after looking for various options I went for Van-X T5 curtains as these seemed to look 'factory' from the pictures and didn't take up too much space inside. I ordeed curtains for both side windows and the barndoors at the rear.
Installation was failry straightforwad,
heres what I did:
The curtains arrive as seperate rails, curtains, rivets and end stoppers. The rais are all a generic length (I guess for different vans) so they needed to be cut down to size. Then they needed to be bent into the shape of the window frames.
This involved lots of 'offering-up' to the window. I cut them with a hacksaw and bent them by tapping them with a rubber mallet. This needed doing with the top and bottom rails for ech window. Here's how they look after bending into shape:
Next I drilled the holes for the rivets. I also had to bend the rail's 'channel wall' out slightly to allow for the size of the rivet heads. Luckily, the rivets attatch to the window-side of the rail so these tweaks shouldnt be seen.
The next job was drilling the holes. Its never fun to drill holes into your beloved van but after about 40 the job does get easier! I had to change drill bit a couple of times and the rear doors had 2 layers of steel to get through. I'm effectively driving around in a massive colander!
Once the holes were in place the real fun began. I picket up a £20 rivet gun (hand operated, just squeeze) and started fixing.
I love riveting. It is definately the most fun I've had since starting on the van. Once the rails were in I spent the rest of the day riveting stuff together around the house. What a great tool! ; )
heres how they turned out:
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