Floors in !

I started by cleaning and decreasing the floor, then got all the offcuts of ply I had from making the main floor. Dry placed them to see what I needed etc.

Getting there

 Then added double backed foil insulation and left the Sikaflex overnight to harden.

Floor in! However before I laid and glued it (sikaflex) I realised just in time that I hadn't run the 12v wiring! I was still not convinced about the Sikaflex doing the job, but I know a lot of people use it with great success and anything that means you dont have to drill holes in the floor is a bonus.

Anyhoo! As I plotted the run of the 12v cables I was thinking about the heating (Propex) Did a little check online about its wiring etc and then whilst looking at the fitting plans, realised that although I was hoping to place the Propex heater on the nearside along with the gas bottle, cooker and oven etc. keeping all pipework in one place and on one side.

Problem! the exhaust pipe cant be on the nearside (awnings mainly) as you cant have gas exhaust fumes coming out into a living area Doh! So it would have to be on the offside and the battery on nearside.

Note to self: Run gas pipe/ 240v wires when running 12v wiring.

Trouble is I've been to sleep since deciding that!

I re ran the wiring then started gluing the floor down, sitting back feeling smug that I'd sorted the floor it dawned on me that I had fogotten the gas pipe work and the 240v wiring! The249v isn't a problem really as all the fuse boxes etc will be at the rear offside.

New floor as I started the put anything of weight on it to make sure the floor is set solidly and level.

Sikaflex: Screwfix

As I said I was not totally comfortable with the "gluing" of the floor. Because I had forgotten initially to lay the 12v wiring I had to cut a new channel in the wood pads used to lift the floor to the correct level for the RIB single seats. So I got the chisel out and started chiseling away! the piece of wood that I had stuck down didn't budge whilst I hammered the chisel to make a channel for the 12v wires!
I conclude that sikaflex does what it says on the label!

Adjusting RIB seats

Having built the two seats when I put them in the van the release handle to make up the beds were on the outside. Thought it was a pain but couldn't see how to get around it, as the sliding mechanism moves inwards. Works fine if your vehicle is left hand drive!

So today I'm sat pondering and looking pleased with myself having sorted the floor, and suddenly realised that all I had to do was swap the seat back and squab over! Doh!

Job done!

Flooring fun

Finished cutting and test laying the floor, three parts, widest part on the offside as that is where the heavy fridge will be, which I want to fit off the floor, also the toilet will be that side as well with a wardrobe between the two, the electrics will be in a shallow cupboard above the toilet, so I thought it would be better to have the main floor area offside. Nearside will be the "kitchen" so not so much weight and will not be full height either.

When that was sorted I laid the Altro flooring in the front room (wife was at work ssshh!) and used the smaller piece of ply and the top piece to make to template and cut it out. Saved messing about later. Final cutting and tidying will be done once the floor is permanently in place. I now have to fit various sized blocks of off cut ply to the floor to lift it enough for the RIB seats to match height of front seats as they form the bottom half of the beds

Cutting the Ply !

                    

Took a few hours to sort the template and cut the plywood around the wheel arch and various other obstacles! Plus my math is pretty rubbish so I  cut with some spare and whittled it down to fit!

The real joy is that now one side is done all I need do is flip it over having laid the other board underneath and draw around the cuts! then line them up again and mark the width and cut that. So all that should take an hour at best.

Then measure the remaining gap at the front and cut to size again. Clean the floor and lay the pads of ply as and where the floor is flat.

Whilst that is curing I can lay the Altro on the floor (dont tell the wife lol ) lay the wood on top and draw around it. So it can be cut and fitted after the 1st of June when the pop top roof is fitted.

Flooring

Got the ply , insulation, sikaflex to tie it all down! Blimey price has gone since I last bought it!!!

Went for structural ply need two sheets of 8 x 4 for LWB

Which will give me enough to do the floor and enough to build it up to correct height for RIB seats to be level which is best part of 2" surprisingly !

Altro flooring will top that, was looking at vinyl click lock but to many complaints about it!

Rear RIB seats arrived today!

So at 12 noon 16/06/16 there was a knock on the door and this was there! The RIB single seats at last and £2800.00 worth. Are they worth that much? yes if you value your passengers! 

They convert into two single beds or will slide together to make a double. The other bonus is that they are fully TUV passed and certificated! 

Interestingly there is no "certificated" way of securing them to the floor in the UK! But there again is plenty of information on the web. 

The focus is on the rear fixings which in a accident would usually take the stress of  impact so it makes sense to at least fit extra bracing to the rear at the very least. basic fitting is HT M10 bolts with 50mm square washers. I will make or get made a 5mm plate that will brace between the chassis members.

Another downside of a new vehicle is the amount of plastic underneath the floor! plus the nearside has the plastic fuel tank more or less right where I need to bolt the nearside seat in place!

I'm hoping that I can just drop it enough to work above it fingers crossed!

After unpacking you have to assemble the seat back and squab to the frame work, not too difficult but I found that the pretty chrome dome nut is unusable if you use the provided washers! only two of the washers fit the 8 chrome nuts! I will probably swap them out for locknuts and a washer if I can when I fit them properly.  The company must save millions but cutting the bolts so short well at least two threads shorter!

So there they are not bolted but in place! the seat squab flips over and the back rest drops down into its place. So you have a proper (albeit slightly high being only 5'8" tall)  travelling seat but when turned into a bed it has a mattress material and foam. You turn the front seat around to form the bottom of the bed and I need, but wife doesn't, I little more head room. Most conversions have an area behind the seat which has a foam cloth covered piece about 10" front to back as a fill in.

I will use this to box the battery below it one side and the Propex heater in the opposite one.

I now know that I will need to lift the floor 2" so that the rear seats will be level with the front ones when forming the bed.

They come covered with standard VW cloth which matches the front seats, but we have decided to get all four reupholstered as the grey is a bit boring to say the least.

Who Knew?

Another trip out only to Wickes which was a waste of time!

Anyway, whilst going there the stop start wasn't cutting in, couldn't see any warning lights Oh great things are buggered already not even done 300 miles!

When I got to Wickes I had a look online and yep I was doing it right, so came home still not working.

Then I notice a small white "emblem" or whatever it was as couldn't work out what it was so waited till got home and got the manual out

Oh Dear apparently I hadn't fully shut one of the sliding doors!!! double checked and sure enough it was open a little bit but hooked so it wasn't going to slide open when I dropped the clutch and sped off!

Even the old Skoda shouts at you if you ignore a warning light but at least Skoda's was in red this one is white like everything else. But wait it wasn't a door open warning light, it was the stop start is switched off!!!!

Apparently it is sufficient for you to stop and check all your doors when the stop start doesn't work!

Learning all the time!

Todays annoyance!

Speed craft hand brake relocate bracket isn't worth the effort!
It helps but still not low enough to miss the seat swivel nor the plastic! Not on a T6 at this point!
Another aspect of VW trying to keep us DIY's out of the way ha ha!

So I'm going back to the old way seat raised, foot on brake pedal hand brake off!

Although I suspect the plastic will still catch! Easy enough to slip the plastic off the handle tho!   😁

Bit of insulating Bit of grinding

Filled in the rear panels by the rear hatch

then covered with black gaffer tape

Then decided that I would unbolt the bulk head panel fixings along the B posts, on removing the cover of the upper seat belt fixing I found it had the spline torx bolts !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a set on order as the cargo D rings have them as well!

So I thought I remove the bottom bracket which runs the width of the van behind the seats. It is welded in 5 places and also stuck down as I found out. I burnt out my old grinder so didn't have one. Except I have one of those Bosch multi tools so I had a look at what I had blade wise to tackle the welds. Fortunately there was a metal cutter so I thought it was worth a try, it worked a treat enabling me to finely cut the welds just where the it joins to the metal. Doesn't make as much mess either just a fine dust rather than sparks everywhere ................result!

Running the Auxiliary Battery Lead

As expected this was going to be fun from the outset!

First I had to remove the seat and the seat frame, then loosen the rubber floor mat and have a hunt under it to see if there were any way I could run the positive feed of the battery. I found just to the right of the main cable routes (the hump at the back where the gear lever sits) pulled the grommet out carefully and I could see the metal heat shields around the gearbox etc.

Then I needed to be able to access the underneath, popped the bonnet and could see the heat shield at the back. I had to remove the plastic housing under the wheel arch, Wasn't to bad some torx screws and a couple of 8mm nuts and a sneaky push fitting just above a small hatch to the front of the wheel arch.

You have to slide part of the liner out once all of the torx screws are removed and the two 8mm bolts, It is just where the door meets the wheel arch. I found that opening the passenger door a little gave you room to maneuver just slide to the left as you pull gently out. There is a small hatch built into the wheel arch cover (you can see the hole left of picture) there is no need to remove it as I did.

Now the fun bit!
you can see where the positive battery wire goes out of the vehicle floor just. I made a slit in the grommet to allow the lead to go through. I then carefully pushed the wire through and down along the heat shield about a metre then looked under the wheel arch to see if I could see it!
Took a couple of attempts but in the end I could see the red wire from under the bonnet. It was just a case of running the wire safely to the battery compartment and fixing it with zip ties. there is a small gap at the back of the battery compartment that the lead can go through. I just pulled enough through so it will attach safely and left it unattached.(it will be a while before I run the full leads etc as I have not decided where to fit the leisure battery. It is the smallest lowest leisure battery but it is still to high to go under the seat without spacers etc so not sure at this point what or where to put things!

Putting things back together, making sure the battery lead is zipped tied to the other cables as I went, Seat base in place.

All the leisure battery cabling is stashed under the seat for the time being.

All done and seat back in place

Now this as to go back a bit fiddly sliding that part back on but no real problem just add a few torx screws to hold it in place whilst you do it.


And the reward!

A nice cold pint of Hob Goblin

Passenger seat armrests

So as VW forgot to add the armrests to the passenger seat, and when asked about them I was told that VW no longer fit them to passenger seats!!!!???!!!
That's funny cos they are fitted to the driver seat!

Anyway, sourced a pair on ebay not cheap £150 but they are at least double that OEM The only difference is the armrest part is vinyl where the OEM is cloth. But we will be having the seats recovered anyway so no matter!

I forgot to take pictures as I did it but there are as expected videos on youtube

So
Tilt the back of the seat towards the front so you can access the first piece to undo, which is to separate the front cloth from the back cloth, in this case its a long plastic U shaped piece the length of the cloth, pull the two apart (watch your knuckles!)

Now turn the backrest back up and into recline mode, this enables you to pull the front cloth through the gap

Move the backrest back up again enough to free the back of the cloth and you should see some of the sponge under that there is a plastic cover held by two plastic T fixings (they brake easily but can be replaced with standard interior panel fixings etc) remove them and carefully fold up inwards to give you more access.

Now carefully pull up the front and back until it shows some metal wire ( on the front of the seat) and the the cloth is attached to it via a soft metal ring. Remove the rings I used a pair of mole grips to open them enough to detach from the seat cover and the wire,

Pull up the cloth again carefully till you see the hole in which the armrests attach in the sponge

Now initially the video I looked at gave the impression that the brackets go on the inside of the backrest frame.They dont! They fit on the outside of the frame Doh!

Carefully pull up the foam to enough to access the bracket holes the forward screw goes through the frame and is bolted from behind. the rear is a welded on nut which you just screw in from the outside. I did this one first, loose enough to fiddle about with to get the forward bolt through and then tightened them.

Now you need to put the seat all back together,bit fiddly but not a problem just reverse of what you've just done.

You will see the bracket head just poking thru behind the cloth, I used a very sharp stanley blade to cut a small enough hole to allow the bracket head to show through the cloth, then all is left to do is attach the armrest and bolt in!

I would suggest that if your keeping the OEM cloth or have already re upholstered  the you need to either melt the cloth where you cut or a small bead of glue along the edges as I'm not sure if it will fray in time. Doesn't matter to me as we will get them reupholstered later>

Reads worse than it is honest! Overall took me about 30 mins to do once I had it sussed so add 15!

The Next Day no not Bowies Album!

So this morning it was time to road test yesterdays fun of putting in the the new rear window!

I opened the hatch door and pushed around the edge of the window from inside, that way I reckoned if I had cocked up at least the window would stay intact! all seemed fine so I lowered the door and went inside for another shove here and there to convince myself all was in order! It was, so I went out for a drive through country lanes and back (potholes and dents in the roads around here were an ideal way to check out my handywork!

We got back safely and it was great having a rear view!

So do I do the the two side windows????
Probably

Fitting the rear window

So today I took the plunge and decided to fit the rear window in the van. I was a "panel beater" to those who have no idea, it was in the days when vehicles were repaired not panels replaced! in a nut shell! I cut my teeth on Rolls Royce, Jaguars and Rovers.
So although its been a while you don't forget the skills you just need to update yourself! The last window I put in was with a rubber and securing strip, I'm now confronted with special primers, adhesive assisters and tubes of black stuff !
So here's my account of the day

First was to remove the metal, I had bought a nibbler that attaches to a power drill, basic but should do the job. I have no need of the bulk head that came with the van so had a play on that till I understood how it worked.

So first was to drill four holes to accept the nibbler in each corner. and fit a glass suction handle for final removal

Next cut the hole! I decided to cut with ample gap to enable final cut around using the inner lip to guide the tool. Job done just needed to file a few places to even things up and smooth the cut edges.

Next was to gently hammer (rubber mallet) the inner and outer lips together. So I could install the beading which has to go over both edges. 

So once the trim is in place it was time to clean up everything and ready the rear window to be positioned in place. Once that was done time to play with the chemicals!
cleaned around the window with panel wipes and the van paintwork. There was no mention of this in the Dinitrol Pack but other videos showed this being done and keeping things clean has to be the priority.

First I offered up the window to the hatch and got my daughter to run a pencil line around the inside so I had and margin all around to stay in!
then it was paint the adhesive activator around the inside of the pencil line. The do the same around the hatch. Then paint the UV primer to the same and let it dry on both parts. The instructions say put the bonding agent on the window, but videos show it being applied to the van metal work.
My opinion is that it would be better on the van metal so that is what I did. It was not easy as the bonding agent is very thick and not easy with a hand pumped applicator! But I did it, not pretty but within the boundaries.
It is then just a case of offering up the window, you have time to re position it which I did a little. give it a good press down around the edges and attach some masking tape to stop any chance of it dropping a little.

After a couple of hours I removed the tape and gave it a clean. Some of the bonding agent was showing in the gaps so I carefully removed the excess and cleaned the paintwork. Its not full on privacy glass but gives a degree of privacy along with looking as cool as F !

Keep the bird crap off!

Starting the insulation

At this point I've decided that I will use the OEM cover panels at the back to secure the insulation.

First I sprayed the panels below the window line with Dinitrol

The lighter parts you see are the white vinyl tiles! No point in wasting Dinitrol on areas that are already sorted!

Next I filled the voids with Dacron insulation, my reasoning is its a man made fibre and a lot of converters use this! I put a double layer in, then replaced the OEM panels.