Project Fudge

[No Sliders]

Why not take the remote line off the remote output on the head unit?

So the main problem is the fact that the remote output on the HU is a constant live (blue/white wire) confirmed faulty HU, pffffff.
With the remote (blue) wire connected to this as it should be, and as I had it, the amp was on constant, even with the key out. Could have put a switch in… didn't like that option… just hassle every time and the possibility of forgetting to switch it off.

What I think you're saying (taking that blue remote wire direct to the back of the fuse box) would have been the ideal scenario and one that I would have preferred for sure. But if you remember waaaaeeey back in my thread the fact that I had all that hassle with the electrics there was no way I was about to crack that can of worms open after getting everything fixed and working. It looks like storage for fishing nets behind there.

I agree, not the neatest, but safe, simple and working all the same. I've padlocked the fuse lid so nobody sees it. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

[No Sliders]

No major progress of recent, what with the priority of birthdays and barbecues since the situation with the apocalypse and weather has improved.

Did manage to slip in a few cheeky hours to make my tailgate trim card look a bit pretty though - seemed like a quick win I could squeeze in.

Decided long ago I'd do the whole tailgate handle conversion thing (already covered), since discovering from our previous camping experiences in Oscar that not having a handle higher up was a pain in the butt, especially when it's your main point of entry/exit.
I wanted a stock Caravelle tailgate trim to finish the whole thing off. Over time I ended up with 3 of the things. One I got for free along with the plastic trim surrounds, the other I think I paid a fiver for? Neither of these 2 were up to much, although one of them balances on the bikes in the shed and makes a pretty good shelf to sit my strimmer on. Both were damaged but neither had the factory cut out for the pull handle. No biggy - could have done this myself, but since neither were in great condition and cost me almost nothing, I kept my eye open for a better one.

Eventually one came along with the handle position already cut out as factory standard. Condition was fair and it was a good price. The guy that sold it to me also threw in all the proper trim clips for nowt which was a result as these were a pain to source. Anyone I chased or questioned to buy them off of who was breaking a Caravelle would be like "Yeah mate sure, I'll post them out to you" …until they found out they'd have to drill 2 rivets out of each of the 4 metal clips along the top of the tailgate, then I'd hear nothing more. Then there are 2 large plastic clips screwed in both sides. On one hand I get it, especially if they're only gonna make a few quid out of it - on the other why be an idle worm and advertise the fact you're breaking a van if you don't want to break it for all the pennies you can get?

Started off by cutting a hole in the centre of my trim panel (purists look away)…



…at this point you're probably thinking I'm one of these people that love to brand every inch their van with a VW logo somehow? Nope, I'm just a bit of a nerd when it comes to surf, skate and hot rod/kustom kulture art, and love that low brow style. So the idea was to add some of that flavour into my van as I go. Won't be to everyone's taste but this van isn't being built for everyone.

Although I'd trimmed some of the plastic trim in my cab, covered my speaker rings and pod in their various materials along with trimming the front arches with the cab mat sections, this was the first time I'd actually used the carpet lining I'd bought to trim anything.
If I haven't already mentioned what colour carpet Fudge is gonna be trimmed out in, and if you haven't already guessed, here's a spoiler…



Made sense to me to coordinate the tailgate trim with the rest of the (eventually to be), interior carpet colour.
Because I'd decided on red, at the time of ordering it up I had to settle for the 2 way stretch stuff. I think you can possibly get 4 way now, but I'm not so sure of the availability?
Took my time and also used a heat gun on a low setting to warm it up as this apparently makes it a bit more pliable.



This stuff certainly made me work to conform it, but it was a good taster for eventually trimming out the interior. I'm hoping some of the angles and curves won't get much more brutal than this.
If anyone has any hints and tips from their experience of carpet trimming, then please feel free to share them with me.



Certainly gives out a nice warm luxurious feel.

Time to add in some cool (now retro), skate art. Whether you're into it or not, many of you may be familiar with, or have seen Jim Phillip's 'Screaming Hand' which he illustrated for Santa Cruz skateboards around the mid eighties.
I was totally captivated by the whole skate culture back in the days when I was made of rubber, but probably appreciate the artists of that era more so now I'm older and made of bakerlite. I own a signed print by Jim's son, 'Jimbo Phillips' who has also now gone on to produce illustrations for Santa Cruz, Volcom and the likes as well as various rock bands, so he's truly following in his father's footsteps.

Anyhoo, this little iconic piece of skate art history also hangs on my keys in 3D form…



Although we work in different fields, my partner, Jen, is also a graphic designer. So, lucky for me, I have access to a sublimation printer.
I set the artwork up which was then printed on some aluminium composite. I then stuck it in place…



Thought this was quite fitting between the pull handle and the grab handle.

The whole thing was then fitted up to the tailgate. The plastic trim surrounds will most likely remain off - not convinced they'll fit at all if trimmed in carpet.
Not gonna lie, it was a pain in the arse fitting the grab handle up with the extra thickness of the carpet, but even worse the black plastic trim around the pull handle …nothing a rubber mallet didn't eventually cure.

Thought all the effort was worth the end result. It feels perfectly weighted when it opens/shuts now, and along with all the sound deadening and insulation, it has a beautiful solid dull thud when closing. Also love the way the trim panel is designed to sit just inside the van, feeling like it's really packing in those edges - will no doubt aid with insulation…

[S49]

Love it............

[arfur fox-acre]

It looks really smart. I also like all things kounter kulture and like to make stuff from Di-bond. Seems it's true that great minds think alike.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Just T4s

[No Sliders]

It looks really smart. I also like all things kounter kulture and like to make stuff from Di-bond. Seems it's true that great minds think alike.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Just T4s

Cheers Arfur. Just had to dig and hunt out your thread as soon as you said that! ^^^
Love the vibe you've got going on with your van and some of your interior choices, great job, you've given it personality! I appreciate a pristine van trimmed out to a high spec as much as the next guy, but to me they seem a bit faceless and just don't say 'kick back, relax and crack a beer open'. Your's does, and I want mine to say that too.

Not sure I'd describe my mind as great but yep, see what you mean, we've certainly got some very similar tastes for sure. Clocked the 'Independent' sticker on your toolbox… man, even the way you described not building the van for everyone else echoed with me. Love that attitude, a true non-conformist. I think driving an old VW is almost the 'go to' choice of transport amongst the counter culture. And skulls!! What artist into the scene doesn't love inking out a bit of skullage… I'm with you there too.

I think you're gonna approve and appreciate some of the things I've got lined up

[arfur fox-acre]

Cheers Arfur. Just had to dig and hunt out your thread as soon as you said that! ^^^
Love the vibe you've got going on with your van and some of your interior choices, great job, you've given it personality! I appreciate a pristine van trimmed out to a high spec as much as the next guy, but to me they seem a bit faceless and just don't say 'kick back, relax and crack a beer open'. Your's does, and I want mine to say that too.

Not sure I'd describe my mind as great but yep, see what you mean, we've certainly got some very similar tastes for sure. Clocked the 'Independent' sticker on your toolbox… man, even the way you described not building the van for everyone else echoed with me. Love that attitude, a true non-conformist. I think driving an old VW is almost the 'go to' choice of transport amongst the counter culture. And skulls!! What artist into the scene doesn't love inking out a bit of skullage… I'm with you there too.

I think you're gonna approve and appreciate some of the things I've got lined up

Thanks for the kind words. Cant wait to see what you have coming for us in the next installment.

[No Sliders]

A couple of little jobs ticked off in between more birthdays and Fudge going off to get the new DMF rep set fitted by Jen's brother, so back up and running again with the clutch feeling nice and smooth.

Had to get a pic of this little milestone too. All the 4s in my T4 (2.5)…



One of the jobs that had been buggin' me was coming up with a solution to tidy up the gap around both sides of the roof between the strengthening frame and body, and at the section along the back.
The cables that run from the front to the back along with the rear washer pipe on the offside were untidy, and so were the cables on the nearside which originally ran to the courtesy lights previously situated in the centre of the roof.
I'd repurposed the cable clips which were virtually hanging off and had lost their adhesion from their little (not so sticky), foam pads. I scraped all the foam pads off the clips and stuck them back up with some Evo Stik serious glue…




Coming up with something to bridge this gap between the strengthening frame and body would make life easier and give a tidier look when it eventually came to carpet lining. This in mind, I also taped over the holes with foil tape.
As mentioned, this void along the back at the tailgate also needed sorting. I'm surprised SCA never came came up with a neat trim solution for these areas, especially for what they sting you for their roofs…



I wanted to make use of the existing courtesy lights which sat central in the headlining during Fudge's former life as a chippy's van, so relocating them up along this section at the back ^^^ seemed like a good solution. They'd give us some light directly over the threshold which would be handy for stumbling in and out at night times.
The wires were extended to reach and a bit of thermal insulation was stuck in because I need to get my money's worth and use it up. I also stuck some up along the top on both sides…




The plan I'd cooked up basically consisted of bridging straight across these gaps ^^^ with some sections of the original roof headlining. Thin, light and would hopefully just Sikaflex straight up. My thinking was that if I ever had to fix anything related to the wires either side, then firstly I'd need to assume the problem wasn't along these routes. If the problem somehow pointed to being in these channels, then they'd be pretty desperate times, but that problem (should it ever exist), is for future me. I had my suspicions of how effective Sika would be on the back of hardboard anyway?

After some measuring and template making my trim strips were cut and ready to stick up, but not before running a cheeky strip of fibre insulation along them…



The 2 sections were Sika'd up and clamped in place until dry. I'd also Sika'd some wooden chocks in place within the rear recess so that the rear panel section which would house the lights could be screwed up…




…As you can see, sticking these sections up wasn't my neatest job ever, in fact it reminded me of making stuff out of cereal boxes as a kid… bodging stuff together with loads of glue and sellotape. My only saving grace is that all this will be covered over with carpet, so I try really hard to remember this during self-flagellation in the evenings.

In prep for fitting the lights up I stripped them down, gave them a real good clean, sprayed the contacts with copper grease and fitted them up with LED equivalent bulbs - they came up like new…



Another template later, the back panel was cut. Whilst offering it up and bringing back down, I managed to catch one of my side panels. As suspected, the layered composition of the hardboard although stuck fast with the Sika, would separate with any kind of force. May have been ok but I wasn't satisfied and ended up doing what I was trying to avoid and decided to drive in some self tappers. I knew I should have just done this in the first place minus the Sika. Hey ho, I guess at least it's belt and braces, and peace of mind now.

I used the light cut-outs in the original headlining as a guide to draw around and cut out the holes in the new panel section…




Somewhere between this back section and the 2 side sections an angle had to be taken up. I figured there was a few ways of tackling this, but either way it would somehow be visible. I decided the best way was to take it up where this rear panel meets the inside of the strengthening frame (far right of pic ^^^). Again, this will be covered with carpet, but I liked the way the original roof mould cut straight across the back of the tailgate, so decided to marry the panel up to match the underside of this.

All in all this was one of those farty 'in-betweeny' jobs which, until completed, didn't really allow me to move on, but I feel better now it's done and out the way.

---

Decided to carpet the wheel arches next.

Had mixed feelings about this. I'd watched it done over and over on YouTube and read other threads about it - all mostly using the easier 4-way stretch stuff.
On one hand I was dreading it, especially with the thicker 2-way stuff… on the other I was looking forward to the challenge. It seems to be one of those jobs with no set method… almost a dark art… and one you can either slam dunk or f*ck up royally.

I was happy to leave the arches in a layer of sound deadening and leave off the thermal insulation. This decided, there was only one thing for it…



…The butter knife wasn't very good at cutting the carpet, but I discovered the handle came in pretty handy for pushing it into some of the tighter spots.

[No Sliders]

Insulated over the rear quarter windows.

Did some research - didn't seem to be any definitive proven method of going about it, so I did my own thing based on my own theories.
My thinking was that whatever went on the inside of the glass had to be breathable to a degree and not retain water, so I had the idea of using exercise mats. After a bit of nerding out on the composition of exercise mats, it turns out that there's certain mats out there that have almost identical properties to the thermal insulation stuff, just as I'd suspected they might be. It was both a tame and weird eureka moment.
Whatever I did, I didn't want it to show through the glass. So, after spending far too long searching for exercise mats made up of the right stuff, I ordered up a couple of cheap 10mm thick black ones.

Fast forward and another template later, I started off by cutting out a layer of thermal insulation, even though I planned on putting the exercise mat layers on first…



The thermal insulation pieces would be larger than the pieces cut from the exercise mats. The reason for cutting this out first was so I could reuse the template afterwards to make a slightly smaller one for cutting out the exercise mats. It would be easier and save making a whole new template.
Smaller template made - the mats were cut out to fit over the glass and the glass alone, leaving the the inner most window frame of the bodywork uncovered…




Just before fitting these up, the inside of the glass was cleaned obsessively (about 3 times), and for the final time, making sure there was nothing left behind to get trapped and drive me crazy from the outside once sealed.
I actually waited until it was dark to do this, just so I could see better from the reflections on the inside that they were spotlessly clean.

After the metalwork around the windows was degreased and clean, these were taped up with insulation tape and the tape punctured around the edge every couple of inches or so to aid with breathability…




…The other side (top) of these mats that faces out is smooth.

Then the thermal insulation was stuck over the top of both exercise mat and metal frame, and then sealed with foil insulation tape all the way around.
The thermal insulation is great at neutralising and balancing out the temperature, so my thinking is that the air layer between the glass and 10mm thick mat should fluctuate gradually, heating or cooling the mat and thermal insulation at the same time.
In total, there's 17mm worth of thickness to help with the gradual rise or fall in temperature. Immediately the other side of this is the air tight foil layer to deflect any extreme difference of temperature inside the van…




…There was something weirdly satisfying in a deep dish wheel kinda way about this look ^^^ …but that could be just me.

To help balance out temperatures even further, there was still room for a cheeky layer of the plastic fibre insulation to go over the top of it all…




So far (fingers crossed), my combo theory seems to be working with no signs of condensation. The ply and carpet can only be a bonus too. Time will tell though. Snowboarding trips up to the mountains with 2 extremes of temperature inside and outside the van will be the real test.

I'm looking forward to people cupping their hands over the glass to get a look inside the van through these windows. I think I'll just stand quietly and stare at them for a while until they're finished, and then ask them enthusiastically what they think?

---

Shook out and got my swede around all the cabling in the back…



Although I ordered all my looms pre-made, I spent a great deal of time going over every loom, its route, and the final placement of whatever component was at the end of it.

I'll have 9 LEDs in the back in total. 6 on one switch and 3 (originally 2), on another for flexibility. I decided to splice in a third after a bit of pondering. I decided that putting one in the centre of the trim I'd made over the tailgate would be a good call…



I bought a load of Ikea Dioder lights a good while ago that I'll be using, I just need to get a couple of regulators. Apart from in the courtesy lights, I'm not a big fan of the bright white light from LEDs, but much prefer the less harsh and warmer LED lighting for chilling and camping.

Got them all snipped, stripped, soldered, crimped and heat shrunk…



I plan on recessing all the lights, hence cutting the hole in the centre piece above the tailgate.

After lots of things thunked, pretty much all looms were connected at the fuse end, tidied, taped and run…





Finally, got fed up with my threshold cover getting in the way of stuff and moving it around the shed, so decided to give it a good clean and fit it up to its proper home… even though it'll have to come out again at some point?…

[No Sliders]

There's a railway track that runs not too far from where we live. Naturally it undergoes maintenance every now and then. A few months back there were sections along the verge the track that had some new shoring put in place.

Under a railway bridge close to where I go running was a huge pile of discarded joists and decent usable sections - all good strong but light construction grade stuff.
This pile sat for a good while without being collected and taken away, so eventually I decided enough time had passed and it was now fair game. The railway authorities would probably just write it off and pulp it or something anyway as most of the pieces had nails in the ends.
Me and the Fudgeroo went along one evening to salvage some of the best useable sections and came away with a good amount of wood to recycle. Apart from the odd nail here and there, some of these pieces were like gold to me.



The pile you see above is just a small amount of the mother lode we came away with.
After letting them dry I whipped all the the ends off with the nails in with the chop saw, then ran them through the table saw to cut square sections/batons about 40mm in width. This was with a view to eventually building the supporting structure of the bed and units from.

This killed my table saw.
Luckily I'd met up with 'fife t4' that morning and put some parts his way so I had some cash in my wallet - typical, in one hand and out the other! Nice to meet another forum member and put a face to a name - decent guy and a pleasure to meet him.

A quick trawl on Gumtree that afternoon found me one about 30 mins away. A bit of haggling and a few messages later, Jen and I went for an evening jolly after tea to pick it up. I'd kinda lucked out because as I carried it out to the car with the guy I'd bought it off, he said, "Is that a Golf?" I was like "yeah." He said, "Wait there, I've got something you might want…" I watched slightly suspiciously as he walked over to his garage and unlocked it. Up came the door and he disappeared inside.
I wondered if he'd appear with the gimp on the end of a chain… luckily not… it was a plastic boot tray moulded to fit a Mk6 Golf. "You can have this if you want?" he said. I was a bit taken for words - what a stand up guy! My initial speechlessness was partly through relief of not seeing the gimp but also I was trying to decide if I actually wanted it or not? Something else I had no room for. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I took it and to this day it still sits in the boot. Pretty handy for taking crap to the tip.

Table saw taken home in a foncy (nearly new), boot tray meant I could crack on and finish cutting 'my' wood the next morning…



I'd been waiting for a cracking day of sunshine to complete the next job. After waking up to zero cloudage one Saturday morning, I dug out this stuff which I'd had kicking around for some time…



It was time to give the exterior of Fudge's first floor a good waterproofing. I'd not done it since buying the pop top, but then whilst it was in my possession there was never really a need as I'd only used it for 6 months.
The canvas drank it up as I gave it a good larruping, paying particular attention to the seams…





Next job… ply lining.

To cut time and template faff, I ordered 4 panels up from Custom Shop Designs. I'd sent them an email enquiry explaining I had no slider and would they mirror the panel immediately behind the drivers seat/offside to go on the nearside - only difference being to NOT cut an angle off the bottom left corner by the 'C' pillar. Not a problem - the CNC programme was tweaked, this was done and the panels were sent out. Great service overall.

The thickness of the panels is about 4.5mm thick which I'm happy with. The plan was to beef up a few sections behind the full height rear quarter panels with some more 4.5mm ply where I envisaged maybe fixing up stuff and needing some extra meat. I figured this would be a good solution of having the overall flexibility and lightness of the thinner ply with strength and thickness where I needed it of the thicker 6mm stuff. Although my meaty sections would probably be closer to 9mm by the time I was done.

I started off by self tapping some batons along the bottom and one side (closest the cab), of the panel surrounds behind the seats…





…There were still some eyelets/tabs welded on the nearside of the 'delete panel' on the inner 'B' pillar. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing they could have originally been for the bulkhead? Anyway, they hampered the flush fitting of my ply matching the offside, so I cut them off.

Not sure why but for some reason the LWB Custom Shop Design panels aren't cut to accommodate the tail light trim, whereas the SWB panels are? No biggy… measured and cut these along with scoring some channels in the back where I'd be running some of the wiring behind so as not to put any pressure against them and possibly rub through. As an extra measure I put a couple of heat shrinks over the sections of wiring that would pass in behind the ply.





The ply panels were screwed up both sides behind the cab, and after some measuring, marking, drilling and countersinking, the rear quarter panels were screwed up for the first time…





I'd originally thought I'd carpet straight over the front panels and the metalwork, then carpet the rear quarter panels individually and screw them up over the top separately, but I've since decided against this and decided to do over the whole lot as a oner.
This in mind, I dug out my plans and thought ahead carefully to where all the cables would need to exit out through the ply. To get a more realistic idea of placement and approximate cable routing I needed dig out the hob/sink and fridge from the loft and offer them up to roughly where they'd be situated.
I marked up exit holes for all cable and wire exit points for drilling. It's not the end of the world if they're not bang on but I just think it'll make for a neater job the less they're exposed as they're routed to each of their components.

I wasn't happy with the way the panels sat next to each other at the 'C' pillars, nor was I happy with the way the finish of the carpet would possibly end up over the 'C' pillar seat belt mounting holes…





Firstly, the flex of the large quarter panels dictated that the bottom corners closest the 'C' pillars kind of bent inwards, so they weren't in-line true the pillars themselves. There was also a massive gap between the ply quarter panels and the curved shape at the bottom of the 'C' pillars. This was ok as I needed a gap to route some cables, however not to drive a bus through. (You'll notice the difference in the bottom corners of the front panels closest the 'C' pillars as previously mentioned when ordering).
On the nearside where the 2 panels meet, ^^^ there was also quite a gap. Again, probably because of the non-standard configuration of the Fudgemeister.

Addressed the gap between these panels with a piece cut to shape and some Evostik Serious Glue. Some more batons cut and self tapped into place brought the quarter panels flush and true. And some panels screwed over the seatbelt mount recesses would tidy up any potential untidy carpeting issues. I left enough of a gap to feed the cables through…









All the holes were drilled and sanded for the appropriate cables/wires, and the 'extra meat' added to the areas of both definite and potential fixing points behind the panels. The bold measurements are for my own and benefit should I need to refer back to the pics for accurate(ish) placement of 'whatever' to screw up in the future…

[fifet4]

That looks pretty decent wood. What an ace find. Well done. Nice job with the ply Mr persnickety. Looking forward to next installment

Sent from my Nokia 2.4 using Just T4s

[Fruitbat]

No Sliders you know when you had your pop top fitted ? Did you drive in or reverse in to have it fitted , I want to get mine done but I’m concerned they’ll fit it the wrong way around .

[No Sliders]

No Sliders you know when you had your pop top fitted ? Did you drive in or reverse in to have it fitted , I want to get mine done but I’m concerned they’ll fit it the wrong way around .

Ha, you know the guys who worked on my van too well!
Yeah, it seems pretty rare but suits my configuration much better (what with no sliders and all). Although, I always say that mine's on the right way and all the others are wrong

I'm not even sure if you can get rear elevators for the T4 anymore? At the time of ordering mine up, I only found Reimo and SCA that did them.
Which roof were you thinking of? I've kinda lost touch with all the different pop top companies now. Austops had just started up when I was shopping around. Westdubs seem to be a popular choice, although I've heard mixed reviews about them.

Once you've got one fitted you'll love it… guaranteed! Makes the world of difference, and if you've got kids, they'll think it's great sleeping up there - my daughter loved it.

[Fruitbat]

Ha, you know the guys who worked on my van too well!
Yeah, it seems pretty rare but suits my configuration much better (what with no sliders and all). Although, I always say that mine's on the right way and all the others are wrong

I'm not even sure if you can get rear elevators for the T4 anymore? At the time of ordering mine up, I only found Reimo and SCA that did them.
Which roof were you thinking of? I've kinda lost touch with all the different pop top companies now. Austops had just started up when I was shopping around. Westdubs seem to be a popular choice, although I've heard mixed reviews about them.

Once you've got one fitted you'll love it… guaranteed! Makes the world of difference, and if you've got kids, they'll think it's great sleeping up there - my daughter loved it.

I’m not sure on make and model yet ( tight budget ) , one has come up for sale locally with no canvas or gas struts , it’s a bargain but the guy selling doesn’t know the make or model which is a shame otherwise it would be worth a punt

Mrs Fruitbat wants a full respray first , I’d prefer to fit a pop top first and then respray ..

[No Sliders]

Whilst I had the fridge dug out for offering up in the van to see whereabouts to route the wiring through the panels, I decided at the same time that I'd relocate the cooling unit on it.
Had always had my eye on one of these little fridges. It's a Waeco CB36 chest fridge. They're super efficient, and purely by being a chest fridge means they lose less cold air every time they're opened… naichur innit.

Might have mentioned this earlier in my thread, but this is one of the treasures I picked up on my travels up and down the road (pre-apocalypse), when visiting the fam. When I bought my hob/sink, it turned out (unknown to me), that the guy also had one of these fridges too that he hadn't advertised yet. The VW gods smiled on me that day and I got both at bargain price, virtually brand new and used minimal times. I paid less for the complete package than I would have done had I have bought either on it's own brand new.

Anyway, another cool thing (pun intended), about this fridge is the fact that you can locate the cooling unit up to a metre away from the fridge if need be, just to add flexibility to your conversion. Wasted on me in this case - I just detached it from the back and relocated it on the side. Just gotta be careful when re-drilling those holes…

---

Next up was the obligatory 240V hookup hack behind the dummy fog light.

I located a hole already present in the bodywork behind the rear tail light and fed both the hookup and earth cable through. Before this I found a perfectly sized grommet from my box of buckshee VW bits to fit the hole. The grommet had no hole in it, so I drilled it out and popped it in to protect the cables from chafing against the metalwork…





Connected the earth cable to the earthing point already present behind the light. Didn't realise this was there at the time of hunting around for somewhere to ground the earth, so, bonus!
I want to go back to it at some point though and clean it up of all the paint…



Fed the blue hookup cable out through the bodywork and in behind the bumper after popping out the redundant plastic grommet of the hole there…



Cleaned up the factory grommet, drilled it and fitted a smaller cable grommet into it for a good water and air tight seal…



Fitted it back up and fed the cable through from the inside…



…and out into the bumper…



Fed through enough slack to comfortably hang it up under the van out of the rain if need be. I've an extension cable which will obviously connect up and run out to the hookup point.

I fitted up the male connector and pushed on a rubber cap to keep the crud out. The rubber cap isn't specifically meant for the purpose, but I'd sourced it from ebay as the connector never came with one. It's a perfect fit and moulds nicely on to the end, leaving no gaps for anything to get in…



…Hookup cable… 'tick'.

[fifet4]

Only last pic has worked for me mate?

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