Millennium Van Trophy up for Grabs at the 2012 Easter Van-In

No worries boys. James, no offence taken here mate and definately no need for any apologies. We are all amongst friends but I just thought it would be pro active to point out some of the realities with these vans from someone that actually owns one.

Tony ,now probs, you can go your hardest with my van at Albury. It will be sporting a brand new trim in there though so you probably wont recognize any of the original lay out.

I am also glad you have contacted Amcat as the more support we can harness for the windowless version the better.
Chris has told me that its probably better to make a new mould rather than modify the old one with the windows. I am confident that its going to happen.

Blu.

Be great to see a windowless one.........even better if it's because of some MV input!!
I was unaware of the plastic tray liner on the VE's until you told us Blu, all the Ford pick up's with plastic liners have two parts of f all under them, when I use to fit LPG, we'd pull the liners out and when I seen what was under the first one I nearly fainted!
Certainly not built to take a load or last like the old bangers of years gone by.
I'm even keener now to have a real good look at yours at Easter Blu.
Cheers Rob

Yep Rob, I am hearing you. I dropped into my painters panel shop last week. Was telling him about my stripped out VE. He takes me out the back to show me a late model Falcon tub he was repairing. Lifted up the tub liner and I got the shock of my life . Thankfully the VE,s are no where near as bad as that. I felt so much better when I got home and started working on mine again.

Blu.

VAN 64 wrote:Hey Guys,
Now is probably a good time to explain a few facts with removing both the glass and metal bulk head below it from a VE ute. While it sounds simple enough in theory, by doing this you are removing a major part of the cars chassis integrity and strength. Even the front and rear glass in these late model cars play a major role in the cars overall strength. Like it or not that is the way they are designed and built now.
I think you would go a very long way to find an engineer that would be happy to sign off on that mod, Do you honestly think that by having a plastic injection moulded canopy bonded on top of the ute is going to compensate for the chassis strength lost by cutting out the bulkhead and removing the glass?
Sorry guys but the answer to that is a emphatic . Another thought worth consideration is the result after a serious impact when that panel and window is no longer there to tie in the shell. Not pretty !!


I have the complete interior gutted out of my van for retrimming at the moment and most people here would be shocked if they saw what is left after you remove the plastic tub liner in one of these things. Lets just say there is very little metal or strength and a lot of gaps. That is another reason they are only legally able to tow 1600 kg,s.( Even the sedans are 2150 kg,s)

Add to that the possible insurance implications and I really dont think you are going to find too many of us VE millenium van owners reaching for the angle grinder any time soon!! Unless of course you are happy to have a 50k+ paddock basher

Blu.

i work as a tray builder and fitter i work on every thing from a mayers manx to a F650s
the VE ute is built like an egg shell DONT START THOUGHING STONES JUST YET NOW JUST KEEP READING

just like an egg shell it may seam fragile but its desing is to keep materals to a minium but keep the soft stuff on the inside safe
as well it is strong when load is applied in the correct section EG: a egg is very hard to break if static force is applied to the top and bottom of the shell same as a VE is strong if force is applied to the cab but not so if applied to the tub or the engine bay
its the same idear to keep the soft stuff safe

after seening blu.s van it got me thinking there are plenty of strong points in the cab to mount a cage to as they do in the V8 utes just relpace the cross bars connecting to the hoop bar behind the seats with two virtical bars with there own cross bars use the width of the two center bars as the opening in an arch way in doing this you can cover the ugly bar work

to strengthen the body from front to back you could runn bars from the foot well anti intrusion bracing down across the floor between the seat and the door about 20mm off the floor to try and keep it as unintrusive as posable to the rear hoop bar
from the rear hoop bar down to the wheel gards i bleave there is a strong point just infront or behind and do the same as the rear bars and cover them making some realy interesting cupbords from rearguard to roof line also while im there id replace the plastictub liner with a nice alloy one that will provide a stronger footing and storage

i wouldent expect any one to ever take a grinder to a new van any time soon or ever but this some thing i have the luxary of seeing these cars in there gutted form day in day out so i day dream what i might do one day when a VE is as common is a VR and about the same price

Thanks for that input fc. You make some valid points there and I do understand where you are coming from. Where there is a will there is always a way but honestly I have spent 30 years in various "real" vans and I dont miss the extra road noise and drumming that you tend to get. Maybe I am just getting older but I honestly love my van the way it is. I would most likely think differently if I was still your age but that is not an option Lol.

See you in Albury hopefully.

Blu