Let's hear a little bit about the driver - What's your name and where are you from?
My name is Josh Skversky. I grew up in Bucks County, PA. I moved out to San Diego in '06 and have been stuck here ever since!
What got you into modifying cars and what kept you in it?
I consider myself a "wheel whore", so I would say "wheels" are what got me into modding cars. The community and sharing of love for our projects is what has kept me in it.
The car that I first modified was my '96 mk3 Jetta GLS. My cousin introduced me to the VWVortex within the first few months of owning the car, and the rest was history.
The Jetta was a Suede Silver 2.0 auto, first mod was of course fitting wheels on stock suspension, haha, 16" Mille Miglia "Action".
I had the Jetta for many years, it was a 12v VR6 swapped n/a 3.0l Bill Schimmel built ripper of a beast. My Vortex handle was and still is "vocomvw", if anyone wants to dig.
I sold the Jetta around 2011 to get myself into a brand new Mazdespeed3, which was a great car, but I only kept it for about 5 years before turning the page to get back into my true love, a VW.
Tell us about your ride, what is it?
My current ride/daily driver is my 2002 Volkswagen T4 Eurovan MV. Back in 2016, I became the 3rd proud owner. My now wife and I had recently traveled via campervan and fell in love with camping.
I always thought the Eurovan was cool and unique, so I searched my local market and scooped up a decently clean example.
From the factory, the van comes equipped with snap-in window curtains, a pop-up table, and the rear bench slides out to make a generously sized bed. It honestly offers the best mix of daily drivability and camping capability.
The van remained mostly stock for a few years aside from running various OEM Mercedes alloys for that OEM+ look as we took the van around Southern California to camp.
I started to further modify the van around 2019 with its first set of G-Max shocks and 6" Faulkner springs. We all know how it goes with lowering; you just keep wanting more lows!
Exterior Mods?
I had the van resprayed in Porsche Chalk in 2021. I smoked my stock headlights to get that "smoked e-code" look. Gunmetal painted front grilles.
I have multiple sets of tail lights and bounce between my stock, all-clears, sometimes vinyl-wrapped all-clears, or all-smoked.
I also like to bounce between running my stock US-spec amber front turn signals, or the euro-spec clears. Fenders are rolled, and rear fender liners trimmed for clearance.
Suspension Mods:
It's static. I'm on GAZ dampening adjustable "short" front and "extra short" rear shocks. The rear springs are Faulkner 4" 1200lb spec. The rear bump stops were cut. Rear limit straps were fitted to keep the springs where they need to be.
I sourced a raw sheet of 95a 1.33mm thick polyurethane to cut shims that are stacked above and below the rear springs to dial in ride height. Up front, I am running "Scarface Low Riders"
front upper shock mount plates with Powerflex poly low-profile bump stops. Scarface shortened roll bar drop links with Powerflex bushes. I've replaced the lower and upper ball joints with Meyle HD.
I've clocked the front torsion bars (two teeth). My current ride height is at the limits of what can be achieved without notching the frame rails.
Huge shout out to Arron at The Vdub Monkeys over in the UK, as well as Shane Phillis, the mastermind behind Scarface Lowriders.
Current wheels/tires: OZ Carlsson 1/6 18x8.5 et35 - 205/40 Atlas tires. 5mm spacers in the rear.
Interior Mods?
I deleted the factory headliner and replaced it with a sarape-covered PVC panel. The stock headliner in the "tin-top" Eurovans houses all of the rear HVAC ducting and is about 4" thick.
This mod yielded extra "camping headroom" while giving a custom, refinished look. I also recovered the front cab headliner to match.
Anything special under the hood?
Under the hood is a bone-stock 24V 2.8L VR6 201 hp. If you've ever seen the VR out of a T4 you'll know that they are quite different from that of the GTI.
It's factory-tuned for more low-end response, has a funny-looking intake manifold, and the whole motor is mounted tilted forward.
The previous owner had installed a front-mount trans fluid cooler to better regulate ATF temperatures.
Early transmission failure was the major crux of these vans, as the factory transmission fluid heat exchanger proved, upon many accounts, to be inadequate.
I raised the motor via fitting a Euro-spec 1.9tdi passenger side motor mount, along with a custom-cut and welded driver side mount done by Shane at Scarface Low Riders.
This raised the motor almost a full inch.
What are some things you've done to your car that others might not notice?
Well, it's not something I've done, but the fact that the T4 runs independent torsion bars instead of a traditional springs on the front axle is pretty wild to me, and they are height-adjustable from the factory!
The Now Now: I'm currently rebuilding the inner CV joints on my stock axles. I have custom 15mm lower front ball joint spacers to be fitted, they will help keep my front shocks away from their closed limit.
I also recently sourced an additional axle pair of Carlsson 1/6 in 5x114.3 et42 that I will be refinishing for the front axle. It's a lot of work for 7mm less offset, but in my eyes, the et35 front wheels poke out just a bit too far.
Anything else you'd like to add?
It's so worth the journey to be splitting hairs! See also: periodic spot rust fixes and preventatives. Future plans are hopeful for a Techtonics Tuning cat-back exhaust.
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