crew cab drop gates question?

[bradcab]

I'd thought I'd throw this one this way.

At Bus Types last weekend I saw a blue crew cab in the trade area and it had wooden trim along the top of the drop gates.

Is this a owner mod or something VW did?

Looked good and Im off to a large regional diy chain store at the weekend to get some wood!

Ne ideas on sizes of the wooden slatts that are on some crew cabs?

Ne one redone theirs? Any thing specific used? I've been told "Yatch quality" wood/ply is best to use.

Cheers

[clash460]

they use teak on the yachts, seems to last well

[SYMCRO]

I have just had a new set of teak slatts made & fitted to our Syncro Crewcab (Fire engine) & they look very nice.
The tops of the loading gates have been extended using galvanised rails (not wood) to increase load height to 0.5m and allow fitting of cover.

Getting the profile to match the original is difficult but luckily my brother just happens to do that sort of thing all day at a carpentry shop. He ran me up a set quite easily. I then just had to profile the ends. Fitting them is fiddly as long pop rivits are used & to get the right look the rivits need to go into countersunk holes so they can be filled before (yes) covering everything with yacht type varnish.
I have kept some of the original Slatts as patterns for future should any more need making up. The originals had rotted because loading bay (Slatts) had been completely covered over with ply to stop them getting damaged

The Syncro will be at Stanford Hall (on Vanfest Stand) complete with its new fire fighting kit if you are about that way.


Regards

Simon

[bradcab]

Sounds like a good idea might be an idea to some good old ronseal or somethin!

Did you use and silicone sealant underneath the slatts when fitted to stop them trapping water?

[HarryMann]

Fitting them is fiddly as long pop rivits are used & to get the right look the rivits need to go into countersunk holes so they can be filled before (yes) covering everything with yacht type varnish.

This is the original look and does look very smart.. however, there are downsides, as with everything, so its a compromise...

Holes in the load bed - and with time, water ingress into the locker compartment. I've since welded all mine up and now have a dry locker, after a few years its likely water will get in with rivetted slats, although I like the suggestion of using a silicone sealant like RTV under them

If ally rivets are used, and getting steel pops these days requires ordering them usually... With ally into steel in the longer term, there's the chance of bi-metaliic corrosion, though the aircraft industry has long used this stuff between dissimilar metals, or metal and wood... can still get it fairly easily.

Duralac assembly compound

I imagine these days, the right silicone sealnt would be a good substitute, other than for metallic stres-bearing assmeblies e.g. the rear wheel hub to radius arm joint where a chromat paste liek Duralac is ideal.

Having to load up and shovel anything from a truck load of wood-chips to horse manure from time to time, and recently a ton of decorative garden slate hippings, a smooth load-bed is imperative. Lining it out with a quality plywood (marine ply, or the next quality down) is ideal, and even using same to build up the sides as tree 'surgeons' ? do, tapered from the cab downwards, is fairly easy with timber. Treat it with a micro-porous wood preservative after ripping down to size... a good place for the join is just in front of the engine hatch, so two pieces butt perfectly and don't need fastening down.

Others use chequer-plate ally, 3/16" is about the right thickness, fitted noce and tight, hopefully with countersunks around the engine hatch if intending to shovel loads on and off.. though chequer plate catches the shovel unlike ply (ply all over is also a good sound deadener).

If the load-bed is already 'well gone' then quite a few remove the whole thing, a lot of work, and re-lay the new surface on the framework below.

There are also custom spray on load-bed liners, plasticised or rubberised layers, but they're not cheap.

.... so bear in mind what you want first, a smart original looking councours finish, a load-bed for sliding smooth solid loads onto, or a more workmanlike, robust and durable smooth finish for loose materials.

[clash460]

as with yacht decks, you can just stick them on, and would stop water ingress to a degree, but the stuff always finds its way in sooner or later

[HarryMann]

A tonneau helps the dripping locker problem, though sealing a round the cab is the hard part...

Sticking them on sounds good, requires nice flat surfaces should think.

[clash460]

Sticking them on sounds good, requires nice flat surfaces should think.

heard you are a stickler for attention to detail Clive, so should not be a problem methinks

[HarryMann]

Oh, so my rep goes before me... can definitely tack it too far though