What a darn job!

[Ralpher]

I bought a set of black side-bars from Transporter HQ recently. I opened the box to find "instructions" fit for the bin, no explanation of the front and rear brackets, both different and both also not symetricalm no menton of this on the drawing... A phone call to their shop got a slightly flippant "watch the YouTube" video, which was equally unhelpful, seriously poor after sales, I'd expect better from them.

Anyway, the point of this post is this: I took my van to a friend's workshop, who put her up on the ramp. We looked at the "undercarriage", noting that the plastic undertrays and heat shields were rivetted together, and to remove the undercarriage would be a much bigger job than anticipated.

I spoke to The Phirm, my local VW specialists who said they would want possibly four hours to install the bars, as it was a lot of messing about to trim the bellypan up and make a nice job of it.

If I'm missing something here and there's an easy way to install these gaddam bars, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks

 

[Dellmassive]

VW don't trim the plastics on the sportline.

They just bend them out the way . (so why not do as they have done?)

And let them sit over brackets after.

mine been the same way for 5 years - no issues.

I'll add a couple of pics.

 

[Dellmassive]

Ie....

 

[Dellmassive]

so. . . just remove the fixings to make the under trays loose.

bend them out the way.

bolt rail to floor,

refix under trays.

 

[Ralpher]

Thanks Dell, good to know VW are keeping their standards high

 

[Spaghetti]

Ie....


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Mine were fitted by the converters and they did exactly the same as this.

 

[Rioja John]

Mine were fitted by Salop Vans and they cut a substantial piece of the under tray away so I have bought the plastic protrusions that fit under the edge of roof tiles cut it to shape and pop riveted it in place to keep the water and crud out especially where I’ve fitted My diesel heater.

John.

 

[JDC]

@Dellmassive what lights did you use on the bars? I was thinking of using led strip but can't find something that I think would be sutible.

 

[Dellmassive]

@Dellmassive what lights did you use on the bars? I was thinking of using led strip but can't find something that I think would be sutible.

They are OEM Sportline bars that come with the LED puddle lights. . .




@Deaky is your man when talking about LED Strip on side bars, ( hes been there, seen it, done it, broke it, fixed it, re-done it . . . etc etc )

check out his build thread. . . .

Deaky’s Kombi to Camper journey

So I picked my van up on Friday and started a few jobs on Saturday... Extra door seals 69E7C6EC-4905-423A-9B30-DECA81D963DB by Deaky posted 21 Oct 2017 at 16:44 Swapped the interior light for one with ambient lighting in it Before 9C7FF261-F542-434F-AFED-D542D651299A by Deaky posted 21 Oct...

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[Dellmassive]

Thanks Dell, good to know VW are keeping their standards high

TBH the VW factory dont fit the bars or sportline kit,

thats done in the UK by a VW appointed choachworks company.

TBF i think its a good way to do it, as it stops all the road grim getting to the underbody.

and once they fitted, you never have to get to the bolts again . . . . so why bother cutting the under trays?

 

[drinfinity]

I spoke to The Phirm, my local VW specialists who said they would want possibly four hours to install the bars, as it was a lot of messing about to trim the bellypan up and make a nice job of it.

If I'm missing something here and there's an easy way to install these gaddam bars, I'd love to hear it!

Thanks

It took me about an hour, but most of that was failing to retrieve a bolt I dropped inside the cill. It’s possible to wiggle the rear bolts in with them loosely attached to the bracket, so they don’t get lost.

 

[Shaun Witts]

so. . . just remove the fixings to make the under trays loose.

bend them out the way.

bolt rail to floor,

refix under trays

And I carefully trimmed each bit of undertray for a snug fit around the brackets …

 

[JDC]

They are OEM Sportline bars that come with the LED puddle lights. . .

@Deaky is your man when talking about LED Strip on side bars, ( hes been there, seen it, done it, broke it, fixed it, re-done it . . . etc etc )

check out his build thread.
.

Yeah I've had a read already and was thinking of them until I saw them small spots. They look similar to decking lights I saw in screwfix that I was considering using.