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Feb 13, 2019 17:55:16 GMT
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with all these push/pull/pop out addendum , ordinary front doors just aren't going to cut the mustard , they will have to be gullwing or lambo...at the very least!!
Suicide doors! Just need to work out how to convert the spare wheel in to a brazier/bbq grill and you're sorted. You lot are worse than me, the front doors are staying exactly as they are but as you mention it a "built in BBQ" in the boot has got me thinking You'll be pushing buttons and pulling slide out's for half an hour just to set up shop on a campsite! Still hell of a lot faster than putting up a tent though...;-) Hi Alex, anything is better than having to kip in a tent mate, i´m definately too old for that lark. I´d rather spend the whole winter mucking around with an anglegrinder and welder before i start setting up tents again. Simply epic levels of skill and design. I'm loving this... but it's not helping my wanting a T4! Cheers mate, you know what the cure is for our madness....just go out and buy a T4 while they´re still cheap and parts are plenty. Love it.... Thoroughly enjoying the innovation and skills... Can't wait to see it finished... But I'm enjoying the process too😁 Thanks for that Dave, i´m lapping it up too, problem is in a couple of months i have to sand all of it down and give it a respray..definately not looking forward to that bit. No updates for 2 days.. i reckon roller doors are being fitted to the fronts as we speak!! sorry to disapoint you mate but i´ve just been busy at work. I did get a bit done though. When i picked up my gas bottles the other day i was able to have a rummage in my mates´rubbish bin and was able to get some 6mm steel leftovers that he didn´t need anymore, so i grabbed the biggest hammer i had and have made up a couple of brackets that hold the original canopy brackets in place. The first one is directly over the B post, the second one over the C post and with using 6mm steel i should be alright strengthwise too.
I need to make one more then i can refit the canopy and try to work out how the hell i´m going to cut the hole in the side of the roof. Should keep me out of mischief for a few hours at the weekend. Cheers, Dave
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Feb 10, 2019 16:58:18 GMT
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Hi! Electric sunroof out of a Twingo? Excellent,Sir! I wouldn´t have done it in a valuable old van but it´s only a T4 I finally see where this is going...and I like it. Chapeau sir. Danke Paul Here´s a little update from todays´antics. I´d only provisionly fitted the sunroff yesterday so i cleaned up the edges of the hole, dropped in the sunroof for the last time, filled the small gap between the roof and the sunroof with some Sika and screwed in the internal frame... the gap then disapeared and it´s watertight so that´ll do me. When i get round to doing the interior i´ll make a headlining to fit so it looks half decent and connect up the original Twingo switches. As i still haven´t got any welding gas i thought i´d make the most of the afternoon and start getting the sun canopy to fit. I´ve had plenty of time to think about how to do it and the only way to do it properly is to take out the cupboards from the inside to give me some room to work.
Going...
going.....
gone, for the time being. I´ll hopefully be able to refit most of it once i´ve got the canopy in.
My plan is to fit it so that you can´t see it from the outside. I know it´s a lot of work but doing it this way does have one or two advantages. With the T4 having a plastic roof, just screwing it to the outside is not really an option and with all the cupboards out of the way i can weld in a frame to support it all and most importantly get rid of that old insulation. Oh and by the look of things i got lucky again... ...looks like it´s all going to fit I´ll make up the frame and then make up a box to ensure the inside of the van stays dry. When that´s all done i´ll then cut a hole in the side, glue the bit i´ve cut out to the canopy so that the old bit of roof then closes the hole once it´s wound back in. Well that´s the cunning plan. Cheers, Dave
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Come on Thorsten, we know you´ve been busy in the workshop
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Bookmarked, looking forward to see you doing your magic again.
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congrats!... I like the solution to the bottom support bedside. nice and simple. I would imagine the top support does not have to be as substantial? looks great! JP Cheers JP, well it was nice and simple but i wasn´t happy with the way it was working under load.
So i ripped it all out and started from scratch again. Picturewise i´ve not got much to show for it but i spent all my evenings this week redoing it all. The boxsection still slides in and out but i´ve stregthened it with a length of angle iron which stops it warping under load and therefore jamming.
I can also use the angle iron to screw the kitchen to and not have to worry about it catching when i fill the fridge with beer. It´s not quite finished yet because i ran out of welding gas this morning and as it´s still too cold for primer i thought i´d get the angle grinder warmed up and chop a few bits of plastic out of the roof........... Sounds easy but it took me longer to measure it all out than it did to cut the hole out. To cut a long story short the sunroof fits like it was made for the T4 ambulance It was a risk buying it because i wasn´t sure if the curvature front to back and side to side was right but it is, i got lucky and i´m chuffed to bits.... So if anyone has a T4 Abulance out there and fancies fitting a sunroof an electric panorama sunroof out of a Renault Twingo fits like a dream
I´ve still got some prep work to do but i´ll hopefully get that sorted tomorrow so that i can finish off the slide out next week when i get some more welding gas.
Cheers, Dave
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Well it looks like i´ve got a slide out that actually slides out... it´s by no way finished yet and it´s all a bit rough and ready but at least it works. On the outside i need to tidy up the B and C posts and the door needs to lose the indentation where the handle was.. but the door gaps are looking ok even after it´s been slid out a few times so i´m happy with that. The door itself is a flimsey so i´ll need another sliding mechanism at the top somewhere to stabilize it a bit and i need to grease the bottom slides to see if it all frees off a bit because at the moment it´s catching a bit when i try to push it out. Cheers, Dave
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for someone with 'low motivation' you are making a lot of progress - what happens when you're properly motivated? It´s not so much low motivation that´s the problem mate it´s just chuffing cold out there and it´s so much easier just to stay in the warm house and put your feet up one i´ve knocked off work, but once i´m out here it´s alright. I always try to to leave myself a nice and easy job to start with because when i know i´ve got a crappy job to start with it doesn´t make it any easier. He pulls a camper put of the lake and welds it all solid, first! I'm in this to see how you end up getting around the complications that will no doubt arise in this sort of build. Take my suggestions/comments with a grain of salt. If it gives you another angle of perspective, great! If not, at least it bumped it to the top so someone else might see it and contribute. No mate, i take all the suggestioons seriously, you wouldn´t believe how many good ideas i´ve been able to pick up on here, There´s a lot of very talented people here in Readers Rides
for the other support on the side door, can you make mounting points for a mirror image set up and simply attach the other support when the bed is out of the way. (not sure if there is room to simply hinge the other support with the "kitchen" in place on the door. in our old camper trailer, a pop up, the kitchen unit hinged horizontally...the lower cabinets held a few pots and pans, the water storage and all the hoses from the sink and stove. the upper section was more cabinets and the sink and stove. This all folded down under the two beds when they were pushed all the way in. (if this makes any sense at all) tables become beds with cushions on them, beds slide out, doors hang from the ceiling and hinge into place....... on the slide outs, the bed supports were simply two hinged rods attached to the bottom of the beds that swung down when you pulled the beds out. These rods were placed over two studs on the bumper...very simple, very light weight, very strong. I just had to get under there and lift the bed up a little and the supports would drop down again when we were ready to break camp..... JP i know what you mean JP, cheers. I think i´ve got it sorted but more of that in the next couple of days. The good thing when you spend hours after hours grinding of your iffy welds is you have time to think about how to do it properly I know it doesn´t look like a kitchen yet but i picked this up the other day.... i quite like the idea that you can close it all up and hide the cooker and sink that i´ll be fitting.
I´ll be changing it´s colour a bit so that it matches the rest of the inteior and there´s no way the fridge will fit in there but i´m sure i´ll come up with something.
and with a hinged leg or two i might even be able to get it to fit in there as well. Oh wow! What a fantastic build. Great to witness someone who has the vision and skill to pull this off. I can't wait to see the finished van. Thanks for your vote of confidence mate, i haven´t pulled it of yet but i´m getting there slowly. I spent the whole day getting the "hole" ready so that i can open the door in the next couple of days ...another boring detail pic but if you look closely you´ll see that i´ve strengthened up the top between the B & C posts with that i place i then had something to weld the lip to that´ll take the door seal. If that metal strip looks familiar your right. ´ve reused the old window frame that was in the side panel that i chopped out
the welds need cleaning up a bit but the top half is now more or less done
I´ll do the bottom once i´m sure that my sliding mechanism works properly.
Cheers, Dave
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Jan 30, 2019 18:06:23 GMT
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telescoping sliders? I love the idea! what a cool solution, Dave! will the pushout need support legs once extended, or is it not going out that far? this is really looking great. JP (ps.if I misunderstood the whole thing, uhhh, its still pretty darn epic!) Are you going to weld the channels to the bottom of the floor or the top? and, I bet if you geared that motor right, it would push that unit out. I also have two big linear actuators that are screw types. I hawked these from the town bin. they are designed for electric awnings. can convert to 12v..... JP Hi JP, the push out at the back will definately be needing some type of support legs as it goes out about 1m in length and i don´t fancy waking up on the floor next morning. I´ve still got to fabricate a big drawer in the boot so that i can use all the space under the bed so i´ll probably end up welding some legs to that. I´m still not sure but once i get stuck in i´m sure i´ll come up with something. The slide out on the side shouldn´t be needing any but i´ll have to wait a bit to see if my construction is strong enough without having any legs to support the weight. Regarding the channels they´re going on the floor, i´ll explain later mate can´t compete wit that mate, but at least mines mobile. That is if they let me back in to the country after all the Brexit mucking around
Well, on here there are "I'm only tarting it up a bit", there are builds, there are projects, there are "Not a project no, definitely not" and there are one or two truely inspirational builds like this ... Going to need a bigger ( ) engine with all that extra metal work though Thanks for the compliment mate, much appreciated and it shouldn´t be too difficult to upgrade to the 150bhp 5cylinder as long as i use the right gearbox and brakes i should be alright TÜV wise. Holy Cow.....talk about innovation with age old ideas....so cool! JP old ideas from an old git.... Youth alone is not a guarantee for quality mate If you fit compressed shocks to it, you could pull a pin and it would gently open itself.. Or, if you used uprated ones, slam aggressively into that cyclist taking up the lane.. ;p Might be a bit hard to retract, though. Not a bad idea, my first thought was to use a long threaded bar, weld a couple of nuts to it, weld it all to the door and use my cordless drill to shove it in and out. Not very sophisticated i know but i do like simpel constructions (that don´t need an electrician) Once i´ve got it all mechanically sound i´ll have a play with i few other ideas i´ve got. Time for a little update methinks. I´ve taken a couple of pics of the right hand slide mechanism and when i look at the pics it becomes even more confusing so i´ll try to explain. The 30mm boxsection will be welded to the door, it slides in and out of the 35mm boxsection which will slide in and out of the angleiron frame that i´ve welded to the floor. That hopefully takes care of the door sliding in and out. In the next pic you´ll see i´ve welded in a bit of angle iron with a support that will eventually take the weight of the kitchen. Inbetwen the two is a 16mm gap (where the my measuring stick is jammed inbetween) this is where the floor will end up going and as the kitchen is attached to the door once i push it all out i´ll have a level floor without any sliding mechanism visable and more importantly no step to trip over. In the next pic you might unerstand more why i´ve gone down this route. With the bed fully in and it not being foldable i´m going to have to build something different for the left hand slide out mechasnism. As far as the door goes i´ll be ok, i´ll just copy the right hand one as it´s all underneath the floor but i need to attach the litchen to the door and the bed is in the way. But i´ve got that covered, i´ll show you what i´ve got planned as soon as i pick up the cupboard i´ll be using for the kitchen. Thanks for all your support chaps, it helps a lot especially when it´s chuffing freezing out there and the motivation is low. Dave
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Jan 27, 2019 14:16:02 GMT
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Don´t really want to sound too negative but have you talked to a german TÜV engineer already about all those changes you did to the structures? I mean, as long as you do not aim for a foreign (british) license plate they can always queer your pitch when it´s already too late. No probs mate, i´ve already had a natter with the chap i´ve been going to for the last 15 years and he lets me get away with murder
Weekends update: i was struggling getting the door to fit because i was trying to get the outside panel of the door to overlap the sill. Well it wasn´t working so i´ve cut it down a bit so that the door now fits in the hole as opposed to shutting slightly in front of it. I´ve tacked it to some boxsection which i´ll be needing once i start playing around with the sliding mechanism. With the door now more or less in where it belongs i chopped out those temporary brackets and tacked the door directly to the B post. This gives me a bit more room to play around with the door seal. Sorry for the iffy pic but this shows the original VW sliding door seal in profile. So i cut off of a couple of lengths from and old seal, made up an angled bit of plate, pressed the seal on the plate and pushed it up against the door so that the seal was squashed a bit and then tacked the plate into place. ..and after a bit of welding it looks something like this..... You can see the seal in between the B post and the boxsection that i´ve welded to the door. So how am i going to get it all sto slide in and out? Well it´s actually not as easy as i´d thought as i don´t want to see any of the mechanism when the kitchen has been pushed out. My plan a is to weld a couple of lengths of 35mm boxsection to the floor and have the 30mm boxsection sliding in and out of that. I´ll need to weld in some angle iron so that i´ve got something to attach the floor to and that´s basically it. I´ll then weld in a support to hopefully stop the door from warping. and just incase that doesn´t work i´ve got a few 175kg rated wheels that will become plan B
Cheers, Dave
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Jan 25, 2019 18:22:35 GMT
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This is a brilliant thread, very innovative approach to the various issues assoiated with campers, Just wanted to ask, what will the impact be weight wise when the whole van is finished ?? Cheers mate, that´s a good question and to be perfectly honest i don´t know. As i´ve mentioned earlier on, i´ve taken out quite a bit of weight but nowhere near as much as i´ve welded back in so i´ll just have to see. To be fair it was slow and didn´t go around corners that well either and that won´t be changing so i´ll have to live with it, and although i don´t need one that´s always a good excuse to put more power in it once the rest is done
oh yeah...running on electrickery..that'll be something else! Hi Strikey, don´t hold me on that just yet mate, i´ll see how i get on eh?
Don´t forget i actually want to drive this sometime this year.
Looking good ! WHats the cunning plan to seal the edges when open ? Will runners fit under the floor in the insulation gap so it stays neat and tidy. Thanks for the updates, interesting to see, James Hi James, i´ve taken a pic of the right hand B post. VW just spotwelded the inner and outer metal and left it overhanging by about 20mm so that you´ve got something to attach the seal to. No need to reinvent the wheel on this one so as soon as i´ve got the door positioned properly i´ll just weld up something similar. Important is i can use an original seal which should help when it comes to keeping noise levels down and water ourt. as far as the runners go i´ll have to see, as you quessed i´m making this up as i go along but i´m sure it´ll work out in the end. Looking great The other option is a scissor arrangement With fold out panels and the door forming the roof and floor, the advantage being very little intrusion when its folded. Thanks for that, actually that was my plan B. I´d even thought about chopping the door in half and using the top half with window as a roof when the slide out was pushed out but i´ve decided against that as the joint would have been difficult to keep watertight but maily because i don´t want to see any of the modifications from the outside once the doors are closed. Only a small update today as most of the time i´ve been faffing around with door gaps that don´t want do what i want!!! ..at least i got the C post strengthening frame finished. That´s definatley not going anywhere.... so as soon as the door is in position i can start closing off all the gaps and get it all looking half decent again. Cheers, Dave
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Jan 24, 2019 18:25:28 GMT
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just love the way you work! epic build Cheers mate, much appreciated. I finished off the B Post yesterday so i´ve been playing around with the sliding door today. First job was to lose the sliding window which is a lot easier that the other windows as they´re not glued in place. Then i took out all the latches and locks as i won´t be neeing them either. Before i could start shortening it i needed some way of holding the door in place while i´m faffing around getting the B & C posts to fit. So i tacked in a length of boxsecton to the new sill, once the door is in place i´ll weld the inner door frame to it and cut out the tacks. The angle iron you can see is just shoved in there to give me some clearance. I could then measure out roughly how much i need to shorten the door and got the angle grinder warmed up again...
It doesn´t quite fit as good as it looks in this pic but it´s getting there and it looks like i´ll get away with fitting a right hand sliding door into the left hand side hole. The brackets at the top of the door are only temporary until i´ve got the door fitting properly and attached to the sliding mechanism which i still need to design. But i have been giving the subject some thought, i´ve got some 35mm boxsection in the corner of the garage and by pure chance the 30mm stuff i´ve been using so far slides in and out quite nicely so i´ll probably end up using that. I wonder if my spare Mercedes wiper motor has enough power to push the door in and out? We´ll see, Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Jan 24, 2019 18:27:31 GMT by Oldbus
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Jan 23, 2019 16:01:08 GMT
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brilliant..!! if you hear a knocking at the door it could the men in white coats though. ..not to worry mate, they know the way and they don´t knock these days It's an ambulance, not an asylum transporter. ;p time will tell.... but the more bonkers the better in my book. one thing is for certain , this wont be one of those t4's that looks like every other one you see!! well not from the inside anyway Door has nice folded edges and a handle / latches ? Might make life easier? How far do you want it to move out ? About 50 cm or so, going to look epic. James Hi james, you´re right, i´ll probably end up using the door but i won´t be needing any handles or latches. It just remains to be seen if a righthand door fits properly in a left side hole. Regarding the slide out, the fridge/kitchen will be about 60cm deep so that´s about how far it´ll all be going out. This is a fantastic build! Having owned a rusty T4 until recently i have a bit of advice. The front wings fill with debris because the windscreen scuttle drains into them. You can fit flexi hose or something to make drain tubes that run through the wing and drain under the van instead. Some mesh helps trap leaves and things. With it being an ambulance it probably has heavy duty springs on the back already as well as the brake bias valve being set up for added weight. If not, you can get heavy duty springs possibly off a pick-up version or something. I fitted these to mine by accident and i could go over kerbs without feeling them. If you want to lower the front end, be careful what version of torsion bar you have. I un-wound mine and it hit the bumpstops, then one day one torsion bar snapped. That's when i read up on there being different stiffnesses available. In the end, i got new ones and left them standard for comfort, then with the heavy duty rear springs, my van looked very A-Team Van, with a lowered front end. Made it ace on rough ground and campsites. Very comfortable too. Incidently i too had Audi 16" wheels with 50mm profile tyres i think - and they were load rated tyres too so i could inflate them to a much higher pressure than on a car. - A mistake alot of people make. I don't know if this model has the twin radiator fans but they can be notorious for burning out. The air flow around the radiator is regulated by a thermal expanding spring that moves fins on the back of the radiator. This can become sticky causing the fans to come on prematurely. The fans are also wired with high current cable, and use big strip-type fuses in plastic boxes in the engine bay. It is worth carrying extra fuses with you. On the short-nosed T4's the radiator assemble hinges outward by undoing the bolts on the slam panel. On the long-nose i'm not sure. If you ever take the dash out, there is a nut in the engine bay holding it on. It is known as the jesus-nut because it is usually one that catches people out and when they finally find it they say "jesus" ! It would also be interesting to check your VIN. If the number starts WVW1 (or something like that) it means it is a panel van that has been converted. If it starts WVW2, it means it is a Caravelle or people carrier version. The reason i mention this is because the Caravelle version had factory fitted windows and rear seatbelts and as such the two skins of the rear window openings were either spot welded or bonded, strengthening the C pillars for seatbelts. The pillars also had load plates welded in them. Alot of people get a panel van, fit windows a rock-n-roll bed, fit seatbelts to the pillars and don't realize the body needs strengthening. Interestingly, in 1995 (when my van was made) VW messed up registering some vans here in the UK and as such some panel vans were given Caravelle VINs by accident and registered. It was too big a mess to undo, but it meant my van was listed as a Caravelle on the logbook even though it had no windows or factory rear seat. Arguing the model type with the insurance companies was interesting when i told them it was a people carrier according to the paperwork but their criteria meant it was still a panel van. The plus side was, i got away with driving at car speeds on the motorways. Unfortunately i did hear of some vans that people had converted with seatbelts, correctly checked the VIN and assumed their van had already been strengthened. Anyway, good luck with your build and thanks for sharing! Thanks for your post and all the advice, i think you´ve written more than i have in the whole thread Regarding the front wings you can actually buy kits including hoses and brackets etc over here which i won´t be wasting my money on but there´s nothing wrong with borrowing their idea. One of the rear springs on the T4 was broken so i bought a new pair. I´ll see how i get on weightwise and if necessary get some heavy duty ones, however i don´t want it stuck up in the air so i´l probably have to play around a bit. I´ll keep your advice in mind when i get round to the front end, i wo´nt be dropping it too far though. As far as the load rating on the tyres go i´ve always overdone it a bit in the past, not only for the vans but on our trailers to so we´ve always had a bit of leeway and piece of mind, especially when you start adding towbars and start some towing. The ambulance was originally a lwb window bus when it left the factory so has all the necessary strengthening and seatbelt mounts etc. which is handy even if i don´t need them. The hole in the left hand side will be strengthen with 2mm steel so i should be ok. The T4 is going to be quite heavy once it´s done but i´m not going racing in it and it won´t be a daily driver so i´m not too worried about it not being economical. oh and i´m not planning to take out the dash but you never know so i´ll keep your advice in mind. and here´s a little update from yesterday. I´ve started to rebuild the B post it´s not finished yet but the inner side has been strengthened up using 3mm steel and with the 2mm boxsection in there so once it´s all ben welded up proerly i should be alright. Cheers, Dave
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Jan 21, 2019 18:45:46 GMT
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Nice to see a different approach to a camper conversion. Looking good. Thanks for that Fred, and what i really like about the conversion is you´ll hardly be able to tell from the outside once it´s all finished. Here´s a few pics fom todays´antics in the garage. I´d already pepared the side panel for removal by drilling out all the spotwelds and welding in some boxsection to support the structure, so i took a deep breath and got the anglegrinder warmed up (about the only thing that is warm out there at the moment) et voila, a big hole where the side panel used to be....it´s difficult to see in that pic but the old side panel is stacked up against the wall in the background. I´ve started making up the C post as you can see in the next pic, it´s not finished yet but at least it´s all nice and solid again. The sill is not going anywhere either, i just need to weld the outer panel to the new frame and tidy it all up a bit. I´ve started making up the support frame for the B post, once i get the curvature right i´ll weld it all up on the bench and then attach it to the remains of the old B post and the new frame. Then all i have to do is close the gap and make it look half decent again. I got the side panel out in one piece so i´ve got two options how to close the hole up. Either i reuse the old side panel and make a door out of it or modify the spare sliding door to fit. We´ll see, whatever looks better will be the way forward. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Jan 22, 2019 5:36:20 GMT by Oldbus
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Jan 20, 2019 16:08:15 GMT
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this is going to out transform a transformer...!! should be good for a laugh or two first time we set it all up.
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Jan 20, 2019 15:54:45 GMT
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Well i finished off welding in the roof, it´s all come together quite nicely.. and more importantly it all fits in the hole One last job before tidying it all up and giving it a lick of paint was to strengthen up the front a bit. With me cutting out most of the original structure it was all a bit flimsy so i chopped a length of boxsection in half and welded it in place... another advantage of this method is it gives me something to attach the interior panelling to. As it´s way to cold too start painting it all, i thought i´d carry on up front. Before i chopped out the old B post suppout bracket i bodged up a bit of boxsection to keep the B posts in place and then cut out the left half of the roof support. I´m chuffed with the space we´ve won and once the sunroof is in it should look ok.
What you can´t see in that pic is that there´s an extra steel frame been fitted to support the roof which will be a big help once i get round fitting the sunroof.
With that out of the way i dismanteld all the electrics as they need to go down below somewhere. I don´t know what it´s all there for but i´m sure i´ll found out once i start rebuilding it all. All the cables that run up the side of the B post are now disconnected and out of the way for now. I´ll worry about them later but with a bit of luck i won´t be needing most of them. It was still too cold for paint this morning so i´ve started a new job. Now that the rear slide out/bed thing has worked out well i´ve decided to make another one. This time on the left hand side. Basically i want to slide out the kitchen about 60cm´s to give us a bit more room inside. To do this i need to take out the side panel behind the drivers seat, modify the B post, make up a C post but before i do that i want to strengthen the structure. I think 30x30 boxsection should do quite nicely so i´ve opened up the panels... and have started to tack the boxsection into place to give it all some strength before i chop the side panel out. once i´m finished you won´t see any of it as i´ll close it all in and from the outside you´ll only be able to tell that there´s a door there once i pull out the kitchen.
Well that´s the plan anyway.
Sorry if i´ve not explained it well but all will be revealed in the next couple of weeks. Cheers, Dave
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Jan 16, 2019 17:11:27 GMT
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Curtains? VW offered press stud (?) curtains for the t4 multivan. But some people use neodym magnets with their homemade curtains instead. magnets work well , did it this way for a "pop on" curtain for the rear window of SWMBO's bongo. I like the magnet idea but they probably wouldn´t pass swimbos quality control and magnets have trouble sticking to plastic and wood. Whatever, they´re not on the "To Do" list just yet but i´ll keep the idea in mind,thanks. Just to bring you up to date, i´ve got the right hand side of the roof done.. This is the view from the inside which be covered up with a headlining. ..and this is the view from up top... ...once it´s all painted and spruced up a bit you won´t see the joint hopefully. I´ll crack on with the other side the next couple of evenings and let you know how i get on. Cheers, Dave
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Jan 14, 2019 18:11:28 GMT
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It's now looking a lot lighter than I had first imagined it would be - I had based my initial thoughts on how heavy a tailgate was that I fitted on a newish Transporter that was in for a accident repair a few years ago - but now you have hacked most of the weight out of the panels - it should look very smart once it's all painted up and the windows refitted - now talking of windows and it being a box in which I don't think that curtains would work - are planning to tint them with a film ? I know what you mean mate, i was surprised how much all the panels weghed when i collected them the other week. The good thing is most of the weight is now in the bin ...as with the roof section which i´ve now chopped down to size. Regarding the windows, i´ll be tinting the windows before they go back in, it´s so much easier doing it on the bench rather than in situ. But i can see a set of cutauins going in there as well, it´s make it all look a bit more comfy and less sterile (well it was an ambulance!) With the roof chopped down to size i just trail fitted it to see if it´ll work as i´d planned. Although it fits quite nicely it´s way too high and would foul the rear crossbeam once pushed back in, so i need to "adjust" it down a bit. Cheers, Dave
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Jan 13, 2019 18:05:55 GMT
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I´m not sure yet how i´ll be doing the interior but something like that would do for the cupboards and headlining. I´ll be insulating the van using Armacell or something similar and do fancy doing the bottom half of the interior in wood or something similar even if it does weigh a bit. love this, the engineering is awesome keep it up. Thank you muchly sir, will do Those Cleco pins are great, i used to use self tappers but discovered them on the Frost stand at the Technoklassiker in Essen decades ago and bought a load. The good thing is they´re quick and you can use them over and over again without damaging the hole you´ve drilled. I can highly recomend them. Cleco is your missing word. Impressive work on the T4! ADS made these conversions for the T25. ADS InventorThat conversion suits the T25 even better than the T4 what with the engine in the back and the T25 being smaller than mine.Thanks for those pics. Time for a little update from todays´antics. I got the left hand side window sorted today.... i decided not just to spot weld it in but completely welded up the whole sides. Took ages and the compressor was up and running for a couple of hours as i needed a lot of air to cool down the welds to avoid warping it all. Sorry for that lousy pic but it all cleaned up quite nicely and you can hardly see the joint. before i knocked off i started getting the roof ready for fitting. It´s chuffing heavy... which is hardly surprising when you see how much metal VW used. As it doesn´t need to support a tailgate anymore i´ll be losing all that along with the roof supports but more of that next time. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2019 18:06:39 GMT by Oldbus
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Jan 12, 2019 19:40:56 GMT
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Hello! Only 3 doors left....... Cheers Looking good sir, oh and you´re not used to restoring Estates - you´ve got 4 doors left to do
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Jan 12, 2019 19:35:47 GMT
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I got a full day in the garage today and managed to get quite a bit done. First job was to get the bed frame finished. At first it wasn´t having it and jammed about half way in, but after a bit of tweeking it now slides in and out without any effort. and most imortantly it passed the weight test (read my hanging on the back trying to break it all) Next up was to chop down the left hand rear window to size, good thing is once you´ve done one side the other goes a lot quicker. I then tacked in the righthand window frame into place and have started getting the tailgate to fit properly. This is what it looks like from the inside, imagine a small roof on it and some old wood to cover it all on the inside and it should look ok. My aim is not to see any metalwork from the inside once it´s done.. It´s not pulled out all the way but you get the idea hopefully. Looks like someone´s reversing a T25 out of the back of my T4 Cheers, Dave
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