Betty Bongo has a shiny new coat
Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 11:29 am
I've had my Bongo for just over 4 years now and as you'd expect with a 20 year old van she was starting to look a bit tired and tatty and had succumbed to the dreaded rear wheel arch rust which was getting pretty bad and creeping along the sills.
After seeing another thread by Andyb36 where he had his wheel arches replaced locally to me I got the guys details and a few months later contacted him to get an idea of price to get her repaired.
As well as the rusty wheel arches there were lots of paint chips and rust spots on the bonnet and around the windscreen, rust had set in around the water inlet 12v inlet, there were chips and cracks to both bumpers and the paint and decals were looking quite tired.
So I decided to get her completely overhauled, it meant not having her for 3 weeks but I knew it would be worth it.
So I dropped her off mid June and waited... it was a long 3 weeks and I was itching to know how things were progressing but I presumed no news was good news. Eventually I got a message from Phil to say she was ready, I was so excited on the way to collect her and I was so surprised when we pulled onto the forecourt and there she was all new and shiny, I actually thought she was a different van!
Phil didn't find any nasties, I was lucky the original decals hadn't been lacquered over but he did have a job getting the ones off the AFT which caused a bit of damage so he painted a strip down each side and a bonus was he cleaned and painted my very rusty wiper arms
A huge thumbs up and thank you to Phil who has done a grand job of restoring her, she certainly doesn't look 20 years old now!
I've still got lots of little things to do such as replace the broken radio aerial, maybe get some smarter wheels and I'm undecided as to whether to put decals back on, I quite like her 'naked'
After seeing another thread by Andyb36 where he had his wheel arches replaced locally to me I got the guys details and a few months later contacted him to get an idea of price to get her repaired.
As well as the rusty wheel arches there were lots of paint chips and rust spots on the bonnet and around the windscreen, rust had set in around the water inlet 12v inlet, there were chips and cracks to both bumpers and the paint and decals were looking quite tired.
So I decided to get her completely overhauled, it meant not having her for 3 weeks but I knew it would be worth it.
So I dropped her off mid June and waited... it was a long 3 weeks and I was itching to know how things were progressing but I presumed no news was good news. Eventually I got a message from Phil to say she was ready, I was so excited on the way to collect her and I was so surprised when we pulled onto the forecourt and there she was all new and shiny, I actually thought she was a different van!
Phil didn't find any nasties, I was lucky the original decals hadn't been lacquered over but he did have a job getting the ones off the AFT which caused a bit of damage so he painted a strip down each side and a bonus was he cleaned and painted my very rusty wiper arms
A huge thumbs up and thank you to Phil who has done a grand job of restoring her, she certainly doesn't look 20 years old now!
I've still got lots of little things to do such as replace the broken radio aerial, maybe get some smarter wheels and I'm undecided as to whether to put decals back on, I quite like her 'naked'
