I'm fairly sure at this point I'd decide to sell my barn door van in its entirety and buy a tailgate one!!!
Amazed and impressed at the skills, patience, perseverance and determination!!
Fair play
Barn-door To Tailgate Conversion
- Thread starter Ads_Essex
- Start date
I'm fairly sure at this point I'd decide to sell my barn door van in its entirety and buy a tailgate one!!!
Amazed and impressed at the skills, patience, perseverance and determination!!
Fair play
Believe me, if i hadn't already started customising the van to my liking I'd have got rid of it months ago. To be honest the Ford Transit Custom is a much better van all around, and I've been a vw guy since before i could drive. It pains me to say it but in my opinion, having had a couple of both, the transit wins in every aspect for me.
These flippin barn doors for instance, have been the same for 20 years!!!
It is. And i can honestly say for me its purely cosmetic. I'd go as far as to say its a step backwards in practicality, for my use anyway.
I assume most people buy vehicles based off how they look before anything else. My van came up very cheap, and having done a quick skim of the forums, a tailgate conversion seemed to be bolt off bolt on. So i thought I'd go down that route and make it look how i wanted it to look while still nabbing a bargain.
Since having gotten a tailgate, and parts to fit it, and wired in the extra requirements for locks and heated rear screen. When it came to fitting the hinges I've been in the game long enough to know theres no was the hinges just mount to a single skin of steel.
All in all, it is far far from cost effective to get a barney and convert it to a duck pout. Just get a tailgate initially, even if it takes more lube on the fund tunnel.
Ok so the inner panel just arrived. This is what is missing on barn door vans. You can see now that not needing to fit this extra lump of steel in a barney saved VW a considerable amount of money over the hundreds of thousands of vans produced without a tailgate. More than enough to keep the top executives at VW in strong supply of booger sugar and unicorn steaks no doubt.
Full width support. 2mm thick profiled brackets at the hinge points that stretch further into the roof area. These brackets are welded onto the full panel, so you have an extra 1mm of steel, thats 3mm of steel on this panel alone. Once fitted it will also but up to the roof panel and have an overall thickness of 4mm where the hinges bolt up. All the load spreading properties of the panel and the brackets make this an essential requirement for the longevity of a tailgate conversion.
Full width support. 2mm thick profiled brackets at the hinge points that stretch further into the roof area. These brackets are welded onto the full panel, so you have an extra 1mm of steel, thats 3mm of steel on this panel alone. Once fitted it will also but up to the roof panel and have an overall thickness of 4mm where the hinges bolt up. All the load spreading properties of the panel and the brackets make this an essential requirement for the longevity of a tailgate conversion.
10/10 for effort . Hope it all works out well with no hidden issues 
Many hidden issues10/10 for effort . Hope it all works out well with no hidden issues
The cross panel strengthening for the tailgate is not fittable retrospectively. It has to be fitted before the roof is fitted as it is sandwiched between the roof and the D pillars as they curve to match the roof line.
It can however be made to fit by cutting it in half, some detailed trimming and welding it back together once in place. Not ideal and to be honest a lot more work i dont want to do, but as im already here, i may aswell give it a go.
After reading this, I'm keeping my barn doors. I've had TG in past T5 and T6, but couldn't find the spec I wanted this time around so settled for BD.
Worst thing is all of our stuff getting wet in the Ovano when it's peeing it down. I'd rather live with that than have to cut up and re-weld.
Worst thing is all of our stuff getting wet in the Ovano when it's peeing it down. I'd rather live with that than have to cut up and re-weld.
After sleeping on it last night i think i may do the same. This is ball ache tbh. Hopefully be able to sell all my tailgate shite, although i think i may have killed the conversion market here
Either way im loosing out big time here. May start a go fund me to help depressed vw owners
Thank you for your sacrifice hoopdub - the award is in the post.
Proper forums are way better than that facebook shyte, you can find useful information from over a long period of time.
Now, what's the bestest, cheapest, quickest to deploy tiny tailgate awning for a barn door van with a spoiler??
Proper forums are way better than that facebook shyte, you can find useful information from over a long period of time.
Now, what's the bestest, cheapest, quickest to deploy tiny tailgate awning for a barn door van with a spoiler??
For what it’s worth, I have no cracks nor damage and have had the heavy Cali tailgate panel fitted for a fair few years, so if you’ve come this far, fitting the tailgate without the extra panel has still worked fine for a lot of us.
Yeah, but with my luck im sure it would happen the week after fitting it. Plus I'd worry about resale, i wouldn't want any comebacks.
After chucking my toys out of the pram this morning though I've since changed my mind again and carried on with trying to make it work. With some back and forth, shutting one eye tongue out i managed to trim the panel in a way that allowed me to get it in place with access to the majority of the critical weld points. I will also be using panel bonding in the OE positions and in any areas i think it will benefit, for ultimately greater strength than factory and kill any areas where vibrations could be heard when i crank up the bass on some Michael Bolton Greatest Hits.
Now its time to get flushing back the old spot welds so the new panels sit flat.
Hi everyone,
I have carried out a tailgate conversion on my T6. I followed the guide step by step on the forum. Super helpful guide !! I wired the loom as per guide etc. but I am pretty sure I made a mistake somewhere as I am now finally got round to the vcds and recoding i spent a little bit of time familiarising myself with the software. I have some really strange behaviour from the settings mentioned in the forum which seem to be working for other people. I’m just wondered if anyone else came across any similar issues or may have some suggestions. I followed this :
(This is from memory, hopefully someone can check it)
Now for me the handle external ie the soft touch switch has never worked. I’ve had to make do manually opening boot from catch inside.
So now finally open vcds software :
On vcds I checked measuring blocks section in module 9 to check I was getting the correct status when the tail gate is either open or closed, I checked ( group 006) in field 3 changes to open when tailgate is opened. Closed when closed. So the bsm knows the tailgates state and that seems correct to me ?
I can’t get any other section in group 006 to change status. In one section it says not installed where the images in the forum show open or closed As mentioned here :
VCDS monitors if the latch is fully engaged or not. Select Measuring Blocks Group 006:
Field 2, field 3 = "Open", "Open" = when rear lid fully open
Field 2, field 3 = "Closed", "Open" = when rear lid ajar (at first latch).
In the picture below the lid was obviously closed.
To check if the BCM is
getting the signal to open the lock, the statu
s shown in Group 008, field 4. Just indicates that the switch is pressed or not.
For me Group 008, field 4 doesn’t change status. If I press the external handle on the tailgate.
When I go to output tests and select Rear Lid Unlocking I can run the test. I am sure I even hear a relay click from bcm. But as photos show it briefly displays not ok then shows inactive and doesn’t unlock the boot. The test also doesn’t work if I open the tailgate.
Now I know the motor and actuator work in the tailgate to open it because strangely when and only if I open the tailgate manually so the latch is disengaged, when I press the unlock button on the key fob it then operates the actuator. At this point I am really puzzled. Have I got something back to front ? When I close the tailgate the unlock button on the key fob doesn’t open the tailgate.
When I check the fault codes section I get this but can’t find anyone else coming across this fault.
Fault code appears 00329 - control circuit for unlocking rear lid
Another issue which seems to arisen all of a sudden is if I tell the bcm I have rear left door the sliding door. It’s stuck on open and displays the door open light on dash and won’t go away unless I uncheck the option in the coding byte 7 bit 0
I’ve included some images of my config but if anyone has any ideas or further suggestions at all it be great to try a few new things. I am stumped
I have carried out a tailgate conversion on my T6. I followed the guide step by step on the forum. Super helpful guide !! I wired the loom as per guide etc. but I am pretty sure I made a mistake somewhere as I am now finally got round to the vcds and recoding i spent a little bit of time familiarising myself with the software. I have some really strange behaviour from the settings mentioned in the forum which seem to be working for other people. I’m just wondered if anyone else came across any similar issues or may have some suggestions. I followed this :
(This is from memory, hopefully someone can check it)
Now for me the handle external ie the soft touch switch has never worked. I’ve had to make do manually opening boot from catch inside.
So now finally open vcds software :
On vcds I checked measuring blocks section in module 9 to check I was getting the correct status when the tail gate is either open or closed, I checked ( group 006) in field 3 changes to open when tailgate is opened. Closed when closed. So the bsm knows the tailgates state and that seems correct to me ?
I can’t get any other section in group 006 to change status. In one section it says not installed where the images in the forum show open or closed As mentioned here :
VCDS monitors if the latch is fully engaged or not. Select Measuring Blocks Group 006:
Field 2, field 3 = "Open", "Open" = when rear lid fully open
Field 2, field 3 = "Closed", "Open" = when rear lid ajar (at first latch).
In the picture below the lid was obviously closed.
To check if the BCM is
getting the signal to open the lock, the statu
s shown in Group 008, field 4. Just indicates that the switch is pressed or not.
For me Group 008, field 4 doesn’t change status. If I press the external handle on the tailgate.
When I go to output tests and select Rear Lid Unlocking I can run the test. I am sure I even hear a relay click from bcm. But as photos show it briefly displays not ok then shows inactive and doesn’t unlock the boot. The test also doesn’t work if I open the tailgate.
Now I know the motor and actuator work in the tailgate to open it because strangely when and only if I open the tailgate manually so the latch is disengaged, when I press the unlock button on the key fob it then operates the actuator. At this point I am really puzzled. Have I got something back to front ? When I close the tailgate the unlock button on the key fob doesn’t open the tailgate.
When I check the fault codes section I get this but can’t find anyone else coming across this fault.
Fault code appears 00329 - control circuit for unlocking rear lid
Another issue which seems to arisen all of a sudden is if I tell the bcm I have rear left door the sliding door. It’s stuck on open and displays the door open light on dash and won’t go away unless I uncheck the option in the coding byte 7 bit 0
I’ve included some images of my config but if anyone has any ideas or further suggestions at all it be great to try a few new things. I am stumped
I haven't got to coding yet so i wont be much help. But the fault code, open circuit, would suggest a wiring issue. Have you checked that the extra wires are in correct positions at the bcm and tailgate connections?
Here's the difference at the hinge mounting points on the van....
Barn/wing doors,
Tailgate,
As you can see, i did get around to washing the area
A 300% thicker mounting area on an additional full width cross member for tailgate vans over the barn/wing door vans.
Barn/wing doors,
Tailgate,
As you can see, i did get around to washing the area
A 300% thicker mounting area on an additional full width cross member for tailgate vans over the barn/wing door vans.
Hi, no problem any help at this point is appreciated. I mean how can I check them exactly ? As far as I thought they are correct. But think it’s so odd that the bcm can see it’s closed yet doesn’t unlock unless the tailgate is already open ? So strange. But I wouldn’t know what to do in order to check
pin 23 on the black BCM plug should go to pin 13 on the tailgate 17 pin plug.
pin 10 on the black BCM plug should go to pin 14 on the tailgate 17 pin plug.
This is on the standard tailgate plug though. How did you connect the wires from the barn door loom to the tailgate loom?
Hi, unfortunately it was a while ago as in few years so I can’t be certain. Although I got all my info from the guide. And wired as this
