A Darkside project....

Well after the sale of my bay it has been in the back of mind,
I bought the split as ive always wanted a split, but it seems that fate has played a part again, so the sale of the split gave me funds to buy and customise a T4.

After looking at about 20 vans we traveled up to north wales and collect a 2003 52 reg ex AA van.
Took it apart (as i do with all my rides ) and went about fully changing it
1st thing was to change the twin solid rear doors to a up and over caravelle door, that would seem easy, but its a lot of work.
Also i wanted to get in loads of optional extras:
Smoke front and Rear lenses
Rear RS style spoiler
Front Bra
Badge-less front grill
Tinted glass
Lowered (a trade mark of mine)
Alloys
And a few more bits to be added along the way
We wanted to make it look nothing like an AA van so a face lift was needed, this comes in the way of a full inside and out paint job.
I looked at hundreds of colours from all different types of cars and vans etc, but after many hours of looking i decided on a porsche blue colour as its modern, vibrant, and looks really bright.

I spoke to a mate who said he would paint it if i can get it stripped and prepared,
So we went about it...

It took 3 days to totally take out every bit, and remove everything and take the van down to a bare shell (seems savage to do it to a 2003 van)

Anyway's heres the first few piccys for you to see....









Thats what it looks like straight from the AA..
Now what happens when i get it..









That was the easy bit..










Ive got all the newly painted bits but its all in a unit being baked dry and it goes back together again over easter weekend...

COOL.......I don't suppose you want to sell me the orange flashy lights do you ??

I can't say anything i haven't said before dude........

cool as

Nice one Mart .... you don't hang around do you buddy!

What have you done with the tool cabinets??

Lights are already sold, tool chest's are like gold dust to get hold of dude as every one wants them.. I using mine in my garage, the only thing ive got left up for grabs is the 12v hot water system, trolley jack holder and standard wheels if anyone is intrested...

Awesome, I love it!

How much do you want for the stock rims and how much tread is on them??

Stock rims have not got much tread on them dude, but they are on freecycle, 1st to come collect them gets them, no reserving them!

Have had a busy day today too.
Took the newly painted bare shell and painted doors and bumpers and bolted most of them on plus a few other bits bits like the spiler and custom touch rear door VW badge..

looks spot on so far

$hit me Mart ...... That's gotta be the quickest resto on here!

Even quicket than Crewkid!!!!!

You aint messin' about! Looks really good dude. Top job.

Rich is pi$$ slow at his resto's

More pic's of todays antics,
Got all the lights bolted in place, Finished aff the front badgeless grill and got all the main cab area interior put back together again. (with glove box, as all AA vans dont have standard glove boxes!)
Also took off the stock rims and cleaned all the break calipers up for a coat of silver paint, to keep them looking a bit nicer.
Also cleaned inside the wheel arches and gae them some black stone chip to tidy that area up too.
Then slapped on the new 18" RS6 Alloys












Drove it home for the first time since its new paint job..





tied on the new front bonnet Bra then stood back to admire my handy work..



All in all im very happy with the outcome

Big improvement!

delboy wrote:

Rich is pi$$ slow at his resto's

More pic's of todays antics,

dude that poptop could do with being a bit further back

Knew some one was gonna say about the pop top bit Didnt mean for the pic to lok like that but its funny as....

Anywayz,Today jobs done

Cut out some of the celing bars to accomodate the downlights, and got all the wires in should look cool when its finished.

Got the new TV headunit bolted in really well, so it aint comming out with ease thats for sure!

Sorted out all the wires for all my electrical bits in the back,

Made and fitted a panel where the old AA switches were and instead of a hole, ive put the sub amplifer controls in there so ican adjust the bass with ease!

We gave the back a clean out and got the new flooring laid

And finally made up the units and got them mounted in.

Tomorrow we are gonna find some material and cover the rear panels roof lining and door cards and get the insulation cut in, to keep us toasty on those cold nights.
Hopefully will nearly be done then.

Just waiting for the new rock and roll bed frame to turn up next week

looking great

OMG thats such an impovement, ahhhhh I want a t4 NOW!!!!! Someone buy Mooneyes.

Wish i had the rock and roll bed frame, im SO close to finishing it totally its untrue.

Today we have been really going for it.. (again)

7.30am this morning i was getting the well good insulation cut in,
For every half inch of that stuff, it the equivlant to 12 inches of traditional fiber glass, and we have got 2 inches of it on every panel even round the cab area!



We then went off shopping to get some carpet for the rear panels and roof panels,
Then went abut covering them all.
Had to use 6 tins of contact adhesive to get it to stuck really well!



Then fitted them all up in place..



Few finishing touches round the edges of the flooring
And cut a new worktop to finish the units off



And set all the lights in place, and this is what we now got!









Even gave the windows and cab area a good clean.


Turned out much better than we both thought but the hours that have gone in to this van is mind blowing!

Just awaiting the delivery of the full width R & R bed and then we are DONE!!!!

Bloody hell you did all that in one day! Feck me, it took me 4 days to do my interior panelling and I thought that was fast, but my ghd fair play, looking soooooooo cool!

From getting the van to gettting it stripped, resprayed took 2 1/2 weeks, ive put it back together from stripped shell to as you have just seen it in 3 days i dont mess about

Well progress had been happening but ive been really busy so it aint been posted,
I took delivery of the new full width Rock and roll bed from KW conversions last week, was gonna knock up my own, but this is the squirls pods..


Cut all the ply ready to be covered and im gonna take it to be done later this week.

Also, i did somethingtotally different to what i normally do with all my rides....

























Slammed it...
From this:


To this: