next was to remove the corroded gutter and start shaping the replacement front skins







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we will also be removing the gutter drain lips and replacing them with holes just above the a-post seam to aid water displacement. and because it will look much better.

I may as well say it before someone ease does

don't get ride of the rain gutter outlet and put a hole there ( this what I did and I was soon put right ) you pop a hole on the drip rail it runs the risk of get blocked with shuff.


just move the gutter rain outlet along to the side a little more

I'll go find a pic what what I did

be back in 5 mins


Mark

Yes keep the gutter...just move where the spout is positioned so that the draining water from the gutter falls away from the safari window seals etc.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

See I did tell you

and the ssvc also came to my rescue and advised me to go the correct direction

see below





Mark

JOB DONE THIS IDEA WAS THE BETTER ONE



MOVE THE DROP GUTTER AWAY FROM THE WINDOW THUS STOPPING THE WATER RUNNING DOWN THE SCREEN


















































I'LL SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT





Mark

cheers for your input guys, i'll instruct david to move the lip along bit instead of deleting it.

nice catch fellas

Yes, thanks so much for the advice. This is exactly what I would like to continue to see as things progress.

hi all, we've had a bit of a hiatus due to my mac deciding to discontinue its period of usefulness so after getting it fixed we are back with some more updates. still got a load of pics to sort into order so there will be much more coming in the next week or so.

so first of all we needed to weld up some holes on the new floorpan as everyone we spoke to only had LHD ones in stock.





next up was to complete the front end by fabricating a new front valance,









i have too say i hate the way the arch front doesn't quite meet the front valance and line up properly, when i spotted it i was about to ask david if he'd cocked it up but after checking a few other splitties in the shop i found they are all the same. a terrible bit of design in my opinion but i guess they knew what they were doing.

and test fit with another bumper we have around the shop..



the next job is going to be the seats, we had started to fix the seat backs and bases as they were quite rotten but after talking to rob the plans have changed somewhat. the original plan was to tilt the seat backs so that they matched the angle of the seat when reclined, this would give the seat around 6" more rearward travel. rob has mentioned to me that he would like the height of the backs to be lowered which would give us an almost similar range of movement. our plan is to lower and recline the backs, but first the seat runners and subframes need to go in, more pics of that to follow...

just a quick one, both seat bases are not in place, minus the seat backs which we are going to make to fit our seats, which will be going in next.

and the next step, modern reclining sliding seats.

first of all my plan was to stick vw and go with some seats i had around out of a mk1 caddy. the simplicity of the sliding mechanism seemed to make sense with what we were doing. once in though they just sat way too high, the goal after all is to make it more comfortable for rob to drive with his 6'7 frame so lowering the seat was job one.



we decided to get the shape and the adjustment we needed we would have to make our own seats so measurements were taken and this was fabricated.



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the curve of the frame would allow it to still give the seat a nice wide base but still sit nice and low to the panel.

next was to find an appropriate sliding mechanism so with tape measures in hand a trip to the dismantlers was embarked upon. we found that a vauxhall zafira was a good contender, the sliders were very thin and very long, giving us a good range of movement. we cut all the unnecessary gubbins off of the sliders and tacked them onto our new seat bottom.





so now we had the bottoms of our seats in place, we started to work on the tops, our original plan was to make one ourselves again but after stripping the fabric from the zafira seat and lining it up it seemed perfect so we tacked it in place and gave it a go.







once we tested it with some seat foam in and were more than happy with the results we fully welded everything together, fabricated new brackets for mounting the seat back, welded strengthening plates in the arch panel to hold the seat runners, welded captive nuts in for the seat mounting bolts to fasten through and finally skinned the top of the seat base in steel plate.













the only other thing left to do was to chop the seat down a smidge. we want the seats to look as old school as possible whilst still giving the support and flexibility of a modern seat. so, lowbacks are definitely what we need for that. the lumbar support will be provided by the shape of the lower section of the zafira seat. we don't need the top section for anything or god forbid, head rests! so the seat was cut down by a few inches and a curved section welded in for reinforcement.

at this point we also fabricated a mechanism for operating the slider locking pins. it sticks out of the left of the drivers seat and you simply pull the handle up, this pushes down on the locking catches in the sliders, lifts up the locking pins and the seat slides freely. when we are doing the finishing touches to the van this will be sent out and chromed to form a nice old school feature.

our aim is always to carry out these custom mods in such a way so that no one who didn't know theses vehicles well would be able to spot it wasn't standard.







and now, on to the other side... pics to follow.

As a reference for readers here. The picture of the person in the seat is a 6'4" employee of Andy's. Its clear that the seat now sits much lower and can slide back and recline. It is exactly what I was hoping for. Now to customize the rear seat frame to cope with the lines of the seat.

looking good picking up lots of ideas and tricks probably won't be going the 'armour plated arse protector' though i'm using baywindow seats on adapted t25 rails(tyring to keep it vw as much as i can). keep up the good work,
mik

Looking good, keep up the good work

Well, bit of an error on my part which resulted in me forgetting to order the suspension from Red9. Just placed the order today and am looking forward to it being available once the customization has been completed for the wheels. I hope I love the Red9 as much as most people seem to. I have gone with front and rear as well as the fuel tank.

Can anyone recommend a really good roof rack? I am just trying to source something that looks great.

hi all, a few more updates,

before we get into the interesting stuff we had to go round filling a tonne of holes and doing tiny metal repairs as some sections of the front end were perforated with rust but not bad enough to warrant cutting the whole thing out and starting again.




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