The Sandwich Van. My T6 project

[Led Sandwich]

So another cheeky little update on this, I spent some time this week making up a bike rack to fit into the caravelle rails and I'm pretty pleased with the results. For a bigger bike I may need both wheels off but its a pretty neat solution and doubles as a bump stop for the bed to prevent it hitting the wheel arch when not in use or to stop my storage box sliding about.


I ordered rail clamps and brackets from Steve free and then some aliminium extrusion and a simple fork Mount.


I may make up some longer threaded T pieces as these are a little awkward to twist and fit but I’m happy overall.


That’s it holding my box in place


Then holding the bike, the bed has to be pretty far forward to fit even a small bike in a Swb so I’m going to see if I can 3d print a stand for the back so that I can take both wheels off if need be

 

[JoshB_]

I’ve not had too much time on the van in the last week or so but I have managed to sort a few odd jobs out.

I have re covered my seat belt blanking plates to hide the holes from the belts with a little help from my new born.

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Jesus Christ, it gave me kittens looking at that picture… I hope there was big cushion on the floor!

 

[Led Sandwich]

Jesus Christ, it gave me kittens looking at that picture… I hope there was big cushion on the floor!

Ha Ha yeah he isnt mobile yet luckily and was only really their for the photo. I certainly didn't step anywhere out of reach just in case he tried to escape.

 

[Led Sandwich]

So i managed a little more progress over the weekend fitting the Altro flooring. I ended up ordering it on the roll rather than pre cut and id say im still not sure if that was worth the saving. Im pretty happy with the outcome but would say its a pain to cut especially around contours and finding the rails through the floor so it was a whole Saturday by the time i had stripped and re built the car.

I first lifted out the wood and roughly traced the ply floor before re fitting and then trimming, glue wise I used proper viny floor glue which is trowelled on easily and I did half the van at a time.


Here was the floor rough cut.


then all in and fitted. i have a few bits to tidy up but overall im really happy with it.

 

[JoshB_]

So another cheeky little update on this, I spent some time this week making up a bike rack to fit into the caravelle rails and I'm pretty pleased with the results. For a bigger bike I may need both wheels off but its a pretty neat solution and doubles as a bump stop for the bed to prevent it hitting the wheel arch when not in use or to stop my storage box sliding about.


I ordered rail clamps and brackets from Steve free and then some aliminium extrusion and a simple fork Mount.

View attachment 264772
I may make up some longer threaded T pieces as these are a little awkward to twist and fit but I’m happy overall.

View attachment 264774
That’s it holding my box in place

View attachment 264775
Then holding the bike, the bed has to be pretty far forward to fit even a small bike in a Swb so I’m going to see if I can 3d print a stand for the back so that I can take both wheels off if need be

Thats class to be fair... But could you not put some sort of bolt between the top and bottom parts of the bracket? Such that the bracket can spin? Just thought you could rotate the bike 45deg so you're not having to take a back wheel off for bigger bikes.

 

[Led Sandwich]

I did think that and will have a play. I’m not sure if spinning the bars would mean it would hit the seat too soon. as it’s fixed I can just swing the rear end over but once the kitchen goes in I’ll only have 3/4 width and my big bike is a geometron so on the long side.

 

[Led Sandwich]

So I managed to get a bit more done this week, I’ve finally ordered a kitchen after popping down to the great people at evo designs. It wasn’t cheap but the quality was exceptional and they had plenty of options even with twin sliders and a sliding bed.
I went for the 5.4 pro with a bamboo top. Couloir wise I’ll let that be a surprised but it’s these units. The curved front should help me spin my drivers seat.





Then last night I managed to tackle my lack of rear courtesy lights. Annoyingly I lost the stock ones when the pop top went it so I did some reading and managed to find some remake plugs to fit the original loom.

Here are the plugs and loom if anyone needs them, not the cheapest but it’s nice not to cut the main harness.

Then I fitted some small spots from thq to the surround of my pop top, cloth taped it and it works perfectly. I will do the back door as well but wait until the the kitchen is in so I don’t do it twice.

 

[Led Sandwich]

So its time for an exciting update, My kitchen arrived last week and i have been working through slowly edge banding and assembling all of the pieces. I have to say the evo instructions were limited to say the least and not helped by the fact mine is a twin slider so modified from the drawings. it all came packed together so i had an awful lot of pieces to work through.

Here is the jigsaw i was delivered.



Then i had to go about edge banding which was a mammoth task



Then it was on to assembly i have finished the front and mocked up the layout and am currently working on the rear piece and top boxes. the quality is really impressive so the next job is waiting for black Friday deals to order my sink, fridge, electrics etc.

 

[JumpShip]

Looks cracking and love the colour .
Why is there a join in the worktop ?

 

[Led Sandwich]

Looks cracking and love the colour .
Why is there a join in the worktop ?

Thanks buddy I’m excited to get it in the van. The join is where the top loading fridge will go.

 

[Led Sandwich]

Well I know I’ve been a little lax of late. Sadly other projects got in the way so I haven’t had much time on the van. I have however decided on a bed board and picked up a caravelle multifelx Board to modify and use.



So from a few initial measurements it needs narrowing to match the rails and lowering 120mm to work on the bed so that meant it was angle grinder and welder time. I firstly stripped it down, and then mocked it up in the van then went to work

A bit of grinding and a pop rivet removed and I had the adjuster lever apart and the bed stripped.



Then I cut the legs to lower then 120mm and tacked them together for a test fit



In then trimmed the Ali top rail to the width of the bed and the boards to suit. I also spent
Some time stripping down the old outer hinge to make sure I could move it before cutting and it looks do able with some patience.



Then i test fitted it before drilling and tapping one hole in the hinge bar for a final mock up.


It’s in and seems to work ok, still needs the hinges adding to the outside, some tiding to the board to replicate the edge banding, welding, painting and some drilling and taping to be done but I’m pretty happy with how it fits and its nice to keep basically all the space behind the seat and not obstruct the view out the back.

 

[Led Sandwich]

I have managed to make a little more progress on the over the past couple of weeks, the bed board is now fully welded and the cushion pannel has been adapted to suit. It still needs painting and hinges adding so that will be a job when i get a spare few hours.

Drilling and tapping for the legs was a failry simple process just needed a little patience to make sure it was all square.

This was the mattress adaption, which i managed to enrol the wife with


That was it all narrowed to the new size, not too complicated a job really but one that sits outside my normal skill set.


Once that was done I thought id better start mocking up the kitchen in the van, this was a fairly slow process but I'm pleased to say it all clears the bed nicely. Once that was confirmed I went about scribing the rear unit into the D pillar and getting it set back as far as possible.
You can see the gap between the rear of the unit and the door here, thats what needs to be closed up.


That was the unit starting to be scribed in. the aim was to get the top corner as close toe the door seal as possible to maximise leg room in the front.


Then the back in, it still needs fixing but i have put a couple of temporary ones in for now.



I started pretty slowly, notching the roof line as i scribed further down the back panel. For anyone doing this the tape helps to prevent break out and its pretty simple to trace around the door reveal as you move further back.

 

[Led Sandwich]

Right so i have been a little slack on updates recently, mainly because I've ended up doing a load of maintenance rather than camper progress. I took the old girl into VW for a service and that led to a big list of things that needed changing, all common things but frustrating none the less.

• Front Crank Main oil seal
• PAS Pump
• Aux Belt tensioner
• Front engine mount

All of this is now done but it definitely took me a but of time to do all the work.
I had a nice visit to VW to pick up the parts I needed before starting off, for anyone looking to do the same i would say the crank bolt is really tight and was a bit of a pain to remove. I have popped a few pictures of the process below I would say for anyone looking to do the job all the workshop manuals are in the VIP area and offer great guidance even if you do have to re read them a couple of times.

Engine Bay Stripped


Old Belt out and timed up


Sump and Oil Seal removed



Sump All Prepped for fitting

Once that was all done I also found the time to pick up some LED headlights from @Ricardo T. It was great to meet another forum member and it sounds like he has a real passion for the vans. Once home I got the headlights fitted, that was a much more enjoyable process with the bumper being a breeze to remove and re fit. He also gave me some rear lights with an intermittent wiring fault so i will be stripping them down and re fitting once i had time.

Bumper off

Headlights in

All back together and ready for a test.

 

[Led Sandwich]

Right so back on the van, the rear lights I bought from @Ricardo T werw sold with an intermittent wiring fault so it was time to strip them down and investigate. Unfortunately they seemed to be hard glued together so heat wouldn’t let me pull the lenses

Undeterred I set about on some open light surgery and my first attempt at plastic welding. I struggled to buy black polycarbonate rods so had to use clear but otherwise they seemed to be all sorted and back together.
Here is the first hatch I annoyingly had to make it about twice that size but didn’t get a picture.



Once in I found a loose connection on a terminal block, all the soldering was good so I fixed the connector and tested the light. All seems perfect

Once all tested I had to go through the painful process of stitching it all back together.

I started with a few tabs to get it all lined up.



Then went over the seams slowly bonding it all back together.

Once all bonded I added some filler to the low spots and used a heated chisel to smooth all the joints out before re fitting the resistors


That’s them all back together other than being able to see the contrast between the clear PC and the black light it all feels really solid and smooth.

Next job is to swap the connectors on the van and fit them for a final test.

 

[Led Sandwich]

Right so I went to to fit the lights and I think I may already have factory LED fitted. Does anybody need know how I could tell. If so are there different models as the reverse and indicator are still halogen.

 

[TheGrapeEscape]

Right so I went to to fit the lights and I think I may already have factory LED fitted. Does anybody need know how I could tell. If so are there different models as the reverse and indicator are still halogen. View attachment 273916

I'm pretty sure the led units are full led, could be wrong though. If it came with them, maybe do a bulb search for your reg

 

[Led Sandwich]

So the van had a little more love this week, I spent some time finishing the Bed Frame and fitting up the final bits to the kitchen.
This makes me really feel like there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I've also got the fridge and last wiring bits on order so I can do the final steps.
The bed was probably the most work and I must admit the paint isn't perfect but it’s more than good enough for now.
First I had to cough cut the extra hinges this was done on a mitre saw so they were square then finished off with a mix of electric and hand filing as I don’t have access to a mill.

Luckily the main bar is a long extrusion so all the internal geometry is the same meaning the hinge holes run through the length



then once the hinges were in the bed board was drilled for the threaded inserts and the whole thing assembled


On the bench bolted up.


here it is all done and in the van, i must say i’m dead chuffed overall gives me plenty of flexibility and looks pretty much factory.





As for the rest of the van the things I still need to do I am pretty sure are as follows;

• Fit Sink and Plumbing
• Fit Gas Locker
• Fit Drop Vents
• 12v control panel and kitchen wiring
• Inverter installation
• Fridge install
• 240 hook up install
• THQ hidden flap
• 2x top boxes

 

[Badjamin]

So the van had a little more love this week, I spent some time finishing the Bed Frame and fitting up the final bits to the kitchen.
This makes me really feel like there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I've also got the fridge and last wiring bits on order so I can do the final steps.
The bed was probably the most work and I must admit the paint isn't perfect but it’s more than good enough for now.
First I had to cough cut the extra hinges this was done on a mitre saw so they were square then finished off with a mix of electric and hand filing as I don’t have access to a mill.
View attachment 275518
Luckily the main bar is a long extrusion so all the internal geometry is the same meaning the hinge holes run through the length

View attachment 275519

then once the hinges were in the bed board was drilled for the threaded inserts and the whole thing assembled
View attachment 275591

On the bench bolted up.
View attachment 275592

here it is all done and in the van, i must say i’m dead chuffed overall gives me plenty of flexibility and looks pretty much factory.

View attachment 275589
View attachment 275588


As for the rest of the van the things I still need to do I am pretty sure are as follows;

• Fit Sink and Plumbing
• Fit Gas Locker
• Fit Drop Vents
• 12v control panel and kitchen wiring
• Inverter installation
• Fridge install
• 240 hook up install
• THQ hidden flap
• 2x top boxes

All amazing. Your list looks good.

But... do you really need a fitted sink and hob?

 

[Led Sandwich]

To be honest I’m not sure, the units came with the cutout. And I think the hob will be handy for tea, coffee and pot noodles. The sink I’m not sure if I will use for more than filling a kettle but time will tell.

 

[Sackmycook]

Those are definitely factory rear LED lights fyi.
Only the red position lamp (the E) are LED and the turn signal, brake and rear reversing are halogen bulbs.....I could be wrong