Split screens, on the big screen

I don’t know how this has escaped my notice for so long, the IMCDB website provides a movie search facility for cars! You can use it to see glimpses of cars in all sorts of films, particularly interesting if they happen to be lurking in period street scenes.

As if that wasn’t enough a comment facility is provided to allow endless debate on fascinating topics, like whether or not the wheel nuts are the right vintage for the vehicle. Looking up T25’s (listed under Vanagon) I found a bunch of spotters discussing if a police bus, really was a police bus. Its all down to the shade of green don’t you know.

On the site the hardcore spotters can even take on the challenge of identifying unknown vehicles from movie scenes. Its also great to see that some of my other old vehicular obsessions/tragedies are represented, namely the wobbly but wonderful Commer van, and the under rated though rapidly rusting Austin 1300.

Chilly Pop Tops

Once I’d fitted seat belts, the missus immediately came up with a new bus threatening issue. The elevating roof in our T25 camper isn’t insulated and there was a danger of the nippers catching a chill up there. Presumably this was due to a sub-Antarctic microclimate which develops up there at night, which I had some how failed to notice thus far.

I could really only come up with one scheme, to extend the concept of thermal window screens to cover the whole roof.

I ordered a vast quantity of screen material and some attachments online from the excellent Olearys, and was rather impressed when the order arrived a couple of days later.

Working with the screen material is pretty easy, it can be cut with scissors and doesn’t fray. It isn’t cheap so I found it useful to make my mistakes with cloth patterns first.

Commercially made screens are typically edged with webbing like material. This looked easy enough to do but when I consulted a well-respected sewing guru on the difficultly of the job, they turned pale in horror and began gasping for breath. Interpreting this as a negative sign, I took the quick option and edged my screens with silver masking tape. Its looks ok at the moment, only time will tell if this is a durable solution.

In order to attach the screens I used screw in press-studs, or least tried to. The studs are provided in two parts, which are positioned on either side of the material and then hammered together to close. The problem I found is that the hammered over edges are not strong enough to survive the force needed to pull the stud off the socket, and they frequently separate. I still haven’t found a satisfactory solution to this.

The screens where tested for the first time last week, and I’m pleased to report that there was no sign of frost, snow or huskies in the roof, and that nippers didn’t get par boiled either.  A handy side effect of the screens is that they cut out light, which was always a bit of problem with the thin canvas roof.

Belt up in the back.

I’ve just taken on the challenge of fitting a three point seat belt into the rear of my trusty, if rather rusty, VW T25 camper. The lack of three point seat belts, in this case to accommodate a child seat, is the first of the potentially bus threatening issues I mentioned in an earlier post.

I started out by looking on the web to see how it should be done, in these safety conscious days I reasoned there must be a lot of demand, so it should be easy to find instruction, or people providing a fitting service. I was partly right, there is demand. Forums are full of people asking how it can be done, bits can be brought, but they come without fitting instructions. I would hazard that is because nobody wants to be held be responsible should the information they give prove to be incorrect.

I’m in the same position, but having benefited from other people’s posts on the matter I do want to give something back and add my experiences to the collective web wisdom.

I’m not mechanic or safety expert, and these aren’t intended to be instructions. I’ll describe what I found and did, the reader has to take responsibility for their own actions.

The basic procedure is:

1. Find rear seat belt mounting points
2. Drill holes and attach mounts.
3. Fit and test harness
4. Replace furniture
5. (Optional) Marvel at selection of left over screws and washers, wonder where they came from, and if they are important.

Seat Belt Mounts

Before a belt is fitted it needs a reinforced area to fit to. Don’t bother trying to use the VIN to figure what mounts you have, its not normally accurate enough and they may have been fitted after market.

If the bus has lap belt mounts there are typically three mount points, the middle one serving two belts.

The easiest mount to find is under the n/s/r wheel arch, leading edge. They are fairly weedy though, about 1in by 2in.

Not many bus’ have a shoulder height belt mounting at the rear. Exceptions are late production models (1990), Westys and caravelles.

Seat Belt Harness’

Before buying belts think carefully about what the belts and inertia reel will foul or tangle. Given the cunning construction of camper interiors its easy to overlook this given that cupboard doors open, hatches lift, beds rock, and often times roll, into positions you might not expect.

Some light commercials use a 3 point mount, where the inertia reel is mounted at shoulder height. This could save a lot of work when fitting seat belts because only 3 mounts are needed, and the one that isn’t need is the hardest to reach, at floor level. Unfortunately, in a T25 camper, with this type of belt, the reel typically fouls the engine bay cover.

Securon make most after market belts in the England, including the ones the converter of my bus, Bilbos, fitted in the eighties, and the ones JK sell. I called Securon, they don’t sell to the public, but you can ask your local motor factors to order from them. Their website http://www.securon.co.uk/ also includes detailed product information on belts and fitting schemes.

Fitting

Fitting the belts, that is bolting them into the bus, feels like the easy part of the job after all the research, and the epic job of removing the furniture and carpet hiding the seat belt mounts.

Fitting is basically a case of locating the holes VW provided for seat belts, or making new ones. The links at the end of this post show locations. Once the holes are found (or drilled) the mounting plate is located on one side and the anchor or webbing or the reel on the other.

The VW service sheet states that a torque of 30lb/ft Should be used, but this is pretty hefty.

There is considerable debate online as to whether or not mounting plates should be welded in place. Opinion varies, some folk say it is needed for strength, but others state it is only to keep the plates in place while fitting, and just a couple of spot welds is enough. I’ve also read about using a rivet for the same purpose. It is interesting to note that that the original mounts on my bus aren’t welded.

The rear, shoulder level, seat belt mounting point can be accessed by removing the rear air vent. Here’s a tip: When working in the rear air intake it’s a good idea to put something underneath where you are working to prevent bits falling down and getting lost between the interior an exterior panel work. A good old-fashioned wad of rag is perfect for this.

I found these links particularly helpful when I was doing my research:

• A chap who fitted OEM belts is here.
• Pictures of OEM seat belts in place.
• VW service bulletins describing fitting and mounting point locations.
• Notes on installation in a Caravelle, with good pictures.

Summer = bus

According to the calendar, if not the ambient temperature, summer is nearly here, and that means it’s time to dust off the trusty VW T25 (Vanagon to some) camper ready for another season of holidays.

We’ve had the T25 for years, and it has become a trusted travel companion. Our first trips started with it full of beer, then mountain bikes, then various tandems and more recently, children. The later however, are causing the greatest problems for the bus, in fact they threaten its very existence!

Our bus is a classic VW conversion, as offered by Devon, Westafallia, Holdsworth, and in our case Bilbos, it’s a fantastic spacious layout for two travelers, but its not really designed with families in mind. Each year, as the children grow, there is a new problem to figure out. Where do you sleep another toddler? How can they travel safely?, where do we put all their stuff?

As luck would have it, the solutions to the problems normally involve a couple of hours drinking tea and pondering, a frantic trip to screwfix, and a few hours using core bloke skills like hammering, drilling and swearing.

Last year the problem was beds. Where do you put an engergetic toddler when the roof is out of bounds and there is only a double bed? I looked around and there wasn’t an off the shelf solution. The closest thing was a cab bunk from bluebird, but it doesn’t work if you happen to have head rests. In the end I built a bespoke bed base which rested on the cab seats and laid in a giant hammock strung between the head rests and sunvisors. It worked rather well, and had had the handy advantage of stopping nimble fingers accessing the controls.

This year the problems are multipled; we have a bigger, more energetic, more destructive toddler, and a new, not even one year old, grabbing, chomping baby. I think a lot of tea and pondering will be called for……