I love when Vanagon owners figure out a way to customize their vans. This Vanagon owner took some scrap wood and material and created a very nice center console. The console holds his coffee and provides a step for his dog who wants to look out the front window. He says he still intends to add some usb charging ports. Nice job!
How’s this stainless steel custom Vanagon kitchen? Samba user wildenbeast says it was custom made with oak and stainless steel. He has a propex heater in the bottom box and cork flooring. Click through to get a better shot of his stovetop.
All Vanagons in the US come with the same stock steering wheel. When my steering wheel was loose, I ordered a stock replacement on eBay and replaced it. Many Vanagon owners want something better than the stock wheel however. There aren’t many turnkey solutions out there except the South African wheel. When Volkswagen stopped manufacturing the Vanagon in Germany in 1992, production was moved to South Africa. The South African vana leather steering wheel pictured above. If you’ve got a spare $430 you can pick one up from Van Cafe. GoWesty used to sell them too, but they appear to be out of stock. If you’re game you can adapt a variety of steering wheels for use in your van. Click through to see a few examples.
This nice hack provides an accessory plug in the side passenger air vent. The guy who made this mod wanted to run exterior lights for his awning without tripping over wires. It is on the ceiling so it’s out of the way and does the job just right. He doesn’t say how he made it, but click through for another pic.
Tim and Emily are on the road with their custom Westy they call “Chimera.” Taking a page from “Drive Nacho Drive,” the couple built their custom interior with Colorado beetle kill pine wood. Their interior features loads of counter space, a custom sink, and slide a slide out shelf. The pictures tell the story on this one, so click through to see more.
After adding a sunroof modification to his Vanagon, Samba user narendra.vw could no longer use the A/C duct. He decided to modify the A/C vents to create some extra storage space.
I think I would rather have air conditioning in my Vanagon, but this is an interesting hack.
GoWesty sells a glovebox LED light kit for about $38, but since I already had the LED lights we decided to make our own kit. The first purchase was this micro switch to tell when the glove box is open. It arrived from Amazon in two days and we were ready to roll. Click through to see how we did it.
If you don’t like your Vanagon seats you can always opt for the popular Recaro seats. The problem is, they are expensive. Check out the way The Samba user Dingchowping hacked some Porsche 911 seats into his Vanagon. He says, “The setup is pretty straightforward, using the stock sliders bolted to a pair of steel cross members, which are bolted to the seat rails. There are no permanent cuts or welds so everything is reversible.” Click through for a full pic.
Vanagon owners love additional gauges, and we all have different ideas about where they should go. We’ve posted a few Vanagon gauge placement ideas before, but here is another one. These gauges are angled, and look pretty good from the driver’s seat, but click through to see how they look from above. You may not like it.
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