The re-beginning

Hunting Dubs

Time wasn't much of a healer.

The memory of the oil making 4-motion was with me as I searched the internet for a suitable replacement. 

"It had been a bargain and what if it had been a simple fix"?

I might have thrown away a genuine bargain and I was now struggling to find a van with similar speck and at a similar price without astronomical miles on it.

Time however was on my side (healing properties omitted though they were) and one particular example did crop up on auction.

Sat at a starting bid of £12,500  and no bids there was a silver 2.5 130ps LWB with electric pack,  barn doors and a few bits added to make it into a light day van. Some pimping Landrover alloys, coil overs, a rear spoiler and fancy headlamps also gave it a pretty gnarly look.

The mileage was at 85k, not bad at all for a van, so after messaging the seller to see if they were happy with a bit of a wait I stuck a minimum bid on it.

Which I won.

I paid a holding deposit and then waited for what felt like forever.

What to do with a van you don't have yet?

 Well you look at things to do to it of course!
The headunit is stock so I wanted something a bit nicer.
Looking on line the Kenwook 525DAB seems like a good idea. Lots f support for navigation DAB radio and bluetooth streaming make for a nice entertainment system and the fact that it is optimised for VW's is the icing on the cake.
I managed to pick one up for £600 on eBay but this brought more money spending with it as this headunit is designed for the newer rounded corner double din cavities.
I had been quoted £250 for the centre console with vents and top tray in the 5.1 style that will just bolt into my current dash. A quick search however brought up a complete 5.1 dash for £150. A bit of a no brainer there so that got bought too for a later pick up.
Finally one of the things I liked least about the Transporter is it's steering wheel. A horrible rubbery thing that really cheapens the feel of the van. Thankfully a mk6 golf one fits straight in. Not cheap thought at £197 with an airbag but if I'm going to insist on being a tart then I need to cough up!
The long term hope is that I will buy all the modules to get this to integrate with the Kenwood headunit. Cruise control will also be required and will no doub get changed at the same time.

Not a bad hall considering I wasn't even in the right country yet let alone own an actual van!

Pick it up

I live in Lincolnshire, the van was in Bovington Dorset and I only had a motorbike to get down there on.

Clearly this was going to be a little bit of a mission to collect but luckily I had a plan.

 First off I rode down to Portsmouth where I have family and paid them a visit.
Then on the Sunday afternoon I got a lift off of my sister (in a little fiat 500) to Bovington where I picked up the new van and we convoid it back to Portsmouth.
This went fairly smoothly as it happens, leaving the final part of the plan where I stripped out the back of the van, loaded my bike on and drove back to Lincoln.
This wasn't very easy as (you will soon see) the van wasn't a standard load carrier so I struggled a bit for tie down points.
To my credit, I had purchased a proper ramp and 6 ratchet tie down strops. These were very helpful to keep everything steady on the drive back.

So what's this one like?

 Really nice.
Not perfect but I was't expecting nor did I want that.
The previous owner had, had some difficulties with the DPF blocking so had opted to have it gutted and a mild tune put on the ECU. This makes the van feel pretty crisp and lively. Also the turbo is a fair bit louder on this van, reminding me of my old Audi A4 1.8t with it's loud "WEEEEEEEE" scream on hard acceleration.


 The van has some meaty alloys off of a Landrover that have necessitated having the van lowered. Using coil-overs has allowed me to set it back should I need the ride hight but the down side is that the ride is rather soft when lowered.This is very noticeable on the bumpy back roads around my house with a bike in the back I can tell you!

The headlamps are some pretty cool looking projector light and LED things. As expected these are pretty crap at doing their primary job of lighting the road up but it can't be argued that they do look pretty cool.
They are also not adjustable on the fly like the OEM headlamps which is a bit of a pain when you have a load in the back.


A rear spoiler has been fitted and colour matched which really helps the look (One of the few vehicles that look better for one) and a protector sits on top of the rear bumper which is welcome during loading.
Whist we are at the bum end; there is also a tow bar that, should I feel the need, I can stick a trailer on the back. Always nice for flexibility and acts as a parking sensor to save my bumper :p

Blacked out rear and left side widows help give the day van look and some chrome details manage to look pretty smart without being garish. Not convinced by the skirt runners though.

I mentioned the interior was not standard earlier.

The front seats have had some high quality leather covers put on them rendering them effectively reupholstered. A Parrot, gear knob (needs replacing) and reversing camera complete the cabin mods.
The screen for the reversing camera is hidden in the glove box along with an old style ipod cable that will be coming out shortly.
It wasn't till the drive home that I noticed this van does not have air-conditioning. A bit upsetting as this is an expensive modification to do if I chose to add it and something I thought came with the electric pack but I am clearly mistaken.


The back end is fully insulated and carpeted on the walls but using panels rather than simply carpeting everything so I can chase wiring in and mess about without needing to remove the whole carpet.
The floor ply has been covered in black and white tiles.
This was a surprise as I was expecting Lino from the eBay pictures but seems to be pretty hard wearing for a day van.
Sadly the chunky VFR mixed with plenty of roundabouts on the A43 resulted in a few tiles coming away from the floor, indicating that this might not be a suitable long term solution to floor finish.
 Sat on the floor is a three seat bench from a Shuttle van, again upholstered in black leather. Currently there is a centre three point harness and one lap strap. Sticking another lap strap on will give me a fully usable bench seat although finding a way to fit three point harnesses would be preferable.
If you aren't aware of these seats; you can fold the back down for to allow things to be laid on them or they can be rolled forward to allow more room behind the seat. Alternatively the seat can easily be removed completely which is what I did to get the bike in the back before.
A ply wood surfboard table is a cool little detail that is best appreciated from afar but is fun if nothing else.

So not a bad place to start from really. There are big plans brewing for what I will do to get the van to the standard I would like. I will share this another time along with some pros and cons for different ideas.
Hopefully it will help you should you be planning on something similar. Until then I might try to find some time to enjoy what I have got.










VW Transporter T5 2.5 TDI 130PS