Is this the second project car displayed on here or the first? The secret car is still blacked out and won’t be revealed until we move in to the unit so with actual pictures, here’s the first official project for SainzFab:
A 2014/63 Volkswagen Caddy Maxi 1.6TDi – ex British Gas. As common as vans get, British Gas Blue dominate the maxi market for Caddy’s with high mileage examples being too cheap to resist. When looking for a replacement for Sweet Purple this Caddy was newer than anything else at the price, though the reasons for that have definitely shown themselves since. From it’s first life as a fully serviced Gas van, it went into the hands of a dog trainer / walker where it had a life of neglect – damage to multiple panels including the NSF sill, no heating, no AC, no rear internal lights, and a rear bay full of dog treats of ‘all varieties’.
Day 1 the cage came out. Day 2 the rear bed protector came out and all the mess was cleared out. Day 6 is where it all went wrong. The clutch hydraulics went, and took a replacement clutch slave cylinder to fix. Days after this though the brakes went soft, and a rabbit hole opened up – Master cylinder replaced more than once, OSF caliper replaced, eventually traced to an internal failure of the ABS control unit.
That’s where Edward is now, running and driving and being the little daily it should have been from day 1. There is a collection of service parts and upgrades ready to be fitted as soon as we move in to the new unit and it’s full introduction will be one of the first SainzFab videos. It will also be a main character in the journey with many future additions and modifications planned, not to make it a show car by any stretch, but to be a great daily that can still work hard but look and perform better while it does.
If you’re in to your Caddys and want to see what can be done… stay tuned!
