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Black Opps build thread, 1.9 1000TD LWB

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  • Black Opps build thread, 1.9 1000TD LWB


    Right then guys and gals this has been the best self build of my life, building a beast like what is now a mag feature van was never what I set out to do but as it turned out so well I thought I would write this to share my brilliant experience, believe me it hasn't all been easy lol

    So here it goes;

    Back in December 2014 I decided that I wanted a T4 as the family was growing and the wife had decided that she wanted to start to camp with me at shows (wouldn't sleep in a tent though) so it had to be the way

    I started my search and found this beauty
    Don't get me wrong, it looked slightly different when I got it, but she was pretty much done, I quickly worked out that this wasn't me and I had to build one myself, just by chance that week I had a call from my Cousin who (not that I knew being a distant cousin) had his T4 for sale, that was it! Mine was on the market, luckily it sold very quickly and I was off with my cash to buy the van (that I hadn't seen lol)

    When I turned up this is what I found, not too bad I was thinking :-/

    So I took it home and straight away I started changing, first to go were the lights, as many know it's quite easy to do this, couple of screws in the bottom grill 4 along the top and some careful fiddling each end and off comes the grill and front panel the lights then have 4 8mm bolts holding them on and some easy connectors on the back

    I had a set of DRL's to fit from Vee Dub Transporters and they have a very nice and easy plug and play set up so easy to put in and line up first time (don't be caught out with cheap ones as they fit awfully as I have found out before) and here she is, what a difference


    Next on the list of parts that I had pulling up in the garage was a set of 19' Audi RS6/TTRS Rotors freshly refurbished with new weight rated rubber, check that ride hight!

    So then it was time to deal with rude hight so I went for pro-sport 60mm with 10mm top mounts and also front torsion bar adjusted, didn't want to go too low as the 19ms would harden the ride as it was and also the bed I had being made would weigh it down too

    Same day as the lows went on I started to strip the horrible stripes (which so many of you lot told me to keep, can't remember who though lol) and out she comes from behind the A-Team van styling ;-)

    After this was where I really realised the work I had ahead of me, meanwhile in between all this I had popped her down to Tom at Bristol Camper Company for some lovely carpeting, boarding and lighting, also the well thought out Vag quality carpet, recommended by Tom and by now you can really start to see changes

    Before-
    After-

    Another nice tip that costs nothing was removing the rubbers from the rear window, makes it look much more modern, helps that mine were knackered, all you have to do it pick a point and grab a corner and start pealing, just do it gently and all should come out nicely

    Then to the real hard work, I had realised while taking off the stripes that the van I though just needed some paint here and there needed a full respray, at this point I had already budgeted for my mate Max to paint it, this could happen due to the amount of work that lay ahead and the budget wasn't going to allow, so I decided to take the plunge, now I hadn't painted for 15 years plus and before that only once or twice but hey why not, Max kindly rented me a space and kindly let me use his equipment. By the time I had got round to getting her to the unit I had 2 months before the first show and Max's unit was an hour from me so not really much time considering I had a job to do as well :-/

    Anyway I started, first off was grinder time, and as you will see I grinned & grinned and found many previous repairs, this made things worse but kept chugging on
    Then it was onto filler, sanding, re-shaping etc etc

    Once I had all the large repairs done I went on to flatting the whole van ready for High Build (primer)
    I was told a tip for the High Build and this was to roller ok and flat off so as to fill imperfections easier with less coats being sprayed
    So let that dry and then a few days later came back to flat it all back down again, not the easiest of jobs as by hand is the way to go, but worth it for the right result
    Then as you can see also onto masking, this is something that is more important than most, preparation, as the better this is the better finish, I ain't no expert but did ok so at 23:30 on the Wednesday before Bristol Volksfest 2015 I put paint to van, at 02:00 we left the unit to let it dry ready for a full day the next day rebuilding

    Now here's where my lack of painting knowledge comes into play as the last coat I mixed I did wrong, my first call of the day was from max to say he had got there early to see that the paint wasn't dry :-( when I got there nothing had really changed and all was still tacky, but in full show minded madness I decided the show must go on so we chucked her out in the boiling sun and started to put her back together, while doing this, I added the painted Audiosport door speaker pods, front drivers seat (to drive home) new rear lights, Vee Dub transporters side bars with LED vw logo and then driver her home, paint still tacky in places but after being very careful turned out ok'ish
    So the next morning (morning of Volksfest) I was up early, friends in tow, finishing off the seats, fitting the mats, cleaning the carpets and most importantly fitting my fully custom built CND bed from Nathan Yeardley, it had been designed between the 2 of us to match the Black and Red leather Mazda RX8 fronts, this was key part of the build and wow what a bit of kit it was

    so after building all this I missed the convoy with my fellow South West Dubberz Crew to the show so ended up cruising down on my Tod but what a reception when I got there as everyone had expected it never to make it, but it did and here she was

    My first job after Volksfest was to finish off the interior so she went off to Cavalino Conversions in Weston super mare for some cabinet work around the bed
    And then the dashboard and door cards which I stripped out and painted with Red and Black Plastikote I think the this finished the interior perfectly and looked like it was meant to be there

    I decided to start on the paintwork, where I hadn't let it dry properly due to time and my wrong mixture it had a very rough texture to it, so it WA sour with the wet and dry and my machine polisher,


    I did the majority myself and took her to a few shows as she was but the decided I had to go to a pro due to time scale, Miles at Redguard Autospa was the man, he spent over 140 hours on top of what I had done myself to get her to where she is now and Wow!! What she turned into was never planned

    As you can see from all my hard work and labour and also help from many a friend along the way, it can be done, when I won my show and shine prize, not event expecting one, it was fantastical but for then to be asked for it be featured in VWT Magazine I was shocked but also very proud and honoured

    I'm sure I have missed loads but I hope this gives inspiration for others to just have a go

    Thanks for reading
    Last edited by Ryan Dub Taylor; 16 February 2016, 08:38 AM.

  • #2
    Looks amazing Great work
    dyslexics are teople poo

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    • #3
      Stunning van. Would love a LWB and I am sure that if I ever give my van up I will go down that route.

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      • #4
        Stunning mate!! Interesting point about the rear window seals. Was going to replace mine as they are going in the bottom corners. Did you need to re seal them in anyway or is the bonding of the Windows enough?


        Sent from my iPhone using Just T4s mobile app

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        • #5
          That is mint buddy. Top Job

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