SoundillusioN - Akai Racing Team Bus

[jv]

 

[SoundillusioN]

Say hello to what will one day be known as, The Akai Golf Racing Team Bus. 

Impulsive buy but I've always wanted one.

I will post up more pictures once its back at my house.

It's a 1984 T25 Transporter Panel Van (now with windows)
1.9 DG Wasserboxer Engine
Low Mileage (well, I think so anyway)
Very basic camper setup inside
Needs a lot of body TLC, especially up front.
However it's MOT'd until next April so will be doing very little to it for now. I NEED to get the Golf up to scratch in time for VW Action.
It's Taxed until September and I have just insured it ready for me to pick it up tonight.

So for now I'm just going to do service essentials and get some use out of it before it becomes a money pit.   

[SoundillusioN]

The plan is to eventually be at shows with both vehicles in the cars racing colours as per below.  Akai Golf and matching team Bus!

[SoundillusioN]

OK, so here's some snaps of the van at it's new home after a good scrubbing, well not too good or I would have ended up putting my hand through it.    Also I had to be careful where I pointed the pressure washers lance at times!

I had to do something terrible and temporarily steal the Golfs wiper blades, the vans were sh*te!

Also note the Caution Tape... it's not covering anything bad on the arches at all. 

The tints on it are great, very mild up front but limo at the back which is nice and private, day or night. 









All of the interior needs to come out at some point (probably over the winter),its been made from the most heavy duty, solid wood you can think off and as a result weighs a tonne! The carpeting is rubbish, I'd say its all function over form at the moment. 

Pictures taken once fabric/curtain stripping for cleaning purposes had already begun









Original Front seats were battered, newer ones without rips or burns have been fitted





Some temporary interior after shots, coming right up.................

[SoundillusioN]

Until winter comes, stripped everything out, boil washed curtains and bought new covers, cushions, some wrap for the worktop etc etc.  Spent the whole day sanitising the interior. 

Good thing is, in it's current form it has plenty of storage and a little fold out table.







Some old seat covers I had lying around from the old Mustang to keep these seats in good order for a muddy weekend we had planned

[SoundillusioN]

Some glam shots   

First night out in it, parked up with my friends (Alan) T5. We went to another friends mini music festival. I'm gutted I didn't take pictures later on in the night as it ended up being quite a popular little party bus as the night went on.  Also no shots of it made up to sleep in. doh.. was sooo cosy, loved it! It was really muddy the next morning, lots of people got stuck, we didn't! 



Towering over the golf!

[SoundillusioN]

Big parcel arrived which contained this:



When I originally went to view the van it's exhaust was blowing really badly from both sides of the silencer joints. It had been badly patched up with Gun Gum and Fire Gum all over the flanges. So much so in fact that you couldn't even see the mounting studs/nuts anymore.

Believe it or not, it took nearly 3 hours to get the old silencer off.  Once I'd chiselled all the cr@p off to reveal the nuts I soon realised they were never going to come off, especially since 2 of them are difficult enough to see let alone get to when they're fecked! 

It quickly became obvious that the Gun Gum was there because somebody couldn't be bothered to go through the pain of dealing with the hard to access nuts.  If they had done the job properly in the first place the silencer would still have been fine.

No pictures of the process as it was far too much of an ar5e for me to even give a sh*t at the time.  After 3 sheared studs, drilling, grinding cutting and blood running down my arms, I got it off! 



I feared that the Flanges on the manifold side would be shot but luckily they cleaned up OK.

During clean up of one side



Fitted.  Bit dark at this point.  Had to cut the rear valance in two places to make room for the tailpipes.



Cheap setup but does the trick.. Now that it has a silencer for each bank it sounds fecking amazing!  More importantly it's driving soooo much better now. 

[SoundillusioN]

For once I got a clear, dry day to get on with some grafting and managed to split my time between the bus and the golf. 

After having to cut the rear valance to fit the new exhausts, paint was needed to protect the cuts.  Saying that though, the lower half of the valance wasn't in the best state anyway and had a couple of small holes, surface rust and scabs.



Treated myself to a new Makita Angle Grinder and put it to work.  While I was at it I attacked the bumper which has seen better days and could one day do with being replaced.



Filled little holes and scabs with steel putty and then got busy with some satin hammerite.  I have also given the silencers a quick blow over with high temp paint now the shipping stuff has burnt off, although the process wasn't photographed.

Will do the job for now. 



Random shot, Golf was awoken while the paint dried.

[SoundillusioN]

This just arrived at my office, can you guess what it is and what it's for?

[SoundillusioN]

Been busy on the Golf the this thread hasn't had much action... However, it's been out and about quite a bit and is running really well now...

I have started to get some parts for it.

Found someone who was breaking an old V8 converted show van.  Took it's doors and dash tidy... Both of which need work but the doors are in better condition that what I've got at the moment, also it means I can work on them without paralysing the van.



Dash tidy is essential in these as there is nowhere to put anything, especially drinks.... Often they go for silly money, found mine for 99p but it does need some attention!

Also found a better tailgate for it for a good price, also needs work but far less than the one it's got.

People sell parts for these for crazy money, I just refuse to pay it!