Many of you know how much we have always wanted a van. Our very own home on wheels.
After a year of long hard looking, trawling through internet posts and building up our mechanical knowledge best we could.
We can finally say we have our own lovely little van!!
So now our struggle is over (or just beginning) we hope that if you are looking for a van yourself maybe we can help shed some light on the task of old van hunting.
Buying a van for us has always been something we have wanted to do, We are always on the road travelling and camping so having a home on wheels means we can explore for longer and further without having to use campsites all the time.
Our first step was to choose a van and that part was easy as we have always wanted a VW T25. The reason being is we think they are very well designed, spacious and are possibly the best looking van ever made. At the start of our search we had a budget which was around £3000 which for a T25 is not much in terms of getting a decent usable van.
In the meantime whilst we saved we looked at many other options and vans to see which would suit us best from large jumbo Iveco van to smaller ford transit van that we could self build into a camper.
We looked at sprinter vans as they are large have lots of space and have a very good reputation of being one of the most reliable engines around some covering 300,000 plus. The downside for us was that they were all diesel which we thought may prove a problem in the future with the government here in the uk wanting to get rid of diesel cars from our roads plus we heard the parts are very expensive.
We then looked at the cheaper option of an Ldv convoy again being diesel but also having a petrol option made us think this would make a very good large camper.
It turns out after a lot of research that the poor old LDV has not got the best reputation for quality and the rear diff often fails meaning unless you have deep pockets you have to scrap your van. BUT Don't let this put you off the LDV though they are the cheapest van money can buy and are in fact rather good if they have been looked after.
After all the searching and researching the old t25 was always going to be the van we wanted so we started to save and research as much as we could so we could find a good quality van.
We researched, bodywork, engine problems, air cooled or water cooled engines and the different conversions made. We joined a very good club called club 80-90 these guys are incredible and very helpful on the forums helping with any problems you may have.
So what did we learn and how can we possibly help you in finding your very own van.
The first thing about the T25 is its bodywork, it is by far the most important part of the van even more so then the engine. These vans were first produced in Germany in 1979 and were the follow on of its predecessor the very famous VW T2.
The body work over the years has taken a beating and a small design flaw in the vans build means that water and grime gets in behind the vans seems and can not be cleaned back out causing the van to rust and rot from the inside out. This for us 40 years later means that most of these vans unless they were incredibly well looked after are going to have rust in some form or another.
The trick is when you look online is to learn where the most common rust spots are and start from there working your way around the pictures and seeing how bad the rust has become, remember this is from the inside out so if the rust looks bad it means that underneath could be a whole world of trouble.
The usual rust spots for a vw t25 are
Wheel arches
Fuel cap
Behind the fridge inside the van
Front window seal
cab steps
There are other locations but these are where you are most likely to see rust and it would not be uncommon to see it when viewing a van. One rule of buying a t25 is never buy a resprayed van unless they have pictures of the van before and the process they went through to make it look the way it dose now, even then its a very big risk.
This is because these vans are becoming very sort after and are worth anything from £3000 to £15000 and some people will filler there van not treat the rust and paint over it, this is just going to leave the new buyer with a whole list of problems and expense in the future as the rust will just rot the van away under the bodywork until it bubbles on the paintwork.
However a little bit of filler is to be expected and we would be very impressed if you found a van with none. Our method was to find a van that we could see the rust meaning we could judge how bad the rust was and if it could be treated without having to weld a new part on. Every time we found a van which looked all shiny and new we found it hard to see the rust problems and would move on only stopping if we could see a slightly rusty van, sounds crazy but believe us it works.
We are in the process of treating the rust on our van using Built hydrate 80 as the rust killer and Built electrox as the primer. We also removed all of the interior so that we could treat any rust inside.
We are lucky in the fact that our van has mostly surface rust but in one or two places did have some damage that in the past had been treated and filled properly, however this shows how tricky these vans our the hole above was just a small chip in the paintwork but on closer inspection it was a beast!
Another trick when you find a van online is to contact the seller and ask for a list of pictures such as wheel arches, sliding door, cab steps, under the van, engine and behind the fridge if possible. If the owner is happy to send the pictures and they are of good quality then more than likely being truthful and are not hiding anything where as if the owner just sends you a message saying come and view the van it is best avoided as all they want is for you to drive all that way and then buy the van. Believe us we have had it all.
Pictures taken like they just fell over, 'its at a friends house and i can't take pictures this week just come see it' other things to look out for 'Just needs some TLC' - turns out its been sitting in floodwater and TLC is the name of the boat to get it out. (obviously this isn't always the case)
With the body work out of the way its time to decide which model and engine you would like. The vw t25 was produced in Germany in the late 70s, and were all air-cooled until 1981 when they moved to a water cooled engine.
In our opinion and this may not be correct we wanted the water-cooled. the two engines have there ups and downs the air-cooled is far more simple then the water-cooled but because it is cooled by the air when you are driving it means being stuck in traffic and on very warm days there is a possibility you could overheat. They are also slower then the water-cooled so keeping up with modern traffic can be hard but all in all the air-cooled has a massive following and we have nothing against them at all.
The water-cooled also has problems with the introduction of coolent pipes that ran the entire length of the van to transport the coolent from the fan at the front to the back these often rot away and need to be replaced which is what we are doing on our van now with stainless steal ones.
There have been many conversions of the t25 from the westfalia to the devon, we have a westfalia these were made in germany and were the official company that VW used to convert the van into a camper van. they are all left hand drives and everything is in kolomiters but they are one of the only conversions which adults can sleep in the pop top roof as most other models were not made as strong.
The westfalia also has a lot of storage space and everything is fitted for convenience.
We looked for well over a year for our van and always wanted a pop top westfalia and were very lucky to be contacted by an 80-90s club member asking if we would be interested in buying his. We asked for pictures and he sent every one we asked for he gave us lots of information and was very trustworthy. we went to view the van and fell in love and handed over the money as he handed over the keys. this moment felt like it would never come we had spent hours looking at eBay and gumtree becoming obsessed and yes believe us you will become obsessed with looking sometimes checking every 5 minuets. But when the moment arrives where you finally buy your van all that hard work pays off.
When you buy your van it is only the first step, ours is a 1984 model so its 34 years old and we are slowly fixing any problems we find. Our first job was to give her a service so we changed the oil and filter, spark plugs, distributer cap and arm and the air filter. Lucky our fuel lines had already been changed and theses are very very important and should be the first job you do as soon as you get your van as if they have perished there is always a chance it can set your beloved van on fire. This is more common in the air-cooled.
It is also advisable to change out the fuel tank as the design of the tank often means they rot through so the fuel tank and lines were our first port of call
We painted our fuel tank with rustolum combi colour and decided it best to let a professional fit it as it is a dangerous job as it involves fuel.
With these old vans it will take you a while to find all its problems unfortunately we overlooked one and broke down, yes this is real van life not like the ones you often see on the internet with half naked people laying on there van roof. Not that we are saying there is anything wrong with sitting half naked on your van roof but its most defiantly not like that most of the time.
Our water pump decided that after 34 years it was time to retire which is not that bad for its age but not that good for our poor engine so we are currently fixing the new water pump onto the van and will be on the road again soon enough. This is real van life you will break down but you get to meet some amazing people, when we broke down we had no way of getting a tow home that night but luckily a family who owned a farm just by the side of the road said we were welcome to keep the van there for the night until we could get a tow home
It made us think that there are infact some amazing people in the world and we are excited to meet many more like minded people on our travels.
We have named our van Piglet as we thing she looks like a little pig so if you see us and piglet on the road give us a wave and if you see us wild camping come and say hello and if you are a van owner such as us we would love to meet up and hang out under the stars drinking tea.
We have big plans for piglet as we hope to have her as our home on wheels living and travelling the country, the adventure has defiantly begun.
