THE MINI PROJECT

Started by 80 Vert, July 11, 2012, 05:16:27 PM

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80 Vert

For a while I'd been thinking about changing company cars, the Holden was getting on and starting to spend a bit of dough on it but hey it had been a great wagon with 11 years and 130k under its belt so no complaints there.
But what to replace it with? First thought about an Amarok but being a double cab its useless for what I do and single cabs were not due in NZ till the end of the year plus they are more than what we wanted to spend.
Saw a few T5's around so began looking at those and quickly realised that the facelift looked heaps better than its previous model.
Again pricing is way up there on these things but I found one in Nelson which seemed to cheap to be true, was trying to do a deal with the Ute as a trade in but they ended up selling it before that could happen so on the lookout again.
We went to the 3 main dealers in Auckland one Sunday but none of them even had one for us to look at..........thought VW dealers sell VW's??  ::) Pretty piss poor in my books.

We then came across an ex demo one at IC Motors in Whangarei so shot up there to look at that, Candy white 2.0TDI 5 speed manual which fitted the bill nicely and was exactly what I was looking for.
Our sales guy Howard was great to deal with which makes a nice change from the dealers down here, must be a small town thing!  8)
So Queens birthday weekend we caught the bus up there to pick it up and drive it back to the big smoke, pretty quickly I got ideas on what stuff to add and fiddle with and over the last month or so that's been happening hence the "mini project"  ;D
First off I removed all the door handles, mirror caps etc and colour coded those then Filx and I did a black vinyl wrap on the roof which came out ok but I'll remove it in the coming months and paint it back instead.


Hmmmmm wheels!!!!
Trawling TM for wheels didn't really offer much until I came across a set of ET20 18" BBS that SD European were selling, again really great guys to deal with and AWESOME wheels.
Being ET20 they sit really flush and fit the van perfectly  >:D
Not much needed in the way of refurb, just a little kerbing and paint, had paint left over from the Jetta wheels so did the centers with that, Coonsy and Filx kept daring me to paint the barrels white and after thinking about it...............for quite a while................. I thought hell why not  ;D


Next was color coding / de texturing the bumpers and corner caps as they looked pretty gay in a cheapo plastic  :P so now was the right time to add a body kit of sorts, not much around for facelift vans but found a front lip, side skirts and tailgate spoiler in the UK and since the shipping turned out to be DIRT cheap it was worth doing so the front lip got molded in to the front bumper.
I've never ever had an aftermarket spoiler that fits as well as this one, no trimming / filling nothing!! just bond on and paint simple as that!
Added some DRL's at the same time which I also molded in as well as front fog lights to change it up a little.

The van looked like a 4x4 all way high up in the air so lowering springs were needed but previous bad experiences left me wary of what to buy, after reading up quite a bit it seemed VW UK did what they called a Sportline version and it had factory fitted 30mm lower Eibach springs which people raved about so ordered a set of those along with some front end bling for the grille.
Fitted the bumpers, skirts etc then installed the springs which I'm happy with as all that horrible wallowy body roll is gone but kinda wish it was a little lower  :-[ Still, it is a work wagon so needs to be user friendly  >:D ;D



That pretty much wrapped up the outside but I made / still making interior changes as well like upgrading the radio, adding rear park sensors, cruise control and a Passat CC MF steering wheel.
Got the Passat wheel working a few nights ago which is really cool but now I'm waiting on the revised BCM to turn up which will enable the other bits & pieces to work.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

the phantom

Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

coons

Nice one! The wheels came out good yea?
You're right, another inch or so lower would have been nice, just stack it with some concrete or something  :P


80 Vert

Yeah mate, love the white wheels..................high maintenance but ohh well thats life  ;D
Here's a pic of how flush they sit,

Filx has some other really cool wheels still in Japan which may see their way on to the van but these will do me for a while.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

mark2 golf

Very cool john good work and you have to be the first person i have very herd say a good thing about ic's. They must be getting there crap together
89 mk2 1.8t
97 mk3 gti 1.8t
90 190e 2.6
17 Amarok v6
09 golf gti

spooln

#5
Who votes for mid mounted lambo engine conversion...? Really like the front end changes on this, a huge improvement.
77 CS1 Fiat Spider. 78 Mk1 Scirocco. 83 Mk1 GTI. 12 Abarth 595C Competizione. 18 Golf R. 20 Kodiaq vRS

B5Passat

That's a great looking van

80 Vert

Thanks, probably the only pimped T5 on the roads here.
Tinting the windows will also add to the look I think, will get that done before summer.
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

ritmo

Looks cool but surely mid engined rs6 engine neil

Poonmobile

It's like a VAG A-team van! Looks great John!!
Current:
06 NZ B7 RS4 Avus Silver, 01 NZ B5 RS4 Avus Silver, 93 NZ VR6 Tornado Red 3dr, Renault Clio 172 & Renault Clio 197
Past:
MK2 VR6, MK5 GTI, 2 x MK5 R32, 8L S3 Imola, MK4 Golf V6 4MO, Polo GTI, 2x MK3 VR6, D2 S8, B5 S4 Avant, 03 NZ R32 Deep Blue Pearl, Renault Megane R26 liquid yello

Brett

Previous:MKIII Golf GL, MKIV Golf GTI, E36 325i, E36 323i, B5 S4 sedan, C32 AMG, B5 S4 avant, BMW 740iL, MKV Golf Gti 2dr.

Current:
Company car
Weekend toy-2007 Golf Gti Edition 30

Final Touch Gordon

You are a very talented dude and that is a great looking van.
Love your work.
Loving seeing your car looking it's best
facebook/FinalTouchCarCare

Turbo

looks great. amazing how much better colour coding the plastic is.
2000 S4, MTM stage 1, Oettinger RE's, Bilstein Sports, Vogtland springs, H&R Swaybars, DBA 4000 rotors, EBC Yellow stuff pads, 710N DV's, F1 tints, RS4 clutch

Filx

This'll look so sweet towing the Vento to track days!  >:D
FAIL - First Attempt In Learning

80 Vert

Bhaahaaahaa..............someone has a sense of humpor  ;D
2010 T5 Transporter TDI  Tuned by Superior Tuning NZ
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

Filx

White lips - all the cool cars have 'em  :laugh:



Quote from: 80 Vert on July 12, 2012, 04:46:29 PM
Bhaahaaahaa..............someone has a sense of humpor  ;D

Mahhaaa, at least gonna look good hauling a stack load of wheels back from Wellsford!
FAIL - First Attempt In Learning

RS ZWEI

Only just found this thread. The van looks great John.
1980 VW Golf GTI Track Car
1995 Audi RS2
2003 Mini Cooper S (Written off - rear ended)
2005 Mini Cooper S
2006 Skoda Octavia vRS Combi
2009 Renault Megane 230 R26 (Written off - rear ended)
2013 Renault Megane RS265 Redbull RB8

choppy16v


Toro

That looks great! Well done.

gti vr6

Man in the van. Looks sweet !!

8)
1986 Mk2 Scirocco
2021 T6.1 4M LWB Transporter Trendline