Project Postman Pat

mirror polishing ftw

looking good coming together !

Si your commitment is amazing, it must have been so bloody cold working out there!!

Looking really good fella.

- Nope not running yet.
Havent done anything to her for a week or so. Just cant face the weather.

Mart, yeah i think i will mirror polish the 6 ports at the front of the inlet, and then paint the rest gloss black. (if that makes sense)

Did a bit more today, fitted the VR6 cable change gear selector, which literally just bolted up onto the exsting mounts, connected it up on the gearbox, then fitted the tunnel heatshield under the car.
Continued sorting out the wiring looms, almost there now.

good news , bet your glad the weather has got a tad warmer ......I know I am

nomates wrote:

good news , bet your glad the weather has got a tad warmer ......I know I am

Hell yeah. Although ive heard its supposed to be getting bad again later in the week?

well ....its a credit to you .....at first i had no interest in your projects ,being watercooled an all .....but reading your resto's what you do is actually a lot braver than just tackling rust and body work ,its very technical .......and I have'nt seen a caddy as good as your old one ,ever! .......i know this postman pat mobile will kick some ass ,your a top petrol head in my book dude ........keep it up

yep as above, very talented

Ha cheers fellas. Although the last Caddy was 80% help from my old man. Couldnt of done it without him. He's tought me so much since i started playing with cars.

Glad your not getting bored of the build threads. lol

Did a little bit more this weekend inbetween working on the house...

Stripped out the back of the van to gain access to the fuel tank to fit a fuel pump.
You can also see in the pic below that fitting a rear bench seat from another car would be easy as the caddy already has the steel base frame.



As the Caddy was originally diesel it never used an elec fuel pump, i tried the Mk3 VR6 fuel pump (sits inside the fuel tank) but it didnt sit properly, so i asked my cousin (maltloaf on here) if i could pinch the mk4 Golf 1.8T fuel pump from him as he is currently doing an 1.8T swap in his mk2 golf.

As luck would have it the mk4 pump fitted perfectly

I now need to run a new loom from the fuse box to the pump in order to get the pump working.

Pic of fuel pump sat inside Caddy tank -



I have also been on the look out for some cheap 5x100 Steels or Alloys as i hate the standard VR6 BBS alloys. When a mate of mine said i could have his set of 4 Audi TT wheels for an absolute bargain with 4 new tyres! Im not so sure if they suit the caddy, think they look a bit too big, but they were cheap and i thought i'd take a gamble.
Hopefully they will look better once the van is lowered on the back and i can wind the front coilovers down a bit more.




Thats it for the moment, hopefully this week i should have time to sort the fuel out, connect a few things and fire her up.

i think those wheels look prety dam cool bud ! lowered a bit more of course !

WizBizMartin wrote:

i think those wheels look prety dam cool bud ! lowered a bit more of course !

Cheers Mart, yeah once the rear axle is flipped i can then wind the fronts down to give it a nose down stance

ITS ALIVE!

Had a few hours spare this weekend, so i made up a new loom to go from the fuse box to the fuel pump, 2 wires for gauge, and 2 wires for power and earth.
Also connected up a few more wires in the fusebox area, swapped over the relays needed for the vr engine loom.

Decided i would connect battery up and turn ignition on to see if fuel gauge worked, to my suprise the fuel pump primed.... so i thought hmm sod it i would just try and start it, after all it would either short something out and not run, or it would try and start up.
To my amazment it fired up 1st turn on the key, no misfires, no rattles, no tapping, just a sweet sounding VR roar. I was over the moon!


So now the game is on to build it back up.

good man ! all about a video or at least a recording of the VR sound ! :p

Yeah, video would be good!


Bet it must be nice to hear it fire up with no issues.

Yeah i was amazed there were no issues. Its LOUD as i have no exhaust on it at the moment. lol

Nice one Si, awesome work. Cant wait to see it.

good work mate, nice one!!

What exhaust you gonna fit on it and have you sorted the bonnet clearance yet, or is it gonna be stepped up to get more air in?

tango_van wrote:

What exhaust you gonna fit on it and have you sorted the bonnet clearance yet, or is it gonna be stepped up to get more air in?

Going to be using the standard VR6 exhaust from manifold, to centre section (including CAT). Then custom make the rear section with a 2.5" single pipe out back. Nothing too major, and made out of steel, not stainless as ive never believed the hype about stainless exhausts. A decent heavy duty steel will last just as long as a crap 'stainless'.

Havent even looked at the bonnet issue yet, think im just gonna stamp on it

SimonABT wrote:

Havent even looked at the bonnet issue yet, think im just gonna stamp on it

'Power Bulge'

I may have to try and do something with the engine mounts aswell, when i revved the engine there is quite a bit of movement which i think may cause issues. When i built the Mk2 VR i cut down the rubber mounts by 2", may have to do the same with the caddy too

I have been on the look out for a decent front bumper and headlights for the caddy as the previous ones were badly damaged. And i stumbled across a thread on the caddy forum on 'how to fit a mk3 ibiza frontend'. I think the mk3 Ibiza Cupra R front looks absolutely awesome but when i looked into the cost of parts it scared me a little.
I would need the front panel, bumper, headlights, wings, bonnet, grill, front spoiler, indicators, and scuttle panel, and the cheapest parts i could find were £400+.

So i sourced a Mk2 Ibiza GTI Cupra instead, managed to find one at a bargain price of £80 for the front panel, bumper, grill, spoiler, foglights, headlights and clear indicators. The Mk2 ibiza shares the same front wings and bonnet as the caddy so it was all a bolt on job. As an added bonus (which i only found out after i trial fitted it) the Corrado VR6 radiator is the same length as an ibiza GTI radiator, i happened to have a corrado one hidden away in my unit so fitted that in place on the Ibiza front panel perfectly.

The only modification i had to make to get the front end on was trim the front panel to clear the inlet manifold and dipstick.

Measured and marked out where i needed to cut...



Trial fitted...




I will have to fit some rubber edging of something where ive cut as its pretty sharp even after i filed it.

And with the Ibiza frontend trial fitted on...



Oh yeah i forgot, in order to use the Corrado VR6 radiator i needed to modify the power steering pipe that runs along the front cross member as it fouled the bottom rad pipe..



to this....



Job done!

Next job is to source some Corrado VR6 Twin fans, or get a decent size slim line motorsport fan, then got to make up an exhaust. Woooo not long now!

Then its onto the bodywork