VeeDubMan2
Active member
Here's the story.
We were travelling around the World for a year between 2004 and 2005 and thought it would be a great idea to come back to the UK and get a camper van to travel around in when we got back (no house to come back to) so we could visit friends and family before having to go back to work.
India was our last stop, and having settled on an early bay, we set about looking on ebay every night while in Goa, and this one came up. We bribed the internet cafe to stay open until midnight for us as, because of the time difference, the auction was ending well into the night Indian time. Against our better judgement (having not even seen the van in the flesh), we battled hard and this 1971 Dormobile (for £5K!) and dreamed off those days getting back to the UK and cruising around visiting people.
These are some of the original ebay ad pics:
So, we arrived back at Heathrow and the following day, went up to Ellesmere Port to pick it up...and was instantly disappoited. The paintwork was nowhere near as good as in the pics (overspray on rubbers etc.) and I could see suspect areas of rust and filler. My heart sank. It sank even more when a big end went on the way back home, meaning a rebuild on my Mum and Dads drive.
Things then got progressively worse. It was obvious then that we'd been well and truly had (either intentionally or not) but a full resto then became the main focus as whatever we touched either fell to pieces or crumbled away...here are a couple of what we've had to do:
This was the worst one of all. Newspaper and filler...and to make it worse, April 1st 2005 was the date on the newspaper!
Belly pans and out-riggers:
Lower front panel - what a water trap!
All of the pics are on Photobucket http://s1374.photobucket.com/user/veedubmanUK/slideshow/ and I'll post some more later of where we are now, as the van is now in primer at MNC Autos (next to Beetle Link in Farnham).
Moral of the story, don't buy a car un-seen on ebay.
We were travelling around the World for a year between 2004 and 2005 and thought it would be a great idea to come back to the UK and get a camper van to travel around in when we got back (no house to come back to) so we could visit friends and family before having to go back to work.
India was our last stop, and having settled on an early bay, we set about looking on ebay every night while in Goa, and this one came up. We bribed the internet cafe to stay open until midnight for us as, because of the time difference, the auction was ending well into the night Indian time. Against our better judgement (having not even seen the van in the flesh), we battled hard and this 1971 Dormobile (for £5K!) and dreamed off those days getting back to the UK and cruising around visiting people.
These are some of the original ebay ad pics:
So, we arrived back at Heathrow and the following day, went up to Ellesmere Port to pick it up...and was instantly disappoited. The paintwork was nowhere near as good as in the pics (overspray on rubbers etc.) and I could see suspect areas of rust and filler. My heart sank. It sank even more when a big end went on the way back home, meaning a rebuild on my Mum and Dads drive.
Things then got progressively worse. It was obvious then that we'd been well and truly had (either intentionally or not) but a full resto then became the main focus as whatever we touched either fell to pieces or crumbled away...here are a couple of what we've had to do:
This was the worst one of all. Newspaper and filler...and to make it worse, April 1st 2005 was the date on the newspaper!
Belly pans and out-riggers:
Lower front panel - what a water trap!
All of the pics are on Photobucket http://s1374.photobucket.com/user/veedubmanUK/slideshow/ and I'll post some more later of where we are now, as the van is now in primer at MNC Autos (next to Beetle Link in Farnham).
Moral of the story, don't buy a car un-seen on ebay.
