Boarding Floor With Original Seats

[Mark Elvin]

Going to be doing the floor over the next few evenings.

I'm keeping the original seats and runners & was wondering how much people packed their floor to enable refitting of the original runner cover strips.

[dave_aber]

I just looked for my old thread covering my conversion - looks like it's been culled.

Anyhow, you don't want the finished floor level to be as high as the metal rail top. This is what I did, and it's too high. The cover strips will not go back on correctly.

The finished floor level, including any vinyl etc needs to be 2-3mm lower than the top surface of the rails.

You will also need to rebate the floor around the clips for the cover strips, so they can move outwards to grip the cover strip edge.

It's not a disaster if you make it too high, as my covers strips sit in place OK, held there by the screw-down end caps. It would have been nice to have them clipped in along the length too though!

DA

[Spencer54]

Literally just did mine have a look there is a thread on it somewhere.

I had a rear conversion so mine didn't need any battens the floor was solid enough as it was a fair bit smaller.
My issues were with the door end mostly.

Top tip was to get the silver bubble wrap loft insulation from Screwfix (£8?) and put that down with carpet adhesive first.

To get the runners sorted clear the inside out get the wood laid and then use the original carpet as a template.
With this done use the opposite runner on the underside of the wood and cut out where the runner fits.
Dont cut out the wings on the runner where the bolts go through simply grind away from underneath until they fit.
That way you get a flush floor.

Top tip #2 is to mark around where the cover strips go and open up the holes for the runners almost as wide.

For the step, grind off all the lugs and the webbing at the bottom, put a tread platform made from 2x12mm glued to each other and then the step floor of the van. Dont go right up to the edge with the treadstep wood, leave a cm or more otherwise the door won't shut properly.

If you want some pics let me know

[Mark Elvin]

Literally just did mine have a look there is a thread on it somewhere.

I had a rear conversion so mine didn't need any battens the floor was solid enough as it was a fair bit smaller.
My issues were with the door end mostly.

Top tip was to get the silver bubble wrap loft insulation from Screwfix (£8?) and put that down with carpet adhesive first.

To get the runners sorted clear the inside out get the wood laid and then use the original carpet as a template.
With this done use the opposite runner on the underside of the wood and cut out where the runner fits.
Dont cut out the wings on the runner where the bolts go through simply grind away from underneath until they fit.
That way you get a flush floor.

Top tip #2 is to mark around where the cover strips go and open up the holes for the runners almost as wide.

For the step, grind off all the lugs and the webbing at the bottom, put a tread platform made from 2x12mm glued to each other and then the step floor of the van. Dont go right up to the edge with the treadstep wood, leave a cm or more otherwise the door won't shut properly.

If you want some pics let me know

Thanks,

some pics would be ace.

[Spencer54]

Here's some to get you rolling.







Important one for me is how the step lays out, that took me a while to work out.

I'll have the step off and grab some for you.

[Mark Elvin]

How did you cope with the overlaps in the floor sheet metal work, does the ply not sit on it?

[Spencer54]

I thought I was going to have to batten everywhere to keep it level.
But I didnt, if you use the original runners and the floor is held down by them mostly.

Only by the step I had to put off cuts to level it up, so a strip of 12mm ply along the length and then some small off cuts strategically placed. Theses were glued in using a Screwfix contact adhesive.

I glued the ply to the top of the insulation once I was satisfied it went knowhere.

I'll be honest I thought it flexed a bit, but since all the glue has hardened I haven't noticed it.
Maybe a few more little "pads" of 12mm here and there would have sorted that but I'm more than happy.

I think I was helped by the rear conversion and the fact the seat runners are utilised.
That and the way I cut the ply so it was only in three sections.

[Simon Jones]

One thing to consider doing before boarding the floor is to remove the fuel tank inspection cover and put in an extra earth wire between top of tank and the chassis. This is a common failure point on diesel Bongos and will result if fuel gauge not moving. You can do a similar mod from below but you need to able to crawl under the van to fixing the wiring.

If you have a petrol Bongo and in the unlikely event the that the in-tank pump fails, you will have to drain and drop the tank to get to it.

[Mark Elvin]

Done that, was considering popping an access hatch over tank cover plate with an aluminium picture frame around it to keep tidy.

[Simon Jones]

That would be a neat solution

[Mark Elvin]

I was wondering about what to do with the seat belt mounts the bolt to the floor.

Think I'm going to have to make a spacer the thickness of the ply floor from aluminium bar, drilled through the middle to accept the bolt. This will lift the lower mount enough to just clamp up on the floor slightly.

[Simon Jones]

Check the length of the mounting bolts as they are not very generous and you need to leave enough thread for the captive nut. They're standard seat belt mounting threads so you could always source some longer bolts.