Invest in repair or fresh import

[moesymoe]

Hi,

We have a mazda bongo (Walter 99 2.5 v6) that we bought from the previous owner in Bristol in 2016, and brought it back over to Ireland pre brexit and have had many many amazing adventures since.

The original conversion was done by allans garage in Plymouth (that i see has sadly closed back in 2023) with the following general details
- side conversion, rock and roll bed, fridge/2xgas hob, and electrics relay splitter in the back.
- Captains seat passenger seat.
- Some bodywork detail

We're at 160k miles. Rust has become an increasing concern and there is work required along both sills, rear & front arches. There are also some niggling issues, engine leaking some oil, emissions not great, transmission not as clean as it once was, ac compressor recently failed, radiator has been replaced etc.

My options are to either
1) invest in a big rust job and continue to keep other issues at bay or
2) look at importing a good condition, unconverted, bongo from Japan and try to convert here. The challenge is that there are no bongo conversion specialists here where there are obviously lots in the uk.

I am wondering how feasible it might be to transfer the side conversion we currently have to a new unconverted bongo. I'd need some help to do it but I don't know how transferable the existing conversion is.

Would anyone be able to comment on whether this is possible?
What might be some major challenges i'd face (e.g. are the parts of the conversion that were only designed to be installed permanently and cannot be undone)?

I appreciate this is a vague question but any insight would be a massive help for me to decide which path to take.

I can share pictures if it would help to understand any specifics of our current conversion.

Thanks in advance!

[g8dhe]

Have you seen any new imports listed for sale? The numbers have reduced a lot in the last few years, as they are getting quite rare I believe even in Japan! Also be certain that they are "new" imports and not one imported and already run for several years over here, in which case you may find that salt has already penetrated the chassis which will be difficult to spot without a very detailed inspection.

[moesymoe]

I've only had an initial look but it does look like there are some options on the japanese auction sites with reasonable mileage. I'm not sure how this compares to years past. I have a contact over in Japan that I plan to work with to check the vehicle before committing to import.

Thanks for your reply.

[g8dhe]

Worth having a search relating to Imports and the SVA testing needed maybe also for importers as there are some catches when doing it yourself you may need to be aware of! search.php?keywords=importing+SVA&terms ... mit=Search