2014 Caddy from Finland

[lollero2]

Hi everyone!

I bought this caddy around 6 months ago mainly for doing electrical work on the side. At first I had a 2003 vw polo with the backseats removed but I just needed more space. As I started building my side business the amount of work started growing fast.

I still have the 2003 polo 1.4 petrol and also 2009 polo 1.4 tdi. In the picture below theres also my moms 2008 polo 1.4 petrol. I have made custom projector headlights for the green and black polos.


I traded my 2014 Jetta 1.2 tsi for the caddy. The Jetta was a great all around car but the tdi polo and caddy fill the position of it nicely. I really loved this car and did a lot of mods to it also. Including building my own custom sequential led taillights.


But anyway here is my caddy on the day I bought it. It was completely stock besides the rims that the previous owner had bought for it.




The first thing I did was soundproofing the rear.


Then added an led strip so that I could actually see something.


Tinted the barn doors and the bulkhead windows so that I could store tools without people seeing inside.




After this I had to use for work for a couple of days. I will do a new comment with more progress photos.

[lollero2]

After using it for a while I continued on the modifications.

First I sound proofed the barn doors and fabric covered the door panels.



Then I also covered the bulkhead with fabric.


In the top right corner you can see a plastic pipe that I added throught the bulkhead. The other end is in the cabin above the sunvisors. This pipe allows me to store 2m long wire channels and aluminium led profiles.


I pulled a 7x1.5mm wire from the front fusebox area to the back for future upgrades and mods. It was easy to do while removing the panels for fabric and soundproofing.


And more soundproofing


And fabric

[lollero2]

Now I could really start using the van for work so I installed some shelves and storage boxes.


And mounted some battery tools to the walls.


You can also see a 12v outlet and usb charger mounted to the small wall panel. (Remember the 7x1.5 wire I pulled earlier. Here is one use for it)

After sound proofing the walls I wanted to make similar panels that were installed from factory to all the empty spaces.
Before

The one space is without soundproofing due to it having a dent that was later pdr fixed.


After


Now all the loose wire and tools were sliding around due to the slippery floor. So I got some terrace carpet with similar texture and color to the fabric on the walls.



Then for security the rear windows were covered with tool wall board cut to shape.




Since this the cargo area has stayed pretty much the same.

[lollero2]

Now next on the list was exterior mods. These started from the rear.

First was a siderail cover from a junkyard that I painted in the correct color.


Now the van looked nice from the side


Then came the new facelift (buttlift?) taillights.
In the middle of the swap:


Swap done:


I did this a little differently than normal. The old lights had reverse lights on both sides but the new ones have them only on one side. So I bought the right side one from europe and the left side from the uk. So I had two lights with reverse lights on both sides. Now I was missing a fog light. So I bought a dual color led bulb from aliexpress to be able to pass inspections.
And now I can actually see when reversing.

Then I got a facelift rear bumper with the reflectors.


It was missing the inside bracket so I had to cut and glue it on from the old bumper.

Compelete:


Since the rear wiper was useless with the rear windows covered I bought a plug from killallwipers.


Now I wanted to have a little fun with the rear washer that was unused. So I took out the handle and the license plate light.
The nozzle fits nicely in the screw hole.


Now the nozzle sits above the license plate and if someones tailgating a bit too closely I can give a small reminder about staying back



Since the van has a black and grey theme going on I got the taillights tinted.
Halfway done:


The new rear bumper with the reflectors was important for this also since without the reflectors the car would not pass inspection.

Then I took off the chrome tdi and caddy badges.
I also took off the vw emblem and paint matched the previously black part to silver and then painted the chrome vw letters with "black magic" vw metallic black paint.


Later on I added a black caddy text to the bottom left of the door. The text is in the same font as the new caddys.

[lollero2]

Since the winters in Finland are really dark I needed to add a auxiliary high beam.
To install it I took off the bumper and found some crash damage that had not been told about by the dealership.


Luckily they agreed to pay for a new crashbar without any trouble. Here is the old bent and the new straight one. Quite a difference.


Now with that fixed I installed the light bar.


You can also see the cover that helps the car heat up and stay warm during the cold winters.

It sits nice and flush


Also fitted some led foglights. Also tinted them to hide them better.



At some point I tinted the side turn signals also.
Once I put the winter steelies on I really did not like the way the stock hubcaps looked. I even painted the hubcaps black but I did not like it.
So I bought some t5 transporter hubcaps. Paint matched them and painted the vw emblem black. Then I glued magnets to them so that they would stay on the car.

[lollero2]

Now was the time for interior mods.

First automatic light switch from aliexpress


Then an always on reverse camera. You can see this camera in some of the earlier photos on the brake light


Used the same fabric as in the back to cover the cup holders to stop rattling of keys.

At the same time I sound proofed and fabric covered the storage space behind the seats

Got an android headunit with wireless android auto


Installed sunvisors with mirrors since the stock ones didn't have mirrors for some reason.


Sound proofed the doors and upgraded the speakers from stock coaxials to a separate tweeter system.


Made a 3d printed adapter for the tweeters


Changed the stock seats to touran seats with the fold mechanism. I am quite tall so I just drilled the stock bases for the touran seats as I have read that this way they sit lower.



After this I cut a hole in the bulkhead to allow me to transport longer items.





I made a chair from the old seat



And since this is a van I use for my business. I got some custom door projector logo lights from aliexpresswith my logo. Customers have loved these and asked many questions about them.
I wired them in when upgraded the speakers since the door card was off and the control module was easily accessible. But I installed them a little bit later.

[lollero2]

Got an cheap scratched engine cover from a junkyard. And you guessed it, I color coded it to the car


Its already a little dusty in the picture.

With the light bar installed the high beams were good but otherwise the lights were a little dim.
So aliexpress to the rescue.

I bought these touran projector xenon headlights with led drls.
They have a d2s bulb inside and the light output is great. I have osram night breaker laser bulbs.
They also look really good




The only issue with these lights is that they trigger a bulb failure from the drl. I have vag can pro software and I have read that I should be able to turn off bulb monitoring with it. But I haven't been able to access the control module due to a missing security access code.
I have tried every code I have found on the forums but none have worked. And then the module is locked for a little while after too many failed attempts so its quite frustrating to test the codes.

Does anyone have any knowledge about the access codes?

[Projectil_CZ]

Hello you are my favourite poster

[Simmo107]

Hiya mate!

How did u mount the light bar?

Cheers

Got a cheap scratched engine cover from a junkyard. And you guessed it, I color coded it to the car


Its already a little dusty in the picture.

With the light bar installed the high beams were good but otherwise the lights were a little dim.
So aliexpress to the rescue.

I bought these touran projector xenon headlights with led drls.
They have a d2s bulb inside and the light output is great. I have osram night breaker laser bulbs.
They also look really good




The only issue with these lights is that they trigger a bulb failure from the drl. I have vag can pro software and I have read that I should be able to turn off bulb monitoring with it. But I haven't been able to access the control module due to a missing security access code.
I have tried every code I have found on the forums but none have worked. And then the module is locked for a little while after too many failed attempts so its quite frustrating to test the codes.

Does anyone have any knowledge about the access codes?

[Sengh]

looking good man love the buttlift

[lollero2]

Hiya mate!

How did u mount the light bar?

Cheers

Hi,

I used a mount like this: https://www.motonet.fi/tuote/lisavalote ... ct=48-1368
At first I was going to mount the light straight to the crashbar but this worked better.

[lollero2]

looking good man love the buttlift

Thanks. The car has a black and grey theme going on so tinted lights and painted emblem look really nice and complete the buttlift

[jaroslaav_]

The anti tailgating solution is brilliant some smart mods you got mate

[lollero2]

Now it was time to do something to the boring standard dsg shifter.



I bought a illuminated shifter from aliexpress. It illuminates all the gears and highlights the one you have selected. Just like the original display on the side of the lever. It plugs straight into the old connector.

I have seen many do this by simply changing the head of the shifter to the new one. But by doing this you end up with two different style gear indicators right next to each other.
I bought a shifter boot for a manual caddy and took it apart to use with this new shifter head.

New manual boot attached to the new shifter.


Cable plugged in and testing the leds. Here in park.


And in drive.


It is very easy to see the difference in brightness in real life but on camera its not that visible.

Peeling the protective film.



Boot clicked in place and everything ready.


This looks really good in my opinion. And it was quite easy and not really that expensive either.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you are doing this. Do not press the button in on the lever if it's not installed in it's place. Apparently it can get stuck in wrong position internally.

[Simmo107]

What did you mount that to please? The crash bar?
Sorry I haven’t stripped my bumper off to look yet! Project to start next few weeks

Hi,

I used a mount like this: https://www.motonet.fi/tuote/lisavalote ... ct=48-1368
At first I was going to mount the light straight to the crashbar but this worked better.