Yay to VW! Boo to VW!

"SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media" (silentbutnotreallydeadly)
12/10/2019 at 22:30 • Filed to: volkswagen

All cracked up and only one place to go...

I am engaged in interior fiddlings of the vehicular kind. I don’t enjoy this kind of fiddling.

The drivers side door skin on my VW T4 Transporter cracked through the armrest ‘quite some time ago’. Australian sunshine and all that.

‘Some time ago’ I sourced a new door skin via VW Classic Parts. It ha s now had a few years to get used to the idea of being in Australia so I thought it might be timely to unpack it and install it.

Now... removing and refitting a VW T4 door skin is amazingly simple for a German car. Unclip the window winder; remove a short screw; remove a plug style clip; pry apart the pull handle; remove three bolts and the pull handle body; unscrew the lock button; and lift the entire skin off the door. Reverse process to replace.

Look at that clean bench...amazing

Now it’s just the tedious process of swapping all of the pads and insulation off the inside of the old skin onto the pristine ABS of the new one.

Unfortunately, whilst VW is to be commended for being able to supply a replacement part for a near 20 year old vehicle...this new door skin is not the right one. It dates from the earlier part of the model run in the mid to late 1990s.

As such, the storage compartment from the old skin won’t fit the new skin because it is an old skin. Nor will the vent thing from the old skin make the journey to the new one.

Different profiles mean they can never be together...

And I’ve just realised that the armrest area on the new skin is smaller too!!! Looking to the positive though...it should be stronger.

DISCUSSION (5)

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
12/10/2019 at 23:02

Those vans are ultra rare in the states. How common are they down under?

Sammyno55 > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
12/10/2019 at 23:28

No chicken tax in Oz.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
12/11/2019 at 00:14

VW did (and still does with the later generations ) do reasonable business with the T4. And they are still around in numbers... however age is wearying the remainder quite hard.

Current generation (T6.5) sells around a few tens per month but is well distant to the Toyota HiAce and Hyundai iLoad. Lots of competition too.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Sammyno55
12/11/2019 at 00:18

5% import duty only...and zero where free trade agreements are in place and there is a small proportion of Australian manufactured parts content.

It’s why we have most of the automotive brands though I suspect that GM will abandon Oz in the next three to five years.

Cé hé sin > SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
12/11/2019 at 05:11

Quite common here but on the other hand we have for some time been a Hiace free zone. They used to be everywhere once, so much so that vans were generically called Hiaces. Sales fell away and then Toyota gave up and now sell the Proace which is a rebadged PSA or Renault, I forget which.