Bongo Fury

Mine has a 2-3mm layer of waxoyl over Hammerite painted all over. Just hope I got to all the bits of it. I hope that keeps it ok, it looks fine the Waxoyl is so thick it does not look like any has come off. Nice to see the photos documenting the extensive repair job.

More images uploaded to photo thingy. Can anyone ID the green square box on the os quarter panel c post?

You are a class bloke Ady!

Jo xx

Bongolia wrote:http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/Bongo ... t=3&page=1
Is that it?

Hope that vehicle was cheap cheap, good to see its now off the road. was it sold with a recent MOT.

Good Luck.

rita wrote:

Bongolia wrote:http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/Bongo ... t=3&page=1
Is that it?

Hope that vehicle was cheap cheap, good to see its now off the road. was it sold with a recent MOT.

Good Luck.

Well it depends what you mean by cheap cheap Rita. It had an MOT in March with no advisories, hence the comments further up regarding the garage I used. It had gone to a body shop as well to have an inspection prior to being taken off the road this winter for renovation and they didn't report anything like this either. It was sold needing work however I had no idea it was this extensive, as I'd obviously not stripped it and the "professionals" I'd taken it to hadn't alerted me to anything like this. The price was adjusted downwards from a minter, taking off the jobs I knew needed doing. When it's so difficult to put a value on a Bongo it seemed logical.

Yes its quite amazing why the experts /motor engineers / body shop did not detect any of these serious problems, a lot of it is down to the fact that they don't want to put the Overalls on and get their nails dirty. Its always best to take an experienced person as an assistant with you when inspecting a vehicle you intend to purchase.


Good Luck.

[quote="Northern Bongolow"]im highlighting this really to show how its easy to miss this sort of corrosion, the crossmember itself didnt look too bad when quick looking, the bongo had passed an mot test quite recently,
as the mot screwdriver stab test isnt allowed any more if its buried behind the front grill/bumper and hidden under the intercooler scoop it can be hard to access. this one was obvious when the coolant radiator fell out then pushed the intercooler scoop down near the floor.

There are bits of it still on Jo and Chris's front garden.

Bongolia wrote:More images uploaded to photo thingy. Can anyone ID the green square box on the os quarter panel c post?

looks like a tv coaxial cable joiner or splitter, the jap love busses usually have mobile tv and a couple of roof aerials on the rear end of the van.

rita wrote:Yes its quite amazing why the experts /motor engineers / body shop did not detect any of these serious problems, a lot of it is down to the fact that they don't want to put the Overalls on and get their nails dirty. Its always best to take an experienced person as an assistant with you when inspecting a vehicle you intend to purchase.


Good Luck.

Take your point but is it really so amazing, when time is money, the problem is hidden, the owner will query the bill and they are only required to follow certain standard procedures? I find myself thinking the most thorough investigator is likely to be the savvy hobbyist/restorer who wants to root out all problem areas and fix them and who isn't costing their time. I'll bet there are a good number of smart looking Bongos with hidden corrosion and whose owners would be disappointed to learn of it.

As usual Mike you are on the ball

I think you had a wee chin wag with Roosmith a wee while back about his vehicles problems.

Quote.....

"With regards to your comments Mike about 20 year old Bongos needing work, I agree completely but they do need a lot more work than other vehicles of the same age that I currently own or have owned. It's just getting frustrating. We constantly come to the cross roads of spend lots more moneyor get something else. We commit and then come up against something else. We've committed to all rust work and waxoyling over the winter, followed by overhaul of cooling system (best estimate £4000) and now we have more suspension work, air con and will still be left with a roof that doesn't work properly and an unidentified burning rubber smell. We're never going to get back what it will owe us and don't expect to but there are much cheaper options out there.




Good Luck

rita wrote:As usual Mike you are on the ball

I think you had a wee chin wag with Roosmith a wee while back about his vehicles problems.

Quote.....

"With regards to your comments Mike about 20 year old Bongos needing work, I agree completely but they do need a lot more work than other vehicles of the same age that I currently own or have owned. It's just getting frustrating. We constantly come to the cross roads of spend lots more moneyor get something else. We commit and then come up against something else. We've committed to all rust work and waxoyling over the winter, followed by overhaul of cooling system (best estimate £4000) and now we have more suspension work, air con and will still be left with a roof that doesn't work properly and an unidentified burning rubber smell. We're never going to get back what it will owe us and don't expect to but there are much cheaper options out there.


Good Luck

I'm not sure what your point is Rita? As Above convo we were booked in with a recommended Bongo specialist who kept messing us about and not returning messages and calls, at the time I was writing the above. I'd gone for the "give it to one person and do everything" option. After they'd messed us about, we cancelled that and arranged the works with different individuals (they had never inspected the Bongo and were doing the estimate based on worst case scenario, again as above convo). The bodywork specialist who did go over it (they had it for 1/2 day, I don't know how deep they went) has done a good number of Bongo's, one of which I know (member on here) and it's impressively clean. They didn't pick up on anything like what Bongolia has now found but then of course I doubt they even removed the battery, let alone peeled back wheel arch liners etc. They'd quoted us £800 for the arches and " repairs of surface rust".

With regard to your point Mike regarding the actual inspecting, I'm not a bodywork specialist in any way shape or form, so had put my hands completely in their hands. I'd seen rust obviously while I'd been doing my spannering but it didn't look more than surface, so when that's what the body shop confirmed, I didn't think any differently. And as per previous posts, I'd had the MOT done with the same garage since I'd owned it and rust had never even come up as an advisory. Every advisory has been addressed/replaced etc in my ownership, as we always intending keeping the Bongo.

I don't know, perhaps we were naive as the Bongo looked so good from the outside, like you say Mike. That certainly doesn't help Bongolia now!

Adrian and Co at Japandirect were very surprised to remove front wheel arch liners and find extensive corrosion on mine. They only looked because i'd mentioned a rusted bung hole at sill end. They'd never come across it before, but then they'd never had cause to look. Mine is outwardly a pretty decent condition Bongo (inwardly too now its had quality welding done).

I can't speak for Bongolia, but if i had his skills and was out to do a restoration i wouldn't be overly phased as the fun is in the challenge and the satisfaction is in getting it all sound as the Bongo is a vehicle worth restoring. Material costs should hopefully not be much so expense relates more to chargeable labour, which hopefully doesn't apply here.

Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

You need to purchase these old tubs in that condition for buttons as they are not the best projects to restore , if you are a professional and count your labour its a no no..

If it was a VW that's a different story.

Dive Dive Dive

teenmal wrote:You need to purchase these old tubs in that condition for buttons as they are not the best projects to restore , if you are a professional and count your labour its a no no..

If it was a VW that's a different story.

Dive Dive Dive

Depends whether you want a pretty (useless) ornament or a useful campervan at the end of it.

Tora tora tora.

Its all down to purchase and restoration costs /labour and what is it worth at the end of the day.

Kore wa oikura desuka