Cobblers's T25 Multivan (also T6 interior rebuild)

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Wire up a towbar using only Scotchlocks and insulating tape?

I very much agree that no ScotchBlocks are on his premises

[Mally]

7 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

Wire up a towbar using only Scotchlocks and insulating tape?

Need me for that.

[cobblers]

I'd like to refer you all to the wiring for the subwoofer in my pickup. There's an aliexpress amp slung in the glovebox, wires run through between the seats to a sub box made from scrap plywood that's literally floating about behind the front seats.

Yes, that's masking tape.

 

It was only supposed to be temporary, but it's been in there 4 months now. Sounds really good! I'd like to say "electrically it's perfectly good" but it's just piggy backed into the ISO wiring so I have 4 speakers and a subwoofer running off whatever wiring VW installed to allow Heinrich to listen to "Schuld war nur der Bossa Nova" on a single speaker MW/LW Cracklemaster 4000. 

 

I'm very capable of being a bodging bastard😂 but with stuff that will cause me to be stranded, I won't cut any corners for two reasons (and neither are that I'm a perfectionist or even a very good mechanic). I don't have much time for tinkering, so I need to do my best to make sure that when I'm doing a job, I have all the parts to finish it off and put it all to bed properly. 

Also, with vehicles in the past, I've left stuff at "that's good enough" rather that "that's right" and the cumulative effect of this left me without a lot of confidence about driving em any kind of long distance and took all the enjoyment out of owning old stuff. I had a bit of a word with myself and decided that since I'm now lucky enough to have spare vehicles and a comfortable space to work on stuff, that I wouldn't leave anything at a "that'll do" state, and by that token whenever I've got the "old van anxiety" over my shoulder I can tell him to bugger off because I've done my best!

[mat_the_cat]

12 hours ago, cobblers said:

It was only supposed to be temporary

It's ony temporary unless it works.

[High Jetter]

3 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

It's ony temporary unless it works.

Truth. Have a gratis L. 

[cobblers]

11 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

It's ony temporary unless it works.

it only needs to last until the electrical fire 

[yes oui si]

On 22/10/2025 at 08:04, MrBig said:

 

A friend of mine put actual Lambo wheels on his and it looked awesome! And that interior is so comfortable.

 

Ooooo... Got any photos?

[MrBig]

36 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Ooooo... Got any photos?

Couple more pictures here (scroll down a bit): TheSamba.com :: Vanagon - View topic - A Bluestar from Germany...

 

[cobblers]

Well, I had a bit of a fettle on this on Saturday. I went to fit the new front discs, but Autodoc sent the wrong ones. Early discs listed as suitable up to 1990.... So I had to refit all the old stuff! What a ballache!

I got the central locking working, all it needed was a fuse, a motor in the drivers door, the sliding door lifting slightly on it's bracket (so the contact strip lined up properly) and a replacement link rod fitting in the tailgate - someone had removed it and chucked it away.

I was mithering about leaving this parked in't rain all winter, so I was eyeing up spaces for it, maybe a shuffle round at work etc.  Stroke of luck though, it *just* fits in the garage at home. With both mirrors folded in there's an inch to spare on the sides. If you drive it in til it hits the back wall, the door closes with an inch to spare against the towbar. You need to put a bit of cardboard on the roof to protect it from the garage door opener runner.

 

Luckily I can still access the consumer unit by winding the drivers window down.

 

It'll be tucked in there most of the time now, I'll get it out a week at a time til, they salt the roads I'll SORN both this and the pickup. 

In typical "G691SAA" style it has kindly repaid my efforts at repairs and finding it a warm, dry space for the winter.... When crawling into the back of it, I put my hand on the carpet in front of the back seat and found it wet through. It's popped the rear heater matrix under the back seat 🙄

Luckily I've not yet ordered the correct brake disks so I can add a heater matrix onto the regular twice weekly brickwerks order.

 

[Hertz]

I didn't know it had central locking! Nice one.

Have you got an up and over garage door? It just fit in our garage when I backed it into the garage then the door closed/followed the front profile of the van, it might give you a bit more space if your door is the same. We used to SORN it from end of Oct to March/April every year because of the bad weather/salty roads.

Bugger about the heater matrix 🫣

[cobblers]

Yep! I also never thought about it having C/L til I saw the contact strip on the sliding door and realised it must have. The motor in the drivers door was the first one I got to, and it was full of water. Putting a fuse in got the passenger door working along with the sliding door sometimes.

Expecting the other motors to be just as bad,  I ordered four new motors (they're only a tenner a pop) . Turns out all the others are fine. I've even wired it up to a remote blipper (£6, aliexpress)

If the van was the other way around in the garage, it might fit slightly better but I think the door mech would still just catch the roof. But having the sliding door there is quite convenient - if we have guests, We can use it as a spare bedroom. It's a bit gloomy in the garage but its bloody peaceful in there. 

 

[cobblers]

With the older stuff tucked up for winter, I'd been using my T6 more and more.

I noticed it always smelled a bit "fusty" inside. Ages ago I realised that the roof rack mounts were leaking a bit, so I sealed those. then reacently I found that the side opening windows were leaking a bit (they all do that) so I taped those up. But I still kept finding a wet floor.

Turns out, a smashed undertray and a badly fitting bung under the passenger seat continually let water in whenever it was driven in the rain. I lifted the lino up and found the wooden subfloor was absolutely rotten and mouldy, and the cab floor carpet backing absolutely sodden and stinking. FFS.

Weeks passed and I kept contemplating just swapping the front half of the subfloor etc, but I wouldn't be 100% sure there were no other sources of water ingress, so I decided to bite the bullet and redo it all.

I went out camping in it last night, this morning nipped in to work and gutted it.

When I took the sliding door step out, there was a good inch of water!

I hoyed the bed and all the units out, ripped up the floor and here we are: What was a nice cosy camper quite quickly turns back into a bare van:#

 

Cab carpet is hung up on the wall at work next to the compressor to dry out, the subfloor is ready to go on the bonfire -  look at the state of it! Thi

While the thing is apart I'm going to do a few mods - fit another window in the back passenger quarter (it was a bit gloomy in there) and replace both the shitty OE VW side windows with some knockoff aftermarket ones that don't piss gallons of water in, and redo some of the lining carpet.

Tomorrows task is to clean and disinfect all the van floor to get rid of the damp smell, and probably cut a massive hole in the side of the van ready for the windows turning up next week.

 

[yes oui si]

On 10/11/2025 at 20:08, Hertz said:

I didn't know it had central locking! Nice one.

Have you got an up and over garage door? It just fit in our garage when I backed it into the garage then the door closed/followed the front profile of the van, it might give you a bit more space if your door is the same. We used to SORN it from end of Oct to March/April every year because of the bad weather/salty roads.

Bugger about the heater matrix 🫣

Ahhh, but if he reverses it in then he won't be able to access the consumer unit 😅

[cobblers]

Cracked on with the T6. added an extra window. This bit is a lot more nerve wracking when you're doing it to your own van - I must have done 20 in the past and never once spent 15 minutes working up the balls to send the first drill through 😂

 

I pieced in the lining carpet - it's an offcut from the same stuff I used originally, but you can see the join (the stuff in the van has faded a bit). Was I going to line the whole thing out again? Absolutely fucking not. 

The new stuff will fade to match sooner or later, and once I've fluffed the join up a bit it'll disappear a bit more. While I'm making excuses, there are creases in the wheelarch, but it's not really seen (the jack bolts on and hides them). Again, not doing it again. Fuck that!

I'll stick the rest up shortly, PC is acting up

 

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Neat work. Fortunately, my 5.1 already had enough windows fitted for my liking, when I purchased it. I'm in the process of lining the back of mine - did you use screws to fix the lined panels in place? 

[cobblers]

2 hours ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Neat work. Fortunately, my 5.1 already had enough windows fitted for my liking, when I purchased it. I'm in the process of lining the back of mine - did you use screws to fix the lined panels in place? 

Ordinarily I would use black countersunk self tappers through the carpet to hold the panels on, they sink in and become invisible. On this van, I have put m5 rivnuts in the original trim clip holes and used fancy black stainless screws. I fancied a change. Not sure if I'd bother doing it again.

Insulated the floor:

Fitted the plywood and some heavy duty altro flooring that's a bit less gloomy than the old stuff. Since it was black, it looked filthy all the time.

 

Plonked the cabinets back in:

And the bed:

I didn't bother with the back bed board. It had never really fit very well, the frame of the bed obscured the door so it was useless. That's a heated massaging footspa on the drivers side under the bed 😄

 

This is the cause of all the damage:

 

The duct for the diesel heater, comes up through the floor under the passenger seat. The undertray was cracked, allowing water to splash off the wheel and get up there. One big puddle at speed smashed a hole in the duct, and whenever I drove in the rain, a small amount of water found it's way inside...

I've replaced the undertray, and replaced this vulnerable bit of pipe with a silicone boost pipe type elbow, so hopefully we won't have a repeat of this!

 

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

7 minutes ago, cobblers said:

Ordinarily I would use black countersunk self tappers through the carpet to hold the panels on, they sink in and become invisible. On this van, I have put m5 rivnuts in the original trim clip holes and used fancy black stainless screws. I fancied a change. Not sure if I'd bother doing it again.

Insulated the floor:

Fitted the plywood and some heavy duty altro flooring that's a bit less gloomy than the old stuff. Since it was black, it looked filthy all the time.

 

Plonked the cabinets back in:

And the bed:

I didn't bother with the back bed board. It had never really fit very well, the frame of the bed obscured the door so it was useless. That's a heated massaging footspa on the drivers side under the bed 😄

 

This is the cause of all the damage:

 

The duct for the diesel heater, comes up through the floor under the passenger seat. The undertray was cracked, allowing water to splash off the wheel and get up there. One big puddle at speed smashed a hole in the duct, and whenever I drove in the rain, a small amount of water found it's way inside...

I've replaced the undertray, and replaced this vulnerable bit of pipe with a silicone boost pipe type elbow, so hopefully we won't have a repeat of this!

 

 

Wow, neat work! I think I'll go with black self-tappers with mine. I have my sound deadening and insulation ready to go. I'm currently in the process of drilling out the spotwelds which hold the bulkhead mounting lip in place. Arse of a job. 

Did you ever sell the transporter furniture you had for sale on here ages back? 

[cobblers]

Yeah, I sold it to local bloke who reckoned he was going to adapt it to fit in the back of a berlingo somehow. I wished him the best of luck and took his money 🤷‍♂️

[cobblers]

So. House needs new roof. Conservatory is rotten and genuinely ready to collapse. Garden needs 200m of deer fencing to keep our nutter of a dog from escaping and helping itself to the produce, eggs and chickens on the allotments next-door. I've spread myself (wallet and time) a bit too thinly. 

I think I need to have a bit of a fleet rationalisation - T25 pickup is staying forever (find another), T6 camper is staying because it serves a good purpose. Electric Cooper S is going, to be replaced by a leased car through the work and if anyone fancies making me an offer on this van (beginning with a 5) I would be tempted to part with it. Long MOT, will need a couple of bits of welding (tart up the front steps and a patch over the rear sill behind sliding door) for the next one but it's all underneath the bodykit so it doesn't have to be pretty, Ready to jump in and go, everything works tip top (bar the electric mirrors) I've done shitloads to it as documented in the thread - Drives absolutely lovely, it's as nippy as any 2.1 I've ever owned, and as good on fuel as one of these can be. Failing that it can stay tucked up in the garage for a while, but it might as well get used if someone wants it.

[cobblers]

Well the first stereo I got of Aliexpress was a bit shit. It was about 0.5w per channel, it didn't fit the dash hole very well and did my head in.

I didn't fancy spending £300 sheets on another Blaupunkt BP46, so I got a Temu one (well, aliexpress again)

This one was £35.. It looks a bit more 1995 Argos catalogue than "OE fit in a 1989 porsche" but you know what, it does the job ace! Turns on and connects quick, you can choose the illumination colour (or set it to flash like a slot machine) and it goes reasonably loud, as loud as the 10cm cracklemasters in these doors will handle.

I haven't tested the radio function because I would sooner smash my cock off with pieces of broken porcelain than listen to anything that's on FM radio these days, but I'd assume like all other chinese stuff that it's got a fairly weak tuner, at best.

search "RS-20" on aliexpress if you want one. This one arrived in five days. I feel like these could be a really good "I just want a cheap bluetooth stereo that doesn't have chrome bits and blue LEDs on" choice for loads of people

[Fabergé Greggs]

On 21/12/2025 at 19:26, cobblers said:

Search "RS-20" on aliexpress

Can't seem to find it M9, got a link? 

[cobblers]

The listing I used is now "out of stock" and they relisted it with a higher price, slags!!!

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010640366175.html

It's still worth £40 tho

 

EDIT: Oh and don't get the DAB one, it comes with a shitty addon DAB tuner that needs plugging in the front USB port

[cobblers]

Well I poked at a hole on the bluestar, and it got bigger. Silly thing to do on something that's for sale but it was near the rear wishbone mount and I couldn't in good conscience sell one of these with hidden structural rot so I put my big boy pants on and cut a big hole in it.

 

Verdict: I needn't have worried, it's mint inside, very solid.  I've got the panels and will be putting bottom 4" of the arch and a replacement lower quarter in. It's all hidden by the bodykit so the paintwork doesn't have to be exact. This will be it's first bit of welding that I can find.

[cobblers]

3:30PM new years eve I was passing Halfords and on the off chance, nipped in to see if they could mix me a rattle can. Obviously it's 18 years since I worked there and they don't mix paint anymore, and obviously they didn't list "VW Star Blue" in the chart.

I eyed up various cans on the shelf and ended up with "M3-470" - I didn't expect it to be particularly close, but I wanted it to at least be blue.

Anyway, it's absolutely spot on - If I'd bought the exact colour, I don't think it'd be any closer:

 

So I bought a £70 full rear wheel arch just to cut 4" off the front of it. And it was a shit fit anyway and needed a 10mm wedge cutting out to make it line up properly.

 

First I welded the arch piece in, did some minor repairs to the sliding door seal channel and got it all weld-primed inside and fitted on. It went OK, only minor warpage but luckily it sank (like it usually does) so a light skim of filler did the job.

A few coats of paint and here we are

 

I'm very happy with that. Will let the paint harden overnight, run a bead of tigerseal up the seam (and seam seal all the inside arch stuff) and refit the trim brackets and sliding door tomorrow.  

Still amazed by how good the colour match is considering I matched it by eye to a photo 

[Dan302]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

3:30PM new years eve I was passing Halfords and on the off chance, nipped in to see if they could mix me a rattle can. Obviously it's 18 years since I worked there and they don't mix paint anymore, and obviously they didn't list "VW Star Blue" in the chart.

I eyed up various cans on the shelf and ended up with "M3-470" - I didn't expect it to be particularly close, but I wanted it to at least be blue.

Anyway, it's absolutely spot on - If I'd bought the exact colour, I don't think it'd be any closer:

 

So I bought a £70 full rear wheel arch just to cut 4" off the front of it. And it was a shit fit anyway and needed a 10mm wedge cutting out to make it line up properly.

 

First I welded the arch piece in, did some minor repairs to the sliding door seal channel and got it all weld-primed inside and fitted on. It went OK, only minor warpage but luckily it sank (like it usually does) so a light skim of filler did the job.

A few coats of paint and here we are

 

I'm very happy with that. Will let the paint harden overnight, run a bead of tigerseal up the seam (and seam seal all the inside arch stuff) and refit the trim brackets and sliding door tomorrow.  

Still amazed by how good the colour match is considering I matched it by eye to a photo 

Looks spot on 🙂

[Hertz]

Sterling work. It's a sign that you must stay together!😉

[Andyrew]

Some lovely work you've done there, amazing attention to detail as always. 

[cobblers]

Rather than rivet the side trim clips on, I put some m4 rivnuts in. Spaffed gallons of dynax in and around everywhere, you can see it all dribbling out onto the sill.

I left that bubble at the top right on purpose (I wasn't sure if the paint match was very good) but I will probably go back and touch it in.

 

Sliding door runner was absolutely bloody minging so before refitting the door I cleaned it up. Bearings are fine.

I was going to replace the bearings - they're 608Z which we use at work and I have approximately 12,000 of them. But truth be told they were absolutely fine, so I just left them be.

All back together. A lot of work for something totally invisible unless the sliding door is open and you crouch down.

I was going to do this the other day but I didn't get round to it - I'd noticed the rear carpet was slightly damp when I kneeled on it, despite the van being stood in the garage for weeks. Lifted it up and there was red coolant under there.

These have a heater under the back seat, the matrixes leak and there's a valve (which isn't connected to anything) which leaks, too. The one on my other van exploded and sprayed hot coolant on my legs the one time I sat in the back of the van!!

Matrix is leaking and fucked, and the O ring on the valve is totally hard and flat, too:

 

New matrix fitted, I've pulled the cork underlay up and left it out to dry, and cleaned all the floor up (it was quite minging with 37 years of "under the back seat" detritus). I'll leave the ozone generator in there for 20 minute before I leave today.

I'll leave it all apart for a week or so, and properly wet vac the carpet when I remember to bring it in with me. The backing is a bit fragile so I don't want to take it out and nail it on the fence and jet wash it like I ordinarily would!

 

[Brigsy]

Great repair on the arch, looks spot on.

[bangernomics]

Outstanding eyeball matching and weldage, if I would have tried it’d have been green or red.