Dan’s Fishing Van

[DanW81]

I like the Trident wheels

Are your new bolts 17 or 19mm spanner size?

I've resorted to just blowing a bit of satin black over the head of my bolts now until I can find some caps that fit in the holes. Its a pity that Supermetal didn't make the holes big enough originally to accept the factory caps especially as they were offered as a VW dealer accessory!

They are 19mm heads, same as the factory ones mate.

 

[DanW81]

Only a few bits fitted recently. The van was desperate for some new wiper blades, a freshen up of the windscreen and side windows with my usual gtechniq waterspot remover, rinseless wash, quick machine polish and a coating of gtechniq g4. Lovely crisp windscreen and genuine vw wiper blades that actually wipe water off .
A plastic cover for the roller side door bracket and went with the recommendation of some osram h11 cool boost front fog light bulbs. These tbf made a nice noticeable difference.
On my previous caddy, I swapped out the factory windscreen washer nozzles for the mist variant. Went the same route again, but they are not very good or effective on this van. Adjusted the nozzle with the screw but made no real difference. Ended up fitting the original ones back in, and with a pick tool Adjusted the nozzles to get a better spray pattern that actually hits the screen and not the A pillars or other motorists .
Over the coming weeks will look at fitting my reverse camera and slowly putting together a list of the dash parts from the caravelle with the titan black plastics and cool brushed trim.
Also debadged the transporter emblem.

 

[DanW81]

New wheel retrimmed by jack at royal steering wheels. Used him a few times over the years, and highly recommend his works.
Swapping everything over was straightforward. Opted the the exchange deal he does, so I can keep using the van until new one arrives.
Have sent my new caravelle dsg lever over to him to have the gaitor retrimmed in alcantara dark grey 9002 along with the red stiching.

 

[DanW81]

Another small alteration.
Removed the rear bumper protector cover and purchased a full length threshold for the rear tailgate lock. Can not understand why vw have cut corners again on this, with the smaller one.
Bought the part and associated caps, screws from the oem shop.
Tbh, it was the first time I used them. I did not save much more than buying from a dealership over here. Once you add on the taxes and shipping costs.
Finished off with a black bumper cover from THQ.
This is a really nice put together product. Would recommend highly.

 

[DanW81]

So I have slowly been getting the titan black lower dash trim for the van.
I liked the cool brushed titanium trim inserts for this, so went this route.
The swap over is pretty straightforward, glovebox and center console requires a bit more work because of the torx screws and unclipping of dsg lever, usb cup holder and glovebox led light.
The switches were straightforward to remove, and the glovebox key lock was pretty straightforward to do once I knew how it was held in. Took a few pics of this to help others. Used a pick tool and cut pieces of cable ties to keep the tabs from relocating on to barrel. You don't need to used heat for this.
Dsg lever was retrimmed the same colour as the steering wheel alcantara with red stiching. I bought the dsg lever née from a seller in Germany. I went for the more nicer looking caravelle one.
Door cards and associated buttons and trim will be next to do.

 

[DanW81]

I have added another modification to the van recently, reverse view camera.
Something I have done to my previous caddys.
I bought the kit from a chap in Poland.
Genuine vw camera and holder, and a purpose made wiring loom from the seller.
Coded with my obdeleven. This was a doodle to do as well.
Painted the camera bracket with a rattle can same colour to van. It came out better than I expected.
Just waiting for the gloss black radio and cluster trims to arrive to have tge upper part of the dash complete.

 

[DanW81]

I recently bought a genuine vw sportline tailgate rear spoiler and front lower trim from transporter lite and vw Dundee.
Got both companies to paint the parts the same as the van.
Fitted the rear spoiler the other evening.
Sorry, but was not able to get lots of pics of the install as it has been documented on this forum I believe as well as youtube.

VW's instructions are pretty straightforward to follow on both these parts.
I would say, the stencils for the 2 holes you need to drill for the m5 studs are a little bit of a faff to get into position.
You need to get your tape pretty much spot on as you only have one go per hole and the tolerances for these are almost none existent.
Other than that, some tiger seal on the parts marked in the instructions and it went on reasonably well. Need to be a bit forceful with setting the studs home into the inserts you fit in the drilled holes.

Will get some pics of both items once fitted in daylight conditions.

 

[vwjack]

With the lakes closed for spawning, I made a start on the wheel aches.
Like my caddy's, i just give them a spruce up. Removed the arch liners, any excess over spill body wax, and a thorough clean with bilt hamber suffix hd, gtechniq tar glue remover, gtechniq panel wipe and coated the liners with carpro pearl. Should hopefully make the washes going forward in this area, a bit more easier.

Whilst there, I fitted some sound deading around the thinner panels. Dont really bother with coating every part, was told this is not always worth while.

Last job was to remove the corroded rust marks of the lower wishbones, and coat them with my go to hammerite smooth one coat in black and silver.
Brakes were sorted out with a zinc galv spray on the disks, and foliatec stratos silver for the calipers. Used these in the past with good results tbh. Should keep them looking good behind the new wheels when fitted, and in the coming months when I get some more pennies together will look at getting the t32 340mm front brake setup.

View attachment 247995

View attachment 247996

View attachment 247997

View attachment 247998

View attachment 247999

View attachment 248000

View attachment 248001

View attachment 248002

View attachment 248003

View attachment 248004

View attachment 248005

View attachment 248006

View attachment 248007

View attachment 248008

View attachment 248010

Did you notice much difference after sound deadening the arches mate?

 

[DanW81]

Did you notice much difference after sound deadening the arches mate?

I little, but not much mate. I think you can only get these vehicles so quite. They are a commercial van after all.

 

[vwjack]

Yeah i get that, but all the little percentages add up in the end