulness and generosity of the people here. Your bus is out there someplace waiting for you. This one just isn’t it.
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1979 Transporter (sold)
KC1MUR

[Jrh5r]

I’ll try to give you boost of encouragement. Anything is possible with enough money. My parents had been saving their 73 bay for me since I was a child. I am literally just finishing it up. It’s out of paint. Reassembled everything. I did all of the body work myself, rebuilt the engine, etc. This gal looks pretty rusty at some critical points, but almost any thing is fixable. Dig deep and save up. Learn how to do bodywork and engine work, that’ll go far. I can’t emphasize enough, plan to spend a lot of money and time. My project is over and I’d do it again. Cheers and good luck

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[mikedjames]

I bought a bus for £6000

Spent £5000 on the bottom 6 inches - professional
Spent £1000 on a recon engine - DIY build
Spent £4500 on the rockers a few years later - professional
Spent £2500 on a new engine - professional build
Spent £1000 on the nose this year - DIY job
And probably another £5000 on passing MOT annual inspections in the UK.

Its worth .. maybe £12000 now.
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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy

[Abscate]

Executive summary

It seems like a lot of beginners have a time/ money swap mentality, that is, somehow you can fix RustyBus cheaply with considerable time invested.

This is refuted by experience. You need both time and money, $x0,000s , to fix a rust bucket.
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.ssS!

[mikedjames]

And also a place to store the bus and valuable tools while you work on it, or neighbours and weather conditions that are tolerant if you work outside.

The number of residents rules I broke fixing my bus is fairly large. Fortunately all my neighbours also break them.

A fair number of people manage to grind down relationships with neigbours as they get through angle grinder disks outside.

Fortunately I managed to avoid these two :

* No hovercraft. ( I live on the site of an Avro factory where all kinds of aviation wierdness appeared - a succesful autogyro was prototyped here for instance) . 11 years ago they hauled a Catalina up a nearby flying boat slipway from the sea after it crashed ..
* No Keeping poultry

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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy

[Jason0115]

[Jason0115]

[Abscate]

[my59]

[Abscate]

I have a picture of me in my Bus in the attic, in code L666, Dorian Gray
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.ssS!

[my59]

[ImAddicted]

[60vwnewengland]

Agree with everyone else, that’s definitely a parts bus. Take out the interior, ask the parents if you can store it in the rafters of their garage or attic. Pull the motor and Transmission and take it apart learn from there.

I recently bought a bus off the side of the road, was in decent shape so I fixed it up. Lemme give you an idea of some of the costs I had:
Bus-$1300
Brake components - $700
Rear backing plates - $80
Shocks - $120
Brazilian pistons and cylinders - $800
Rebuilt heads - $750
Engine parts, seals, gaskets, and FI components - $900
Rebuild Bosch Glenn Ring Distributor - $200
New Bosch alternator - $140
New tires - $450
New wheel bearings - $80
New cvs and axles - $225
New gas tank - $220
New gas tank hoses and fuel line - $120
New battery - $120

And this is with no rust repair. Expect another few thousand for taking care of the rusty parts.

Do yourself a favor and save up for a decent bus that’s not a rusty basket case.
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77 Westy - Cape Cod Sage
LLAP

[Cap10323]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UZ-D98PCUucII0hZjxOPU9TS-iMKvmZk/view

This photo tells the whole story.


I agree with Skills, this is a parts bus. This one is not economical to repair.

Strip it for every usable or sellable part, and find a more solid shell.
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-Ian

'77 Westfalia - 2.0 F.I

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[CanStan]

[Jason0115]