My name is Glynn, a 33yr old manager in a structual steel company in Northamptonshire, my road to this community of VW lovers, stems mostly from my first passion mountain biking! I started off in life driving classics, Morris Minors to be exact and very quickly got the "bug" for modifying vehicles many years ago, but after about 8yrs of "struggling" realised this was not a practical way to go reverting down on the modern car path (although I still have a half built Minor mod in the garage) with estate cars being favoured for the uptake of my passtime.
My preveous car was a Galant estate with great looks & all the toys you could want, but somehow it just did not fit and this became more apparent seeing all the vans at bike races which I regulally attend, so the descision was made to go big! Having Corey a 2 year old at the time, I was determind to find a van with rear seats, by which I mean factory fitted as I have major concerns as to traveling in a van with self fitted rear seats as these are not log booked to carry more than 3, my the descision came down to "dare I say" a vito with lots of comforts (& things to go wrong) or a T4 with er..not a lot compared to my galant! however in Jan 08, I had picked up an Ex AA 52 model full of ideas to add the personal touch, I haggled a good deal including the spray job (& all the old AA toolchests & lights for use in my garage) from the dealer, after an agonising 2 weeks, I picked up my new van.
My wife Katie was I think its fair to say sceptical that this was not just a fad, but although at the time the van was noisy & rattly, I could see the potential and got the "bug" to get the disc cutter out once again...
A bizare start, but a second hand dash was first to be as the AA issue was peppered with holes & this annoys me, however this is not for the faint hearted, its a hell of a job! A bit later in the build, I ditched the ashtray & grafted in its place a cup holder from I think a Z3, which blended in nicelly.
The next thing to do was cut a ruddy great hole in the floor & sink a fabricated tray for an split charge battery, the apropriate wires were run through for this to run the stereo dvd 14"dvd screen & all the rear lighting, once done a front carpet was fitted & the rear floor was insulated with vechiel soundproofing & half carpeted leaving the rear "work" half to cover with flat roofing material, this was money well spent as the van was immediatly transformed to a comfortable cruiser. Everywhere else (& I do mean everywhere) was insulatede with old carpet underlay which I was getting free, which all helped with noise.
Next the cutter was out again as I cut into the side above the rear n/s wheel arch to sink in a small toolchest thus keeping as much open space as possible, this was then carpeted on top & hidden cupboards added to use all the space around the arch. My minds brief was to make the vehicle to take 4 bikes (on custom made front wheel mounts) and 4 people in comfort, whilst still being a family vehicle but be able to pop the rear seats out, soon to be made sub box & bike mounts thus leaving a very useable van!
A tint was then added to the rear windows for security reasons mainly and smoked lights and the alloys aquired (not the best choice as they get real scuffed the sort of places I take her).
The sound system was next so I mounted the amp on polished stainless, cut some interesting p+atterns, podded some rear speakers, remade every wall pannel in mdf which was painted with emulsion, added a 14" cealing mount screen oh & made a removable box shaped under the rear seats holding a 10" & 12" sub! This done & I was about where I wanted to be with the vehicle...but of course now I could not stop.
ED - You are not wrong there Glynn - feel free to keep us updated as your build progresses and i will happily compile an update.you will need to send us some detailed images of your side bars, all good homemade mods always interest us greatly!
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