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.

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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

 

[DanW81]

Been a while, but seeing as the weather as turned a bit, decided to sort out the rear of the van.
This is the first time I am going down the carpet lining route for the rear ply panels.

Not really want top end lining as it is a area for my angling kit.
I think I will go down the anthracite route for the side panels, light grey for the roof panels and will cover the bulkhead load side in black.

Will definitely be getting rid of the ply wheel arch boxes, and ply flooring.
I have recently just sourced a factory rubber single slider flooring for the van plus associated tie points, plastic cups and washers, bolts for £200 plus £30 and a few hours travel to Bournemouth to collect from a camper conversion unit.
Was in very good condition and a great find. Quite rare too, especially as vw want around £800 just for the flooring .

Going to look at Richatd Grant mouldings (RGM Automotive) for the rear arch covers and rear side panels.
Sourced 2 additional led cargo lights from a seller off of Ebay with some of the factory harness and plugs to go with it. So should be an easy splice job.

The usual sound deadening mat, 10mm close cell foam to take care of reducing sound resonance.

First job flooring stripped, screw holes plugged with some metal putty and foil tape. No sound deadening for this as the flooring looks like it has nice foam membrane for this.
Watched Greg Virgoe videos on YouTube to convince me otherwise.

Panels next.

 

[vwjack]

I did mine in anthracite too mate, enjoyed doing it. I have vinyl down on my floor... opted to get rid of the arch boxes myself too and got the plastic arch liners. I also did my bulkhead, but I did the cab side

 

[DanW81]

I did mine in anthracite too mate, enjoyed doing it. I have vinyl down on my floor... opted to get rid of the arch boxes myself too and got the plastic arch liners. I also did my bulkhead, but I did the cab side

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Hi Jack, it does give it a more fresher feel for sure.
I am a still a little sceptical regarding carpet lining and smelly fishing kit, but went the cheap route so if it doesn't work out will not be overly bothered about ditching it.

 

[DanW81]

Playing around with a bit of customising whilst I wait for some parts to turn up.

I like very subtle changes that probably most won't notice

If it turns out OK will of course show of my results.

 

[Curlynot]

I did mine in anthracite too mate, enjoyed doing it. I have vinyl down on my floor... opted to get rid of the arch boxes myself too and got the plastic arch liners. I also did my bulkhead, but I did the cab side

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Hi, are those plastic arch covers from RGA? and have you carpeted the wheel arches and then fitted the plastic over the top or fitted them first and done up to their edges?

 

[vwjack]

Hi, are those plastic arch covers from RGA? and have you carpeted the wheel arches and then fitted the plastic over the top or fitted them first and done up to their edges?

Hi mate
The arch liners are from vanstyle. They sit behind the ply on the sides and lip under the ply floor too. I sound deadend the arches then putvthe liners on. Cut the ply panels on the walls to suit carpeted then refitted them.

 

[DanW81]

So this was a part of the dash I was playing around with.
I have my steering wheel and dsg lever reupholstered by jack of royal steering wheels and do like the subtle red stitching.
So thought I would add a slight touch of the red throughout my dashboard with out going all out on this.
Was a bit tricky getting the masking tape right.
I bought some fine style one from amazon, but this was terrible quality. Caused problems with glue residue and allowing the red to seep under during the spraying process.

A bit of a nightmare to try and get right for such a small part.
I watched a few youtube videos of scale modellers and how they mask up small parts.
This worked a treat, along with dome decorators frog tape got a much nicer finish. Is it perfect, no. Not by a country mile, however it looks good to me and I may revisit it again later on to see if I can improve. Like to learn and improve in whatever I set my mind too, my downfall at times.

 

[DanW81]

Finally got the rear of van sorted.
Usual sound deadening mats placed on the outside panels only, and 10mm close cell liner over these panels.
As made a nicer improvement on sound resonance.
The RGA mouldings for the inner wheel arches and inside of tailgate frame, are fantastic quality.
They came with fitting instructions, 3m adhesive promoter etc, all the bits yiu normally get when ordering from the main dealers. In fact I think they manufacture these parts for lots of vehicles and dealerships sell them with their usual mark ups because the fitment is spot.
Highly recommended.

Wired in 2 additional led lights just to give the are a bit more lighting without saturating it with lumens .

Also added to vw number plate surrounds, metal presses plates.

Just need to get the correct the sliding door step now for the additional height gained on rubber liner.

 

[DanW81]

Some material for the A and upper B pillars. Looks similar if not identical to the pattern on the A pillar trims.

 

[Curlynot]

Hi, vans looking good, quick question re the RGA trims.....Will they fit over any form of sound proofing or are they such a good fit that its straight onto factory metalwork only? I have sound proofed a fair bit of my van but not done the wheel arches yet for this very reason just in case.

Regards