Sold

Time has come to move the Caddy on. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it - but I have urges to move on to something else, something a little larger, with a few more seats. I've also reached the point where if I was to start upgrading more bits (stereo etc.) it would start costing me more and more, and I'd rather put that in to the next project.

Simply scroll back thru the blog for history and more pics

So here goes, a quick 'for sale' ad:

2009 59-plate Caddy 1.9 TDI.
35,500 miles (rising by roughly 250 per week)
MOT until Sept 2013
Taxed until end of Feb 2013
Raven Blue
Regularly serviced by Aire Valley Workshop in Skipton.

Exterior:
Colour coded bumpers
Sliding door rail, supplied, painted and fitted by Reflex Auto Design
Rear spoiler (not VAG), prep'd, painted and fitted by Reflex Auto Design
Sump guard supplied and fitted by Reflex Auto Design
Yellow/gold tint headlights (I'm not a fan of these and never got around to changing them - they did go thru the MOT okay tho')
Clear side repeaters
Heko wind deflectors
Seat Leon Cupra front splitter
Genuine VAG mudflaps
UK Legal pressed metal plates

Interior:
Sound proofed and insulated
Fully carpet lined inside by Mark at MegaVanMats
New Caddy Life rear roof section
Ply rear floor
Audi TT half leather seats - super-comfy
Dashboard cubby-hole upgrade
MegaVanMats carpet mats
Genuine VAG rubber mats
Light smoke tint to side windows
Standard VW Radio/CD/MP3 head unit and speakers.

Chassis:
Lowered using V-Maxx coilovers and rear hangers
Bilstein rear shocks
Reflex Auto Design centralising plates fitted
I'll also supply the standard front struts, rear hangers and shackles should you want to return to stock.

Engine:
Stock with the addition of an Audi engine cover.
The sump guard helps to keep the engine clean and tidy. The engine is spotless.

Wheels:
Choice of either genuine VW Phaeton Helios wheels (refurb'd to high spec 12 months ago, almost spotless) running on Falken FK452 235/35/19 or stock VW steels.

Asking price:
£9,250 on Helios wheels (with steels supplied)
£7,750 on steel wheels only
Privately owned, no VAT to add.

Now sold. Thanks for looking.

No part ex's or swaps unless you've got a totally sorted Passat estate TDI of a similar age.

The Caddy has wanted for nothing and has been totally reliable. It sailed through first MOT.
Good points: Raven Blue - a much sought-after colour, it's already lowered and the suspension has been tweaked and refined to get it 'just right'. There's still scope for you to make your own mark on the inside. Everything works; every switch, button and dial. I also have contact details of the two previous owners should you wish to trace the van's history. It's a low-mileage Caddy that hasn't worked hard for a living, spending most of it's life empty!
Bad points: the front bumper and bonnet could benefit from a tidy up due to stone-chips. It's not a perfect show-pony, just a good, clean, honest daily-driver. And that's it.

Want to turn heads in 2013? Do it in this Caddy! Thanks for looking.

To express an interest, make an offer, arrange a viewing or ask further questions, please drop me an email: rpcreative@hotmail.com

I'm based in Leeds during office hours or Skipton at evenings and weekends.

Raising the roof

After what seemed like a long wait, the roof panel from Germany is finally in. Ordered through Mark at MegaVanMats, I left the van with him for a series of lining sessions that he fit in 'as-and-when' around his busy business.

Here's the results of the hard work and waiting:

The material is almost a perfect match for the standard cab headlining and joins pretty seamlessly. The four recessed panels mirror the panels of the van's walls perfectly keeping everything looking nice and symmetrical.

A slight adjustment was made by trimming the rear of the roof so it didn't wrap around all the way to the rear door rubber - I preferred the look of having the rear aperture carpeted all the way around.

Whilst the van was in at MVM, Mark also made up a set of footwell mats:

I'm fairly sure he does a range of colours and alternate edging colours. These have proven to be pretty good; well-shaped, hard-wearing, and fit directly to the standard VW mounts.

Just the floor to sort now. Or might that be a second row of seats...?

Putting on a show

With the T5 camper in for some bodywork, we have a free weekend and a local show, Dubs In't Dales, pretty much on our doorstep.

Time to give the Caddy a quick clean and venture onto the show'n'shine field:

The show scene can be a fickle place; we sat and listened to comments, positive and negative, that ranged from 'awesome bit of kit' to 'it's just a new van with some wheels on it'. Well, as the saying goes; 'haters gonna hate', I know how much blood, sweat and tears have gone into getting 'my' van the way 'I' want it.

And hey-presto:

Same again next year? Hopefully the show will be bigger, better and busier. Maybe with a few more Caddys there?

Front splitter

So the Caddy is looking much better after last weeks lowering - but I'd love to go lower. Practicality and an empty wallet stop me from going any further though. But there are some visual tricks to make the van appear a little lower to the ground - one of these is by adding a front splitter.

Part of the appeal of modifying vehicles from the VAG family is that every now and then you'll find a part from another vehicle that suits yours perfectly. One of these parts is the front splitter from Seat's Leon Cupra R - part number 1ML 805 903 if you're interested.

An extra horizontal line at the front draws your eye nearer to the ground

Just brushing the green stuff

The sill line is now followed around to the front of the vehicle

Only a small part but it makes such a difference visually.

One word of note: please don't go on eBay and buy from someone selling a 'brand new, still in the wrapper, RARE!' front splitter - they're not rare! Phone your local TPS or Seat Dealer and order one from them and hopefully you'll get one for a sensible (and not over-inflated) price.

Lowering tweaks

Finally, a free morning to get the rear shocks changed for something a little stiffer, drop the rear a couple of notches on the hangers, and then adjust the front coils to suit.

There's just a small matter of re-centering the rear wheels and we're done. Here's the results:

Much better I'm sure you'll agree.

Big thanks must go to the talented JC at JC Motors for taking his time to get that 'just right' stance.

Rear lining - a sneak peek

Just a quick post to show the progress to-date on the rear lining that's been taking place this week.

As much as I'd love to take credit for this part of the van's transformation, the applause must go to Mark at MegaVanMats.

More pics to follow this weekend.

Ultimate Dubs Caddys

Ultimate Dubs was a first for me. Not only my first time in Telford but my first visit to a proper water-cooled v-dub show. My heart still lies firmly with the older Volkswagens and I find you have to look much harder at the show cars to truly understand the difference between a car covered in polish and one that has had hours of work in planning, fabrication and craftsmanship poured into it.

As mentioned in the last post, here's the one Caddy that blew things out of the water:

It's a reincarnation of a previous show-winner; back this year with new paint, a new front end, no sliding door and a host of other little touches. Seeing a Caddy like this in the flesh makes my van feel a million miles away from this standard. No corner of the vehicle is left untouched; a total work of rolling art.

Here's a few more Caddys (although not many in attendance) from around the show:

Maybe a few more next year?

UPDATE: Check out Reflex's build thread on the E38 forums. A great example of the work that goes into Best Paint, Best Other and Best of Show.

The RAD Roadtrip

370 miles, several UK towns, cities and motorways later, and we're back from a mini-weekend break that involved bolting-up a few new parts to the Caddy.

First up was a Friday morning blast down to RAD: Reflex Auto Design in Brixworth, just north of Northampton. Job one was to fit a sliding-door rail cover, painted in Raven Blue this more than finishes off the side of the van:

Next up (while the paint is in the gun), a rear spoiler to finish off the rear end:

And finally, a sump-guard is bolted up to replace the original plastic unit and allow us to run the ride-height a little nearer the tarmac without the worry of speedbumps.

All excellent products and RAD have been a pleasure to deal with from initial emails to driving away. Quality is high and they take pride in what they do.

Just before driving away we caught a glimpse (well, had a good nosey around) another Caddy that was in for some last-minute tweaks before Ultimate Dubs. I'd seen this van before in Magazines and on the forums, but to see it in it's new guise, show-fresh and ready to roll left me absolutely awe-struck. More info on this in the next post...

Wheels and tyres are on!

The long Winter-wait is at an end; the Helios are finally on.

Tyres were sourced from Camskill - great value for money on brand-name tyres, good stock availability and cheap, quick delivery makes these my first choice every time for buying tyres.

Money saved here has meant we can jump up a level, quality-wise; spec'ing a set of four Falken FK452 in 235/35/19 to perfectly match the 19x8.5 wheels without any impractical stretch of the previously fitted wheels. These also have little effect on the speedo being within 2% of the same rolling diameter as the stock 15" steels.

But who to fit them? Our local tyre-fitting shop don't seem to like us walking in with our tyres - there's no money to be made for them - so after some inquiries and a word-of-mouth recommendation, we got in touch with Stuart at Unique Tyres.

Stuart turned up in his kitted-out Merc Sprinter, fitted a brand new head to his fitting machine and had the four wheels built-up and balanced in no time. For the total sum of £60, a cup of tea and plenty of v-dub chat, the wheels were then checked and mounted in a matter of minutes.

Visually, the front needs to come back down a bit - maybe the back a touch too. It's also apparent that the rear wheels are pulling forwards in the arch; common for modern lowered Volkswagens with a beam rear-end. Hopefully a quick trip to see JC at JC Motors should rectify these.

I'm absolutely over-the-moon with the way the Helios wheels have transformed the look of the Caddy. They keep that whole 'factory' OEM look - and the rarity-factor of not seeing many sets about appeals in a world of endless BBS replicas and cheap Supermarket alloys.
In particular, I like the way the centre-cap matches the centre of the steering wheel - the way VW would have done it if they were building a Caddy without budget constraints:

So there we have it; just a few more lows and a tweak of the stance and we're almost there! Time to turn my focus back to the interior...

Retail therapy

The hammering of the credit card has begun!

Well, not quite. I've made some tentative enquiries with Reflex Auto Design for a few things (hopefully) before Ultimate Dubs in March. Firstly a sliding door rail cover, painted in Raven Blue. A rear spoiler, bought as part of a forum group buy, painted in Raven Blue at the same time then fitted. And finally a sump guard so I can wind the front suspension back down a little and not clench every time I see a speed bump!

The spending didn't stop there. Today's trip to Dubfeeze has seen us pick up a new tax disk holder, some replenishments of Meguiar's cleaning products (roll-on Spring!) and a set of UK-legal pressed metal plates complete with German dealer surrounds:

There didn't seem to be many Caddys kicking around at Dubfreeze, but then again, it was too cold to go searching for any length of time! Here's a couple:

Fingers-crossed I'm sorted for a tyre-fitter too, so the Helios could be on sooner than expected - there won't be any more snow now, right?

Bike mount - part two

The trial fit.

Here's the RockyMounts DriveShaft temporarily in place.

There's loads of room around the bike (you could easily have the driver's seat right back in the rails and still have enough room) and putting the bike in the van before carpeting has given me an idea for storing the front wheel and other associated bike bits - more on this later!

All I need now is a way of attaching the lateral bar, that the DriveShaft will be bolted to, to the two tie-down loops at the back of the van.

Bike mount - part one

As readers of this blog and my T5 blog will know, I'm a fairly keen mountain-biker. And whilst it's easy to carry the bike around the back of the T5, the Caddy seems less accommodating for the bike and other gear that goes along with it.

Bike and Transporter in perfect harmony

I've seen a few homemade bike carriers for the Caddy; some better than others, but in my quest to keep things looking as 'factory' as possible I didn't want anything too obvious-looking (if that makes sense?).

My other predicament was that I run a front fork with a 15mm bolt-thru axle (a bit like a motorbike) and all I keep finding are bike mounts suitable for quick release wheels...

So after a few months trawling the internet I found RockyMounts, based in Boulder, Colorado. They've been making ski and bike racks for years and I was particularly interested when I saw their DriveShaft mount that was specifically designed for universal mounting on any truck bed. The DriveShaft model is designed purely for bolt-thru axles (or a bolt-thru adaptor) in standard form for 15mm axles or 20mm with a set of nylon shims. I'll let the pictures explain:

The DriveShaft in open position...

...drop the front fork in...

...close the clamp, pull the handle and lock in place.

Being lockable is another bonus as I plan to leave the bike in the van whilst at work - the lock is an added deterrent for any would-be bike thief.

I'm still quite a way off this being fitted; carpeting has ground to a halt while the weather is too cold, and the floor will need to go in after carpeting.

Right, now to find a solution to storing the front wheel...

The fins are in...

With one last trimming session using two more lower side inserts to 'blend' the edges to the existing bumper, we're finally ready for a coat of black plastic paint and pop into place. Bonded in with a EvoStick's Time Bond contact adhesive and then finish up any gaps with Black Sikaflex, I'm hoping that nothing falls out on the way to work in the morning!

Here's the end result, much better than the gaping hole that was there before:

Not a bad job for someone that has a dislike of working with plastics, spray paints and glue! I did mention in the previous post that I was looking into something different for the finish - well, I've decided against it at the moment... I was thinking of stickerbombing the two horizontal fins but then thought this might attract too close a glance at my handywork (and the whole stickerbomb thing is a little 'last year'), hence I'm leaving them black... for now.

More Fin Trim Fun

Following on from the previous post, time for a bit more fine-tuning of the replacement fin section for the bumper.

Out with the junior hacksaw for some precise cutting:

Once a full bumper, now reduced to 60cm wide piece!

Then followed quite a lot of cut-a-bit, measure-a-bit, cut-a-bit, trial-fit, measure, cut, try, repeat, repeat... until:

Okay, so the plastic is a little wonky in the middle, but this tidies-up the front-end instantly. On with a quick coat of black plastic bumper paint and I've a little something else in store before final fitment... don't worry, it's not that horrible boy-racer mesh grille or anything too tacky!!!