Berlingo in disguise..

[BlackPartner]

Hello all...

Haven't been up to much recently as I was approached to sell the van a while back...

Money never materialised and tbh, I was struggling to find a replacement in as good or better condition...

So, we press on.. this time with an upgrade on the god awful factory speakers...

Decided to keep things french and got some focal components..

   

Pulled the doors apart and lined the inside with some more sound deadening..


   


Then after a bit of head scratching mounted the tweeters onto the mirror cover, they looked a bit clumsy so broke out some tubing and wrapped them in some fake alcantara (whichbwas a nightmare to shape all the contours...

But we ended up with these


   

Crossovers bolted up in the door pockets


   


Still needs some tweaking on the headunit and the crossover controls but a huge improvement from what it was and its all in place for when the headunit gets upgraded...

[BlackPartner]

G'morning all....

Not much to update on the partner, it sailed through its MOT which is good to know..

I've obliterated the undertay after some 'enthusiastic' back road detours  and that needs replacing as there definitely more road and wind noise once you get up to 80mph+...

Had a play around with fixing the bikes in the back too to simplify things and after a bit of head scratching I knocked up a stainless bar that fixes into the factory M8 load bay inserts and bought some shorter straps to fix the bikes...

   

   

Suspension and big alloys are still undecided as I do love the fact you can just bash around with zero worries..

Maybe if a nice set come along I'll be tempted....

[BlackPartner]

Back again for another update...  not that I'm sure anyone here reads or cares...

The ol plastic trims have been looking tired for a while now, Gtechniq C4 has always been my 'go too' for this sort of thing but after a hefty Google session on 'detailing world' forum the guys there seemed to get quite excited by this stuff:

   

1 oz as it happens is roughly f**k all, but I was assured it goes a long way.. which is just as well as the front bumper alone is a regular cars worth of plastic ??

Correct procedure was followed.. a decent wash - snow foam, hard wash, a full be-bug on the front bumper and mirror backs

 (I even took the number plate off - thorough!!)

A good wipe down with neat isopropyl, shook the bottle vigously and set about it...

For God sake wear gloves!! this stuff is basically VERY runny shoe polish...

Anyhow.. applied, buffed off and the results are incredible.. the various shades of grey are gone and a deep even dark grey/black returns...  time will tell how long it lasts, but I'm impressed so far...

   

   

   

Scuttle trim still to do... hopefully there's still enough left ????

[Mark604]

"...not that I'm sure anyone here reads or cares..."
I do.

Especially since I need some black trim restorer anyway.

[BlackPartner]

"...not that I'm sure anyone here reads or cares..."
I do.

Especially since I need some black trim restorer anyway.

Haha..  well I can't comment on it's longevity as yet as I only applied it Saturday...

Me and my lad had a mild calamity with a high speed backroad and a can of coke resulting in the drivers side of the van, parts of the dash and footnats now being VERY sticky ????  

Will report back after it's next (imminent) wash....

[BlackPartner]

Not sure if anyone else suffers with this... but the roof on my van seems to flap around like a duvet on a washing line...

Particularly if I'm driving with the windows open and a lorry comes past the other way... a comedy "perrrr-dungggggg" rings thru the roof...

I made some rolled stainless channels a while back but only just got around to bonding them up against the roof skin...

They measure about 80mm with 10mm folds either side to create a  U shape.. I then rolled them to match the roof profile, slapped some adhesive on and jammed them in place with some bits of wood...

In between these I added the rubbery foil faced sound deadening mat. And then over that.. foil faced 8mm (I think) foam in an effort to keep temperatures going from 1 extreme to the other....

Enough babbling... here some pics of where I'm up to....


   

   

   


I have to say out of everything I've done (sound deadening the flloor - deadening the sides - carpeting the sides)  THIS has made the biggest difference by FAR..  closing the doors now results in a "thud" rather than a tinny "twaaaaanggggg" 


Once this is done I need to decide on a material to create a headlining....

[Multispacer]

"...not that I'm sure anyone here reads or cares..."
I do.

Especially since I need some black trim restorer anyway.

The Gtecniq C4 stuff is very good for what I've seen on other's vehicles that have used it. The thing that always put me off was the expense of it. Looking at all the 'fixes' for the 'grey trim syndrome' on line, I came to the conclusion that all you seem to be mainly doing is putting the oils back into the plastic to restore the 'blackness' which then eventually dry out again and start to go back towards grey again. So basically not wanting to spend 'loads-o-money' I just tried cleaning the trim up with IPA and then going around with a lint free cloth and applying copious amounts of normal black shoes polish [the traditional paste stuff, not the liquid] bought from the cheapie high street shops [I think they were about 49p a tin] and buffed it with another clean cloth. I think I used about two whole tins on the first application which looked good [all back to black] and lasted about 9 months before I repeated the process and then after that it used to last about a year. The Berlingo used to sit outside all the time, so I don't think that was too bad and a cheap solution that looked just as good as other's such as black trim restorers etc that I had used in the past.

[Mark604]

Tins of black shoe polish, yep, I'm certainly old enough to know those. Thanks, I'll try some.

[evdama]

Perished tyres are temporarily healed with it too.....

[BlackPartner]

Time will tell how it lasts... but the noise reduction is HUGE...