# Danbury Conversions Type 2



## 1sebastiand (Sep 7, 2008)

My wife and I are in Wickwar for a month and propose to have a good look at the Brazilian type 2 conversions ... the Diamond and Rio.

Does anybody have any experience of its 'driveability' and engine.

We have owned 4 type 2's in the past culminating with the 1.9 Celeste from Bilbo's then we went bigger ....

Appreciate any feedback

1sebastiand


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## DiscoDave (Aug 25, 2008)

the engine is a 1.6 water cooled from a polo/golf, and as with all the earlier transporters - underpowered - imho anyway. it is quite a small engine for a two ton van! 

they have modified alot of the running gear of the new vans, irs as standard but not all have disc brakes front and rear.

the main problem with them is still the rust - even the ones i saw at the danbury showroom this time last year (these were brand new and delivery milage) had the first signs of the dreaded creeping in around the engine bay and around the rear lights!

another point is the quality of the finish, i have not studied the t2 conversion but my dad bought a danbury space cruise on a fiat last year, after only a few months stuff was falling to bits and he had a whole assortment of items cleverly placed to stop rattling and shaking whilst driving!


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## 113867 (Jun 30, 2008)

I was completly sold on having one of these - the advert saying that they had all the charm of a classic van but with modern technology. Dont belive it - I drove one over to pembrokeshire and then around for a bit and it was frankly very scary. Also the rust was comming out all over the place - it was a 2 year old danbury conversion. The quality of the interior was poor too (not the danbury bit but the door linings, flooring etc). I would think that a classic refurbished van is much better value than these new vans.


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## 130849 (Jan 25, 2010)

The main problem with the brazilian bays..is the paint..its too thin and wrong for our climate.if repainted in 2 pack it will be fine at a cost of roughly 4 grand.also engine grossly under powered.and its a water pumper.personaly for these vans an air cooled is far superior.the germans built the originals for the common people.at affordable prices.not the 20k plus the new ones fetch.


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## 1302 (Apr 4, 2006)

Put too much paint on it and that engine will never pull the van down the road


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## SpeedyDux (Jul 13, 2007)

Better check if the engine is a 1.4 or 1.6!

Speccing it up will push the new price over £30K, so compare that with either a good quality restored T2 or even a used T5 California. 

In any case the hard core Dub tendency seem to look down on any Bus that is non-aircooled. Danbury also converted some Brazilian-built T2s with 1.6 aircooled fuel injected petrol engines so that might be more acceptable if you can find a used one. 

SD


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## 1302 (Apr 4, 2006)

SpeedyDux said:


> In any case the hard core Dub tendency seem to look down on any Bus that is _about to fall apart with rust_.SD


Fixed that for you  :lol:


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