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TROOP TRANSPORTER AKA Velle

5K views 16 replies 7 participants last post by  chalkmyster 
#1 ·
Hi all, thought it was about time to add Velle (how original - I hear you say) to the forum after purchasing her back in June last year (2009).

The reason why we purchased Velle was purely to transport the troops - aka - the kids + dog. At the time we had mondeo estate, 3 kids but needed something bigger as the wife had another bun in the oven :eek: . And after having a Sharan for year I thought it would be best to get something bigger and decided to look at T4's, as budget was limited (very limited!).

Anyhow, after a few months on the look on the World Wide Web we found this one in Southampton:

1993 2.5i Petrol (AAF) Automatic LWB (124K on the clock)




Apparently Velle had been standing for over 12 months (comes with MOT - which passed in May but had only covered 3K miles in the last 2 years - according to old MOT's), started every other month etc but suffered from a bladder problem - leaking water :eek: . At the time, I knew that if you filled her up with water, from the expansion tank, she would lose it within 2/3 of running. Also, at the time when we went to see Velle I couldn't see where the water was leaking from.

So, I decided to take a gamble and buy her for a set price of £530 A:A: . Arranged a company from Shiply.com to come and pick her up and drop off at my house (50 odd miles) for £54.00 (the guy even came from Slough - how on earth did he make any money on that job??).

Velle arriving at her new home







After a quick investigation on the water leak:


And removal of engine belly pan noticed that the water was leaking from the engine flange:





Crack either side of fixing holes:


After a quick visit to GSF, this broke my bank - £5.00 odd for water flange and rubbers:

New Flange:


Brilliant, I thought. Water leak had stopped, fill her up with water & coolant and turn her on. See how she goes........well, whilst running her for about 2 mins, I turned the heater on and noticed that water was still leaking out :eek::eek: and it was coming from the back of the engine :eek::eek::eek: . Turned out to be the front heater matrix.....




And yes, it’s located behind the dash board:


You will notice as well that I took the carpet out as this got socked from leaking coolant, but it gave me the opportunity to clean the Velle inside.....(previous owner smoked and used the Velle as work van (paint and decorator) - clean it was not!):

Jet washed the carpets:



Cleaned the dash:



Should have sprayed the dash but decided to keep it the same colour and try and restore it by using a leather restoring product.




Cleaned the seats:
From:


To:

Washing powder, warm water, nail brush, elbow grease and VAX (but ours is a Hoover).

This is about 2 weeks after owning Velle and we still have not got her on the road, but it doesn't matter as the new arrival is not due till August (2009), he says......

Will add some more history tomorrow :D
 
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#4 ·
July 2009......

Forget to mention in previous post....to remove the dash you need to remove the steering wheel and also helps to remove the indi and wiper storks otherwise you might break them I: ...... to remove the dash, remove all trimmings attached, unbolt 2/4 bolts from main cross member in front, one bolt in engine bay (top/near matrix feeds (might have to remove some heat shield/sound proofing)) and give the dash a big yank or two (2 large clips also secure the dash in each corner near window screen.

Hidden dash bolt


I also removed any bolts holding the heater up from within the engine bay which gained access to heater and matrix for ease.

Heater matrix replaced (via Ebay - £56.00 I think), cleaned and re-sprayed the mushrooms and fitted the dash back in. A quick top of coolant and water and after a quick tweak of the upper air valve to release some air and snapped the valve :eek: :




At this point really wonted the Velle on the road or at least on standby for Trooper no.4 so I decided to bodge it and try and locate a replacement......which I did a few months later from an old Rover Metro (post 1990's I think) if anyone is interested.

More in a bit.......
 
#6 ·
Some more cleaning of the seats...after all, it is an 8 seater:

Before


After


At this point I didn't know what to do with Velle as her main daily chore would be to move the troops around.

So the next thing on the list of things to do was to source some glass for a rear door:



Got a quote from VW of £52 plus rubber @ £35.00 and Rasp: at them and sourced a door of flebay, the only issue being that they were near Great Yarmouth :( . So a little de-tour on a works outing allowed me to pick up a door but also noticed the guy had the other side. Both of them cost me £70.00, same colour etc and plus they have central locking and other markings apart from the VW badge.

Got them fitted etc and was also on the lookout for a rear bumper - centre piece for a 3 piece system:



Found a one piece bumper at local scrappy for £20.00 and then fitted it. So off came the old pieces and on with the new one (if converting from 3 piece to 1 you will need the corner sections (from 1 piece bumper) that allow the bumper to rest on which you will need to secure to body work. I used self tapping screws.

Old


(new bumper to follow)

A few other things have also been done:

Head gasket test - via cylinder test for a piece of mind and also white sludge on oil funnel:

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=46149

Later found out the all T4's have white sludge in the oil funnel :)

Fitted a radio from fleabay which came with an IPod reader:



And the idea is that the iPod will fit in the ash tray:



No other images to upload yet, but the idea came from a splitty I saw with the same concept. However my ash tray/iPod docking station is still in the development stage :D

I think by this point Trooper no.4 was born (10 August) which then gave the reason to sell the mondeo and put some more effort on the Velle or at least make road ready....so a quick oil change - which took me 4 hours as I did not have one of those special tools, reverted to hammer and screw driver, but please, if you’re going to change the oil spend a little bit extra and get the right tool:



A few weeks later we/I had decided to go to Vanfest and see how the Velle would handle......our first longish drive and more importantly to see if the mpg would increase :D:D....who was I kidding. So a quick rush on to tidy her shoes up and give her a T-cut. Although I only gave Velle one t-cut she did look pretty shiny. The dull blue paint was now starting to come back to life:




You’ll also notice that I have dropped the front down a bit......how easy is that :D although you do need a big spanner - 26/28mm I think...not sure.

Had a great day at Vanfest but wished we had stayed for longer or camped. Thanks to all that waved :ILU: Brought some goodies from T4's-R's £12/£14 I think:




And a quick 5 min job - out with the old/in with the new.

That's it for now....will post some more tomorrow

Keep waving :ILU: :ILU: :ILU:
 
#11 ·
Sorry all, been away work wise and now back to play with my T4 or at least spend money on it :D.

After cleaning was completed and visiting Vanfest in the Velle, which brilliant but need to camp this year as one was not long enough, we decided to sit down and wonder what we do with her. We're on a tight budget, if there is one, having 4 kids etc and decided to do the bits that would help her with every day life. Unfortunately it just seemed to be one thing after another and also having a new arrival in the family time was scarce.

She needed new rear shoes, fairly easy job, but when you've only got one car (the Velle) and the rear drum/shoe seize on then life become abit hard.

I think it wasn't till December last year (2009) that I had made the plunge and decided to do some window tinting.

standard
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After 1st window


2nd window


And finally



A sun day, after a wash (the Velle) notice she had started to show signs of rust, so out the sander, wire brush and angle grinder and found some past history :(






Will get some more pics up soon of Velle's current state.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Thursday/Friday I found out the Velle decided to spring a leak in her radiator and to be honest it didn't bother me....for some reason I'm getting used to the surprises she brings me.

Any way radiator on order from http://www.veedubmachine.co.uk/ (£61.00 including P&P).
I have also ordered a replacement sill (£14.99) from T4s-r-us for the front right:



And then yesterday it turned up:


Now all I need is a welder.....fleabay!!!

So with the rad and the sill waiting for repair or other action I decided to play with the rear end, and after removing the rear wipers I:




And finally:
From this:

To this:


Its not a pro's job but it was just to see if thats how I want the rest of the Velle...and as I had some spray left over I thought I'd do this:




Still smiling :):) although I have seen a few drops of power steering fluid on the floor and will no doubt have to replace the pump soon, so I might as well change the timing belt and the cam belt at the same time (as I dont know when they were last changed)......another expensive month :(

On a happier note, I've noticed for some time that one of the Velle's rear lights where on constant "brake light mode" and decided to leave it until I had a whole day and a clear head to sort the electrics/lighting out. After 5 mins at looking at the light bulb and how it was fitted noticed that it was fitted the wrong way (one pin higher than the other on side of bulb). Also noticed that there where at least more bulbs in side the cluster, which one was broken and the other serviceable.....result! A:A:

I've also started to plan for a sink and hob to go in the back along with some electrics but not sure what I need (electric wise). The idea is to run minimal lighting and laptop off a battery and then run from mains (electric hook up) when in a camp site etc. But as mentioned I dont know where to start first :confused:

And got (for now) these to do:

Cambelt
Timing belt
MOT - Before 1st June :eek:
Weld Sill
Source leak from Power steering pump
Fit new Radiator (on arrival)
Respray
Lower rear
Fit for basic Camping
Electrics :confused:
New Aerial
 
#13 · (Edited)
think of it as a ongoing project so the list of jobs dont get you down .T:

very cheap outlay though,
i did it the otherway round i paid 5 grand for a p reg lwb 9 seater 4 years ago then treated it liker a van and let the kids jump over it and now its considerbly worse for wear comestically.

just noticed blandford im a dorset native i used to live in milborne st andrew ,.
 
#15 ·
Its been a while I know and some of you have read that the Velle passed its MOT the other week A:A:A: :D . Well proud of her 17 odd years old and still sounds great.

Not really done much apart from getting it to ready for MOT, a few things I had to do, which I was aware of:

1. Horn - not working(depending of the day of the week)/not earthing on steering wheel.
2. Rear Left Brake Light not working - bulb installed the wrong way (took me 15 mins to work out, but I did find some more bulbs in the cluster :D ).
3. Replace drivers side sill - welded new sill with me new toy - MIG Welder.
4. Check sills/underneath of vehicle and treat for rust - Wire brush'n drill then wax oiled :D .
5. Steering wheel - Repair.

The Velle did fail its MOT on 2 tyres, one with a cut and one with a lump on it :(, which I didn't notice, but after replacing them she then passed :D .

I've also been busy on the rest of the body work. Trying to decide on what colour or even what style to go for.....I am toying with the idea with just leaving her as she is, dropping her to the deck and adding some banned steels or wider/bigger tyres :confused:









Next on the list is defo the CamBelt, Power steering pump and belt replacement.

Now....can I do the Cambelt my self or should I get some else to do it?
 
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