RaddyMAXI - VW Caddy Bike Van Build!

[clrrk]

So I've been looking at vans for a long time - I race enduro dirt bikes and have started doing some MTB as well and honestly I couldn't get over how expensive very average vans have got. I started looking for Transporters but was unwilling to pay the kings ransom that a 200k Transporter was going for.

As all good projects start - I made an off the cuff comment with a friend who runs a modified car company about engine swapping a Caddy and within a few days, he had sold me a donor car and another friend had sold me a 1.9 PD Caddy Maxi that needed an engine and turbo for €500.





As you can see from the photos its as rough as a bag of nails and I must be mad cos I see great potential in this thing - but it has everything I need... a solid shell and of the correct age where the electrics and wiring for the engine swap will be compatible and hopefully not a complete nightmare.

So onto the engine swap... Gavin had a ex-police 3.2 VW B6 Passat sitting in stock with 97k on it as a parts car for his own Passat. The perfect doner car... not really, but it's in stock and thats the main thing.



So there we go - that's the plans so far. It will be getting a full cosmetic makeover once the engine is in and I'll go through that at a later date. I've decided to vlog the build, so if you want a bit more indepth info, the first episode is live on YouTube now.


youtu.be/9xPqyJ1SPpI

Clark

[snuffegull]

This will be a cool project! I will follow for sure!

[kobat79]

Looking forward to following along with the build thread. Enjoyed the video too and have subscribed

Sent from my SM-A546B using Tapatalk

[NZDubNurd]

VR6 the world!

[Baldspeed Racing]

following on insta and youtube dude, nice crosser also btw

[clrrk]

So been lots of updates on this - the main one being that I bought an Audi S4 with the money I was going to use for the R32 engine swap so it's now just getting another 1.9 TDI engine.

Anyway, with the purchase of the S4 coupled with the TDI engine in the Caddy not playing ball enough for me to get it through an MOT a change of plans needed to happen here. The TLDR version of it is basically the S4 cost about the same money as putting the R32 engine into this would have cost, so now I'm breaking my daily Passat for another PD engine for the van and this is going to get built into something that looks amazing but is still a mile mucher.

For the longer version - theres a new video on YouTube:


youtu.be/UCgrH0cgSi4

Onto the stuff that isn't covered so well in the video:

• I tried to sell the air suspension kit I had bought for this, nobody wanted it so I'm back to the original plan of it going into the Caddy.

• I've bought some wheels for it which should arrive soon - they are 20" in perfect Caddy offsets. Never seen them on a Caddy before but they are a very cool wheel on other modern German stuff so should look great - more on that when they arrive.

• I've been in touch with the guy who makes hybrid front bumpers for these - hes taking all August off work which isn't ideal so looking into other options

• Managed to acquire R32 front brakes for basically free so I'm in the middle of refurbishing them, again more on this soon.

Large delivery arrived :eek: - contains the Touran front end and dashboard conversion.


Touran seat bases also arrived



...which will allow me to fit these out of my Passat

[clrrk]

Callipers came back from blasting. They were quite heavily pitted due to the corrosion that was on them but these brakes never had a smooth finish anyway and I wasn't about sanding all the casting marks off. Hit them with some yellow brake calliper paint. Still a few coats to do but couldnt resist a quick bolt up to the rest of the calliper to see how they looked.

[clrrk]

Big updates to this over the past week caputred in another YouTube video...


youtu.be/VafYVJkFq_Q


For those of you who prefer to read I'll try and give a quick summary. So we pulled the engine out of my 1.9 PD daily Passat and realised the turbo setup was completely different, to save any more headaches down the road we decided to just reuse the turbo and piping from the Caddy which meant getting the Caddy turbo rebuilt. Quick stop at The Turbo Shack and it came back mint...



My wheels arrived in the post this week so couldn't resist getting a bit of a teaser of how they will look on the van. 20x8.5 BBS CI-R's in perfect Caddy offsets to allow the sliding doors to still function properly. I think the refurbed R32 calipers look great behind them. They look a little lost on the van atm but once its lowered they should look great as my poor photoshop attempt below shows





Got the Touran front end mocked up. It's not quite as plug and play as some people would have you believe, it required me to cut out the old wing tips and then my mate Connor came round and welded the Touran tips in. After a lot of fettling I was able to get all the gaps pretty much perfect. Somehow tho I haven't taken a photo of it all together, just video, so heres a photo of the mock up before I fitted the bonnet and had everything welded in place.



Started to strip out the interior tonight as it was gross. Carpets got a power wash and everything is prepped for a MK3 Touran dashboard swap later this week. Also threw in my MK7 steering wheel from the Passat.





Thats it for now, more updates this week - hopefully with an engine soon.