Fitting a c rail

[AlBundy]

I am looking to fit a c rail to my van, but as its a bilbo conversion, there isn't an easy place to put one, so an thinking of drilling holes along the outer edge of the gutter (protect the bare metal with hammerite) and the riveting a rail along the outer channel.

I will use silicone or sikaflex between the c rail and the van as extra protection. I will need to have a gap in the c rail to allow for the pop top clips.

Pictures intended c rail, and current gutter.

Is this a bad idea, or could it work?

[Rosie n' Jim]

Physically it sounds like a good plan, but chemically, could be a problem, steel and aluminium is not a match made in heaven.  You'd need to ensure there is absolutely no contact between the two. Maybe a sacrificial strip of steel between to two would save the gutter? Held to the gutter with steel screws and riveted to the rail with aluminium pop rivets. 

[Mocki]

What is the C rail for > can you not put it inside the pop top ? Is it for a bag awning ? I would not recommend drilling the guttering .

[AlBundy]

I want to be able to attach a modern awning that uses kador strips etc, however there isn't anywhere obvious on the van to put this, either the door gets in the way or the pop top roof gets in the way. See pictures of roof down and roof up.

Other options is to make some kind of clamping device that I can attach the c rail to to the gutter, but I don't really want to be taking it off the van, so a long term solution is needed.

Last option is I attach c rail to the outside of the pop top roof, and another c rail the van roof, so I have 2 ways to fit it, but that would mean making holes in the roof which I am not a fan of. Unless there is a glue that is strong enough to hold it?

[Mocki]

Will the awning and c rail not fit inside the pop top either red or blue position or alike ? And the top close over it ?


Or these maybe ? https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/ ... DcQAvD_BwE

[AlBundy]

Good guidance, I think you are right, if we decide later that we need a c rail work the top down we will figure that out later.

Will glue with sikaflex be enough to hold this on the van?

[Mocki]

I’m not sure that the c rail has enough surface area contact to hold a bag awning in the wind only fixed by sikaflex to be honest. However as that area is going to be protected from almost all elements a majority of the time i would think that if you properly prepped and used rivets and sikaflex you would not have any water ingress nor rust issues at all . Your roof has afterall had a huge great hole cut in it already for the pop top .

The golden rule is to paint any hole you drill immediately as you drill it , letting it dry before installing the sikaflex and inserting the rivets .Ideally you would use stainless nuts and bolts , but i doubt you can get to the inside to make that viable .

Oh and i would think you could lift the top , unroll the awning and then put the top down again if you wanted to use it with the top down

[SurfT25]

Just a thought but could it be possible to have it both ways ?
If you attach to the pop top cutting at the gap then put a similar size on tin top you could attach the awning be the roof up or down.
You would have to align the tin top bit with the fixed roof bit and will just have a gap where they separate. Might have a wrinkle in the attachment part but would it matter?