Afternoon all, I'm new to the forum so greetings to all. I'm looking for some advice from the off so hope you can help.

Having restored an early bay over a 2yr period, only to lose it to an engine fire last year, I'm now looking to replace it with a split. I've looked at a few but one last Monday has caught my eye.

It has a fresh MOT but has been patched in several places underneath. A few pics of the worst areas follow but I'd like to know what those in the know think? There are a few that have been tacked on rather than seam welded (those that are seam welded are new repairs due to advisory notes from the MOT tester). Some of them appear simple to put right but there are a couple that I'm unsure of? General opinions and comments welcome.

Offside front wheelarch:


Offside front crossmember


Offside front chassis rail


Offside cab floor


nearside rear crossmember


nearside front wheelarch


nearside front inner valance


nearside front cross member


Thanks.

The only one i'm not sure about is the chassis rail, all the others are do-able with good repro panels from autocraft or similar

I agree with Gnarly although all the ones that have been seam welded look like good repairs..

The only thing that would concern me is the amount of underseal and fresh paint everywhere... looks great but could be hiding a hell of a lot more..

The only way to be sure would be to remove the black underseal paint stuff. The repairs look not too bad, but if you're worried strip it back and have a looksy.

Also depends how much you're desperate to use it. Once you start stripping back......!!!!!! I think you could happily use as is for now, especially with the summer just round the corner.

Good luck, and don't be afraid of posting more pics for advice. There's lots of helpful folk on here.

Welcome to the forum!

echo what everyone else says......

the nearside front wheelarch repair look particularly bad.... I would say its only tacked because they couldn't seam weld to the old metal as its in a poor state! It is very differcult to judge from pics alone but the one on the chassis also looks like a poor quality repair

apart from that welcome to the forum

Be careful why not get it up on some ramps and have a real good poke about, the black sticky stuff scares me. Go and have a look in rides and projects and see what can happen

Darren

Did you MOT it yourself ? If not why not pop it down to an MOT station that knows about old VWs and get them to give it the once over, pre mot check sort of. Ok the repairs aren't pretty but if the MOT man says ok why not leave em for now, enjoy the Bus and tackle em one at a time, won't cost you an arm and a leg then and cost can be spread over the year, well until the next MOT ....good luck........

I think he's only veiwing the bus to buy.. or at least thats the way I read it.

agree with above, good (quality) repairs dont need hiding behind loads of muck.
where the seam welds have only been blown over lightly, which you can see. The ones which look like they have had loads of muck on them would make you think twice(if your paying out your hard earned) what are they hiding...

Look at the work which people have done on the 'rides and projects' on here to see the standard of repairs needed to preserve a split.

It can be rectified but at a cost, which should be considered on the price asked.

The other thing that srpings to mind is that the effort involved in patching some of those repairs like the cross members is quite a bit... then why not replace the entire cross member, that way you dont get suspect patches, you get a clean panel that needs a lick of paint..

Thanks for the replies people. I am indeed looking at it with a view to buying. The MOT was done by the seller locally to him in Cambridge, I'm based on the south coast so taking it for another test isn't really an option unfortunately. Waxoyl covering patches always makes me suspicious but he hasn't done the whole van? Having prodded and poked and with a magnet on the repairs all seems to be solid? The chassis rail is my main concern too, as it looks awkward to get to for any further repairs? Anybody else had to repair this section before and know what is involved?

Thanks for the welcome and advice. Look forward to joining you in the ranks of splitscreen ownership!