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Yet another first van / conversion thread

72K views 137 replies 40 participants last post by  sheephead 
#1 · (Edited)
So, I thought i'd start a thread on here detailing everything were doing to our new van. Massively inspired to get on and do work on it myself after reading so many of your threads, so can only hope mine gives another story for people to read through and be inspired themselves. inspired to do what im unsure, but my advice at this point would be to do the opposite of everything I do.....

Anyway, first things first. Been after a vw van for years, always wanted a T2 Panel Van but never really had the time or space to work on it. Me and the mrs decided to put a 3 month trip away on hold and buy a van, spend some money on doing it up and use it to get in a few trips in and around the u.k and then hopefully after the vans proved it's reliable, over into europe and do some longer trips.

So, we started doing some research, looking into prices to see what we could afford and deciding what sort of van we wanted. Decided on a T4 for number of reasons, main ones being slightly (or supposedly) more reliable, more comfortable, better fuel economy and cost. I must of spent weeks scouring the forum, reading up etc.

Started looking early May for a 1.9td T4 and there were plenty about. Got let down on a few, messed about and lied too - seems the vw worlds not as friendly as I first thought, but before long found a t4 on ebay i was keen on. It was red, preffered colour, 1.9td 2001 with service history and lowish milage (117k) compared to some of the others we were looking at within our super tight budget. Only trouble was it was in Manchester and were down in Bristol.

Decided to keep an eye on it whilst looking at others, stuck in a bid at the end and won it.

Now, i'm usually super cautious about buying cars without viewing them,i.e I wouldnt do it. But the trek to manchester wasnt on the cards before the auction ended so I took a punt and well it bit me in the ass....

This is the van, pictures from the advert.







It was described as being good condition with a few surface rust scabs bottom of the front door. And one key scratch front passenger side and along the side door. No big deal, all manageable and something I can sort at a later date. However, there were plenty more scratches over the body and also a secuirty plate around the lock on the back door and additional yale type locks fitted to rear and side sliding door. None of which were mentioned on the advert or in conversation with the seller.

Long story short, deal was struck I was happy enough considering everything important seemed ok and these were all issues I can sort.

Left the sellers place and headed for home. All was well.... until I noticed the temp guage had stopped working about half hour down the road. Decided to pull into the services and check it out in the hope it was something simple. Jumped out had a nose and couldnt see anything. Fired it back up and it was working again. :*

Decided to head into the services for some lunch before the drive home, went to lock up and realized the keys I had, wouldnt lock the back or the side door. Phoned the seller up who basically told me a load of about there being another key in the glovebox and being able to lock it from the inside as a last resort.......GREAT. how often do people check keys / locks on a test drive? I know I never have but I was obviously niave on this one. Two options go back to see the friendly seller, or think f8ck it and head for home. Mrs talked me round, cheered me up with a bit of lunch and we headed home. Was all sold as seen so i'm not sure what,other than the obvious...... I would have got out of going back to his place. lucky we got the van cheap and had some money to spend on it straight away. live an learn anyway.

Got home and first thing was first, whip the wheel trims offT:

 
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#28 · (Edited)
Yeh I am, just not had chance to get ad sorted. Can send you some pics when I'm back if your interested? It's pretty much as new.

Slight delay in leaving yesterday, van loaded up, first £100 tank of fuel I've ever paid for and check tyre pressures and the n/s rear had a massive bulge in the side wall. Think all the weight I've put in to go away with was too much for them. There only a 91 l/r which up until conversions been finished has been completely fine. Messed about for a bit; debated going anyway but with the chance of covering nearly 2k miles over the next week and a bit, had to get something changed. So called in last thing last night at a tyre place I use, picked up 4 94 rated tyres in same size (ideally wanted to go higher but that'd mean a different tyre size) which gives me an extra 55kgs per wheel so that should be enough for what's in the van. So that, on top of a broken door handle and rear wiper that wouldn't switch off, made us abandon yesterday's departure and go today instead.

anyway, alarms just gone off big drive ahead, nice and cool at the minute compared to yesterday's sweat fest so fingers crossed there'll be no more problems....
 
#32 ·
Soooo the long planned scotland trip.

Had this on the cards since last year, wanted to get the van to a finished (phase 1 ish) state before we tackled it due to planning to wild camp for the majority and need space, organisation and supplies.

Plan was 10days, leave on the friday and come back on the monday a week and a bit later, manic week at work trying to get everything done before i left ensued, meaning final prep on the van had to wait until the thursday night /friday morning before we left. not ideal, but all I had.

Got the van all packed on the friday morning, filled up the tank (first time spending £100 on fuel:() checked the fresh oil was still ok, stick some 2 stroke in the tank, and check the tyre pressures. here's where the problems started.....

for some reason the forecourt air lines by me seem to be consistantly broken. same again this time with the pressure taking an age to get anywhere near what I needed, gave up initially and left to try and find another garage. unfortunatly some air must have been taken from one of the rears which left it soft, not great when your running a low load rated tyre and the vans heavier than a planet. sure enough by the time i got to another garage, there was a massive bulge in the left rear sidewall. pulled up mrs went to get out and broke the door handle so couldnt open the door. massively frustrated by this point, need to be on the road, glasgow by this evening and problems already. after messing about trying to decide whether to risk it, swap back to the original steels (unbalanced) or try and pick up one new tyre and hope the others will be fine with proper pressures in them, decided to go and find 4 new, higher rated tyres and get them fitted ready to leave tommorrow. rear wiper then decided to stick on, whilst on route to the garage so that just topped it off.

Anyway, left on the saturday morning at 5, nice cool traffic free drive up there and got to loch lomond just after 2 i think, van drove perfectly the whole way and for the entire trip to be honest. 1600 miles, £220 worth of fuel and saw most of the west side of scotland, ben nevis, loch lomond, loch ness, glen coe and 3 days on skye. 3 nights out of the 10 were in campsites to get a shower and top up the water tank, the rest wild camped on some of the most amazing spots i've ever been. well worth a trip up there if anyone gets the chance.

I've picked a few of our pictures, out of the 500 or so we actually took - none of which actually capture how good the trip was for us. Van as I said was perfect, few little changes i'll make over the next few weeks all of which i'll post up about on hereT:

In no real order....













































 
#34 ·
Heading up to my parents place tommorrow mate to get some pictures of it T: Was hoping to of got round there before now, but things have been a bit manic.

Well worth the trip up as you can see, could always tie it in with a visit somewhere else on the way, or stop some where half way for a couple of nights. it took me about 6 hours from Bristol. shame it's not closer.
 
#37 ·
Bit of a list of job's to try and get done tommorrow if the weathers ok;

* Remove the centre section of headlining ready to redo with new ply. Used the original boards when I did it, and this one's really sagged in the middle for some reason. so cutting a new section from ply, and a covering in something a little different.

*hoover out all the / dead midgeys / grass from the trip

*fit boost gauge / hazard switch

*wash

*attempt to sort out the bumpers with heat gun (there in dire need!!)

*b pillar vinyls

Then hopefully get a chance to run down to Volksfest on sunday if I get time and there isnt a monsoon:ILU:
 
#39 · (Edited)
So, didnt get everything done I wanted but did get a few bits done.

Managed to drop the centre headlining board back down, ready to redo. Going to use ply this time, and cover in something slightly different to lighten up the inside a bit. Will pick up a sheet of ply this week and get that started.

Then decided I'd get the boost guage started, so dismantled the dash, ready to swap the hazard switch;



then ground of the peg on the back of the new passat switch;



and plugged everything back in and what do you know, no smoke and all working perfectly.

Next I ran the pipe for the boost guage through the bulkhead, connecting up to the nipple on inlet manifold and cable tied it all nice and tidy ;





Decided before I cut into the dash i'd make sure it all worked as it should, so took it for a test drive and was boosting at 9psi



So moved onto the fueling. Decided i'd best just remove the fuel mixture screw to give me enough access and space to remove the anti tamper collar that was on there, so popped the grill and lower panel off to give me a bit more space and found this monster stuffed into the bottom of therad;



huge. no idea what it was, but was about 4/5cm long. so I left him there.....

screw out, collar off and back in, adjust the fuel until i get a bit of black smoke off turbo, and move onto the actuator arm, fiddley as hell when the turbo's still hot, plenty of adjusting, trial run, more adjusting later and its now running a relatively safe 12psi. may tweek a bit more yet, i'll see how it goes but its much much better to drive now. really noticeable difference mid range, and easier to get up to speed which is exactly what I was after. Will have to wait to finish off the final mounting of the gauge as I've misplaced my hole cutting drill bits so need to pick up a set tommorrow.

After this, and a bit of fannying about, I decided to give the b pillar vinyls another go. this was now my 3rd attempt, decided to just take my time, and it was still a bit of a faff getting it round the window seals on the sliding door / side panels.Anyway, there on and i'm pretty happy. not perfect, but will do for me and my OCD. T:





Last job, was making sure the 5m aux input cable I ordered works as I'd hoped and it does. Now means I can run my laptop in the back of the van, watching movies through the vans stereo, and using it as a bit of a media centre until I get my hands on a raspberry PI and work out what I'm going to do with that.
 
#41 ·
Got the boost gauge properly mounted now, and wired into the dash lights T:





Also worked out the mpg from the scotland trip as I'd emptied the remaining fuel from the tank, this was the rest;



To say i'm shocked would be an understatement, thats a fully loaded van, with me (leadfoot) driving for the majority. I'm over the moon. I think it comes down to the long motorway trips each way, aimed to keep the revs below 3k whilst on the motorway, which meant about 60/65 ish. Not sure how thats now been affected by me messing with boost & fueling etc but I'll do the same again on the next trip.

Jobs for this weekend are restricted as I'm moving in 2 weeks, but aiming to get the centre headlining board re cut & drilled ready to be covered again, and still want to get the bumpers sorted.... also paying a little visit somewhere about a little change. more on that to follow hopefully :ILU:
 
#42 ·
So with the weater being as bad as it is, I've had to abandon most of todays plans and settle for a couple of little jobs, one of which was finishing off my centre console to match the door handles I did a while back. Basically involves old batman comics, pva glue and a bit of lacquer, this was the result;

Pre-lacquer



And lacquered and fitted



And the handles I'd already done;





Definately not to everyones taste, but I love the old comics, and this is something a bit different to the norm. Should look even better once I get the dash sprayed up in the summer.
 
#44 ·
just had to comment on the awesome pics of Scotland - the drive from Glasgow up to Fort William I've done twice and both times its been stunning weather so views have been brilliant. Definitely my fav road for driving.

will use your pics to try and persuade Mrs to do that trip once my van is done.
 
#45 · (Edited)
Thanks chaps T:

yeh the whole trips roads were amazing to be honest, I always said the glen coe pass was my favourite road due to the scenary etc but the road over to skye is up there too, just wished the place was nearer and had less midgeys! probably wouldnt mention them though if your going up anytime may onwards.....
 
#46 ·
Van looks brilliant mate! Mines is red with front windows too, ill be well happy to get mine looking like yours, actually looks real good with black bumpers because they match the wheels/windows.

Nice to see you guys are into Scotland trips, the majority of Scottish folks will have never even seen half these places. Cant wait to get my van done to do the same.

I think your units have made me want to do the Ike unit idea too, they look great, and for someone not great with woodwork (me) they will probably be the easiest.

What are they called? What sink/ hob did you go for?

Love it! T:
 
#47 ·
Yeh bumpers will be staying black, I prefer the contrast to be honest. Goes with the rest of the theme for the outside (or will do....)

I was in the same boat and have no woodwork skills what so ever, once you get your head around what you need to cut out of them, its relatively straight forward - more a mental workout with all the measuring. Would just say they do weigh ALOT so worth considering ways to reduce this. If i was doing it again, i'd think about cutting sections out the side of each unit and use a thinner worktop. The units are Ikea Faktum wall units in varying sizes, with gloss grey abstrakt doors and a Ikea worktop.

Hob & sink wise, I haven't got one installed. I toyed with the idea but I really don't like the idea of cooking in the van. Grease and smells all over the place. I've got a cheap twin hob that I can use outside or if its wet then on the floor of the van away from everything. each to there own as with everything, but works well for us.
 
#49 ·
Thanks Jester

Basically, if your doing a flat section like the dash covers, then you cut a page / section from the comic book out roughly the right size, then using pva glue coat the panel in a layer and loosly place on the section of comic. then, concentrate on getting it as flat and smooth as possible. you'll want to do this now as once the glue goes off, it will be rock hard and you'll end up with lumps under the comic. you can either trim once dry and reglue the edges or when wet and do it all the same time, makes no difference.

if your doing a curved peice like the door handles etc, then you'll want to tear random peices of comic up (found it looked better than more square / even cut peices) and again, coat the plastic in pva, then the back of the peice of comic and stick on. just keep overlapping the sections until your happy with the look of it, no reason you can't add more when its dry if you fancy a change either.

Once its all dried (properly - takes a day or so in a warm place) you can spray some thin coats of lacquer over the top of it. I tried coating the whole thing with pva first thinking it would do the same job but hard to get smooth, and soemtimes went milky. so just leave as it is once you've finished sticking bits down, leave to dry and then lacquer. Needs to be fully dry (hard) before you lacquer as you'll also get a milky finish if lacquering when wet.

Hope thats ok, if you've any more questions, let me know T:
 
#51 ·
Yeh wasn't far off that to be honest (cheaper doors could have saved us a chunk of money along with a cheaper worktop) , the benefit for us though was that we were able to do it in stages, and buy bits as and when we had the money. I.e finish the tall cupboard then do the rest of the units when we had more spare money.

The other thing was we were able to design it completely to fit our requirements, alot of the units I've seen pictures of, although complete and perfectly designed for a van, the cupboard space is no where near what we have with these. adjustable shelves to suit our needs, we also have the draws which are massively useful.

As you say, its alot of money, and I'm not completely happy about the weight of them but for usability there as good as you can get in my opinion. Everyone's different though so its just a case of finding the best set up to suit your requirements.
 
#52 ·
Yeh your right, the full size of your units can be used as the doors are full size unlike the ones that are MDF with hatches cut. Thats obviously massively helpful for space.. Love the gloss doors too.

I understand what you mean by bit by bit, as im going to be doing it as i save the cash, im refusing to make myself skint by doing it as soon as i can, im going to save the cash then do it in stages. Like first stage being insulation, board and carpeting.

Top job T:
 
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