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.

View attachment 264656

View attachment 264657

View attachment 264658
View attachment 264659

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.