I did this. But yes, you'd need to make cut-outs in your bed base to suit. Buses are all different, most of them don't have this problem because they don't have those vents and the Y piece is shaped to fit under the floor. Maybe right, my memory is what it is, it was 20 years ago when I had my Westy interior apart and I sold it 10+ years ago so I can't look. Surprised I can remember where all the fixings are TBH.
Since you have a Devon Zed. Can you tell me anything about the central belly pan under the vehicle. Did Devon put their own specific one under. The one on mine seems to be welded or something, I don’t see any bolts. Also do you know how the spare wheel was attached in the back of the van. The spare wheel well is there but I am trying to find the strap or clamp on Just Kampers etc?
The only thing Devon about mine now is the roof. It was a Eurovette when I got it and the spare sat inside in the usual wheel well. The belly pans again, I dunno. Mine had a bolt on centre one and some kind of pans on the outside but TBH I think some "restorer" had welded them on to cover the rot instead of fixing it. That restorer was famous for making what you see look good and not bothering with anything else and interestingly had their own MOT bay which passed the van for several years afterwards. Then one day they lost their MOT bay - I won't speculate why that was - the owner took it elsewhere and received a 3 page rust fail sheet. They couldn't or didn't want to fork out having it repaired so I bought it via Ebay and restored it myself. One side looked like this. The other was like this, so yes that looks like the remains of a pukka side pan and the corrugated thing was a cheapy repair? It's probably technically supposed to have side pans which were always welded on as there is nothing above that you'd want to get at to maintain. I didn't replace them though. The centre one should be bolted as sometimes you might want access in there. I also hacked this off which again technically I probably shouldn't have but they make the inside fugly. And I ripped out the soft head lining, removed it's side fixings... ... and fitted a ply head lining sort of thing. With a head banger locker. To be honest my interior is a complete hotch potch. Westy cab seats with rotating passenger seat after cutting out the bulkhead, Devon poptop, home brew head lining and RR bed from Westy hinges, an adapted after market side cupboard thing. Home brew table with a Devon leg and Devon sliding attachment. The actual vehicle and cab area is as made apart from a few gauges and ... I swapped out the puny 1600 Type-1 engine for a 2.4L type-4 and added a brake servo I put my spare on the front, cut out the wheel well, screwed a panel over the hole and fitted an eber and a battery charger in the space. Labour of love eh? lol. If I contemplated doing all that now I just wouldn't but at the time it seemed like a good idea, it took.. quite a while.
Interesting, I am going to have to sort the entire pop top by taking it off and stripping it back later in the year when I have somewhere to do it. The soft Devon lining is discoloured, slightly torn and I need to inspect the metal behind. Was the ply lining hard to do? Would you say it has some benefit over soft lining? What thickness/type of ply is it? The spare wheel seemed to be strapped in the back wheel well with a special strap, but I can’t see anywhere that sells it. The centre belly pan is the only one there and looks the same as your one in t here e photo. It looks welded on but I would quite like to access the central area so might have to cut it off. I B am not sure if belly pans are considered good or bad in terms of corrosion?
Centre ones no problems, they are away from a lot of wheel thrown up stuff and have big oval holes for airing. The original side ones had no air holes and caused a lot of rot problems to the sills, outriggers and main chassis. Later side pans had a row of oval holes and cause FAR less problems. Get a camera in if you can before you take them off because you may be in for a world of pain... or maybe not. I have no faith in my ability to fit a soft head lining and I'd bet it would end up with dirty marks all over it. I found the ply easy enough, but you'll see mine's in two halves. This is because I'm a cheapskate, I used cheapy 3.6mm ply and the grain runs the wrong way, it's hard to get a whole one in without breaking it. Better, thinner birch ply in 5ft x 10ft sheets is available and/or ready made pieces You do need a channel at the sides to catch it, you will have to remove the claws that hold the soft lining. I had a template for the front piece. This one I routed side pieces, got lucky fitting the front piece without breaking it, broke the next one then after some head scratching made a catcher piece for the centre. So, I'm very stubborn and I'm a cheapskate and I hold to the "it takes as long as it takes" philosophy. The devon one was perhaps easir because the rear around the hinges is hard, but hidden by the top locker so I just didn't do that bit. But then you have the side box pieces to figure out. I don't think there's really an easy solution but the easiest would be to buy and adapt ready made westy roof stuff. My Scottish blood stops me spending on anything I can make though. lol YMMV
Right, now I have been out measuring for the last hour I am really losing the plot on this one. I don't understand the dimensions of the seat base and back and how they line up. I can't find accurate measurements for a full width continental bed so I am relying on what people on here have given me and what I am measuring. The seat back when in the seat position rests on the support brackets at the back that also supports the other Right, now I have been out measuring for the last hour I am really losing the plot on this one. I don't understand the dimensions of the seat base and back and how they line up. I can't find accurate measurements for a full width continental bed so I am relying on what people on here have given me and what I am measuring. The seat back when flat in bed mode rests on the area with the red arrow in the diagram above. When the seat is in seat mode does the lower edge of that board also rest on/touch where the red arrow is? When I fix the measure tape and move the hinges, it shows that the back wood board would have to be 490mm in order to rest nicely and fully on both when open or closed. All the measurements I have been given by others suggests the back board should only be 430 but that wouldn't be enough?
The next issue I have is I am told the base seat board is 500mm. In that case if you put the bed flat in bed mode and measure half way between the two hinge plates towards the front of the van past the front kick panel then you get a protrusion of about one and half inches. However when you put that board back into seat mode the base board does not go so far back that it touches the support metal in the above picture.
Finally when you put the wooden boards on the hinges there is a huge gap between the two boards where the metal hinge supports intervene. How is that in all the photos with foam and coverings you don't see any gap at all. Is the foam just so thick that it fills in this huge gap? When you sit on the foam does it compress and expose the back firewall behind?
What I will say in the meantime @Bay Dreamer is that the continental would not have that bloody great bar running left to right along the corrugated sloped tin. I suspect, but it's hard without seeing what you're doing that if it's in place it's throwing everything out. The 22mm board or so is self supporting. Therefore the only contact points are where the boards are bolted to the hinges, and where the middle (backrest) board rests on the kink of each hinge where they bolt to the top of the corrugated panel
The metal strip must be from the Devon conversion. It sits virtually the same height as the hinge supports so isn’t really causing a problem at the moment. Here is the tape measure sitting on the hinge back support as far as it would go and you can see 430mm only makes it to the centre of the last hole where you attach the boards. It would also mean that there would be a gap between the two bed boards when flat.
The metal strip will interfere with the seat back I suspect but you can deal with that later. The back board has to be at least the length of the kink in the hinge bracket to the last hole. That's obvious. Not sure where you've got 430 from. From that picture above it looks to me like it needs to be closer to 460. Did you look at the pictures I linked to on page 6 of the chip thread. The boards are pretty much butted up (a couple of mm for clearance maybe) when the bed is down. However....the way the hinge works means that if you get that back board in the wrong position relative to the end of the hinge then you will potentially have a gap between the 2 foams when the bed is in seat mode. What thickness foam are you using, coz it's important if you want it to look right
If you want a longer bed, the one thing you can do is make the seat base part a bit deeper so it sticks out the front a bit. The seat back you have to work within the constraints of the hinges. Then there's the all important foam thickness for two reasons. First to fill the gap between the two moving parts in seat mode but also to build it up high enough to match the bit over the engine which is thinner. No use measuring any of mine as I did much the same as bus monkey, I used the hinges and worked it out, it's really not that difficult! But if you really want to rebuild it as per Westy you need someone with an original full width Continental bed to measure everything for you.
Right so I have been out there again measuring, moving the hinges etc. I have looked at the pictures in your resto thread and this is where I am at. I think that both the base board and back board should be 500mm depth each. If you put the bed in seat position and put the back board as low as you can do it rests on the hinge supports. Hold the measure tape on the hinge plate and move it into bed position, 500mm then reaches exactly to the right point on the hinge supports. If you pretend that back board is fitted in that position there and open into flat bed mode and butt the seat base board up to it, measure 500mm and close the hinges to seat mode then the base would move back almost to touch the metal bracket supports against the fire wall at the back and there is an overhang of 25mm past the kick board. the boards will be bolted differently on each part of the hinge but it seems they work out correctly together then. Does 25mm overhang when in seat mode sound right?
