As a few of you might remember – I do own a Coupé and I did used to contribute quite a lot to the forum – however whilst on my quest for 4x4, I took the (probably bad) decision to take the Coupé of the road until such time that I might find a suitable donor, and rebuilt the whole thing in one go.

That was 2 years ago – since then I have found a suitable donor for the Coupé but in the mean while I obviously couldn’t do without something to have some fun with so I bought a 1989 (F)Volkswagen Caddy to charge about in (and generally abuse) as I had always fancied one.

The day I bought it…



A few days later








Two years ago the plan when I bought it was simple.
- fix the shagged fuel pump (It smoked like a bad boy)
- make some new door cards as one was missing
- stopping the dash from rattling (AAArgh!)
- sticking in some form of stereo

However…..

Since then things have become a little more involved and now a more or less total rebuild/modification has taken place, and I will document the progress to date here – oh and after nearly £4000 and countless hours over the last 2 years…. Its still not done!

Bewarned though – some of the things you’ll see are not pretty!

Comments and discussion welcomed here – whether good or bad. I’m sure it won’t be to every ones taste so be honest!

Final comment - This will be pic heavy - I get a little snap happy sometimes

One of the first things to fix on the to do list was the pump.

Part 1.
I had a quote of £180 to have my pump rebuilt, so I went down the road and collected another 1.6 NA engine and soon had my engine out…



Though typically, as I had just finished installing the “new” engine and tried to crank it, I noticed that some how diesel was dribbling all over the garage floor, just to find that on the way home I had cleverly smashed the pump on the new engine….

Back out with the new and in with the old

Part 2.
So… then I came across a cheap 2nd hand pump from a 1.6D. I bought it, modified the governor



Intermediate spring shimmed out! :music:



So when the new pump is installed, that'll hopefully be a little more power

But then….

Part 3.
A local lad was selling a 1994 Vento with a 1.9 TD engine. Sod messing about with crummy old NA diesel (incidentally the SLOWEST thing on earth) so £125 later…

My old man kindly towed me (for an hour and a half) back to the fort - which wasn’t really fun, the rope snapped 3 times, and the brakes on the Vento were more or less on fire by the time I got back!





MMM 1.9TD! :music:


I got ripped intro the Vento,



Teeny Turbo - a bit smaller than the GT28R on the Coup 8D





Engine Out!



Rear of the gubbins



Took the 1.6D mount and modified it

Before:


After:


Attached:


Modified (badly) cover:


Out with the Ventonator and In with the Caddage



But typically it rolled off the ramps…



and into the wall….



….******. (bang) :bh

And just to make things worse.... when I drove back in in a temper - I forgot I had have disconnected the gearbox putting a nice hole on it from the driveshaft washer thingys (L) So for the time being its back onto the four speed....



Out with the nasty 1.6D



Get friend help with reattaching new 1.9TD



106 GTI induction kit I had liying around came in handy…



And I used the fuel filter and bracket turned upside down from the Vento -



straightened and repositioned the fuel lines with a hot air gun… and made a nice wee bracket to hold the filter and stop it rubbing against the lines… :0



Down pipe modification/Bodge/ Fix until I could afford a proper job :screwy:

As Vento:


Chop:


Weld:


Couple of Zorst bodge shots.... (it's drooped a bit)







Broom Broom! Finito!



And the verdict….? What a fantastic result! the car was so much better to drive! And actually feels pretty quick now with the added torque! In addition the fuel economy is miles better and the turbo sound is ace! The best mod I think I have ever done to a car!!!!

The second thing on the TO DO list was to sort out the door cards –

Original passenger door card had a nasty accident with a jigsaw after a speaker fitting attempt (not me) as did the door. Also think the caddy had been used as a kennel for a while due the huge quantity of dog hair living in the door!



Nice hole



Righly or wrongly I dug the soil out of the bottom of the door and squirted the inside with a pressure washer, before rubbing off the blue paint with acetone - Think I'd like to go back to white....

*Note this as the first colour descision



Thats a bit better



Routed about in the garage to find these old speaker pods that I installed in a 106 a few years ago. as you can see they are a bit big for the caddy's door,



So I cut them about a bit,



Trial in caddy



They took a bit of re-fibre-glassing to make ‘em sweet, and of course I'll need to 'lecy windows now

After Cutting, shutting and re-trimming…



Bust out the Singer….the original future of the door card…

Gets a bit scary now!

One night I took a bit of a cruise one night and it started to properly rain. Interestingly the electrics started to go a bit weird and a quite large puddle started to appear in the footwell, turns out that the little bit of bubbling on the A-Piller was leaking, with a small ocean dribbling through the fuse box…

Jab the bubbles with a screwdriver, and out comes the filler



Which made me think perhaps I should investigate under the chequer plate floor to see what other nasty things may be lurking – these wee truck are renowned for a load bed cave in



I plucked up the corage to lift the tread plate… actually pleasantly surprised



A few wee rough bits but that’s expected



So it was time to decide whether to scrap the wee hog or press on and fix it up.

I decided that my mission would be simple – If I couldn’t do it DIY then I wouldn’t do it. Time to bust out the SORN decleration!

Starting to Strip
I pulled out the windscreen,dash and poked at the hole in the pillar with a screwdriver, before reverting to the grinder…



eeek!

So then poked around the screen some more.. and sanded the b-pillar with a handy wee flap disc to reveal more filler



... and then Fatty came round too...!



start filling holes rather than making... (this was the first time I’d properly welded in about 6 years so don’t laugh!) I poured a load of rust eater into the pillar and slowly started patching but as always complications… a tip sheared in the welder... Doh





and ran out of time/paint/wet and dry so had to put all back together, thinking it would be funny to crack the screen.... and drove it for the final time before it was SORN’ed



In the remaining couple of weeks before it was SORN’d I did do a couple of small bits:

Sent my locks/key to Crazy Quiff's to get them matched....



Created a new rear window from a bit of 5mm boat perspex & Bought a new windscreen & seal

Started to get a bit more serious with rebuilding (or unbuilding as the case may be)

Started of by pulling some bits off – lights, Interior, rear glass etc



For the first time I plucked up the courage to lift the tread plate… actually pleasantly surprised



Got out the old trusty air hammer and battered off the sound deadening to look for any hidden holes - pleasantly surprised again



Started on the rear screen surround



removed the diesel tank which had a lot more diesel in than I realised causing a massive puddle on the floor and put me of welding for a while (plus the smell of diesel makes me feel sick after a siphoning mishap)






Somebody's nice wheel arch liner securing device


Back out with the AAZ...


Out with the suspension…

Trailer full of steel – to help solve some problems


Axle pulled off


Flipped (that’s how you lower on antiquated leaf springs)


I made a electrolysis tank to bust the rust on the Caddy, so used the new flippedness as a test. I made it by taking this big drum that I got from flEbay(that was used to transport olives), attached up the wires and axel parts and left to “brew”



Some work started on the shell....
Rust chopped & Blasted


But then my friend came round so stopped that and used his muscles...


Rank rust - have lots of busting to do....

Got this girl set up....Bit of blasting & de rusting


And finished de assembling all the mechanical bits so can clean up and paint... bushes didn’t want to come so met the blow torch

I had to break the ice in my electrolysis tank before I could put anything in lol! The parts were sandblasted including “New” ‘big’ brakes – from Cavalier SRI





Those who are scared easily, look away now….

Made a start on the passenger side sill, which I wasn’t really looking forward to doing



Eeek



Template & remake



Did a bit more on the bottom like welding the holes shut



Look how many layers of paint to get through , And striped back the rear behind the door.... look at the depth of that filler!



Next task after sill is to start on the rear arch. Not gonny be nice… Purge that mofo with fire

Time for some more?

New/Newer Bits!
My £32 box fresh "chrome" grill - didn't think I'd end up going down the chrome route.... but this was an unmissable bargain....New poly bushes, Led plate lights, top mounts and new suspension mounts from VW, Another box - Cordoba rear Discs



Work on the rear



Had a poke at the front inner arch


And cleaned up (blasted) the rest of the arch before spraying with epoxy mastic

I pulled off the underseal from the bottom of the bed and sand blasted it, dont have a pic of it blasted but here's all the rank rust hiding under the underseal




Bit of mechanical stuff too...
Modded the 10" Servo from a '94 Vento (caddy is 7" and crap) so it will fit.... whenever that day may come....Also painted some bits and bobs



Manufactued a new rear lower panel and a repair patch for behind the cab... out of 3mm steel..... that took some beating lol lo()

Had some fccuk-ing nice visitors giving me encouragement over the weekend - So thanks for that!

Some more new parts.... 14x8" RSL Cults



I thought it was about time I made sure the arches would stretch over the 8", So I set about fitting them - and converting the rear to disc

After several weeks of the local engineer putting off modifying my axle, I gave up - Drilling some holes was too hard for him! DIY was the project ethos – long may it continue. When axle flipping on the caddy, the axle can position of centre. So I drilled the new stub axels to re centralise the axle too - naturally some new bearings and discs too



Rebuilt all the rear suspension with new poly bushes, VW mounts, epoxy mastic 1.5" Lowering blocks

What do you think?


Up the front... New Discs (256mm for cavalier SRI calipers), struts, rebuilt hubs, new bearings, Poly bushes, all new bolts nuts & washers and some knuckle skin...



And the rims clear the Cavalier SRi calipers its seems :music:



Back on with the body work now it's temporarily off it's rear stand - Will go back on shortly to seal underneath finally. Plenty more blasting to do....

As this project needs to be a bit rude... I tried on new exhaust



What about uppy and outty? lol Cyclist and Ecowarrior wrecker



Continued with the Bulkhead repair but had to wait for the paint to dry so didn't get a chance to finish off




I’m a bit of a sucket for the shaved bay look so I made a bit of a start on bay detailing.....

To start: minky



After a bit of delete-ion,



Bay shaving is TIRESOME

Welded up all the left over bed holes


And started to plan drilling some more holes for tieing stuff down. I created some threaded plates which the eyebolts can screw into


Had a nice fire, despite it being the ONLY trim left in the truck and I was welding no where near!



Rear bulkhead is almost done! - Do you like the ratlook interior?



Mr. Hammer****e was introduced to Mr Nitromors




Continuing the Rude-ness I dismantled my headlights... and crosshaired them



Removed all the remaining interior poop and finished welding up the holes, made some new mounts for the low back buckets, need to blast & pain that too now



Modified the MK1 wiper to MK3 spec - the old Vento comes in handy... again (you can see that there is now a redundent bracket which will help with the bay shave)

Some shots of the bench seat conversion – Inspiration taken from the Yank Rod scene - This'll be the 4th seat variation - and hopefully final!

*Sorry Mr Vento*

Drilled 9000 spot welds and Welded small bar to keep supports at the right spacing



Test, trim, test, trim etc before attaching


Arm rest for cruising, holding me in and parking my MacDonalds on , Tilt for storage and lift for storage



Got the secret hand brake 1/2 sorted out too, just need to finish the manufacture and add it in


Of course it looks minging, but I will re-trim it at some stage - just wanted to make it fit first!

Back on to rust remediation

First of, rolled the truck back on its side so I can operate on the drivers side sill etc, Pretty rotten, much like the passenger side



Rot box….


Of course a rude project wouldn’t be rude without scraping the sump at the front. Going low = driveshaft meeting chassis leg so moved onto a chassis notch



Then to complex things up a bit, I don’t an ugly battery in my shaved bay and who wants a battery taking up valuable room in the cab? Not me…

Mock up


Used 2.5mm thick steel (maybe 3) – was bloody awkward to shape!


Need to snake a bit – Yeah I know the factory hanger is still there



Then it was the densil tanks turn to get some love! Blasted & pitted (& leaking ) So busted out some lead and had a back at lead loading – was trickier than it looks!



Then another mammoth blasting session. Followed by epoxy mastic (NB: always hoover 5 times if you don’t want textured finish after sand blasting

Well its been a while since I last checked out the forum, seems to be lots going on!

Bit silly starting a build thread without continuing it – So here’s a bit of an update.

Caddy has been a bit forgotten about as I got distracted with another wee project…


So it was like this…..


but then....


Doors





Bay... you all know the process (bang) :bh









freshly shaved bay... ooh add a dent!




Any opinions welcome – good or bad.