# B&B Autostyle. Our VW Caddy Van.



## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

This post is more for a spot of fun as opposed to a serious write up!

It features,as per title,the B&B Autostyle Caddy van and it's journey from total heap to {I hope you all agree} respectable commercial transport!

The story started back in April of this year,when the sun used to shine in Belfast and the roads were free from slush and snow.
My business partner Chris, who has been the brains behind our outfit,{while running another business,building a house,designing and maintaining our website and helping me on the bigger jobs,cheers Chris :thumb:} advised me that this being our first year costs should be kept at a controllable level and the wise purchase of a van was paramount to this remit.

While in the process of investing in all other materials and Insurance and other unseen costs we met along the way we viewed a few vans but in financial terms the Commercial market in Belfast seemed swollen with over priced and tired vans.
With nothing floating our boat a chance encounter with a VAG specialist friend of ours occurred.
He had just bought a Seat Inca and was keen on the space,durability and fuel economy it offered. He also informed us of an unwanted trade in due at the local Volkswagen dealers which could be had for buttons. We contacted another friend in the VW trade and a week later I had bought our Caddy.........










And what a shed she was too! Front bumper held on with an assortment of self tappers and cable ties,terrible roof bars made from angle iron and the vapor extractor on the roof. Lovely!
After a brief test drive the Caddy was sold to us for half a bag of sand and with no service history and an engine which I thought was noisier than it should be we limped back to Belfast with Chris following in my BMW,tow rope poised!

On arrival back home we started to have a proper dig into the Caddy's past life. She had had two owners,one in Northern Ireland and one in Leeds,JCT Contracts who I think lease vans,if anybody can shed anymore light on this feel free to add to this post.

In terms of driving the gear change was shockingly stiff and instead of greasing the selector rods the previous owner had preferred to split the gear nob in two, forcing the Caddy into gear. That and the overly noisy engine made me think that I would be spending some time under the bonnet.

In cosmetic terms the Caddy is,well,disgusting!
Having said that,all the panels are straight and only a little surface rust was eating at the rear arches. The paint is a heavily oxidized single stage white,originally thought to be Candy white,but more of that later...



















Passenger side rear door glass is plastic and held in with duck tape!










Flat paint everywhere....





































Think the wheels need binned.

And the interior shots...



















I suspect somebody has been smoking in here.

Anyway,off we go. After a wash which took in the region of three hours,removing huge quantities of moss and ground in dirt and dust, the Caddy was compounded with a combination of 3M FCP and Megs 105 to remove the top layer of paint. With readings at 160 to 180 microns the Caddy has obviously been painted several times during it's life,probably with various company liveries adorning the bodywork. When I removed the horrible roof bars they revealed some red paint and underneath parts of the floor have been painted blue!

These paint jobs have been done quickly and on the cheap and the van is covered in runs. Theses were sanded out in several places.



















Working around the van in between paying jobs the panels were coming up a nice glossy off shade white. For compounding I used orange Hexlogic pads,finding that they did not clog with paint as quickly as green 3M pads did. Refined with Menzerna Intensive and Final Finish on 3M yellow and 3M blue.










Panel to panel;










Passenger side compounded;










A few refining images;



















And getting a nice finish on the wing;










With the paintwork organised work moved to the interior. Ply-lining was fitted to the load bay with the original load liner discarded and the vapor fan removed from the roof. I used three quarter inch marine ply for the floor because no doubt it will get wet and half inch standard ply for the sides.
I sealed the bulkhead with half inch ply cut from the plastic bulkhead which was already in place. This was also discarded due to paint splatter from the Caddy's previous life in the decorating trade.
At the risk of looking a tad Blue Peter a work in motion pic;










We debated on the subject of shelving and storage with a view to a water tank fitment and to be honest the debate still goes on. Currently the van can hold 75 liters of water in removable tanks,the generator,four flip top boxes for pads and cloths,the Nilfisk pressure washer and the rest of our Detailing gear. i have found on a lot of mobile jobs the van has been parked a fair distance from where I have been working so I kinda like the system we use at the moment. Everything can be removed and moved into the customer's garage or to anywhere in a multi-storey car park.
The gear;










And on a recent job;










Now to the oily bits. 
Luckily Chris and I are are quiet handy with the spanners so all the work was carried out by ourselves.

The 1998 spec 1.9 SDI pumps out a throbbing 64 BHP. At least it did when it was new!










After a thorough degrease and clean we replaced the Timing Belt and Tensioner,the water pump (responsible for the excess noise) and gave the engine a full service including all oils and filters. Once the gear selectors were greased the gears just slid into place. I can't seem to find a pic of the engine all shiny and dressed with 303 and i'm not going outside to take one as it's blowing a blizzard outside and the Caddy is buried so you'll have to use your imagination there folks!

Moving on to May. With the Caddy passed fit for the road Chris donated a set of G60 steels fitted with Kuhmo tyres to harness the Caddy's power. I removed the front bumper and had it painted in Candy White,as per chassis plate. Upon refitting I think the problem is apparent...










The Caddy has been painted in a generic white I suspect by the varios firms who hired it in the past. I had to fit the bumper at that time due to work commitments so once I had a free two days it was removed again and matched by eye with a mix of Honda and Toyota whites. I have some of this exclusive and rare colour left over should I pick up any stone chips

The Caddy's interior was in a terrible state with the head cloth being almost beyond rescue. I removed it and spent over an hour trying to clean it,even resorting to extreme measures to remove the smoke staining. Deciding that it was probably a waste of time and materials I dyed it black in the end with Ebony Carpet Dye. I did the same for the carpets and was given a set of Polo seats by Shane of Sound In Motion after we carried out an Enhancement on his TVR to replace the rock hard originals.
Looks rather smart in black;



















Drawing to a close then,not that the Caddy will ever be finished with more decals being added when we get approval from a few companies we are currently talking to,here is how she sits at the moment.





































And some beading and sheeting on the bonnet after a coat of BOS was applied in June for protection;










Overall i am delighted with the van. It more than carries the weight of our equipment,in fact when it's loaded it's even more comfortable as the weight dampens the leaf springs better than the shock absorbers do!

Anyway,may the miles keep rolling along under the Caddy! Thanks for viewing folks.

Just to add a special foot note here folks.

I received an email earlier today from Florian Kessler an hour ago and it gives me great pleasure and pride to inform you that we are now Nanolex Approved Detailers. This is,as we all know,a great range of products and we will proudly be posting our next write up featuring Nanolex. Thanks Florian,it's an honor to be on-board.:thumb:

Regards,John.



















B&B Autostyle. Northern Ireland's Premium Mobile Detailing Service.


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

very nice


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## Guest (Dec 6, 2010)

nice job, the caddy looks so much better now than it did at the start. I would lower it a bit but then thats just my personal taste and then if your traveling alot in it you dont want to be bouncing about all over the show. Im thinking of buying an escort van at the minuet for carting stuff about and this thread has got me even more tempted now lol


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## steview (Sep 23, 2010)

Great write up good luck with It


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## d7ve_b (Jul 1, 2010)

Looks miles better, just needs slamming now


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## e4n rs (Dec 2, 2010)

loving the sign writing !!! needs lowering slightly imho but looks great


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## mk2jon (Mar 10, 2009)

Great looking van,brought back from the dead :buffer:


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## mas (Oct 4, 2010)

great job. How large are those arches - off road shouldn't be a problem!


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## Mini 360 (Jul 17, 2009)

Slam it on coilovers and thats one tidy van!


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

-Mat- said:


> very nice


Thanks Mat.



capri kid said:


> nice job, the caddy looks so much better now than it did at the start. I would lower it a bit but then thats just my personal taste and then if your traveling alot in it you dont want to be bouncing about all over the show. Im thinking of buying an escort van at the minuet for carting stuff about and this thread has got me even more tempted now lol


Get it bought mate! I now have turned into a van pervert,pulling up and lights and looking at other people's vans. Saw a new Caddy today and had to walk round it a few times before I realised what I was doing!
The Caddy is currently sipping diesel at 44mpg,mostly urban and does not use oil.Love it.


steview said:


> Great write up good luck with It


Cheers mate. Enjoyed typing this one up,nice change from the more serious posts.



d7ve_b said:


> Looks miles better, just needs slamming now


Thanks. Had thought about lowering or going down the road of the 'axle flip' which lowers them 100mm. They look mega once done but the ride comfort would be appalling I should think.


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

Great turn around fella's

the van does look really smart now


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## adam91 (Mar 17, 2009)

Smart looking van... We've a 168k Caddy SDi here that's used for work. 
Touch wood, it's never missed a beat and still going strong.

Great turnaround on the motor!
Best of luck with it.


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## The_Bouncer (Nov 24, 2010)

Great little workhorse - can be made to be real sharp. :O)

example


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## Rgk Detailing (Dec 6, 2006)

Nice turnaround, like night and day! 

I done a similar restoration on my 190000 mile Berlingo back in May this year, will do a write up at some point over winter.

Richard


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Top job


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## Foolish Boy (Jul 20, 2009)

Love the caddy vans, and that looks real sharp after you'd finished with it. The signwriting really adds a professional edge.

Certainly needs a bit of a drop.... this is mine with a heavy slam and rims.


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## dreamtheater (Apr 12, 2010)

Great turn around...looks the business.


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

paulmc08 said:


> Great turn around fella's
> 
> the van does look really smart now


Thanks Paul.



adam91 said:


> Smart looking van... We've a 168k Caddy SDi here that's used for work.
> Touch wood, it's never missed a beat and still going strong.
> 
> Great turnaround on the motor!
> Best of luck with it.


Cheers,good to hear that. Often wondered how far they can go!


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

By the way,those two Caddy's above look awesome. Not sure how much weight they would cope with though. It would certainly get me noticed though...

I'd love to see the Berlingo Richard. I really like getting stuck into projects like that where it's not just the machine polishing that counts. Properly bringing something back to life and fettling it I find really satisfying.


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## joshb (Sep 26, 2010)

Amazing turn around its 1 of my favorite posts, i am realyy thinkin about gettin 1 of these vans, just a quick question u mentioned u had 75 litre water tank which would be i deal for me, were did u get that from, keep up the good work


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## Ronnie (Nov 15, 2006)

Looking Good lad fair old transformation.... Welcome to the Nanolex family its great stuff.... hows things great weather for detailing!!


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## Benjic2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Great turn around :thumb:


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## tommyzooom (Aug 15, 2009)

Some transformation there


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## Motoract (Feb 18, 2010)

no excuses. slam it!


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Really good read that, nice and simple and well worth the end result, van looks like it's in great condition now and will serve it's purpose...........:car:

Thanks for taking the time to share........:thumb:


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## squeal (Mar 3, 2006)

Rather than slam it mate i would look into a bigger wall of tyre,not a truck tyre just slightly beefier as im sure the weight when loaded will make it sit nice.

Amazing how fresh these old Caddy vans can look with tlc,as they do have a great engine.Very nice and on a budget you couldnt of done better!


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

joshb said:


> Amazing turn around its 1 of my favorite posts, i am realyy thinkin about gettin 1 of these vans, just a quick question u mentioned u had 75 litre water tank which would be i deal for me, were did u get that from, keep up the good work


Thanks very much,one of your favorites-that makes me smile!

I cant recommend the Caddy enough,a side door would be useful but bar that it's ideal. The performance is adequate for a van,although she'll never win any prizes for perfprmance or handling.

We carry 75 liters of water in the van but in 3x25 liter tanks. The reason being is that the tanks can be removed easily if the Caddy can not be moved close to the car being worked on. If we can get it close I have a retractable hose reel in the back. If you want a more permanent tank try Tanks Direct.

Thanks again.


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Ronnie said:


> Looking Good lad fair old transformation.... Welcome to the Nanolex family its great stuff.... hows things great weather for detailing!!


Cheer Ron,looking forward to rolling out the Nanolex offer.



Benjic2 said:


> Great turn around :thumb:


Cheers mate.



tommyzooom said:


> Some transformation there


Thanks Tommy. Yours looks a bit better than mine though!



Motoract said:


> no excuses. slam it!


Okay,you have twisted my arm!:lol:



Baker21 said:


> Really good read that, nice and simple and well worth the end result, van looks like it's in great condition now and will serve it's purpose...........:car:
> 
> Cheers Baker,hopefully it will look after me for a while. The only failure so far has been caused by me,breaking the window winder in an impatient thawing out moment yesterday. 'Surely this window will go down'.....Snap!
> 
> ...


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## joshb (Sep 26, 2010)

B&B Autostyle said:


> Thanks very much,one of your favorites-that makes me smile!
> 
> I cant recommend the Caddy enough,a side door would be useful but bar that it's ideal. The performance is adequate for a van,although she'll never win any prizes for perfprmance or handling.
> 
> ...


i will definatley keep a caddy in mind but i mite have brought a escort van tho today, mint condition and at a good price, is there connecters that you use on the 25 litre water tanks that connect to your pressure washer?


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## Jamie-SRi (Oct 18, 2010)

great turnaround, just needs setting on its **** like the other pics now


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

joshb said:


> i will definatley keep a caddy in mind but i mite have brought a escort van tho today, mint condition and at a good price, is there connecters that you use on the 25 litre water tanks that connect to your pressure washer?


Sounds like a good purchase Josh. No special connections needed really. I simply drop a feed hose into each container while foaming or rinsing,this connects to the pressure washer in the way an ordinary hose does. You may need to weight the hose down inside the tank to stop it floating to the top,a piece of copper pipe pushed into the hose should suffice.


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## joshb (Sep 26, 2010)

B&B Autostyle said:


> Sounds like a good purchase Josh. No special connections needed really. I simply drop a feed hose into each container while foaming or rinsing,this connects to the pressure washer in the way an ordinary hose does. You may need to weight the hose down inside the tank to stop it floating to the top,a piece of copper pipe pushed into the hose should suffice.


sound m8 thanks for that i will try it out, cheers for your help i appreciate it keep up the good work


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

Cracking turnaround. Looks superb:thumb:


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Cheers Mister Planet Man.

Just looked through the post again and spotted I forgot to load up a full frontal. So here it is!


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

These caddys are still quite nice especially when they look such a good example as this one:thumb:


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## DubbedUP (Oct 2, 2007)

Ah makes me miss my old Seat Inca van!

Alas she succumbed to the dreaded tin worm and to start it from cold it needed brake an clutch cleaner squirted into the plenum.. Still though, she would run on straight veg oil, and hardly used any at all.

Outstanding turn around though mate and I know it's a works van but, git her slammed! ;-)


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Beau Technique said:


> These caddys are still quite nice especially when they look such a good example as this one:thumb:


Cheers Scott!



DubbedUP said:


> Ah makes me miss my old Seat Inca van!
> 
> Alas she succumbed to the dreaded tin worm and to start it from cold it needed brake an clutch cleaner squirted into the plenum.. Still though, she would run on straight veg oil, and hardly used any at all.
> 
> Outstanding turn around though mate and I know it's a works van but, git her slammed! ;-)


Cheers mate. Know what you mean about the tin worm. The Caddy's rear arches are being closely scrutinised during the winter months with the salt on the roads. That's about the only issue I have.

I seem to be under a lot of pressure to lower this van!


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## squeakyclean32 (Mar 13, 2010)

Good to see something different.....what a difference.....a credit to your workmanship too :buffer:.....Looking very minty now :thumb:


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## keano (Aug 11, 2008)




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## Eddy (Apr 13, 2008)

Thats inspiring stuff, some classy wheels would just put the icing on the cake for me :thumb:


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## Eddy (Apr 13, 2008)

That looks incredible Keano!!


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## keano (Aug 11, 2008)

Eddy said:


> That looks incredible Keano!!


Just a quick dodgy chop. Although it does look abit tastey doesn't it :thumb:


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

:lol::lol::lol:

Cheers Keano! Inspiring stuff mate. The chassis legs look like they would be on the ground!


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

squeakyclean32 said:


> Good to see something different.....what a difference.....a credit to your workmanship too :buffer:.....Looking very minty now :thumb:


Cheers Squeaky.


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## Ronnie (Nov 15, 2006)

keano said:


>


dumped on her a55 now thats ballin' john!! get it done!


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## JJ_ (Oct 26, 2005)

Frickin awesome


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Cheers JJ.

Just realised this is our most viewed DW post.

Thanks everybody!


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## ALANSHR (Jun 29, 2007)

cool, a nice turnaround and a good advert for your skills, well done


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## JC01 (Sep 6, 2009)

super transformation


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

I love posts like this... it's good to see some vehicles brought back to life with a bit of TLC.


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

ALANSHR said:


> cool, a nice turnaround and a good advert for your skills, well done


Thanks very much.



JC01 said:


> super transformation


A local face! Cheers lad.



Deeg said:


> I love posts like this... it's good to see some vehicles brought back to life with a bit of TLC.


Thanks Deeg. New rear shoes on the way this week and the G60's are getting refurbed at the weekend.

On another note,while unloading the Caddy last night after a long and chilly day in a customer's garage I was a tad clumsy with the generator and managed to break the fuel cut-off valve that screws into the bottom of the tank. Cue about three gallons of Unleaded gushing onto the Caddy's load bay and me desperately trying to stem the flow with my finger!
She's been parked in the drive all day,back doors open,airing.....


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## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

joshb said:


> i will definatley keep a caddy in mind but i mite have brought a escort van tho today, mint condition and at a good price, is there connecters that you use on the 25 litre water tanks that connect to your pressure washer?


Sorry Josh,hadn't noticed your question in the posts until i re-read the thread.
There is no connection between the tanks and the pressure washer,the feed hose that you would normally connect to an outside tap simply drops in and submerges in the water and the Nilfisk draws it out of the tank.
Initially there will be an airlock in the hose but it clears in a matter of seconds.


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

B&B Autostyle said:


> Cheers JJ.
> 
> Just realised this is our most viewed DW post.
> 
> Thanks everybody!


It is always nice to see something different:thumb:


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