Restoration of the van continues

The truth is, I’m finding it really hard to restore the VW T3 Syncro. I bought it with great enthusiasm back in 2016 (which now seems a long time ago) as a continuation of my hobby of restoring classic cars, but my personal and family circumstances have changed quite a lot over the years and, little by little, this passion of mine has started to fade. Now I’m looking for the motivation to carry on with the van’s restoration.

On many occasions, seeing that I wasn’t making any progress, I was determined to abandon the van restoration project. The fact is, having it parked there without devoting even a single minute to it each week was getting to me. I don’t like having useless things that I don’t make use of. Throwing in the towel was what had been on my mind for a long time. But it’s not easy to walk away from a project halfway through. You have to find the right person – someone keen to restore it and to have an unfinished vehicle they can drive from day one. If anyone did come along, they’d probably be someone looking to take advantage of the situation and offer far less money than I’ve already invested in restoring the van. It didn’t look promising, and it seemed as though we were destined to stay together.

Just like in a romantic relationship, there have been times when we’ve tried to turn things round. As I mentioned, the van has undergone a long and costly process of bodywork and paintwork restoration. Seeing progress brings back the excitement and the desire to continue with the project. And so it was; after finishing that laborious process, I set aside time to keep making progress.

Now, after that initial rush, things were starting to flag a bit. I was beginning to lose my enthusiasm again; I had to find a solution, because with the van painted and treated with anti-stone chip coating, I could start fitting lots of things. Among these was tackling the mechanical side of things. I’d got hold of some Seikel springs a while back and had recently bought some Old Man Emu (OME) shock absorbers. It was time to get started on that part and see how the van’s restoration was coming along.

So that’s what I’m up to now: getting back to restoring the van.