Sam87
Active Member
Hello everyone,
New member on this site but not new to car forums.
Even though i registered long time ago i haven't made any post until now so i guess i still count as new
This is going to be a LONG post!!!
I recently bought my first van [about 2 months ago or so].... I was going to buy a Vauxhall vivaro but after seeing a few that were described as mint, they turned out to be completely the opposite of that!
Now out of all people, it was my mother that suggested I looked at Mercedes vans . It hadn't crossed my mind about Mercedes vans even though I've only ever had German cars (few Mercedes also).
So I started looking at vitos and remembered that they also made a v6 model! Of course once I remembered that I could get a v6 van it was decided to go for a vito.
I started looking but I didn't want a vito any colour. For my business I wanted something that would stand out a bit from the rest of the vans. I wanted blue or red.
First choice was blue and I found one.
The van seemed in good condition. It drove nice and pulled very hard! The engine alone sold it to me.
We agreed on a price and the next day I went and collected the van.
Now I wanted to make the van stand out a little bit and I mean a little bit but of course as always when you browse car/van forums you get ideas and in my case if I like something I have to go ahead and do it.
At first I thought I'd get the front end painted as the bonnet, bumper had some stone chips and there was a dent at the bottom of the tail gate and rear bumper had a scratch.
The paint was shocking! I've never seen a car with sooo many swirls, plus all the signs that it had before you could still see
As I was browsing the forum I found out you could do a facelift conversion! I liked that so I thought I'd just look on eBay and see "if" i could find the parts. At this point it was a big "IF" but I found facelift headlamps and made an offer. The guy excepted the offer and there was no going back now.
I then found the facelift wings
Ordered the wiring for the headlamps from Germany (got the link from here) thank you!
Plastic inner arches
Viano front grill
Viano front bumper.
Now as for the bumper, I wanted the bumper that has the chrome bits on the sides as I read it's quite rare to have this bumper. I also found a pic of a brabus viano that had the same bumper with the chrome bits but with a brabus front splitter blended in not like the usual brabus front bumper that have a part stuck on.... I like that but it's not what I wanted. I wanted something that is all one piece and not something just stuck on
I found the bumper that I wanted but the chrome bits that go on the side of the bumper were missing. I thought it's fine they'll probably cost something like £50..... how wrong was I!!! £175+ later from Mercedes I had 2 chrome bits that are not even real chrome but plastic! Rip off or what! Anyways I needed them so had to pay the price.
Luckily I also found the front brabus splitter that I needed, bought that too.
It wasn't an easy simple fit as you'll see from the pics but the guys at the body shop done a really good job.
As for wheels I wanted brabus wheels and I wanted 20s as I had some genuine brabus 20s few years ago for my w211 e class.... I found the same wheels that i had before but they were in a bad state. I love this style of wheels and I went ahead and bought them. I had the face of the wheels and the lip polished.... done it myself.... not a job i recommend anyone to do
I ordered 4 tyres but later I got another 2 as I wanted to try different size tyres to see which ones looked better.
Opinions wanted what you think looks best
A rear spoiler was ordered.
Side steps
Chrome mirror covers
Chrome door handles
Chrome tail gate Handel
Chrome tail gate trim
Rear bumper chrome protected
Leather trim for the steering wheel was ordered also.
Led number plate lights
Led side lights
Chrome indicator bulbs
Custom leather seat covers (waiting to arrive)
Eibach springs
Once everything was fitted the van looked a bit to high. I decided to go for eibach springs as I didn't want to ruin the ride or lower the van too much as I'm tired of very low cars. It drives beautiful now and it doesn't feel like a boat like they normally do when going around corners.
The van had no rust anywhere which is great as I'm sure you guys know how much they can rust.
It has some nice options...
Sat nav
Parking sensors front and rear
Cruise control
And for the first time ever, I love the fact that it's an auto. Always been a manual guy
If you've read all this, that's great, if not, I understand as I did write quite a bit
I will post some pics now, some before, during and after
Here's the van after it's first wash and how it looked when i first got it....
The paint on the van before i had it detailed
Wet and dry in some areas
BEFORE
AFTER
This is the brabus bumper that I saw
screen shots
I also bought a private plate for the van.... my friends say, Sam when it comes to your cars, you have OCD.... everything has to be mint in your cars and even though they say it as a joke it's kind of true so I thought this plate will make people laugh but at the same time I probably have a bit of OCD when it comes to my cars
The guys at the body shop having fun fitting the lower brabus splitter
images upload
upload an image
Black primer was used for the front end so when in the future the van gets stone chips they wont stand out as much as if it had grey primer
pic upload
Wheels when i got them
After
New member on this site but not new to car forums.
Even though i registered long time ago i haven't made any post until now so i guess i still count as new
This is going to be a LONG post!!!
I recently bought my first van [about 2 months ago or so].... I was going to buy a Vauxhall vivaro but after seeing a few that were described as mint, they turned out to be completely the opposite of that!
Now out of all people, it was my mother that suggested I looked at Mercedes vans
. It hadn't crossed my mind about Mercedes vans even though I've only ever had German cars (few Mercedes also). So I started looking at vitos and remembered that they also made a v6 model! Of course once I remembered that I could get a v6 van it was decided to go for a vito.
I started looking but I didn't want a vito any colour. For my business I wanted something that would stand out a bit from the rest of the vans. I wanted blue or red.
First choice was blue and I found one.
The van seemed in good condition. It drove nice and pulled very hard! The engine alone sold it to me
.We agreed on a price and the next day I went and collected the van.
Now I wanted to make the van stand out a little bit and I mean a little bit but of course as always when you browse car/van forums you get ideas and in my case if I like something I have to go ahead and do it.
At first I thought I'd get the front end painted as the bonnet, bumper had some stone chips and there was a dent at the bottom of the tail gate and rear bumper had a scratch.
The paint was shocking! I've never seen a car with sooo many swirls, plus all the signs that it had before you could still see
As I was browsing the forum I found out you could do a facelift conversion! I liked that so I thought I'd just look on eBay and see "if" i could find the parts. At this point it was a big "IF" but I found facelift headlamps and made an offer. The guy excepted the offer and there was no going back now
.I then found the facelift wings
Ordered the wiring for the headlamps from Germany (got the link from here) thank you!
Plastic inner arches
Viano front grill
Viano front bumper.
Now as for the bumper, I wanted the bumper that has the chrome bits on the sides as I read it's quite rare to have this bumper. I also found a pic of a brabus viano that had the same bumper with the chrome bits but with a brabus front splitter blended in not like the usual brabus front bumper that have a part stuck on.... I like that but it's not what I wanted. I wanted something that is all one piece and not something just stuck on
I found the bumper that I wanted but the chrome bits that go on the side of the bumper were missing. I thought it's fine they'll probably cost something like £50..... how wrong was I!!! £175+ later from Mercedes I had 2 chrome bits that are not even real chrome but plastic! Rip off or what! Anyways I needed them so had to pay the price.
Luckily I also found the front brabus splitter that I needed, bought that too.
It wasn't an easy simple fit as you'll see from the pics but the guys at the body shop done a really good job.
As for wheels I wanted brabus wheels and I wanted 20s as I had some genuine brabus 20s few years ago for my w211 e class.... I found the same wheels that i had before but they were in a bad state. I love this style of wheels and I went ahead and bought them. I had the face of the wheels and the lip polished.... done it myself.... not a job i recommend anyone to do
I ordered 4 tyres but later I got another 2 as I wanted to try different size tyres to see which ones looked better.
Opinions wanted what you think looks best
A rear spoiler was ordered.
Side steps
Chrome mirror covers
Chrome door handles
Chrome tail gate Handel
Chrome tail gate trim
Rear bumper chrome protected
Leather trim for the steering wheel was ordered also.
Led number plate lights
Led side lights
Chrome indicator bulbs
Custom leather seat covers (waiting to arrive)
Eibach springs
Once everything was fitted the van looked a bit to high. I decided to go for eibach springs as I didn't want to ruin the ride or lower the van too much as I'm tired of very low cars. It drives beautiful now and it doesn't feel like a boat like they normally do when going around corners.
The van had no rust anywhere which is great as I'm sure you guys know how much they can rust.
It has some nice options...
Sat nav
Parking sensors front and rear
Cruise control
And for the first time ever, I love the fact that it's an auto. Always been a manual guy
If you've read all this, that's great, if not, I understand as I did write quite a bit
I will post some pics now, some before, during and after
Here's the van after it's first wash and how it looked when i first got it....
The paint on the van before i had it detailed
Wet and dry in some areas
BEFORE
AFTER
This is the brabus bumper that I saw
screen shotsI also bought a private plate for the van.... my friends say, Sam when it comes to your cars, you have OCD.... everything has to be mint in your cars and even though they say it as a joke it's kind of true
so I thought this plate will make people laugh but at the same time I probably have a bit of OCD when it comes to my cars The guys at the body shop having fun fitting the lower brabus splitter
images uploadupload an imageBlack primer was used for the front end so when in the future the van gets stone chips they wont stand out as much as if it had grey primer
pic uploadWheels when i got them
After
photo uploading
picture upload
image uploader
image sharing
uploading images
image uploader
