Right, it's with a heavy heart that I'm advertising this - I was running it daily, but ended up with a cheap golf as a commuter and can't afford to run both vehicles right now, and I could do with the cash frankly.
Body wise it's a very solid old panel van, and generally very straight - the only filler is in the sliding door. What you see is 100% what you get - it's not been gone at by generations of bodgers like most campers. I put a sill on the passenger side because there was a nasty bubbly seam due to some idiot insulating the side panel with expanding foam!
When I first bought it about 18 months ago, it was running a 2.1 DJ WBX engine, which was fairly smooth and quiet, but mega thirsty and really not all that fast. I replaced this with a 2.0 AGG from a mk3 golf GTI, retaining all the engine management system, immobiliser and diagnostics system - it starts and runs like a ten year old hatchback, not a 30 year old commercial vehicle. You can even plug it in to VAG COM (dongle £12 off ebay) to check for fault codes and read all the sensor values, that kind of thing. Only faults returned are for the charcoal canister evap valve and gearbox speed sensor, both of which aren't required or connected. It'll happily return 30+mpg in everyday use, nearer 36 on a run (which is about double what you'll see with any stock petrol engine in a t25) and do 0-60 in 12/13 seconds. Gearbox is a very healthy 4 speed, but those who've run 5 speed boxes in these know that the extra gear is actually added on as a crawler gear rather than for motorway cruising - in top gear this gearbox is within a few RPM of anything, and longer than most 5 speeds. Gear selection is also much better than on a 5 speed, and the box is stronger. You can cruise comfortably at 80+ mph, which is roughly 4000rpm. It doesn't seem to be affected by side winds like a lot of T25 owners complain about, I assume due to low profile tyres and being fairly low and having decent bushes etc.
Inside is a full width rock and roll bed, SMEV sink/gas hob unit with gas bottle and storage underneath. There's a water butt with a pump inside it, activated by the tap. Great for cooking bacons/soup/warming the van up on a cold morning!
There is a leisure battery and split charger powering LED internal lighting and the stereo. It's all clean and tidy and professionally made, not the usual lashup. It's professionally lined out in the rear too. (I say professional - I did it, but it's what I used to do for a living). I designed it so I could fit a couple of mountain bikes in the back stood up, hence the gap between the sink and the bed.
It's lowered "quite a lot" with proper shortened dampers. on some 18" Porsche wheels - 7.5" up front and 9" on the back. I had the adapters custom made to get the wheels to fit as well as possible. It rides very well, and handles and stops fantastically for an old bus.
It's very usable, I was driving it daily until a few weeks ago, getting up before the sun and doing hundreds of miles a week with no issues whatsoever.
Interior:
Leather Retrimmed front captains seats with armrests
Revcounter Clocks (like poor quality wobbly children's play pony poo!)
Caravelle sunvisors with mirror and light
Custom black headliner and LED downlights.
Split Charge/Leisure battery system powering lights and feed for stereo.
Full Width (comfy!) rock and roll bed with storage underneath and 6" deep storage above engine (great for bedding etc), all recently built and in VGC.
Proper "Van X" stretchy curtains. It's like sleeping in a cave
Reversing camera replacing rear view mirror
Remote central locking and electric windows!
Exterior:
White panel van, scruffy but honest solid shell.
Lowered with uprated shortened dampers on specially selected lowering springs (I tried about 8 sets before I was happy)
18x7.5" and 9" Porsche Twists with great (budget) tyres all round - 225/40/18 on the front and 245/40/18 at the back
5 piece Caravelle lower front splitter.
DEPO smoked indicators and rear lights
Engine:
2.0 8V AGG inline 4, (from 1996 golf GTI), Approx 110k, very very healthy.
OE management 100% retained, with diagnostics and immobilizer
Fitted using engine mounts, sump, ancilliaries etc from diesel t25.
Custom made stainless steel exhaust,
4 speed gearbox, same ratios in top as an AAP 5 speed ~4k at 80mph
Overall it's an honest but fundamentally sound and reliable old T25, and an increasingly rare panel van that hasn't been chopped up to fit crappy windows yet. Jump in it and drive it all over the place without worrying about the engine blowing up and OMG SCENE TAX on any replacement parts (like you would with a flat 4)
Spend a few weekends on the body, stick a coat of paint on it and £$$£$£profit. I like it how it is though!
It costs curse word all to insure, too. I paid £250 fully comp, with it as my only vehicle and using it for commuting etc, and I'm only a couple of years older than the van.
it's currently SORNed, and has just a short MOT but I'm happy to put it through a test if someone is genuinely interested, it might need a couple of front balljoint gators at the worst.
I'm looking for £3300, sadly not in the position to entertain anything in PX unless it's got about £3000 cash in the boot, however feel free to ask, I can only say no.
Please PM me if you are interested!
