A neighbour of mine had a look at it yesterday. He's restored quite a few VW vans over the years so he's seen his fair share of rust. He didn't seem concerned at all which was reassuring. There's a fair bit of work in cleaning, treating and rust proofing but he thinks it all looks solid enough once ...

I'm contemplating the future of my van. I've got the engine in bits ready for a new head after the head gasket failed. The rest of the cooling system has all been replaced so once the new head is on I will hopefully have a pretty reliable engine. The problem is the more I look for rust the more I fi...

I've always been curious about why there isn't a better procedure for bleeding the Bongo. Just as an example it seems like it would be easy enough to fit a shut off valve on the bleed pipe rather than have to remove a funnel and cap it while the water is scalding hot. This kind of thing fitted to th...

I did the waterpump about a year before the head gasket blew. I should probably give it a once over while the engine is in bits though. All the coolant hoses, pipes, rad, thermostat etc had been replaced while I was tracking down where the water was slowly disappearing to. I guess the head gasket wa...

Bought April 2014. Headgasket blew June 2017 and it hasn't moved since then. We'd covered about 30k miles in that time. I'm trying to get it back on the road now so I'm finally tackling the engine to see if it's worth fitting a new head or if this van is too far gone to bother now. The block looks p...

Having spoken to a few mechanics about doing work on the Bongo they all look at you like you're crazy when you mention the bleedin' bleeding technique. I used to be amazed that a car manufacturer would sell a car with a service technique this stupid but then you see the cars that need bumpers removi...

When I bought my Bongo a few years ago the garage assured me they had carried out a full service including changing the cambelt. Today I removed the cambelt...

Wow I didn't realise these were so expensive.
https://www.bongospares.co.uk/shop/engi ... ectors-x4/

I can't help with the tailgate sorry but I'm about to start tackling the rust on mine and haven't checked there yet so thanks for the tip. Can I ask how much you've been quoted for the welding and respray? Some of the quotes I've had have been quite eye watering.

Just my experience but I bought my Bongo from the Pontypool 'specialist' and I would never use them again or recommend them to anyone. They seem quite happy to patch and repair to the bare minimum to make vehicles presentable for sale and with the experience they have they must know what the problem...