Dan's fishing van

[DW2207]

Thanks mate, I think I may have another tinker with the now nox sensor (googled pn) and have a go at using a different type of trim clip I have lying about.
Honestly, Aaron is a metal wizard mate. A lot of folks know him in the industry and only speak highly of him. The body shop I use who will be colour coding my bumpers was blown away by how good the repair was. He is not easy pleased being an airbrush artist/painter. Probably why I use him as well, another master of his trade.

So I managed to finally get my undertray on. Only had it a few weeks now since I bought a fairly good condition one from nirros in barking. An hour cleaning the grim and crud off it and ready for fitment.

Reason for hold up was a damaged underside front lock carrier panel. Undertray would not locate in the driverside due to unforeseen damage.
I used a local mechanic around the corner to me on Sunday morning as I was not confident I could do this job on my own without running the risk of damaging the ac condenser or radiator, once they were unbolted from the carrier.
I assisted him with holding them in position whilst we fitted the new part. No coolant or ac gas lose, happy days.
This part is stupidly expensive from vw and for the first time I went for an insurance approved one from nirros. If these guys say its good, I listen.
£170 compared to £420 from vw.
Fitment was perfect and in 2 hours was all done. The faff was the front bonnet lock if anything. As it being a fairly new van everything inbolted/screwed and went back together first time of asking.

At least the sump is a bit more protected now

New under bonnet insulation panel also arrived from LLL parts and fitted as well

Was absolutely soaked through, just finished a fishing trip and stayed dry all weekend until that morning


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[Stedlocks]

Hello fella! I’m the bloke who recommended Aaron to you…
Only just read your thread and realised!

[DW2207]

Hello mate, cool. Yeah he is a top bloke.
Hopefully I don't have to use him that often otherwise it means I've cocked up or someone else has cocked up . We did notice a few minor ones that I will get him to address in the coming weeks mind you

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[Stedlocks]

nice one

[DW2207]

Another small update on the van.
So as I mentioned, I needed to fit a new front lock carrier cowling. This never cane with the factory oil/ refrigerant stickers, so an order to LLL parts was made along with a new tailgate pull handle.

All fitted now and feels finished . I know it's completely ott on the sticker front but that's how it left the factory in my head .

The old handle looks like a dog had chewed it, again out with the old and in with the new.

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[DW2207]

Another mod ticked off, goy the usual front, rear and door handles, side mouldings coloured.
Absolutely stoked with the results.
Colour match is Absolutely spot on with no hologram machine marks in sight.

Next jobs will be mudflaps, poly bush rear leafs and chassis bush, new genuine maxi rear arb and poly bushes, plus new hold clamps.
Bilstein b8's should be delivered end of the month from darkside developments, to replace rear shocks and new hardware bolts and nuts to replace these bolts from LLL parts as vw seem to torque and stretch every bolt they fit.
Once done will hammerite black the rear leafs, axel to hopefully extend their life's some what.

I think I've got to the bottom of my annoying rattle regarding the front shocks driving over uneven ground at speed, yet silent when Turning, going over speed bumps.
When I took them out the other day to replace the top mounts, once I refitted the new ones and tightened everything up using one of those strut through socket rachet tool kits, I could still push down on the mount and create the noise I get.
It's like these 60mm eibach springs are just to low for the factory shocks, and there is a slack point were the mount is able to be pressed down and rebound causing noise.
Nut is fully wound down, and mounts are febi oe equivalent.
Will keep an eye on this but I'm just not sold on this spring set up.
Everything is torqued to vw spec with weight on various components.
Will possibly look for a different alternative in the future.
The genuine mounts are not the best quality tbh. They pretty much broke in my hands.
The febi ones are much better constructed from what I can see


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[snuffegull]

Looking good!

[DW2207]

Thank you for the comment buddy

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[MWMRacing]

I love that you are onto your second build, the new one looks veery clean- so guess the question is given you have experienced it before, whens the TFSI going in?

[DW2207]

Hi, thank you for reading.
I won't be tfsi engine swapping this van.
A stage 1 Map will go on instead.
Been a bit of a journey these past several months.
Sold the tfsi due to me thinking I needed a longer wheel base model, thought I would stray from vw to ford.
Ford does do a lot of nice extras that you have to pay for with vw, however as much as I wanted to like this van, I could nit gel with it.
Back to a caddy again

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[hef355]

Great to have you back on the Caddy scene Dan mate! If i was closer, id throw your RS3 engine in that Caddy whilst you were asleep


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[DW2207]

Hi heff, thanks for allowing me to bend your ear on WhatsApp regarding g my front suspension woes buddy, always appreciated
Regarding the czgb tfsi, there is only one place this belongs mate....
My sepang blue mini rs avant/sportback

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[FishermansFriend]

Van is looking great Dan and glad you found the source of the rattle.

[DW2207]

Hi @FishermansFriend thank you for the comment mate.

Another update to the van wad to get tge rear leafs poly bushed and fit the maxi rear arb.
Going by what others have done I opted to try this out.
I'm never going to race this van nor drive it like my car, however if I can future proof the rear bushes from rubber to poly and uprate the rear arb for a like for like swap, it can not hurt right
Still waiting for darkside to dispatch the rear b8's I ordered beginning of the month.
Back order from bilstein I believe.

Yes the rattles was driving me nuts mate.

Used a garage yesterday afternoon around the corner from to do the rear work as I for once could not be bothered to be crawling around under the van again on the driveway. Made a nice change and the mechanic was really cool, allowing me to watch and have a general chat with him.
It's was nice to see the van up on a proper ramp and to see how much easier these jobs are to do.
Whilst up he checked everything other that I'd done the other day and all was good.

Upon checking for the rattle he started to pull around the front brake calipers.
By hitting the front face with his hand, he was able to replicate the noise I would get.

Turns out the ebc pads ever so slightly move in the calipers, as well has the front locking spring seems to not grip the calipers on my front brakes as tight as it should. Would explain the vibration rattle when driving over uneven cracks and tarmac I get.
Calipers were tightened correctly by me to the hub. No loose bolts there.

Not an expert, just a very very basic novice but I could have sworn it was coming from the springs. Shows you what I know

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[DW2207]

Had a couple of early shoots from work. So decided to give the vans paint work a spruce up.
With the lakes being closed from spawning, this has given me time to do some little projects.
I did the usual wash procedure but carried on with iron fallout, tar and glue remover, then clayed the whole van.
As i have mentioned before this is used solely for my angling, so not after chasing paintwork perfection.
For this I tried out rupes uno advance all on one polish and I'm chuffed with the results.
Used both of my da polishers to apply with lake country's 5 and 3 inch hdo blue foam pads.
Worked the areas a little longer to get a bit more cut from the polish, and it as done exactly what I was after.
Cut out all the milky/hazy finish on the clear coat and left it smooth as silk.
As a nice shine in the paintwork with some protection applied.
Deeper scratches and more stubborn swirls still are evident, however I can live with this as its restored more clarity in the paintwork.
Will do the front and rear bumpers in the coming weeks as not long been painted.
I applied gtechniq ceramic sealant as a topper so to speak. Big fan of the gtechniq washing products.
No 50/50's as hard to photo outside.
Not a detailer, but would recommend this as a nice quick easy to use polish for the driveway warriors

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