Transporter

Transforming the transporter's looks. The front end of the T5 Transporter isn't a great thing to look at. It's not bad but it's not great either. The T5.1 sportline facelift looks pretty great which is probably why so many people face lift the T5's. It's a simple bolt of job but does cost a bit to do and that's before you even get to painting the thing. Another look to go for would be to convert the front end to a Caravelle style bumper either from a  Caravelle or Shuttle bus. The bonus of this approach is that I could find one already painted thus cutting costs a fair bit. The reason I did not to do either of these was that I wanted to do something a bit different. I had found a number of forum entries that inspired me to go and try some custom mods. Something I had not done before. A brief forey with the splitter on the right (it did not end well) got me started but it wasn't till quite a bit later till I got really stuck in. T...

Changing the coilovers had already done loads for the vans handling but it was now time to go full comfort and loose the 20"s Decisions, Decisions. I wanted to go for some  "19 RS4 style wheels  like the ones on the left. I spent an absolute age shopping around to find the exact style I wanted before I had the cash spare to go and order some. There are loads listed as "weight rated" but none mention to what weight they are rated too.  A few enquirys later proved that NONE  of them were weight rated to the weight of a T5 transporter despite being listed for them. Very naughty! As such I had to broaden my search a bit to find a suitable wheel. Decision Made. In the end I picked up a set of genuine VW 18" 6 spoke sport line wheels in matt black from  Tamar wheels . I rang them on  01752343280 / 07793590038 direct which saves them some eBay fees and you gain a nice set of colour matched wheel bolts for free. I took the wheels to ZR ...

It's August bank holiday Saturday, the RD250 race bike is ready for the dyno, strapped in the back and I am half way to the dyno when *BANG*. I loose drive and a low grinding noise tells me all is not well as I coste to a stop. Fuck stick. Some roadside deliberating got me thinking clutch but the padal felt fine and there wasn't any noise till I applied drive. A bit of forum bashing (it was a bank holiday so I had a while to wait) later and drive shaft kept coming up again and again. Once the AA guy rocked up he was convinced the duel mass flywheel had gone, hitched me up and towed me home.  The van sat nicely on 100,200 miles and a duel mass flywheel being rated for 100,000 did make it the prime suspect. A blown clutch was one thing but the duel mass was going to make things expensive. A bit of internet shopping had me looking around the £500 mark for the parts. The job shouldn't be out of my abilities and tooling wise I shouldn't be far off so I had a lo...