New Toy [Warning: Pic Heavy]

[stuzbot]

Stuz are you going to give up on cruisers or going to reinvest the money in another one and be more aware to look for price reduction problems be a big shame to lose you and your thought provoking tales of woe

I think I'll probably give up on Collies and newer models... unless some miraculous 'barn find' or rust-dodging Japanese import comes to life. If I had my time over again [and we all know hindsight is 40/40], I'd probably have done things differently.

The story so far is:

I had a VW T3 Syncro, which I loved, but I'd pretty much spent all my piggy bank on it. So had no spare cash to ever improve it any. I could just about keep on top of the maintenance to keep it roadworthy. I decided to sell that and get a Land Cruiser instead as there was a lot more choice and lots seemed pretty reasonably priced. So I sold my Syncro for just over £7000. At which point I could have [should have?] seen if I could score an 80 Series for around that sum. But then I'd have been in the same boat again. Got a motor I really wanted but no money left if anything went wrong or needed fixing up.

Instead I bought my Collie for £3500. Thinking that, being a couple of grand to the good still, I could then invest that in making improvements and really bringing the Collie up to a good standard. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case, it turned out to be in a worse state than I picked up on during my inspection [for which I will be permanently cringing with embarrassment]. If it was just mechanical problems, I'd keep it and work through those, as engine and drive gear seem great [It even has a working difflock --which must be a rarity] and, being a VX it has all the cool gadgets. But I know from previous experience that, once the tin worm gets a hold of a vehicle, you're fighting a rearguard action from then on. So, rather than pour more money into it, I'm going to have to bite the bullet, walk away, take the massive financial kick in the knackers and chalk this one up to experience.

+1. Stay with us Stuz.
Apart from anything else, your good humour in the face of one big problem after another, is an inspiration to us all. Would you be better selling while it still has an mot, although though the problems are still there, someone could drive it away ?

'You gotta laugh or you'd cry' --that's always been my motto. I'll probably sell it with a week's MOT left on it for that very reason.

 

[BobMurphy]

Its gone very quiet - has Stuz actually left us ?

Damn shame if he has, he was forming up to be a regular character that we could all get along with and have a good laugh with.

I hope he finds what he's looking for, but these trucks are old and have had a hard life, there aren't any affordable pristine ones about these days !

I think the Taliban have all the rust-free ones .

Bob.

 

[Lancashire Cruiser]

They haven’t got mine yet Bob ;-)

 

[stuzbot]

Its gone very quiet - has Stuz actually left us ?

Damn shame if he has, he was forming up to be a regular character that we could all get along with and have a good laugh with.

Never fear, Bob! I'm still here to entertain you all with my mishaps. Just got a bit of a last minute rush job on this week. So I've been a bit too busy to bother with the motor.

 

[BobMurphy]

Excellent ! - The show goes on .

Bob.

 

[stuzbot]

Back on the subject of chassis rail design decisions and rot...

I was looking through my photos earlier tonight for something and randomly happened to come across some pics I took of the underside of my VW Syncro, when I was selling it.

Just look at how VW's approach to chassis rails differs from Toyota's. For a start, they're U-shaped, so open at the top but the floor above is louvred so there's plenty of room for air to circulate and dry things out. Likewise look at the size of those drain holes. There's almost more hole than metal. Similar story on the cross-member, albeit with not quite so airy drainage.

That was a 29 year old truck and there's not a piece of rot on the chassis and not even that much surface rust. Just goes to show you that, if a chassis is designed so that water can't pool anywhere, it can last 30 years without any issues.

 

[Grimbo]

I think VW may have used better steel to start with.....
Small point....that's not a chassis ...it's a monocoque body so the sills etc are structural members....impressive lack of rust though .