Given Matt’s offer to inspect the van and given Scott’s positive past experience with the present owner and his proven openness/honest stance, I’d suggest we should adjourn further debate till Matt can report back his findings, either to here or direct to Andy.
If Matt finds the syncro HAS been usually garaged out of the weather/salty elements, then game on again.
For example, I live near the ocean in a salty atmosphere.
My syncro has been garaged here since 2006.
It has no sign of rust advancement at all in that time.
Matt,
I think only administrators can edit topic titles.
Which I think is quite weird, because the title equally forms part of the authors own input, along with their own post input, so should be equally editable by that author.
This instance of yours … case in point.
I’ll be interested to see whether the rust is more substantial. I spoke to a friend who’s a smash repairer about another van and he said steer clear of anything with rust as it’s usually only a small percentage of a bigger problem.
Volkswagen Germany and Trakka definitely did not do a deal on importing vans. Vans were just bought through TKM/Ateco and converted. VW were not very happy with Trakka at all.
I bought a 2wd van with rot around the windows in the sill behind the sliding door, above the bumper fixings, in the tailgate around the windscreen and to the deformation panel under the lower grille and had it all repaired.
I live very close to the coast too with the van under a carport only and the rust repairs my panel beater did have not returned.
Its been 4 years at least since it was repaired.
Dont let that minor rot put you off it would not be an expensive repair and then look after it - it will be fine.
Thank you Phil, your input in this regard has more gravitas than my vague recollection. I did read an article at the time something about VW and Trakka connected to having some agreement. Perhaps it was just a mentioning that they were talking possibilities. Anyway, I have obviously got it wrong based upon your input and I apologise for my error.
Do you know why VW were not happy with Trakka: was it contractual potential or quality of work or indeed something else?
Hi Scott,
That’s good to hear because that’s my greatest concern, obviously price and rust go hand in hand as I’m willing to put up with some rust repair at a better price.
Ryszard,
You are not wrong at all, no apology necessary. I believe what you are referring to is the following:
At the time, VW authorised dealers in Australia had on offer various models of T3 vans that also included a buyer option for either of two versions of locally built TRAKKA camper conversion. In other words, a buyer could simply romp up to and order a TRAKKA camper optioned van from a VW authorised dealer. Drive it away with a FULL VW vehicle warranty.
This is what I like about this forum; we can all contribute with good intentions and sometimes we can miscue on things and through these contributions things come together and become clearer. Thanks Ken.
You could buy a Trakka from VW dealers. They would send a normal window van (standard or deluxe) from Ateco or TKM to Trakka for conversion. The van then came with a TKM/Ateco warranty. Nothing to do with VW. VW used a special reinforced body for camper conversions but Trakka used the standard body and cut a big hole in it. Overseas conversions used the camper body that they ordered from the factory.
The VW factory told TKM to distance themselves from Trakka.
Well, perhaps it was a case of Teutonic thoroughness versus Aussie pragmatism. For Trakka to be able to ‘cut a hole’ in the roof for a campervan conversion it would need engineer certification and, to that end it must have got approval. Hence, it seems that Dave Berry was correct about how strongly constructed the T3 was built. From my experience with two full length pop top Trakka T3s I can attest to their rigidity in many off road situations where this aspect would come to the fore. So, either way, VW or Trakka, the T3 full pop top campervan conversion is still a strong unit.
Hey fellas, I think this issue should lay to rest as it has been well done (pun intended) and finished with a bottle of the red stuff (nice touch), haha.
