It's been an interesting day. Found a local engineering firm who does the major steel work for a paint and panel business who specialize in restoring old cars. Perfect. Well, kind of. The feller got underneath, prodded and poked, mumbled a bit then said yeah, he could fix the chassis rails for about $600 but the cab was full of rot that, pending a full strip and restore, would always be a problem. Reluctantly I have to concur. Here's the problem. Spend $$$ now getting to warrant-able standard, then spend the rest of the time I own it chasing the rust in the cab. No.
Some research on TradeMe turned up a good number of likely light trucks in the NZ$2500-5000 range, cheaper if I settled for a petrol powered item. If I'm going to go the the trouble of re-trucking it, I might as well get one I want as opposed the cheapest one that would do at a pinch.
I had a good hard look underneath at just how the camper was fixed to the chassis, 4 large bolts and 2 stirrup straps by my counting. After that it slides off. That doesn't sound like many fixings but the camper probably only weighs half a ton or so. Taking it off will look impressive, but really no harder than removing a flat deck. Well do-able.
It's going to be an interesting time, folks, but luckily there is no need to go rushing about the place.
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