Rusty

Rusty

Why a VW T25?
Val and I have camped throughout our lives.  Our kids loved it too, but they are long gone. We have camped under canvas on only a few occasions since we retired in 2004. We planned it this way, see the world, then, when we were older and less willing to put up with cramped aeroplanes and crowded airports, stick closer to home and enjoy camping again in Britain, Ireland and the near Continent.  

I have always wanted a camper of some sort because I have observed from the comments of friends and family that huge high Motorhomes can be a pain.  We tried our sons 1990s Hymer at a couple of festivals and found it comfy and fun, but, a big Motorhome like that won't fit on our drive very easily, so if we wanted anything for ourselves it had to be a camper.  A neighbour has a short wheelbase T5, we looked at it, it seemed very cramped and he admitted it was too, with an uncomfortable rear seat. It put us off looking at Campers for a long time. I got quite excited about Bongos, but they are even worse, the beds are very narrow and they seemed too claustrophobic.

I had Triumph Stag for 10 years and have always enjoyed Classic Motoring, so a Camper from an earlier era rings my bell.  We had a holiday home in Cornwall for 10 years and on our way down there from Oxfordshire we often observed all the old VWs spluttering along at a snail's pace, that and the eye watering prices ruled out splitties and bays.  

We appreciated that might not actually like Campers so we were reluctant to spend from £20 to £50 grand on a T5 or T6 and then sell with a large price drop in 3 years or so. Something decent under £10 grand seemed sensible. Hard to lose lots of money when you haven't spent much.

You can see where I am headed…. the compact, fit in a car park slot, internally spacious Classic VW T25.  My German friend Georg agreed “The T3 Bulli is the best”. When we got Rusty the T25 my T5 neighbour came round got in, tried the seat, saw all the space and said with a grin that he was a bit jealous.  I must add he hasn't been out in it!

So that's how we got here, our next instalment will be the story old Rusty so far (a 1980 T25 Air Cooled Devon Moonraker)

T25 - Space, Grace, no Pace but a bit of Style!

Rusty (he was, but he aint now!)

So, my search for a T25 began in Spring 2017, Spring is the worst time to buy pricewise!  I discovered the 80-90 Club which has a massive Wiki covering every aspect of Vans and the excellent T25/T3 info site.  This armed me with a lot of information on what to look out for. Bodywork was the most important area with specific information on potential areas of rust.  The early air cooled engines were said to be the least troublesome but thirstier. So I started searching on Ebay and Gumtree. I wish I had known about Facebook because that's where most vans seem to get advertised and where owners are proactive in helping one another out.  There were quite a few half decent looking vans advertised at the £10 grand plus mark but I thought this was too much.

Then, I spotted Rusty on Gumtree, a pretty original 1980 Devon Moonraker, bodywork looked good, air cooled engine, great looking interior and upholstery.  Looked at all the points underneath seemed solid enough, started and ran ok, drove ok (it was the first one I had seen and driven). First and Second gears were a bit difficult.  I was told this was the clutch if I was bothered. The previous owner had fitted a reconditioned engine, it had been resprayed a year ago and reupholstered. Rusty had 11 months MOT.

I negotiated the price down £1500 to £6250 which left me with £1500 to sort the clutch with a fair bit in hand. “Hard pushed to find one in this condition at this price” was the Gumtree description.  How right that turned out to be!

Drove Rusty home with little difficulty and rang Dave at the Garage to book Rusty in for the new clutch and a general look over. Dave had been a VW apprentice in 1980, he knows these vans backwards.  Took Rusty in and later got the fateful phone call. “You had better come over and look at this” Oh dear, long faces. “Have I bought a pup? “ Apparently Rusty was riven with rust underneath. “It should never have passed its MOT” said Dave.  “It's dangerous! “ I asked whether I should cut my losses? I was advised that there was a lot of work to do to make Rusty safe and advised to have it sorted it in stages. New Sills, new sliding door track, and a new spring mounting were required at a parts cost of £500. In addition new gas struts for the rear door which could fall on your head, new roof gas struts, flywheel skim, the clutch, pilot bearing, crankshaft oil seal, new ball joints and many hours of welding.  That turned out to be just for starters……

Rusty wasn't too Rusty any more and he was ready to rock!

When I got Rusty back home I set about sorting Rusty's interior.  There was no water from the tap in the sink. This turned out be because there was no power supply.  Obviously water was required with ignition off so I installed a 12v fused power supply direct to the battery complete with some lighter sockets as a power supply to my cool box. I also installed a 240v socket as an alternative power supply to the cool box. I purchased a basket weave square seat from Homebase which was an excellent replacement for the missing buddy seat.  

On a visit to Decathlon I spotted an excellent air tube awning, the Air Seconds Base, quick to pitch and erect it would make an excellent spacious addition to Rusty for longer stays.

We were ready to go, but before we went anywhere I wanted to try an overnight stay somewhere nearby to see that we had all the right gear in place.

Carry on Camping

Rather than charge off camping and discover we had missed something vital we decided to head off for a Sunday Lunchtime drink in Rusty at the Black Horse pub in nearby Checkendon and stay overnight in the pubs field.  So that's what we did. After a generous liquid lunch we drove into the sloping field and put the awning up and spent a relaxed afternoon with a bottle of wine and a sandwich.

Evening meal consisted of a Spag Bol we had brought from home.  We went bed to the sound of a chorus of different owls in this remote country location. All was well.

Later that week we set off to attend the first night of Dorsets End of the Road Festival for a single night.  That was when the trouble started! Rusty lost his tickover. If you have ever tried driving something with no tickover its a nightmare!  As you halt in traffic the engine dies. You are frightened to take your foot off the accelerator and haul on the handbrake to stop. The engine dies frequently.  Our journey involved the dreaded A303 queue at Stonehenge. The queue was a pain. At last we moved off and got onto the single carriageway but right opposite Stonehenge the engine died and Rusty stopped dead.  Desperately I got my auxiliary battery and repeatedly tried to start the engine without success. Raising the engine hatch didn't help I was unfamiliar with the engine. So we called the rescue. Explaining where we were to Mr Rescue brought forth a groan “ not in that queue! ‘  Meanwhile monster trucks were taking it in turn to get around us. Then a nice lady Police Officer turned up to look after us. I phoned our daughter who was appearing that night at the Festival to say it looked like we weren't coming. But.. Rescue man arrived, towed us up the road to a layby, dived into the engine hatch and found a loose wire “whats this? “. It was the power to the petrol pump! Crimping the spade terminal more tightly and pushing it home Rusty burst into life.  We were off again and reached the Festival a couple of hours late. On the way we noted another broken down T25 at the side of the road with another trying to help. I dared not stop.

Camping that night in a rather dank spot was a bit chilly. Later on that evening after her performance we met a guy chatting to my daughter, it turned out to be Doc Brown the Actor and Comedian who also came in his T25 and also broke down missing his Comedy slot at the Festival.  Fortunately he broke down at a petrol station which harboured a Marks and Spencer Simply Food. I was beginning to understand the T25 scene a bit better…

Later next day we reached home after a fraught journey, throttle and handbrake… I tried my best to cure the tickover but it was no use.  Rusty was off to Uncle Dave’s again…

Rusty's Motor and more stuff. .
The engine was a bit of a mystery to me and the faults were a mystery to Dave too. He couldnt make Rusty tick over consistently. So, the carbs were stripped and cleaned, they were loose with no gaskets, the distributor was actually loose, its baseplate rivets allowing it to move, the throttle cross shaft was broken. So the distributor baseplate was rerivetted as a replacement couldnt be sourced, choke housing gaskets were made and fitted. Ekectronic points were fitted and the engine tuned. It now ran perfectly except the heads were leaking oil. The source of the leak were the pushrod seals so they were all replaced. On this occasion the opportunity to replace the front wheel bearings and the steering rack mounting bushes. There are always things to replace on a T25, another £300 of parts. By now we had a bill exceeding £3 grand in total but confidence in Rusty was growing.
It was evident that getting Rusty's engine easily was important and replacing the rather shoddy collection of plywood that served as a bed base was a priority, so I made this. .

The new series of hatches gave excellent access to the engine and plenty of organised storage in seperate compartments. 

A Salutory Lesson? 

Looking back on it I got carried away with Rusty, I got stars in my eyes and bought the first thing I saw. I have done that before with our house in Cornwall but never regretted it. I didn't look hard enough at Rusty before I parted with my money and wasn't critical enough. Rusty had obviously had some TLC, a paint job, re upholstery but had had extensive fibreglass to get through an MOT. The seller seemed nice, genuine, was he dishonest or not very mechanically minded I shall never know? Judge for yourself Here's the original ad With a T25 you obviously have to go armed with the right knowledge and spend time making yourself aware of potential problems.

However, I know from owning my Stag that you have to be prepared to regularly spend money on any Classic, its the equivalent of what you spend on depreciation on any modern car. Also, theres a lot of extra expense in a bare Camper, all the bits and pieces you have to buy - cookware, cutlery, the awning, a sun canopy, mains lead, a cooler in my case, it goes on and on.

Conclusion?

I am not dwelling on all the trials and troubles but just looking forward to all the trips that together with Rusty we will enjoy. Its been a lot of fun tinkering up til now. I am going to build a decent coolbox this afternoon and I must fix that leak around the skylight!