Golf Mk6 steering wheel
Standard T5 steering wheels look rubbish. Fact. Therefore, after a bit of research into what would fit (without too much work!) I sourced an original Golf Mk 6 wheel steering wheel. The swap was straight forward other than some adjustment to the wiring for the airbag and horn.

In the Golf there is the option to add multi-function controls to the steering wheel. I'm not sure if this was possible in the T5, and I hadn't fitted a uprated stereo yet, so I just fitted a set of chrome trim blanks to my wheel.

Crusie control
I knew I'd sometimes be doing long motorway journey in the van thus one of the first things I did was to have cruise control fitted. I can't really take any photos of this, but here's the stalk!

Seat covers
The original seats were in decent enough condition.............

............ however, I decided I wanted to improve the look of them by adding a set of seat covers. Not bad for a fairly cheap set from a well known online auction site.

Front carpets
The front mats were definitely tradesman spec being all rubber and functional. As id upgraded the seats I decided to add a nice carpet set.

The carpet did not come with the eyelets for the securing pins so I had to carefully add these in. Turned out alright and makes the cab area look 100 times better.

DAB stereo
When I got the van it came with the original poverty spec single din tape player. This had to go!

Initially I changed it to the factory double din option which was a straightforward plug and play swap. I also added a parrot hands free kit whilst I was doing it.

However, after a short while I got fed up of the limited FM radio stations so I decided to fit a (cheap!) posh DAB radio. Considering the price I paid for it (I think about £250 its not bad!).

NNow I had a decent stereo I thought I might as well upgrade the speakers (and add some in the back). The extra impetus to do this came when one of the front speakers blew.

And here’s the extra speakers in the back.

I also fitted a reversing camera as the stereo had this option for this and it's a handy thing to have. Fitting the camera was fairly straight forward, but it was a nightmare to run the cable from the front to back!

Heater knob upgrade
I upgraded the heater knobs basically because I could and the new ones just looked better. Here's the old ones.......

.......and the new ones.

They also light up which is cool.

Illuminated shifter
Browsing on the online internet auction site one day I found a super cool Illuminated shifter. Not only was it cool it also matched the rest of the modifications I'd made so I decided to get one and fit it (or that’s my justification!). Here the original gear stick...........

.........and the new one fitted. It looks subtly different from the original………….

………. until you turn the lights on and it lights up!

Interior W8 map light modification
There was nothing wrong with the original map light it just looked a bit ........... boring! Therefore, I decided to do a W8 map light conversion. (don’t ask me which car it's from, it's a VW!)

The cubby hole needed a slight bit of modification to fit the light but this can't be see it once it's fitted.

And here's the new light fitted.

Other stuff
There is loads of other small modifications I have done in the cab area but probably the most useful one is the fitting of a rear view mirror as the van now had rear windows!

I also fitted an outside temperature gauge. This looks factory but it’s actually another online auction site purchase, a temperature gauges as used in shop fridges!

I also gave the handbrake some love with a full rather than part cover being fitted. I also added a chrome knob and leather cover.

The wing mirror adjustment knob got a cap with a VW logo on it.

Covers were also fitted to the door latches. At this point you can probably see I got carried away with tat and accessories!

I had to replace the passenger side door handle as on a cold day the latch was sticking, and I told my friend to 'slam it'. This resulted in the door handle being ripped off! Be aware, you cannot get original door handle rears anymore and the ones that are sold stick out (a lot!) so you have to modify them. I got it to sit sort of OK but it’s not perfect.

And a few other bits I did. Rear driver’s seat cover, dash seal (to stop pens disappearing behind the dash!) and an extra door seal (so it sounds like a golf!).