Worst things first...

To make things even worse: the rear torsionbar housingtubes were rotten at both frame rail joints as well. Normally a death-row issue on any bus... But Thomas did his best to rescue this one.
When I see these pictures today I can't believe what we've been through. To put this right: there are companies like the bug box here in germany who pull such projects for a living and on a professional basis. But on this bus we did something what even they hadn't done before.
The both replacement framepieces were beaten over a custom-made hardwood-template out of 2mm gauge steel. This doesn't only sound like pain, it felt like, too.
But aren't they lovely? I would give them an original part-no. , i.e. 211 666 666.
NOS, beast only, hehe.
Thomas is a true wizard and I really appreciate his hard work.

Nightmare: Push the button...

There were examples on sale who looked even worse on first sight so I decided to take this one over for €2800.
You have to realise that vehicle choice is not that wide if you are looking for a late T2a non-camper kombi with discbrakes and oldstyle body with early taillights. 12 months overall productiontime (till 07/71) and you're done. So, how many of these kombis will have been produced AND survived, and if so, in what shape did they survive? I even doubt that the offered vehicles at Kieft+Klok are the only "blessed" ones around. However, there weren't that much similar vans up for sale on ebay or mobile.de ever since I had bought my one.
Early T2s have reached level to mid- to late T1s in price AND interest. At last.
So, what I got was a basis for extended resto: Some dings and dents were detected "plus" the usual rot and rust spots. And these two below just weren't the baddest of them all, a real nightmare began to take place.
This bus got me virtually on my knees.

Well, how it all got started in summer 2004...