Check out this very cool side window hack that we found in the following video.

Talk about a vanagon hack. This guy has the ultimate Vanagon hack in a stretch Vanagon with 2 pop tops, and 2 bench seats inside. He calls his van “Vanalong” and it is quite long. Check out his MySpace page for more pictures.

We added an additional fluorescent light to the passenger’s side of the Vanagon. We had to fish from the back light, but that wasn’t so bad. You can purchase these lights at GoWesty for about $55 and install it yourself. It adds a lot of light to the cab.

Have you wondered why there is no light over the passenger’s seat in your Vanagon? With a little work, you can have one. We purchased an extra light from GoWesty and then started the project.

See the project after the jump…

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We’ve been looking for new wheels for the Vanagon for quite awhile now. Why do we want new wheels? It’s all about the ride. Some people want nice looks, but we want a nice ride. The stock wheels come with reinforced sidewalls which makes the ride quite rough. We think we can get a larger rim, with a shorter tire and it will actually feel better because the sidewalls won’t be quite as stiff. We’d also like slightly wider tires for better handling.

We have a set of Mercedes 16″ wheels with brand new tires that would be perfect for the vanagon but we cannot find lug nuts that fit. We have to drill the Mercedes wheels to make them fit but unless we find the lug nuts, we can’t do it.

You can see our comparison shot. The short one is the vanagon bolt and the longer one is the Mercedes bolt. We need a bolt that is as long as the Mercedes, but as thick as the Vanagon’s bolt. I’m not an expert so this is quite a hassle. Nobody seems to have what we need.

We’ll probably have to end up purchasing the Go Westy Wheels but they won’t ship the tires to Honolulu. They recommend 15″ wheels for our Carat but we’re seriously looking at going with the 16″ wheels. We’ll put a slightly lower profile Michelin tire on it and see how it goes.

UPDATE: We decided to skip the Mercedes wheels as finding the right lugnuts was a hassle.  We bought Go Westy 16″ Wheels and they work like a charm.

Probably the coolest hack we’ve tried is the green lights over the AC controls. All Vanagon owners know there are no lights for the AC controls. We got some LEDs from Radio Shack and my brother somehow managed to wire them in.

We removed the controls from the dash, drilled some holes and inserted the LEDs. The picture isn’t so good but believe me, it works very well.

Now when we drive at night the A/C controls are illumniated and it looks like it should’ve always been that way.

I tried to take a better picture without the flash that would show the illuminated lights, but it didn’t really work. Sorry.