Matilda - My british gas Caddy Maxi build

[dopeytree]

Hi,
Purchased my 2011 ex british gas caddy maxi 1.6TDI a few months ago. Got a very good deal 5600 for 77000miles. Sold the racking for £150.
Well excited to get underway!

My plan is to turn in into a camper / day van for work & fun. I fly big drones for a living so have upgraded (or downgraded depending on your viewpoint) from a 2006 audi a3 to this in order to have a bit more fun & fit all my kit in.

Plan is to make it feel a bit more luxurious in the front then make best use of space in back. Wack in power & lights & a bed.

So far:
-Split relay charger, leisure battery under passenger seat & inverter
-Upgraded the door speakers & added an underseat sub.
-Bluetooth aux adapter
-Chrome door handles
-Black roof rails
-Replacement parking sensors (someone in London pinched them)
-Chrome gearstick
-Wind deflectors

Plans:
-Insulation
-Middle folding seats
-Rear bench / bed
-Rear side storage
-Power to rear
-Front fog lights
-Rear camera
-Colour coding bumpers

Feb '17

Feb '18



Full Build List:
-Split relay charger, leisure battery under passenger seat & 3000w inverter (later moved to rear)
-Upgraded the door speakers & added an underseat sub.
-Bluetooth aux adapter
-Chrome door handles (swapped to touran door cards)
-Black roof rails
-Replacement parking sensors (someone in London pinched them)
-Chrome gearstick
-Wind deflectors
-Blue tint mirrors (Better for night driving)
-RCD330 CarPlay Stereo
-Upgraded speakers & underseat sub kit (Skipton Car Radio)
-Hardwire Dash Cam
-Sound deadening & Insulation
-Sirus Rear Seat Conversion + underfloor storage
-Rear carpeting
-Ceiling Spotlights on dimmer
-Pressed Metal Number Plates
-Auto headlight
-Mk4 rear lights smoked
-LED bar side repeaters
-Philips LED headlights
-18" Supermetal Bullet black polished alloys with 225/40/18 WR Roadstone Eurovis Sport 04 Tyres
-Passat W8 LED Ambient Light
-VanX Glovebox
-Center Dash Storage
-Rear sliding door armrests (sprayed black)
-LED beauty mirror sunshade
-Rear interior door handle
-Rear camera
-Sliding door lights
-Alarm
-Chrome window switches & dials
-Audi chrome air vents
-Touran front carpet
-Touran sports seats & storage bases
-Flat bottom MFSW & cruise control
-Chrome pedals
-Privacy sliding windows

[Clio-172]

Welcome sounds like a good build to come


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[henrycaddy]

So far:
-Split relay charger, leisure battery under passenger seat & inverter

What system did you use for this? Did you fit it yourself? Any solar plans?

Good luck with the build, doing something similar myself.

[PRMG]

Sounds like a great project. Do you plan on doing all of the work yourself?

[dopeytree]

What system did you use for this? Did you fit it yourself? Any solar plans?

Good luck with the build, doing something similar myself.

DIY kit off ebay. It's not too bad to fit youself - hardest part is getting the cable through the dash but after cutting out some old british gas electrics I used a piece of coat hanger wire to pull the cable through & the durite is under the passenger seat with the battery & inverter in the rear passenger footwell. All good! No plans for solar at the moment but I might add one in the future.

[dopeytree]

Sounds like a great project. Do you plan on doing all of the work yourself?

Cheers yeah most of it myself to save cash haha but pay someone to fit the rear seat rails.

[luke_r33]

Nice idea with the split charge relay, I plan on using my maxi as a mini camper too so may hav to do the same. Look forward to seeing how you insulate it, I am going to do this too so looking for inspiration!
Luke

[dopeytree]

Van racking sold for £150


Getting changed for a party in the back of the van


British gas automatic battery disconnect (when voltage gets low) I removed this & fitted a split relay charger & leisure battery


Durite spilt relay charger. This is the most fiddly bit mainly because you need to full the wires through from the battery in the front through the firmware in the dash. Ex BG vans have some extra electrical bits left over. So I used this to remove the extra cables & fuse box. Once the cable was into the cab I ran along the passenger doorside & under the passenger chair I mounted the durite relay module. Earthed onto the chair base. You can hear it clicking on. Then ran the extra bit of wire to the rear passenger footwell to the leisure battery. Also connected up the leisure battery earth/negative (black). When I had the sirus conversion done I bought a cable extension & then moved the battery further back in the van but same principles.



110AH battery with 3000w inverter fitted in the rear passenger footwell (later moved to rear of van when rear seat conversion fitted) The inverter is from ebay. I searched fro puresignwave & remote as dont want to be faffing about reaching to turn it on every time.


Complete Factory audio upgrade kit: Tweeters, Underseat sub & Door Speakers http://www.skiptoncarradio.com/ This kit is basically plug & play except the sub needs a power feed. To start with I just ran it on the leisure battery. Then when the leisure battery moved I ran an ignition feed to it under the drives seat.




Chrome Gearstick upgrade

[dopeytree]

The BG vans come with 3 aerials. Wires are all cut but they leave them on. In order to fit some roof bars I had to remove the aerial & seal the hole. I used some filler in the hole then a grommet on top.



£10 bluetooth aux adapter while I wait for a decent CarPlay headunit.


Chrome vent surrounds



Chrome interior door handles

[dopeytree]

Missing that Audi steering wheel so bought this red stitch steering wheel cover


Van


Sound deadening & insulation roll from ebay


B&Q recycled insulation


Carpeting the wheel arches (painful)


Bit more carpeting


Got some new touran door cards to bling it up a bit in the front. It comes with a wiring from a 4 door car (4 electric windows) so at some point I should swap that out. Also added the door lights but they'll need coding in VCDS.

[dopeytree]

CarPlay stereo!

So after hunting about and doing the research I preferred the look and function of a genuine VW stereo. The main thing I needed was CarPlay to use my iPhone on. Not bothered about built in GPS as I use my phone. Its got built in traffic etc too. Opted for a rcd 330 which seems to be a genuine unit but for the chinese/india/russia market. Its a basic radio / media player but has CarPlay function. No CD player. It was about £150 so much cheaper than the other CarPlay units out there anyway!




Cut some ply for flooring


Easiest way to add a rear camera seemed to be in the brake light. Bit of a fiddle getting the cables through so used some wire to pull the cables through.Needs the rear camera to be activated in VCDS.


LED daytime bulbs from halfords.

[dopeytree]

Sirus Rear Seat Conversion at Sirus Automotive.

The plan was to use some mazda bongo seats from my brothers van. They're quite heavy but slot onto rails. The main winner being they fold back complete flat (like a bed) so then you could just build the other half bed out of wood in the back. However when I went to get them fitted the guy wrecked it was impossible with the rear footwells in a caddy as the bolts would have to be like a footlong & then further back the rails are too far apart to make it an easy job. So in the end I started looking around for a rear seat conversion.

Ended up getting some costings & decided to get it all done properly at Sirus. It wasn't too cheap but looks proper good. Also got the centre console done with arm rest & rear air vents. Had to splash out £300 on a piece of rear carpet I wasn't expecting so they threw in the foot storage & some grab handles. They also coded the british gas limiter out from 75 to 155. So now we can overtake on the motorway!










Finishing the carpeting


Playing about with these footwell lens from amazon. They react to music or you can choose a single colour or fade pattern.

[dopeytree]

Bargain managed to pick up a full rear half carpet for £50 new its about £500-£700. So now I've ditched the ply flooring. Its also slightly soft. so means you could sleep directly on it! Comes with insulation backing & slots in neatly around the Sirus work for a factory finish.


Moving the leisure battery (was in the rear passenger well)


Snap camped out at the beach and woke up to another bg van.


Built this out of some left over wood to hid the leisure battery. All removable.



Inverter remote wired up


Wiring up LED's in the ceiling. Drilling the wholes for the LED's. Warm white off amazon 6 for £30. Blew 2 up with my dodgy soldering.



New Alloy Wheels. 18" Supermetal Bullet black polished with 225/40/18 WR Roadstone Eurovis Sport 04 Tyres. The tyres were the highest in all ratings and have some good reviews online. Bought on wheelbasealloys.com seemed to be the best price but also a bigger & better tyre selection. They are arrived ready fitted & balanced. Took them to my local fitters so they could fit them for me & check everything. Photos also show off the awesome pressed plates!

[TonyC]

How easy was it to remove the Battery Isolator? is it simply a case of disconnecting the battery and removing the wiring from the isolator and hooking it up again without the isolator being in the circuit?

[dopeytree]

MK4 Rear Smoked Lights. I have barn doors so made sure I had the right ones. Bought them from deutscheparts on ebay for £129. Followed the guide on here: https://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=32664 as you have to change the wiring pins over. Didn't have a pin release tool so I made on from 2 sewing needles and a piece of wood. Worked great! These look awesome!





Passat W8 LED Light

Also bought and fitted the passat w8 light with LED downlights. I remember my audi a3 had this and it just makes it nicer at night when your finding your coffee etc. Bit fiddly as you have to cut / drill some new wholes for the light to mount onto but pretty easy. Then just run a wire down the the headlight switch. I bought the parts on ebay & the loom from toomyzoom on ebay too. How to fit Passat W8 Guide here: https://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1369




Need to also wire up my footwell lights. At the mo they're just plugged into the cigarette socket. Not sure if I want them on with ignition or when doors open or just when its dark and the headlights & w8 leds come on.