VW Jetta MK5 UTE Conversion build

[mike425]

Hi all, I am a long time lurker on these forums. I thought I would share my current project which is the conversion of a VW jetta into a 2 door small pickup.

The donor is a 2008 reg Jetta tdi with 80k and 1 owner from new. I bought the car for this project and ended up driving it as a second car for 12 months as it is a really decent car!

I am using a kit manufactured by Smyth performance in America. I purchased this about 12 months ago but just didn't find the time to start until the last couple of weeks.

So far, I have done most of the cutting on the Jetta which was surprisingly easy. I have most of the aluminium bed installed bar riveting.

Regarding the kit itself, I am really impressed with the quality of the machined parts and also the folded plates. The way this all fits together has meant I have had to modify nothing; it just lines up.

The amount of reinforcement plating that is going into the car is also impressive.

I am hoping to complete the aluminium work this week and start with the fitting of the body panels ASAP.

Photo progress so far:
Marking up the rough cuts:




All Cut:


Rough fitting:


B pillar brace riveted in place:

[JakeT]

This is obscenely cool. Like a new variant of the Caddy pickup. Haven't seen one of those in years.

[Roboticarm]

This is seriously cool.
I had a brand new GT TDi 140 golf back in 2008 and it was a great car, surprisingly quick too.
Always been a fan of a ute, just looked at the Smyth's site and they do some really cool work.

Edited by Roboticarm on Monday 18th May 10:53

[mike425]

JakeT said:

This is obscenely cool. Like a new variant of the Caddy pickup. Haven't seen one of those in years.

Yeah, that is basically what I was after, however I plan to use this as a daily driver so wanted something a bit more modern/reliable.

[mike425]

Roboticarm said:

This is seriously cool.
I had a brand new GT TDi 140 golf back in 2008 and it was a great car, surprisingly quick too.
Always been a fan of a ute, just looked at the Smyth's site and they do some really cool work.

Edited by Roboticarm on Monday 18th May 10:53

The Jetta really surprised me, I bought it thinking it was a pretty dull car, but it has really grown on me. I have been throwing bikes into the back and all sorts. Its not put a foot wrong since I bought it.

[aka_kerrly]

This looks like a fun project.
You may or not already know but there is also a chap who made a very good ute out of a Bora 2.3v5.

[StreetDragster]

Wow this is cool, i had no idea such a kit even existed.

How does this work with registration/inspection/IVA etc in the UK? Does it need anything formally other than just an MOT?

Wasn't the pickup truck type conversion one of the things which were much more difficult following some changes (not sure which, SVA to IVA or something)?

Thanks
Matt

[mike425]

StreetDragster said:

Wow this is cool, i had no idea such a kit even existed.

How does this work with registration/inspection/IVA etc in the UK? Does it need anything formally other than just an MOT?

Wasn't the pickup truck type conversion one of the things which were much more difficult following some changes (not sure which, SVA to IVA or something)?

Thanks
Matt

It is a mixed bag really. There are not many completed ones in the UK and all seem to have been registered differently.

1. Dodgy route - seems to be to insure it as a modified vehicle
2. Have DVLA declare it as a modified vehicle and they update the V5, I am not convinced this will happen tbh, but I know of one other builder who did this without having it inspected. The log book indicates it is a 2 door pick up truck.
3. Full IVA, which I cannot really see how it can fail. The airbags would have to be removed from the car which is a pain but not a biggy. I have IVA'd kit cars and it is not as daunting as some people will have you believe.

[StreetDragster]

Thanks for that, very interesting.

Matt

[anonymous-user]

How are you planning to put back in the body strength lost from cutting the roof off?

[mike425]

Max_Torque said:

How are you planning to put back in the body strength lost from cutting the roof off?

You would have to see the parts. There is a 1 inch seam that runs the full length of the car. This is boron steel sandwiched between the main chassis steel.

The aluminium reinforcement rivets into this seam from the roof level all the way down to the floor and then along the full back of the car. There is then some additional bracing that ties the pillars into the rear wheel area to bridge where the door was.

All of this is then tied back into the aluminium bed to distribute into this large part .

The company that makes this has a lot of engineering knowledge if you look them up. They have sold into the 1000s of these in the states, with lots of cars having 10s of thousands of miles on them.

Having built kit cars and having experience of the quality, this is on another level with what I have seen over here in the past.

[leglessAlex]

Oh yes, I'm loving this! Utes are freaking awesome. Looking forward to seeing how this comes together

[wibble cb]

reminded me of these, I saw one in Costa Rica....

https://www.volkswagen.cr/es/modelos/saveiro.html

[SturdyHSV]

I have a ute, and as such agree that they are indeed very cool

Look forward to seeing this completed

Things to possibly look forward to:

Pay slightly more on the dartford crossing
Local tip likely to make you get a permit to limit number of visits
Having a BBQ in the back

[anonymous-user]

mike425 said:

Max_Torque said:

How are you planning to put back in the body strength lost from cutting the roof off?

You would have to see the parts. There is a 1 inch seam that runs the full length of the car. This is boron steel sandwiched between the main chassis steel.

The aluminium reinforcement rivets into this seam from the roof level all the way down to the floor and then along the full back of the car. There is then some additional bracing that ties the pillars into the rear wheel area to bridge where the door was.

All of this is then tied back into the aluminium bed to distribute into this large part .

The company that makes this has a lot of engineering knowledge if you look them up. They have sold into the 1000s of these in the states, with lots of cars having 10s of thousands of miles on them.

Having built kit cars and having experience of the quality, this is on another level with what I have seen over here in the past.

Fair enough, from the photo's it looks very much like a 20mph rear impact will see the RHS tray vertical sideskin simply push forwards and take off the drivers right arm and the front seat passengers left arm. Lets hope those companies do know what they are doing eh......... :-)

[poppopbangbang]

Max_Torque said:

Fair enough, from the photo's it looks very much like a 20mph rear impact will see the RHS tray vertical sideskin simply push forwards and take off the drivers right arm and the front seat passengers left arm. Lets hope those companies do know what they are doing eh......... :-)

35mph rear impact........

[anonymous-user]

poppopbangbang said:

Max_Torque said:

Fair enough, from the photo's it looks very much like a 20mph rear impact will see the RHS tray vertical sideskin simply push forwards and take off the drivers right arm and the front seat passengers left arm. Lets hope those companies do know what they are doing eh......... :-)

35mph rear impact........

er, nope.

That's a glancing blow to something that moved out the way, at i'd guess about 15 mph.


A direct rear hit at 35mph will bend the crash structure of a modern car (that's what it is designed to do) and not just put a small dent in the tailgate.

At 50 mph, the passenger cell is significantly compromised:

https://youtu.be/4Xa--raHGGI?t=70

https://youtu.be/4OKAD04m3I4?t=45


And in that case, those upright sheet metal bed sides will have to go somewhere (being massively stiff in the longitudinal direction) and without any bulkhead or load spreader between them and the occupants, personally, i wouldn't want to be sat in front of them when they do.

But it's your car, not mine, i was just asking if the conversion includes any additonal bracing out of interest :-)

[poppopbangbang]

Max_Torque said:

er, nope.

That's a glancing blow to something that moved out the way, at i'd guess about 15 mph.


A direct rear hit at 35mph will bend the crash structure of a modern car (that's what it is designed to do) and not just put a small dent in the tailgate.

At 50 mph, the passenger cell is significantly compromised:

https://youtu.be/4Xa--raHGGI?t=70

https://youtu.be/4OKAD04m3I4?t=45


And in that case, those upright sheet metal bed sides will have to go somewhere (being massively stiff in the longitudinal direction) and without any bulkhead or load spreader between them and the occupants, personally, i wouldn't want to be sat in front of them when they do.

But it's your car, not mine, i was just asking if the conversion includes any additonal bracing out of interest :-)

Not my car mate, that's just a very well known example of one of these getting shunted - there are literally thousands of them out there, it's very much not a new thing or a home brew. There's dashcam video of it from the vehicle that hit it that's easy enough to find if you want a look and regarding speeds "er yep" because said video unsurprisingly has GPS speed on it.

You can see in those photos that the rear quarters have folded up to the rear of the tub which has then spread that impact load across the b pillars via the big steel plate that sits across them. Of course there is an argument here that you're losing the rear crumple zone (because regardless of what the designer says you are losing them) and that any injuries from a rear impact would be worse as a result, and probably a decent one that moving this energy into the B pillars in such a way isn't the best idea for survivability as the speed/energy goes up but it certainly isn't going to shunt the sides of the tub through into the passenger compartment simply due to the strength of the bulkhead plate vs the strength of the aluminium tub.

[JakeT]

Looks like this article is where the image came from:

https://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/14754/the-vw-j...

[blueant27]

Did you finish this build?