Rusty roof chop

[rollercoaster]

I don't know if we are getting confused here,
the lower vents feed (?) the engine bay for cooling..
On my truck at least (syncro) the higher vents feed the cool air in,
through the closed chassis sections to the engine inlet.
That is on one side only, nothing doing on the other side.
I doubt wether air for the cooling could channel that way,
feels to me as though its as much for convection..
which is to mean cooling by hot air rising, (when stationary)
as anything else, and may also help generally.

There is a weird back pressure as you drive,
as anyone who has driven with back door open might know,
pushes air in forwards from the back and possibly out the side vents.
Which is why engine seal/door seals (on vans) are very important,
if you dont want to breath engine fumes.

All important considerations come to think of it,
in your thoughts, designs and finishing details.

As ever, happy to bow to anyones better understanding,
most of that is intuition or guesswork!

On the hot engine subject and pickup bed..
its often a bit of a struggle dealing with the heat.
I carry all sorts of loads and fairly often they dont want to get cooked.
Which they do, roasted, if placed on the rear half of the load bed.
Just in case that affects your thinking things through..

[syncropatrick]

Found this on Fb.

[davidoft1]

Found this on Fb.

thats not half bad you know

[ajsimmo]

Found this on Fb.

thats not half bad you know

I know. Didn't want to admit it in public in case I was alone, but I think it nearly works.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[syncroandy]

I'm with aj, at looks neat. At first glance..

But then I start to get very concerned about how the heck the passengers are supposed to get in, and out...

 

[BigBlueVan]

Regarding the floor panel removal did you brace anything up, I have a similar situation where I want replace the whole lot with my own panels, was worried things might twist if I just hack it out! I can see this being my Xmas job.

[mike.g]

Check

[mike.g]

Well, I haven’t disappeared, I’ve been having trouble getting on the site since just before Christmas and I’m not sure why but, it appears that I’m back - hence the check above!

Although nothing structural has happened- no more welding and a house purchase and associated work has taken priority, I have been tinkering and plotting away, behind the scenes!

I’ve given up on the idea of making a bulkhead and I’m going to utilise the tailgate to form part of the bulkhead as I’ve seen it done on a couple of places and it looks ok, I think?

I’ve encountered a bit of a snag re the rear floor as I was hoping to use the inner floor repair panels but, the profiling is slightly different so I need to thing how to do the floor as I was after a ‘factory’ look.

I’m hopefully going to have a couple of hours this weekend to cut up the rear roof section and tailgate panel from the donor van to see about making the bulkhead - fingers crossed.

On a positive note, I’ve fitted a Porsche steering wheel to it so, it’s bound to go faster now but, I won’t be able to steer at low speeds!!

[mike.g]

18 months later……

I’ve been having major issues with working out the rear roof section as there is a significant widths difference and profiling on the roof between the middle section (where my rear will join) and the rear section where I was hoping to use it to use the tailgate as the rear screen etc.

I’m light of this, I’ve been trying to find a bulkhead suitable to use to make it look similar to the rear of a single/double cab. I did have a look around for a T25 bulkhead but, I couldn’t track one down so, I’ve been trying to find something suitable. Bizarrely, the T25 is wider a few inches off the floor than most vans so I’ve tried T5/6 ones, transit and Vivaro and all were too small!
I’ve just picked up a high top sprinter one which looks like it’ll do the trick but, unfortunately, it has no rear window so I’ll have to try and sort that out.
I’m just working out what I want in the rear and how I’m going to set it out and then work out the ideal location of the new bulkhead. Hopefully I can crack on with some of the faffing around over the next few weeks ready for getting it ready to be tacked up to check it looks right.
One of the biggest issues I’m going to have is to make it look fancy, gutter rail on the rear etc but, I’ll look at that when I finally get there!!

[mike.g]

Well, here we go again!
I can’t believe it’s been so long since I did anything with the van but, I suppose it’s the way with many of these projects - life seems to get in the way!

However, I’ve now retired (oddly I seem to have less free time- not sure how that works!) but, I’ve decided that I’m the new year, I’m cracking on with the van - it’s been sat there for years and I want to get it done and pressed back into use as my daily driver!

I put the battery back on this week not expecting much - and I wasn’t disappointed!

The dash lit up immediately and all the dials and gauges worked and I was feeling marginally optimistic!

However, I turned the key and nothing, not even a click which surprised a bit as the van was a decent started so I felt marginally cheated not to even get a click!

The fuse panel had always been a bit problematic with a couple of bad connectors and I remembered that I’d got a new fuse panel years ago to rectify the issue.

I dug it out, made sure everything was nice and clean and then switched it over making sure everything I was reconnecting was clean and making a good contact and then went through the starting process again to frustratingly get the same result, absolutely nothing, not even I dimming of the dash glow plug light etc to show there was load so, where to from here?

Any suggestions? I need to get it running so it can be moved between units so it can be welded and worked on.

[mike.g]

I picked up a Mercedes sprinter bulkhead which I’m hoping can be ‘modified’ to give the rear of the van a factory look?

It’ll need some work but, if I get it right, it should look ok with the factory pressings which would be hard to emulate myself?