The van itself was spot on – a factory spec Kombi Highline twin slider, it was, in fact, the colour that hooked Chris when he saw it at his local VW Commercial dealer. Just ten months old, it had 10,000 miles on the clock and that deep rich Night blue paintwork was in immaculate condition. As he’d specifically wanted something that wasn’t black, white or red, his first thought of the Kombi was “great colour!”
At the time, Chris was looking to upgrade his 05 plate T5, which had been his entry van, bought in 2012 after coveting one for a long time. Camping is in his blood, his parents had a motorhome, which would be loaded with bikes and kayaks, plus everything including the kitchen sink when the family would set off for the mountains on holiday. Chris loved it. From his early 20s he was eyeing up T4s with camper conversions and thinking ‘one day’… So, the ’05 van was taken in part exchange, and the deal was done on the Kombi. A van that was destined to become a quality conversion, using top parts and suppliers.
Apart from the twin sliders and cab carpets, the van was totally standard, rolling on 16” steels and with the 1.9 litre engine putting out 140 bhp. A perfect blank canvas for conversion. One of Chris’ ideas for the van was to put in a Slidepod tailgate kitchen, but in the end, he decided it wasn’t the route for him. However, in talking with Jonny at Slidepods, he discovered that they did lots of other things including roofs and electrics. So, Chris sent the van to them for phase one of the conversion and Slidepods installed an SCA 194 roof, full leisure electrics, sound deadening, lining, flooring, and the swivels for the cab seats.
Denne historien er fra Issue 91-utgaven av VW Bus T4&5+.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 91-utgaven av VW Bus T4&5+.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
The Evolution of Van
To mark 100 issues of VWBus, David takes a look back at how updating the humble ‘Box on Wheels’ has gone from concept to reality
Wild Times
Perhaps a sign of the wild times we’re in and a telling sign of how fast we’re adapting to the ‘new normal’. I decide to take a U-turn and zoom out on how things looked as that ‘new normal’ was taking hold, along with how that’s effecting our little sector
Story's Story
With The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden under our belts and barely two weeks on the road, we were heading to the ultimate van life destination; Norway…
Karmann-Go
When you own ‘The fastest motorhome in the world’,getting to the campsite on time shouldn’t be a problem
Gran Tourettesmo
This is a very cool and interesting project, but the question is,is this the ultimate eBay build?
CBBA
If there was such a thing as Cool Bus Builders Anonymous, then each meet in Leicestershire would start with the words. “Hello, my name’s Andy Stretton and I can’t stop building seriously cool buses.”
Honey I Shrunk My Bus
When Grant Gwyn walked into a VW dealership to buy a Viper green Caddy, little did he know his future was about to be very orange...
Milk Float Influence
Nicknamed Ernie, we discover this custom-created T5 pickup won’t be doing the early morning milk round any time soon
Impossible Solved
A while back we brought you a basic sketch of a proposed project, it was both wild and eminently practical. Well it’s finished now and already in service as a daily driver for a very special lad
An Alpine Summer
In the concluding instalment we pick up Richard and Jackie Pickles’ story of their eight-country Alpine summer adventure on the shore of Lake Como in Italy
