As the general idea of this section is the 'build thread' section where people show off their skills, share ideas and learn new tricks, I thought I would do something completely different !
Basically the story is, I have recently bought a used MultiVan. I live in France so it's a 'lefty', German import 1998 2.5 TDi 151bhp Rasp:
I already have a 2003 2.5 TDi ( one of the very last ever made ) had it for almost ten years now ......... and it's not going anywhere anytime soon, so 'Lulu' is in storage. I knew what to expect when it came to purchasing a used T4, but a 'MultiVan' ! :* I spent a considerable amount of time researching, prices are definitely not falling, on the contrary, I think they'r increasing ! Personally, I don't see the point or even understand why some people seek out thousand pound 'steals' .......... they're not. Why 'waste' a grand on a shed that'll need 4 to 5 grand doing up the mechanics, body work and then convert it for another 3 grand :* I tend to buy the best I can afford that requires very little maintenance, and then spend the next couple of years improving things internally.
I spent a little more than I wanted, 9,000 Euro's to be exact but these things are getting quite rare, specially the good ones.
Here's a quick pic the day I went to view it and take it for a spin >>
And as I would like to try and keep everything in one place, here's a couple of links that lead to researching my 'new' van, it may be of some use to some members who may be on the lookout for a T4, and not sure what model to go for.
Is a MultiVan right for you ? .......... well, after living with it for a few months I've concluded, not for me it's not. Basically, all those seats in the back and a full width bed, not really to my taste. So hopefully in the coming months I will begin to disassemble things. It won't be easy as you really still have to try and maintain the 'MultiVan' originality of it, as that's where the value comes in to play. And who know's, you may even decide to sell at a later date, so you'll have to replace everything.
Would you not now be better just using the Multivan as is to stay mobile while reworking Lulu to exactly as you want it? That Multivan premium will be wasted otherwise :*
Interesting website that Robbbert, even though I understood nothing ! ............ I particularly liked the bit where he upgraded his long nose ProjektZwo headlights. I only had a quick look but will go through it again with Google Translate. What you suggest is another option and it will add value to the van, but at what cost ? After years of perusing these forums ( and the French ones ) I'm yet to see a second hand California interior for sale, I mean, why would they sell just the interior, unless it's from a crashed van so I'll keep an eye open for that just in case.
The California is such a well designed interior, the maximum storage space and a fold out bed that's still quite wide, comfortable enough for two adults. The MultiVan setup however, I think is more aimed at two adults that travel 'light'. With the full width pull-out bed extended there's really only enough space for a kitchen pod behind the passenger seat. And all the storage is under the seats/bed. So really no extra room for cupboards, so you'll have to keep essentials, cutlery and food in box under your seats. So the only remaining place for your porta potty is next to your kitchen pod ! mmmmmmmmm, not ideal !
Basically what I'm saying is, the bed' too big. You want a comfortable double bed to sleep in ......... don't go camping ! I: I haven't been on a camping excursion as yet, I just knock about around here, but I do like to travel with loads of stuff, as an outdoor enthusiast I like to carry everything I may need, that also includes my mountain bike. Recently I've had to lay my mountain bike on my rear seats !
Would you not now be better just using the Multivan as is to stay mobile while reworking Lulu to exactly as you want it? That Multivan premium will be wasted otherwise :*
You're right Hoovie, Lulu still does need a lot of work doing to her. Since my move from Jersey, jacking in my job, selling my gaff and putting all my things in storage then moving over here, I got straight into organising my workshop and working on my quad headlight project, so I've really not had a chance of doing any work to Lulu's interior. So the 'staying mobile' while working on Lulu is one of the reasons why a change of the MultiVan format is required, or preferred if you prefer.
Since being here I've come to realise that I have to travel far and wide to collect various things, living in the middle of nowhere is great, but acquiring stuff isn't ! there's no way you could put loads of wood in the back of a MultiVan, as good as a MultiVan is, you do lose the functionality of a 'Transporter' as you are very limited to transporting things ......... unless you're transporting people that is. So they don't suite everybody.
While I'm here, I may as well upload a couple of pics of BigBlue .......... as you all know by now I used to live on a small rock, 60 odd sqaure miles of private land, every inch of it ! so you were basically driving from a private carpark to another private carpark. On the odd occasion you could drive on grass or a little lane !
But over here ......... in less than an hour you could be in the middle of a massive forest driving down a dirt track, as I did last week ! Just me, the squirrels and mosquitoes so large it sounded like they had outboard motors on them ! >>
When the sun started to come up, the light began to shine through the tress in some areas, the sight was amazing. Not a single human being for dosens of miles, just wildlife. Apparently there's wild boar in this area ! >>
Next time I'll plan an all nighter in a forest somewhere, I may even be lucky enough to see a real 'Bigfoot' ............ but I should be safe enough as I've read somewhere they're not aggressive !
I don't think that too many people are as fortunate as myself for having two lovely looking T4's Rasp:
Hands up who has two T4's ?
Today I went to my lock-up that's barely a mile from my house, to sort out Lulu for an up and coming project. Even before I got there I just knew that my battery would be dead, so I came prepared with my jump leads ........ after 20 minutes or so I managed to get Lulu started No doubt the battery is goosed, it's about four or five years old anyway ! And as I had just bought a new battery for BigBlue as I'm pretty sure the wrong one' in there, I may as well put the new battery in Lulu now.
I'm going to be testing the quad headlights that I'm designing, so it makes sense to get the electrics to the norm. Also, not sure what the recommended Amp Hour battery should be for a cranking battery, but I thought that an 80Ah battery a little feeble, specially for a diesel. So the new one I'll be putting in tomorrow will be a Varta 110Ah.
I could really of kicked myself for not removing both my batteries, as my leisure battery is also dead. It's only reading 4 volts ! Hopefully I can recover it by charging it at home on my charger. Anybody managed to do this ?
While I was there a took a picture of my two babies Rasp: >>
I also did a quick inspection of everything, sitting in a cold damp garage for six months has taken it's toll on things .......... particularly on my Borbet's !
I mean, just look at the state of them ! they used to be mirror finish ! >>
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear ............. Hopefully I can recover those also. It's going to be a very difficult and a hard job polishing those back up again .......... but that's what you get for being an idiot >>
Jumping back into Lulu, made me realise just how I missed the comfort of my bucket seats, so I'll be swapping things over mighty soon. I find the captains seats in the MultiVan to be uncomfortable, specially mine, as the drivers seat is slightly knackered and seams to be lower on one side than the other. The one thing I'll miss from the captain' seats however, is the arm rest. Kind of reminds me of when I had my Range Rover, driving about with your elbow rested in your armchair.
I've also got to crawl underneath BigBlue, as I have a slight oil leak, not too sure how I can accomplish this in full safety though .......... anybody used ramps for that particular task ? by driving your van up on ramps, do you gain enough hight to get under your van ?
Getting under the van is a real pig. I usually go down to my local "garage associatif" (http://www.selfgarage.org/). They charge 20 euros an hour for hire of the ramp, plus all tools, air line etc... it's saved me a fortune. I don't know where you are in the Creuse (there ain't one there, but you may have one across the "border" nearby) but check out the website.
I'd think twice about ditching a seat with armrests. It was one of my prerequisites when buying the van. You may well find a s/h seat on Leboncoin or Ebay. The autoroute is a much nicer place with armrests than without - especially in a van!
As for the battery, I got a 95A one to replace the old one and I find it's plenty, even with 4 feet of snow on the van. The only thing is that the higher amperage you go, the bigger they tend to be and shoe-horning it into the battery tray is a real pig.
What a brilliant tip 'selfgarage' is Marp T: just checked it out, there isn't one in the Creuse department ( as we're in the boondocks here ) but there are three near Limoges, some 90 km away from me. It's listed as €32 per month ! :* apparently there are qualified mechanics there that will examine your work afterwards. They've even got complete vehicle spray booths with all the compressors and everything T: Someone should start something like that in the UK.
As I haven't got any 'actual' work planned on either of my buses, I'll keep that tip under my hat for now. Right now I just need to have a look underneath, so I'm going to build some sort of contraption to secure the vehicle on pillars. They'll also come in handy for when I change my wheels, as I don't really trust those little tripod things you tend to buy. And I don't like the idea of the usage of the ramps either .......... imagine your trying to position your van on them, you drive up the ramp ....... very carefully ....... but you over step the mark. All of a sudden, you have two ramps stuck under your van, no doubt causing loads of damage !!!
I'm not ditching the front seats completely, I'm just going to put them in Lulu for the time being until I can get them repaired, as there's not much wrong with them, just a few broken springs and the foam has compressed. Because of 'Homologation' I can only have VW seats in there that was the first thing they picked-up on when I went to a VW garage over here last year. One of their mechanics and a sales guy were looking at the interior of Lulu ........ and it's general appearance, and the mechanic said you'll have no chance with the 'Control Techniques'.
I've learned a few more things since my last post apparently it's not so much the 'Amp Hours' of a cranking battery that matters, but the 'Cold Cranking Amps', and the amount of 'Reserve' power it holds. Particularly in very cold regions.
I was wondering how the heck am I going to buy a battery ? ........ I'de seen some in the supermarkets, but those are usually garbage. Then my Mate the landlord told me about the online shop he'd just used ......... cheapish, and they deliver ! T: >>
If the product page comes up blank, just type this reference number '6004020833162' in the 'Référence de votre pièce' box, and click OK. The one I bought is the recommended one for a T4 ........ as you have to input you vehicles registration, for the appropriate parts to be listed.
Not an easy task lifting a very heavy battery into the deepest confines of your engine bay ! you have to be extra careful not to damage the ECU as it resides just in front of the battery, almost touching it. It didn't take me long to realise that the ECU actually unclips for easy access, but that battery clamp used to secure the battery .......... what a mare that is ! 20 minutes fiddling with a bolt anyway, job done T:
'How to remove the headlights and front bumper on a long nose T4'
Hi all,
As the 'World Wide Web' is millions of computers interconnected together offering us virtually billions of bits of information, you would of thought that somebody would of written an article of how to dismantle the front end of a VW T4 long nose version ! ........ After a few days of looking around, it was obvious that no such document existed. So I thought I would remedy that !
The following article is for my 1998 2.5 TDi 151 MultiVan Long Nose version. There's a myriad of how to's for the short nose, but the long nose is entirely different. The first identifyer that this is a 151bhp is the red 'I' on the engine cover, the 102bhp versions have a Silver 'I' and the 88bhp have a blue 'I' >>
First we remove the front grill, only two philips type screws here, and ......... >>
And a cunningly disguised Allun bolt in the VW insignia >>
The grill and the colour coded body panel come off as an entire unit >>
To remove the indicators you have to access the clip from inside behind the headlight unit, once unclipped the indicator unit slides forward.
No need to disconnect the indicator bulb, just remove the bulb holder from the indicator .......
and remove that screw at the base of the headlight unit ( the one that I forgot to arrow ! I: ) >>
To remove the front panel, only three screws here, one either end and one in the middle >>
Ignore that little tab that's arrowed in red as that will release the plastic fitting inside the panel and make it's removal very awkward as I found out ! ........ you should now be able to slide that panel out. Do a little bit at each end in turn making sure that you support it's weight, as that panel is made of steel and not plastic like the other parts >>
If you're just needing access to your headlight units that's all you need to remove, otherwise, continue with the removal of the bumper and the entire front end. Over here in France by law we have to have our registration plates riveted on, and not plastic screws like in the UK, it's just as well there aren't any bolts behind the number plate like on the short nose T4 >>
Now remove the four flat head Torx bolts along the top on the bumper >>
And then the two screws ( again Torx fittings ) under the wheel arch >>
This section is where most people will have problems, as I did. Because these two screws are directly under the bumpers at either end, they screw into the bumper supports and are usually encrusted with rust which makes them very difficult to undo. I couldn't budge mine at all ! ....... luckily ( in way ) one of the supports was snapped ! and the other had come adrift ! >>
The support that's come adrift ....... this did allow me to remove my front bumper however >>
After you've 'untucked' the bumpers ends from the wheel arches you can move the bumper forward and off completely ........ but wait ! >>
........ Don't walk off with it just yet ! >>
....... I almost missed it myself ! The wire is connected to a temperature sensor in the front bumper. Unplug it, now you're safe to remove the bumper completely. Obviously if you have fog lights installed, you will need to unplug those also >>
Now we can get back to inspecting things ......... I knew I was going to have some rust on the front cross member, but not to that extent ! Closer examination told me it was completely shot >>
It will need replacing, but how on earth can a mere DIY'er work on something like this ! Hopefully that accumulated rust doesn't extend into the chassis posts, that would be disastrous ! >>
Knowing this might be an issue I had already done a little research, as I now know that a fix isn't possible a new one would be required, but I don't think that VW stock them anymore. The alternative is a cheaper ( but still very expensive ) part by 'Klokkerholm', Part No: 7D0 803 671/A ........ about €300 >>
Anyway, onto my reason's for removing my van's front end and needing access to my headlight units. First test of my long nose quad headlight prototype.
First, remove the four flat head Torx bolts, T28 I think they were >>
It does help if you have the correct tools also T: >>
Once all four bolts are undone, you can safely disconnect the plug that feeds the headlight bulbs ( top arrow ). Unlike the short nose version of the headlights, these headlight units don't plug directly into the bulbs, but go through a four pin connector block ( 3 pins for the H4 bulb and an extra one to feed the side light bulb ). Chances are if you have a Caravelle or a Multivan, it'll be equipped with 'headlight levelling motors' so just unplug that also ( bottom arrow ) >>
The two connector blocks arrowed >>
My OE headlight unit to the right ........ and my 'Prototyping' headlight unit to it's left, both made by Valeo but strangely enough, both are different !
I've already marked out an area that needs to be cut out as it wasn't a direct fit to my van ! >>
So it was back to the carpark for another fit ........ and it still didn't fit ! I've marked out where my next cut needs to be, so it'll be another trip back to my workshop. I think the reason why these don't fit a 'standard' Multivan is because I have an air-conditioning system, so I have an extra radiator in front of the regular radiator >>
Prototype headlight assembly now seated correctly, but things are a little skewiff ! Bottom left hand corner is catching on a part of the radiator ( arrowed ) so has the effect of pushing the entire headlight mounting bracket over to the right. The good news is, there seems to be two parallel lines on the headlight assemblies that are dead plumb, so I can use those to align the headlight mounting brackets with >>
I seem to have the 'Plane' ( where the headlight unit mounting points will be positioned ) pretty close for now >>
It was a fun day and an interesting day ........ also an expensive one ! as I realise now this will cost me even more money. But what the hell, every hobby costs money ! >>
Install 'Google Chrome' web browser, as it has an online translator that is very very good, and set the browser to 'Always Translate', that way you'll get all the parts description in English with the part numbers !
As I always say ........ 'Upstairs for thinking, downstairs for dancing' LOL:
Yeah, not a pretty sight that front cross member ! I wasn't really surprised to see 'some' rust ( the bus is over 17 years old ), but to see it reduced to mere rust flakes, did amaze me. I bought 'BigBlue' just under 2 years ago now, she had just had the 'Contrôle Technique' done, which she passed, a few things like a brand new exhaust system and new brakes had to be done, but apart from that she was given a clean bill of health.
I only discovered recently ( after seeing the cross member for myself ) that they ( the CT ) don't look at things like that ! Sure that matters a great deal does it not !? ................ It's part of the structural integrity of the vehicle ! If you were to have a head-on collision that's the first thing that would take the impact.
I'm due for my 1st real 'Contrôle Technique' in January, we'll see what they say. But chances are, I'll be replacing it whether they say it's necessary or not, but at €700 just for the cross member, it can wait
New CT being introduced in April which apparently is going to be much tougher. Mine's not due until June, but I'm getting it done early to avoid any nasty surprises.
New CT being introduced in April which apparently is going to be much tougher. Mine's not due until June, but I'm getting it done early to avoid any nasty surprises.
Bet they'll be quite a few people booking in their vehicles before the due date then. Apparently they'll be increasing the amount of points to check from the current 124 point check list to 400 ! This of course will also have an effect of a major price increase in the ' Contrôle Technique', anything found to be defective, you will only have 24 hours to put right or you won't be able to drive your vehicle legally on the road ! I wonder how that's going to work !?
It'll take much longer than 24 hours to acquire the parts and book your vehicle in to make the repairs How well have they thought this through ? :*
Good shout T: I'm always looking for stuff on there, you never know what you may find ! Problem is, most people have no idea of the value of things. A while ago I was after a couple of filing cabinets, the seller was selling two 1950's rusty and dented filing cabinets for more than the new price for brand new steel ones of the same size ! :*
Chances of finding a relatively good condition used cross member for the T4 I think is non existent, it's usually the very first thing to rust, not only because of it's location but it's design. If you've ever seen one they have large holes front back and top, so when water gets in it's just stays there, eating away at the metal.
Picked this up in September 2013 after viewing a few and hunting for a base van for a new build. Was a Private buy from a lady who had been using it for a small hobby catering business and thanks must go to @Turlough for giving us the heads up on this wee gem! So time for another build thread...
So after 3 T5’s a change of plans and needing money for my business meant my 2013 kombi had to go 😢
I already have a mk4 golf, ‘71 beetle
cabrio and a ‘71 early bay camper but as there was some room on the drive decided to get a T4!!!
Ive always liked the look of the T4 have been close to...
'Mishska' Build thread - a wee bit 'different?' (lots of pics)
----------------------------------------------
So its about time I tried to consolidate the 10+ years of 'work' into a build thread .....in reality its about 6months spread across that time but you know the deal.. its never...
WARNING: VERY IMAGE HEAVY!
Like the title says, I've had the van almost three years (and it's only seen the road a handful of times!) and have yet to start (without lack of trying!) a build thread. I'll start off with photos that I've managed to find and become more in depth as time goes on...
Thought I'd finally start a build thread 2 and a half years later,I'll start with him name, called him Dave after my late father who unfortunately lost his battle with cancer aged 62,my father got me into modifying cars as he was very much into his Austin mini vans back in the day so I thought...
A forum community dedicated to Volkswagen T4 owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, conversions, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!
