Remove bulkhead metalwork

My van once had a bulkhead installed and when I bought it, it still had the metal curtain welded to the van.  Last Sunday I decided to remove the bulkhead metal which was rather a big job in the end.

Firstly I used a drill and a big drill bit to remove the passenger side of the curtain.

 Then the problems started.  To get to the metal across the middle of the van i had to remove the floor boarding in the back.  Just remove the screws and itll pop out !  Yeah right.  The board was held in by loads of mastic which took ages to cut away.  Some screws were too tight to undo so these had to be popped through the board when levered by a big metal bar !!

With the ply removed we could get the grinder out and start cutting through the weld.

Wind Deflectors

Last Sunday I installed the Heko wind deflectors.  They were very easy to install, just two 'V' clips pushed into the seal holds them in place.

There are quite slim but do keep the rain out when the windows are slightly down.

Sunday Jobs

This week I fitted some orange side repeater bulbs to go with the clear lenses, a pair of chrome indicator bulbs for the front to remove the orange fried egg look. I also put in some Philips X-treme Power H4 bulbs.

Today I installed the smoke rear lenses and the chrome indicator bulbs.

Side Repeater and Side Lights

Today I installed some clear side repeater lenses from VeeDubTransporters (amber bulbs on order) and some SED side lights from t4srus.co.uk.

Side Repeaters
Tools needed: a subway card! Use the corner of the subway card to get between the plastic light and the van wing. I started on the long side of the lens and worked towards the front corner. When the card is firmly in at the front just keep pushing and the lens will eventually pop out. Pull the bulb out, clean up the paint work and install the new repeater with the back edge first. Keep the clip to the front.

SED Side Lights.
Another easy 5 min job. I took the connector off the headlight bulb and then pulled out the side light. Pull the bulb out and replace with the new bulb.

The only trouble with having lovely white side lights is it shows how yellow the headlights are. Ive ordered some Philips Extreme Power H4 headlight bulbs from eBay and some Chrome Indicator Bulbs from Transporters R Us to get rid of the fried egg look of the amber indicator bulbs.

Insulation Part 3 - Carpetting

With the insulation done its time to carpet the walls.  We were trying to go for the one-piece approach to carpetting the metalwork.  I bought 10m of stone-coloured carpet from MegaVanMats and 12 tins of high-temperature adhesive.

We started form the back and worked forward.  What a pain the wheel arch was ! 

We found cutting holes in the carpet allowed it to stretch where we wanted it to.  We had to cut the carpet to the rear of the wheel arch as there isnt enough carpet to fill the gap.  Ive noticed even the pros have red paint showing !!

We worked our way forward and sealed the carpet under the front seat belt plastics.  Photos next weekend.

Insulation Part 2 - Adding Insulation

Following the usual method of insulation copied from Blakey, Stone 174 and Rob, I did the same !

Firstly pop down Wickes and get the following:

2 * Celotex boards
3 * Hi-Tac Flashing Strip
1 * Roll of Insulation Foil
1 * Vapour Barrier Polythene
1 * Water proof tape
1 * Stanley Knife
2 * Spare Stanley Blades

Stick the flashing tape all over the place, sides and roof.

Then put the celotex panels in all the gaps.  I used the high-temp adhesive to stick mine to the vans panels and used the waterproof tape to seal all the gaps.  Some of the spaces had 3 layers of Celotex in it, some places just the two and the top rear panel just one.

After this I added the silver insulation foil - in the dark !

Then the polythene - or half of it !!

Insulation Part 1 - Removing Interior Panels

The first job on this van was to remove the grey Volkswagon panels in the back.  Forgetting the advice of other posts on here and buying a tack removal tool from B&Q I attacked this job with two kitchen knifes !!  Not wanting to use the clips again I didnt care how they came out !!


Heres the before pictures:

And the after pictures: