Daily Race Van

There are four tie down points in the load area of the van at the middle and aft corners. This is insufficient to safely strap down two motorcycles, its barely sufficient for one, so I was in need of more tie down points. Taking a leaf out of my previous Transporter build  I decided to stick in some Unwin rails. These have the benefit of offering multi position tie down points only limited in number, location and load by the position and length of the rail. I opted for surface rails this time as they are easier to fit and would not get in the way where I wanted to stick them as much as they would in other areas of the van.  I already have a number of 500kg and 125kg tie down rings to drop in them so that was one less thing to think about. I had an ide where I wanted them but I was sure to check underneath the van to ensure this wouldn't fowl anything. Two short rails were purchased, offered up to where I wanted them mounted and cut to length. These could then have their mounti...

The lighting in the Daily wasn't bad but it was dated. With incandescent bulbs and a taped up thing stuck over the hob, I wasn't just going to leave it as it was. I wanted to move to LED's everywhere I could if that meant changing all of the light fittings as I went then thats what was going to have to happen. 12V DC lighting Kitchen First up I had a go at the kitchen light which was the real eye sore. It probably didn't look good when it was new and the way it was now held together with electrical tape, wasn't improving matters. When I dropped the substantial unit down I was discouraged to find the wires unterminated with the core just twisted together like the effort of a 17 year old fitting his first head unit to a mk2 Fiesta and not a coach built race van interior. This was all placed in the bin where it belonged and an LED strip light was installed in its place with a couple of self tapping screws and a strip of foam tape for further security and to dampen out ...

This is a work in progress but as the blog is being written at the same time as I am working (for a change), I thought I might as well publish it to make it a live update of sorts. So do pop back in the future to see when I finally give up and set the lot on fire. fig 1.0 05/10/20 There is no hiding the fact that this is an ageing van and in the UK that means rust is always on the back of your mind.  I knew when I bought it that it had some rust on the underside but as I have dug deeper during my first year of ownership, I just keep on finding more and more of it. The odd hole here and there in the sills and tower bottoms is a nuisance that will have me getting busy with the mig but a noticeable split under the water heater exhaust and a big patch of rust on the drivers side wheel arch worry me a little more. Well no help will be found from thinking about it, lets go poking about. Let the poking commence Whilst sorting the battery out and doing a general tidy up...