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VW T25 T3 Westfalia Multivan

Sale price: Contract price
Last update: 26.04.2019

Technical specifications, photos and description:




Condition:Used
MOT Certificate:10 Months Remaining
V5 Registration Document:Present
Model:T3 Multivan
Manufacturer:Volkswagen
Colour:Gold
Wheel Base:SWB
Drive Side:Left-hand drive
Full Service History:Yes
Country/Region of Manufacture:Germany
Vehicle Sub-Type:Camper Van
Sleeping Capacity:3
Engine Size:2
Subtype:Camper Van
Transmission:Manual
Year of Registration:1988
Fuel Type:Diesel
Model Year:1988
Horsepower (Bhp):90
Type:Campervan
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VW T25 T3 Westfalia Multivan for sale
Current customer rating: Rating 3 (3) based on 30 votes
VW T25 T3 Westfalia Multivan for Sale
VW T25 T3 Westfalia Multivan for SaleVW T25 T3 Westfalia Multivan for Sale



Genuine Westfalia Multivan, 1988 late model. 
5 speed 3H gearbox, AAZ conversion.
Affectionately known as "Hughie"

Apologies in advance. But im sure you want to know what your buying, so this is going to be long in depth and honest post with all the good bits and bad bits :) also long and in depth post steers away time wasters :)

Where do start? 

Owned between me and my best friend for the past 10 years. And since, EVERY MOVING PART on this bus has been replaced. YEP, you name it, its been done.
Countless upgrades and mechanical goodies,
This isn't slow bus by any means, it will cruise at 70mph all day long and achieve 350miles per tank at that speed. Its upgraded running gear makes it handle extremely comfortably, reliably and safely. Empowering reassurance and confidence to the driver, knowing exactly what's behind the wheel is reliable, strong and new(ish). Nothing other than top quality and well maintained. (A feeling every VW owner dreams of)
Itl drive at 80mph all day long in the blazing sun down in Europes mid summer and not overheat, and the coolant guage pin will stay consistently under the 85/90 degree coolant red light without raising on long hill runs. (however, at any speed past 70mph it'l start to drink fuel rather than sip it, and being in the UK with our fuel prices, 70mph is its "happy speed :)"
I am by no means boy racer, drive it like I'm cradling baby, 3,200revs in 5th gear at 70mph is good rev range for good consistent oil pressure and coolant flow in an AAZ engine.

This bus is NOT your typical "fingers crossed for each MOT" type of vehicle.
It BREEZES through MOT's as pass time, usually passing, or only needing absaloutly minor things to pass.
Stunning many mechanics with how solid it is underneath and how mechanically sound it is.
Saying how nice it is to drive compared to other T3's they've worked on in the past.

You get the Jist.
Here's list of its history from the past 10 years in our possession.
I have history records from as early as its German days, but will just list what has been done in the past 10 years as that's what's relevant and what can be sure of.

In rough order from the start of its real change...
-New brake hoses.
-New radius arm bushes.
-New genuine T3 radiator and associated pipes
-New lower ball joints.
-New upper ball joints.
-New CV joints.
-New CV boots.
-New ARB bushes.
-New rear brake pipes.
-Sourced Original Multivan Electric Large mirror kit and fitted to original spec. (£300!) (The old original ones had been changed for standard small mirrors before being in our possession for some reason)
-New leather squishy VW steering wheel upgrade.
-English dashboard set up in MPH rather than KPH also with REV counter upgrade rather than clock.
-English RHD headlights (VERY IMPORTANT).
-LED headlight upgrade and smoked rear and indicator light upgrade (also LED).
-All new BILSTEIN B4 shocks all around.
-All new EIBACH -40mm lowering springs.
sensible and comfortable lowering kit. Looks cool, handles extremely well (better than before) enough ground clearance for everyday driving with no worries around potholes and bumps, doesn't struggle on lightly rocky farmers roads and Devon lanes either)
-New VW rear brake rebuild, backing plates, shoes, handbrake cables Hubs and axles cleaned up. The lot.
-All wheels converted to 80mm studs!
-Newly powder coated Mercedes 16" tollimans. (Best fitment and handling out of quite few wheels that have been tried on this van. HIGHLY RECOMENDED TO ANYONE READING THIS THINKING ABOUT WHAT WHEELS TO USE ON THEIR T3 VAN .No tram lining, no oversteer or understeer, no exsessive wheel bearing or tyre tread wear. Good stance and grip. Extremely strong lightweight design, single piece alloys.
-New brake slave cylinder.
-New brake/clutch master cylinder.
-New copper brake flexi lines all the way through.
-All new brake fluid bled through for piece of mind.

THIS NEXT BIT IS IN THE PAST 18 MONTHS!..
-Engine conversion. Upgraded to 1.9TD AAZ, taken from late B4 passat ... (so it has the more desired fuel pump)
(Engine is at 160k/approx 100,000 miles)
... Fitted with all correct 1.6JX parts for the conversion. (Inlet and exhaust manifold, turbo, spacer between turbo and exhaust manifold)
-manifold correctly machined to fit the air turbo inlet.
-New sump fitted (with connection point for turbo return line)
-All new bolts engine mounts.
-New crankshaft pulley bolt (torqued to correct spec with specific crankshaft pulley tool)
-New starter motor.
-New electric auxiliary coolant pump.
-Also New engine coolant pump.
-New oil pump.
-New cam belt and tensioner (about 6k-8k miles ago)
-New PAS auxiliary belt.
-New alternator and coolant belts.
-New crankshaft gaskets (both front and rear)
-New bucket cover gasket.
-All brand new coolant hoses in engine bay.
-New leak hoses on injectors etc, (so theres nothing old and perished in the engine bay)
-ENGINE OIL AND OIL FILTER WAS CHANGED TIMES OVER THE FIRST 2,000 MILES to remove any possible particles and clean up the oil nice n' smooth to reduce future engine wear. (THATS ONE OIL SERVICE EVERY 500 MILES!) Just for peace of mind.
None of this actually needed to be done on the engine, It was healthily working engine, but worth doing whilst there was the option for easy access outside the engine bay and worth investing bits and bobs onto low mileage engine.
- Brand new SACHS complete clutch kit. (About 5k miles ago)
-New springs/pilot bearing.
-Brand new power steering rack (not refurb, but new)
-New front to back high pressure rubber Power steering lines upgrade.
-New Power steering Auxiliary Pump.
-New steering rack Powerflex bushes.
-New steering rack to chassis bolts.
-New steering rack boots/gators.
-New front to back stainless steel coolant hoses upgrade (really nice upgrade) provides loads of extra cooling, especially since this van is the latest deisel lifted floor version, which was designed by VW for cooling reasons.
-coolant totally flushed through and new coolant.
-New 80degrees thermostat (nice upgrade too)
As stated above, even when driving in stupid heats, up hills and constantly at speed, it always stays at around 80/85degrees.
-Brand new exhaust flexi downpipe.
-Brand new exhaust muffler.
-Used but good condition speed (3H model)gearbox with 80,000miles on it. This is an 094 type transmission. Doesn't crunch at all. Selects all gears perfectly, it does whine little bit in 3rd but not excessively.
(Included in the sale is my old 3H gearbox)
It worked perfectly! No bullshit. No whining, no crunching, no selection issues, thought it was perfect, but the linear bearing housing broke off (found it on the magnetic oil bolt when doing routinely oil change) know the box is fine as if the bearings inside would have come loose the box would have eaten itself INSTANTLY, which is why the box was removed before the bearings became loose and replaced with another box. Phew. So you get spare good box for parts should you ever wanna rebuild box.
My original plan would be to take both boxes to well known rebuilder like Aidan Talbot or Paul at "vantopia" who's services would highly recommend!  To use both boxes to make brand new one, this should be cheap because there are two healthy boxes to use parts from. was only going to do this to get lengthened 5th gear, However the rebuild isn't urgent or mega necessary. I'm just OCD and would have done it for peace of mind, lower MPG and also to have many more years of reliable and trouble free motoring.
-All new gearbox gaskets upon fitment of the 80k gearbox.

THIS NEXT BIT IS THIS YEAR (2019)!!!!!
-reconditioned KKK K-14 turbo (fully balanced cartridge to 170,000rpm AND new wastegate actuator. This isn't Chinese copy. But genuine KKK.
-New oil feed and return lines and also connector adapters.
-New copper nuts from turbo to exhaust.
-Airbox stripped, sanded, and resprayed purely for cosmetic reasons. (Seemed silly to put new air filter in dusty and rusty airbox.
-New MANN air filter.
-All new pipework from snorkel through to the inlet manifold passing airbox and turbo.
-4X new tyres for its MOT only 800miles old! ... 2X Michellin 215/70/R16's on the back and 2X standard all weather 205/65/R16's on the front, good stance, feels nice to drive, and also its the biggest tyres that will fit to 40mm lowered van on 16" wheels with no rubbing Larger rear tyres lower the gearing revs tremendously (by about 10%!)

... this next bit really tested my patience! ... either the new Power steering rack or the new power steering pump was faulty. Resulting in little metal pieces going through the PAS system, which buggered the seals on the brand new rack AND the pump! After only months of them being brand new.

So... being me... replaced the WHOLE power steering system weeks ago at cost of about £825
-Brand new rack (another £375)
-Brand new pump (another £100)
-Brand new front to back PAS lines for peace of mind (£130)
-Brand new high pressure VAG hose... (£130)
-Brand new reservoir and filter (£45) 
-Flushed the whole system with bottles and bottles of new ATF Dexron fluid. (About £60worth)

-Fitted new Tie rod ends
-Brand new OEM steering Universal joint (£200 worth) (the £50 aftermarket ones are CRAP and only last few years, been there done that and worn the T-shirt)
-Took the van to the garage for once over and to have wheel laser alignment done)

2 weeks ago,
-Totally rebuilt the whole gear linkage from front to rear.
-Brand new "025 motorsport" speed gear shifter upgrade. (Cost £350 alone)
Best modification to date.
The whole thing is machined steel. No plastic parts to break like the original VW design.
Its got lifetime warranty. Its Reduced the gear shifts throw massively! Makes gear changes TIGHT AS!
-ALSO got new machinned billet steel gear lever guides and sanded rustproofed and sprayed the shifter box holder.
(I spent out on all this gear shofter nonsense because found out that the likely reason for the old linear bearing in the old gearbox breaking was most probably due to my poorly broken and sloppy gear shifter and misaligned linkage. And didn't want the same thing happening to the buyer of this bus on its current good box.

There are few little quirky things that are nice too, it has swivel passenger side seat base.
- SAAB leather front seats (yummy)
- JCB stereo system (although I'd get some better speakers if were you) must admit my loud taste of red hot chilli peppers addiction has buggered the speakers.
-cool little yellow NO.1 gear lever ball.
-I made wooden fitted panel to go below the back seats. Not amazing but like it :)
-full ORIGINAL AND VERY SOUGHT AFTER full width multivan R&R bed with original mattress and mattress cover.
-the ceiling has been redone in recent years with new insulation cushioning and the original top lining replaced.
-Replaced the door roller bearings which is nice and smooth.
-ALL ORIGINAL locks in all doors and Key fits all locks and also the original ignition barrel.
I have keys, including the originals!
-As stated above, it has RHD english head lights and LED upgrades with really nice beam.

This bus is COMPLETELY the opposite to project mechanically. It has been treated as if its "the forever bus" and maintained regardless of cost. Looked after for safety reasons too as I've seen some horrific accidents on the roads. Another reason chose the T3 was due to its amazing safety ratings on crash tests. If you havn't seen. Then YouTube "VW T3 crash tests" and ignore the video of the red crewcab as that was actually test on vehicle WITHOUT the safety barriers in the front of the vehicle. You wont find vintage vehicle safer than the T3!

So ... bodywork.
The Late westflia models to my knowledge were the only ones that were zinc dipped/galvanised... (correct me if I'm wrong?)
The chassis is SOLID AS BELL! Its never had or needed any welding to the chassis.
ALL outriggers, crossmembers jacking points are solid with no rust.
trailing arms have minor surface rust but are structurally solid and the same goes for the floor pan.
Its got to be one of the most solid ones ive ever seen. And others have said that too.
One of my first jobs on the list of bodywork things to do was jet wash/steam clean and to wire brush the underside and underseal it with dinitrol or waxoyl. could easily have done this before the sale, but im not stupid, and know that no one will ever buy newly undersealed van because newly undersealed van normally suggests that the seller is hiding bad chassis. So at least this way you can see its honesty. And day or two of your own time cleaning undersealing the van yourself is worth the reassurance that its solid underneath :)

However. In terms of body rust. Bother cab steps have totally rotted out and will need replacing, the little metal line below the sliding door needs replacing, the rear corners of the van are rusty and need panels replacing. Also the section below the windscreen needs replacing or welding back in, its recently "popped" at the two top corners when removing the windscreen to replace the windscreen rubber. I've temporarily filled the little corners with polyester resin to prevent water getting in and rusting behind, but it needs doing at some point in the near future.
Also there is rust appearing around the fuel cap.

However there is no rust around any of the windows at all! In recent years the rubbers have been replaced all around.

The next stage on this bus is to get the panel work absolutely mint.
Its about £600 worth of panels, and ive had various quotes between 1.5k and 2.5k worth of welding. Maybe even 3k if you wanna get fancy and go to town with really well experienced welder who knows these busses well You could get the work done cheaper or do it yourself but with bus thats been looked after like this one has. Id go all out and get the job done properly and professionally. Then you can paint the van whatever colour you choose (which guess is bonus!) Its currently its ORIGINAL colour, "champagne gold" believe its called?

The bumpers and sideskirts have seen better days, they arnt in seriously bad nick. But have cracked corners in areas and are easily saveable and DEFINITELY not at the end of their life.

Reason(s) for sale.
-I am currently in the process of building house from what is currently seriously unstable building and want to save the roof before its too late (so desperate for cash and that's why can't spend on the vans bodywork) Even if did find or lend the money to spend on the vans bodywork, it would still be for sale as can't have so much money sitting on the driveway when have house to build.

- am slowly but surely wanting to continue travelling the world  and need to complete my list of places to surf around the world before have kids ...
So won't be in the UK huge amount over the next years. And when am ... will be focussed on the house build and not van.

- live in Devon, the house is in Cornwall, im wanting very Cheap and much much bigger builders type van such as transit or sprinter or an LDV van to use for the house build that don't have to worry about trashing it with building materials.
Also will be living part time in the van whilst doing the house build.
(This T3 is great for weekend or even week away camping, but not big enough to live in comfortably)

The idea is to take the £6,500, put £5,000 into the house and get big cheap van for anything up to £1,500.
So will be willing to PX on suitable vehicle as long as there is at least 5k cash my way :)

If was at different stage in my life, id keep this T3 Its reliable, its travelled through Europe countless times, its mechanically perfect.
Even better is that its Left hand drive which is LUSH to drive in my opinion.
Also easier to get parts for than the Right hand drive models.

Its logged with the DVLA as motor caravan somehow... don't ask me how as have NO IDEA how on earth it managed to get through the DVLA as motor caravan with no toilet or sink or fridge etc etc... but it is...  which makes it stupidly cheap on insurance.

I hope anyone interested enough to read this far has realized that am an honest bloke who doesn't have cash growing on trees in my back yard and realizes that have other priorities.
Has realized that this is very honest sale on van that is more mechanically sound than most. Especially more than most that are actually being sold anyways. Also much more mechanically sound than anything under the 10k mark.

This is RARE opportunity. Most busses that have had this much time, effort, money, blood sweat and tears put into them arn't for sale and probably wont ever be.

Also for 6.5k you can get van with what appears to be better body work than this one and maybe one that has even had new spray job, but lot of them have had seams externally grinded and have had "touch ups" before the spray and the rust will be back in less than years.
If you havnt ever owned T3 or have but still dont know what i'm talking about, do some research into the seams of these vehicles and why they rust at the seams. They rust from the inside out.

In short, The seams have an "inner lip"
If rust starts to come through, sort it before its too late!
what can be done or what is considered "proper job" is the smallest panel of the rusty seam gets removed, the inner lip of the bigger panel is grinded until only fresh metal is present, its weld primed, then new small panel is put in place to replace the old small panel that was removed.  That way there is no rust inside the seam.

If you buy van that has had "touch ups" then by the time the rust comes back through the new paintwork, the rust inside the seams lip has probably totally rotted the seam and both panels would need to be replaced, which is obviously twice the cost, and that is why it is not unheard of for people to find themselves with 10k restoration project :)

Always better to buy an honest van with little body rust and seam rash like mine than mint van that has just been "touched up" and resprayed, only to find yourself in serious trouble down the road.

Anyways ...

A MINT LHD late model westfalia multivan in mechanical condition as looked after as mine should be around 10k-12k (realistically think about 10k)

So considering it needs about 3.5k worth of bodywork and paint, personally think £6.5k is fair price.

Not to forget this bus has had about 12k spent maintaining it in the past 10 years.

With this vans reliability would be willing to drive it ANYWHERE in the country to deliver it for the cost of fuel and train ride home ;P

Any serious interest, then PM me and will give you my number to chat over the phone so dont spend weeks at home replying to messages :)

Viewing and test drives always welcome and be prepared, if you've driven T3 before, youl be amazed behind the wheel of this one of its pulling power up hills, general handling, tight gear changes etc.

Ohh ... nearly forgot.

Included in the sale for the full asking price is load of goodies ...
-My other 3H gearbox
-a good ABL/AAZ cylinder head
-spare brand new hydraulic lifters
-spare old turbo
-load of random stuff like useful bucket covers and engine things like old oil coolers and stuff.
-4 good DUAL stage AAZ injectors, the ones on the van are fine, but these arnt made anymore and spare set is handy.
-some spare standard mirrors
-a few inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets and stuff like that.
-some really SERIOUSLY bright headlight LED's that had to take out because they were so bright! Almost like the new BMW lights which disagree with blinding other drivers.
Etc etc.

This is very very sad sale for me as its van grew up with, it was my best friends van for as long as I've known him and since was teenager remember every surf trip ever went on was with Hughie. It will also be sad for my best friend when sell it, so we want it to go to caring home :)

Also published at eBay.co.uk


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