Hello guys,
Thought i'd document another of my *long term* projects - a '98 Volkswagen Caddy pickup.
I first bought this truck back in 2012 and since then it has undergone a sympathetic restoration, however in recent years it has fallen into a pretty awful state (pictures to come on that side of things later).
For now though, please check out the original build / resto (originally written in 2012 so apologies if anything doesn't quite read right):
Last year i decided that i could do with a cheap to run daily a ) to save my fuel bill and b ) to use whilst i visit my girlfriend at uni (Something i could happily leave parked on the street)
My initial thoughts were along the lines of a mk3 golf, but after some thinking, it became obvious that a pickup truck would be the best option for me as i could also use it at the weekends to shuttle mine and my friend’s dirt bikes around.
Once i had decided what kind of vehicle i was after it was time to get out there and choose one - and what else but a MK1 caddy would fit the bill?!
Having been to see a few MK1's ranging from the very rough (almost scrap) to the immaculate (very expensive) - i decided that i wanted something a little more modern......A mk2 Caddy pickup!
A mk2 cropped up about 50 miles from me so i went to look at it immediately.
The truck was rough around the edges, but looked solid overall and 90% rust-free (Albeit filthy). Cash swapped for keys - this is what i brought home:
Note: the green hardtop bed cover was covered in faux grass....for sunbathing apparently!
Filthy interior:
I used the truck for a few weeks in this guise, until (as I’m sure you guys will appreciate) the bug bit and i had to start pulling it apart. I also thought that this would be a great opportunity to try and learn some new skills at the same time.
Here is my progress:
Stripped tailgate & 'hockey sticks' removed (Note the ripples & dents!):
This might be why!:
Tailgate off and first stage underway:
Whilst the tailgate was off and being taken care of, I began making a few other changes such as the rear swage strip (Note badges have been removed in this picture):
Smoothed:
And re-shot in Skoda 'Magic black' (This will be a theme throughout the truck):
At this stage i also began taking care of the rust that was beginning to creep into the seams on the cabs B pillar as well as smoothing them out:
I mentioned earlier that this truck was 90% percent rust free.....well maybe that was a slight exaggeration! The rear end of the truck was 90% rust free; the front however was a whole different story. Turns out the previous owner had bodged the wings up. Subsequently they had to go!
Check out the finish on the paint & the overspray on the bumper!:
Once the old dunger wings had been removed, this is what we were confronted with (the situation is the same both sides):
In order to fix, this happened (I reiterate that i am learning as i go here so admittedly the work may not be up to the standard of some other vehicles on here!):
New metal welded in:
Treated:
Rivnuts used to fasten wings:
I also decided to tackle the roof aerial which had been attached to a plate and then pop riveted to the roof (Held water out with the same effectiveness as a colander):
New wings fitted, aerial smoothed & de-stickered:
I said that the rear of the truck was 90% rust free...Well here’s the other 10%. The rear inner arch (The roughness you can see on top of the arch tub is actually some sort of caulk which has been bunged in a rust hole and then sprayed over - Nice) :
Once ground back and fresh metal welded in, It was time to tidy up the welds etc (Sorry no pictures of that stage):
Now that i had come this far, i figured the truck may as well have a full respray....Again i saw this as a chance to learn a few new skills (With some help from my Dad)!
The teardown & basic prep:
Whilst pulling the truck apart, i thought that it would be a good opportunity to try & find out where a mysterious leak was coming from (Carpets always wet after rain, never any clue as to where this was coming from aside from the dodgy aerial, which seemed unlikely). This is what we found after removing the windscreen:
New metal welded in and a skim of filler (No replacement weld in panel is available for these trucks so this took an age to complete!):
Ready for paint:
I should also mention at this stage, that i really wanted to move away from the 'building site' look of this truck. To do this i had to lose the Black bumpers.
A MK2 Skoda Felicia bumper was sourced and modified:
Trial fit:
Removed and being prepped:
During primer etc:
In paint:
I also had to do something about the rear bumper at this stage, so rather than going down the route of spraying the whole bumper in a solid colour, i retained the 'rub strip' in standard plastic black to match the front bumper.
As this truck will be used to transport dirt bikes, i added some grip tape strips to the bed corrugations:
When i bought the truck, it didn’t have the original 9U pickup grille. Instead it had a Polo 6N grille attached (Yes, you guessed it... bodged) in place. After several weeks of searching i managed to source an original 9U grille.
Fitted and with ‘Ambered’ indicators (Clears weren’t doing it for me!):
So at this stage i was happy with the work that had been done to the truck so far, but something was missing...
These trucks were only ever supplied with either a 1.3 petrol engine, or a 1.9 SDI engine. I thought i could live with the SDi engine in mine however this soon got boring!....Next stage TD conversion:
I decided to go with an AAZ engine mated to the standard 5 speed Caddy gearbox. I imagined that this would be a relatively straight forward swap...I was wrong!
Out with the old:
And in with the new (Sorry no pictures of getting the TD lump in)
In order to get the new AAZ engine in the truck we had to notch the chassis leg in order to accommodate the P/S pump pulley.:
We also needed to cut and reweld the intake manifold to lower the whole turbo / manifold arrangement (To be able to shut the bonnet!) At the same time, the EGR was also deleted:
I have also changed the interior somewhat - again, to get away from the 'Building site' style of the vehicle. This again is an area which i will be tackling myself so please excuse any misgivings!
So to refresh your memory - In the beginning:
Seats removed:
Headlining removed and cleaned:
Stripped:
As mentioned previously, Black will be a theme of the details on this truck and the interior. Headlining dyed:
At this stage, the headlining had been dyed with Black Carpet dye, however overnight the dye was absorbed by the headlining itself so i had to go old school and break out the spray paint:
The carpet in the truck when i bought it was really in a state (Always getting soaked by leaking bulkhead and years of builders boots) so i sourced a new front section which was then thoroughly cleaned & dyed:
Cleaned up:
Dyed:
Door cards stripped:
And reupholstered in faux alcantara:
Also i will be retrimming the various plastics from the cab in Black faux leather:
Door pockets:
Standard:
Re-trimmed:
Door card mock-up (Handles will be redone in Black plasticote rather than leather) Also speaker grilles here are Grey just for mock-up but have since been changed to Black :
I have always been a fan of flocked dashboards so whilst i had the cab stripped and i was feeling up for a challenge i though why not?!
Stage 1:
Stage2:
Stage 3 (Lower dash section resprayed in Black):
Stage 4 - Back together:
Something else that always bugged me about the interior of the truck was the dim binnacle lights:
After LED upgrade:
All put back in with MK1 Felicia centre consol resprayed in Black:
So that brings us up to date with where the truck is at currently:
So what’s next?
Now that the truck is in a 'tidy' state i can begin thinking about modification:
- New seats
- Lower the old girl
- Different wheels
Thanks for reading, comments welcome!
Thought i'd document another of my *long term* projects - a '98 Volkswagen Caddy pickup.
I first bought this truck back in 2012 and since then it has undergone a sympathetic restoration, however in recent years it has fallen into a pretty awful state (pictures to come on that side of things later).
For now though, please check out the original build / resto (originally written in 2012 so apologies if anything doesn't quite read right):
Last year i decided that i could do with a cheap to run daily a ) to save my fuel bill and b ) to use whilst i visit my girlfriend at uni (Something i could happily leave parked on the street)
My initial thoughts were along the lines of a mk3 golf, but after some thinking, it became obvious that a pickup truck would be the best option for me as i could also use it at the weekends to shuttle mine and my friend’s dirt bikes around.
Once i had decided what kind of vehicle i was after it was time to get out there and choose one - and what else but a MK1 caddy would fit the bill?!
Having been to see a few MK1's ranging from the very rough (almost scrap) to the immaculate (very expensive) - i decided that i wanted something a little more modern......A mk2 Caddy pickup!
A mk2 cropped up about 50 miles from me so i went to look at it immediately.
The truck was rough around the edges, but looked solid overall and 90% rust-free (Albeit filthy). Cash swapped for keys - this is what i brought home:
Note: the green hardtop bed cover was covered in faux grass....for sunbathing apparently!
Filthy interior:
I used the truck for a few weeks in this guise, until (as I’m sure you guys will appreciate) the bug bit and i had to start pulling it apart. I also thought that this would be a great opportunity to try and learn some new skills at the same time.
Here is my progress:
Stripped tailgate & 'hockey sticks' removed (Note the ripples & dents!):
This might be why!:
Tailgate off and first stage underway:
Whilst the tailgate was off and being taken care of, I began making a few other changes such as the rear swage strip (Note badges have been removed in this picture):
Smoothed:
And re-shot in Skoda 'Magic black' (This will be a theme throughout the truck):
At this stage i also began taking care of the rust that was beginning to creep into the seams on the cabs B pillar as well as smoothing them out:
I mentioned earlier that this truck was 90% percent rust free.....well maybe that was a slight exaggeration! The rear end of the truck was 90% rust free; the front however was a whole different story. Turns out the previous owner had bodged the wings up. Subsequently they had to go!
Check out the finish on the paint & the overspray on the bumper!:
Once the old dunger wings had been removed, this is what we were confronted with (the situation is the same both sides):
In order to fix, this happened (I reiterate that i am learning as i go here so admittedly the work may not be up to the standard of some other vehicles on here!):
New metal welded in:
Treated:
Rivnuts used to fasten wings:
I also decided to tackle the roof aerial which had been attached to a plate and then pop riveted to the roof (Held water out with the same effectiveness as a colander):
New wings fitted, aerial smoothed & de-stickered:
I said that the rear of the truck was 90% rust free...Well here’s the other 10%. The rear inner arch (The roughness you can see on top of the arch tub is actually some sort of caulk which has been bunged in a rust hole and then sprayed over - Nice) :
Once ground back and fresh metal welded in, It was time to tidy up the welds etc (Sorry no pictures of that stage):
Now that i had come this far, i figured the truck may as well have a full respray....Again i saw this as a chance to learn a few new skills (With some help from my Dad)!
The teardown & basic prep:
Whilst pulling the truck apart, i thought that it would be a good opportunity to try & find out where a mysterious leak was coming from (Carpets always wet after rain, never any clue as to where this was coming from aside from the dodgy aerial, which seemed unlikely). This is what we found after removing the windscreen:
New metal welded in and a skim of filler (No replacement weld in panel is available for these trucks so this took an age to complete!):
Ready for paint:
I should also mention at this stage, that i really wanted to move away from the 'building site' look of this truck. To do this i had to lose the Black bumpers.
A MK2 Skoda Felicia bumper was sourced and modified:
Trial fit:
Removed and being prepped:
During primer etc:
In paint:
I also had to do something about the rear bumper at this stage, so rather than going down the route of spraying the whole bumper in a solid colour, i retained the 'rub strip' in standard plastic black to match the front bumper.
As this truck will be used to transport dirt bikes, i added some grip tape strips to the bed corrugations:
When i bought the truck, it didn’t have the original 9U pickup grille. Instead it had a Polo 6N grille attached (Yes, you guessed it... bodged) in place. After several weeks of searching i managed to source an original 9U grille.
Fitted and with ‘Ambered’ indicators (Clears weren’t doing it for me!):
So at this stage i was happy with the work that had been done to the truck so far, but something was missing...
These trucks were only ever supplied with either a 1.3 petrol engine, or a 1.9 SDI engine. I thought i could live with the SDi engine in mine however this soon got boring!....Next stage TD conversion:
I decided to go with an AAZ engine mated to the standard 5 speed Caddy gearbox. I imagined that this would be a relatively straight forward swap...I was wrong!
Out with the old:
And in with the new (Sorry no pictures of getting the TD lump in)
In order to get the new AAZ engine in the truck we had to notch the chassis leg in order to accommodate the P/S pump pulley.:
We also needed to cut and reweld the intake manifold to lower the whole turbo / manifold arrangement (To be able to shut the bonnet!) At the same time, the EGR was also deleted:
I have also changed the interior somewhat - again, to get away from the 'Building site' style of the vehicle. This again is an area which i will be tackling myself so please excuse any misgivings!
So to refresh your memory - In the beginning:
Seats removed:
Headlining removed and cleaned:
Stripped:
As mentioned previously, Black will be a theme of the details on this truck and the interior. Headlining dyed:
At this stage, the headlining had been dyed with Black Carpet dye, however overnight the dye was absorbed by the headlining itself so i had to go old school and break out the spray paint:
The carpet in the truck when i bought it was really in a state (Always getting soaked by leaking bulkhead and years of builders boots) so i sourced a new front section which was then thoroughly cleaned & dyed:
Cleaned up:
Dyed:
Door cards stripped:
And reupholstered in faux alcantara:
Also i will be retrimming the various plastics from the cab in Black faux leather:
Door pockets:
Standard:
Re-trimmed:
Door card mock-up (Handles will be redone in Black plasticote rather than leather) Also speaker grilles here are Grey just for mock-up but have since been changed to Black :
I have always been a fan of flocked dashboards so whilst i had the cab stripped and i was feeling up for a challenge i though why not?!
Stage 1:
Stage2:
Stage 3 (Lower dash section resprayed in Black):
Stage 4 - Back together:
Something else that always bugged me about the interior of the truck was the dim binnacle lights:
After LED upgrade:
All put back in with MK1 Felicia centre consol resprayed in Black:
So that brings us up to date with where the truck is at currently:
So what’s next?
Now that the truck is in a 'tidy' state i can begin thinking about modification:
- New seats
- Lower the old girl
- Different wheels
Thanks for reading, comments welcome!