This will be long so if you have the time I’ll appreciate feedback.
I have a swb/lr 2011 with 92k on the clock now. I bought it almost 2 years ago with 83 and paid £5250. The van was ex rental so I rented it and my mechanic checked it and it seemed fine, Ive had 2 years of trouble free motoring and long may it continue.
The van was bought as a box van and I was/am converting to a day van. The back is insulated, lights fitted, the ply walls have been carpeted and we have stayed away in the van a few nights, its basic but great. I have side and rear ‘windowed’ doors fitted/to fit for more of a camper style BUT it is also my work van and so it is designed in a modular way and it works really well, load it with crap, empty, hoover, roll the carpet back in and the bed and off for a weekend camping.
I’m now at the stage of wanting to add an extra row of seats and an offside window. To have this done professionally is realistically going to cost the best part of £1500+, I’m thinking more like £1750 once its done...... if I’m going to do that then I will want to start other works, tune up, maybe a body kit and I’d love some alloys to make it more of a fun and ‘cool’ van for the kids - will it ever be cool???? But I don’t have £20k for a VW transporter so.....
The question is do I simply replace the van with a van already having a second row of seats already installed and a window ‘in’ the offside? One thought is that factory fitted seats wont be easily removed for when it is only 2 of us for a weekend away or I need the full van space for work - where as the retro fit seats are quick release and it does look pretty quick release. Removing the bulkhead from a factory fitted seats van would be no different to a standard van I don’t imagine so thats not a problem.
My question is what is best to do. I’m inclined to upgrade my van as I know the history and it has been super reliable, Ive never had a problem but I look on Autotrader and seem similar age vans with similar mileage and I think it could possibly be cheaper to replace the van.
I am quite sure a host of other thoughts will come to mind once I ‘post’ this but any thoughts would be appreciated. I think its probably best to stick and upgrade (and thinking how long it took me to do some of the wiring and carpeting I’m thinking stick but..) what are your thoughts?