Readers Rides #2: VW T25 Caravelle GL 1989

Posted on November 12th, 2008

This weeks Readers Rides comes from Jarrod aka ‘Jed the Spread’ who is frequent commenter over at the Club 80 90 Forum:

Model: Volkswagen T25 / Type 25 Caravelle GL

Year: 1989

Colour: Blue / Grey

Engine: 2.1i Petrol

Millage: 81,000

About Jed

So during a good few years of traveling as far south as capetown and as far east as oz and many, many places in between Louise and myself met, fell in love and reached the age as most do that its about time we settled down.

After we found the house that became our home we somehow decided kids would be our next step and so we began to try for a family of our own. Now, as we were trying (not literally) I thought “hang on a moment… my car only has the two seats” and as I’m a plasterer, putting a rugrat in a builders van may be far from ideal. With this ticking over in my mind for a few days I was on the lookout for a ‘family car’ and with louise not yet with child after 6 months (despite some of my best moves) I figured I had better buy something soon.

My search ended when on my way home from work one afternoon I spotted a VW T25 CARAVELLE for sale and though not the most modern form of transport, it had the nice retro feel I liked plus it was only a grand. Hands were shook, money was exchanged and I drove the 18 year old banger home and parked it up on the drive.

I was put onto a club forum by a friend of mine ( www.club80-90.co.uk ) were I was made most welcome by a great bunch of people who own these VW T25s. I soon became the infamous JED THE SPREAD. After reading through the forum and posting the usual novice questions I got taken by the idea of putting a poptop roof on the van so I could sleep two people up top. So I put a thread on the wanted section and 24 hours later I had bought, picked up and fitted a poptop roof. My biggest surprise was while fitting the roof Louise (to my annoyance) had called me in the house to tell me something. “Grrrrrr” I thought as I walked in with the huff. ‘Jarrod’ (my name for those who dont know), look. Louise was waving the wand in front of me with the blue line of pregnant clear to see. So tears were shed, tea was drunk and that was the start of something beautiful.

So I went to west wittering to meet a few fellow vw owners, Camperclan and Bluetrukie, who remain good mates to this day. With Louise 6 months gone looking at these camper vans convinced me to turn what what in effect a mini bus into a full blown 80s pimp mobile camper van.

About the Van

Ok so Ive spent a bit of money on the van since I bought it and although I have, you don’t have to do the same. I just wanted it to stand out a little and oh boy, does it stand out! You can see the roof that was added, a set of alloys were put on from a golf gti via wheel spacers made for me by machine 7 and the most useful was a eberspacher night heater that means the van can be used 365 days of the year for camping. All the other bits and bobs were bought from various vw shows and the old favorite eBay.

The engine is a 2.1i petrol engine that I’ve just had converted to run on LPG making it far more economical and better for the environment. At the time of writing petrol hovers around the 86p per liter and although lpg is 49p per liter in south London a good friend of mine KEV THE REV in Wolverhampton is getting it for a staggering 32p per liter.

As for the exhaust its a custom made stainless steal with twin outlets and comes with a lifetime guarantee so i should never have to buy another. Plus i couldn’t help myself.

Hang on, we went higher!!

As we have grown so has the van an thanks to www.timbertechnicians.co.uk we had this hightop fitted on a big shindig on bonfire night 2007 at the Timbertechnicians yard at The Pig Farm in Nottingham.