I've just bought an ex Ocado supermarket home delivery van as our works van, which usefully can accommodate my racing car!
I have re-floored it in mesh textured phenolic ply (18mm trailer flooring) but to be honest its not great as I've screwed it through the old
floor which is grp (a bit broken up) over thinnish ply over 2.5" foam insulation board over aluminium.
I'm not too bothered about that though, bigger issue is I want to bolt lashing/restraint rails down both sides inside the body, any ideas how to
fix them in? The original restraint rails (no use for what I want, they held the supermarket cage things in place) were only bolted in a couple of
places, into the centre door frames and the front and rear main body frame, but I would like a few more fixings.
The original restraints in the front of the body were in the floor, again no use, but when I removed them I found they were bolted into some strange
rivnut type things that ripped out of the floor pretty easily with a crowbar!!
I am wondering about roughing the rails and body sides up, epoxy panel bonding it all (terokal) and then bolting it in just at the ends, as the panel
bond is bloody strong stuff, if not cheap!
[Edited on 23/2/13 by NS Dev]
I have made repairs to fridge boxes befor and we use coach bolts through the outside with a large washer and sealed with white mastic to stop any
water ingress and a large washer on the inside with a nut and sealed again then put nut covers on.
These repairs were better than how they were built by the manufacture, and
would hold back upto 35 roller cages full of drinks.
try sending a message to Claire. she builds ambulance bodies for a living and may have some suggestions.
About all you can do is to abrade the surface of the side wall, and bond with sika flex, or similar a length of say 3mm alloy strips along the length. The loadlock restraint then goes on top of that. REMEMBER though NOT to pull directly inwards from the sides as you will pull the skins off of the insulation. Make sure the ratchet straps pull at as small an angle from the sides as possible ( hope you know what I mean). I've seen it done in the industry many times and is quite strong when properly done.
cheers folks, knowledge on here never ceases to amaze me, I've even had a PM from somebody who even guessed spot on at who built the body on the
van from knowing it was an Ocado van!!
I'm wary about bolts right through due to crushing the foam filled side
Had a look at Peel type pop rivets last night, I'm thinking peel rivets and adhesive combined should do the trick
I'm not going to be loading it up with anything too silly, just want to be able to stop stuff sliding aorund a lot, plan is to use sprung loaded
poles to lock things in, and when the car is in the back it will get a pole across in front and behind and then ratchet straps fore and aft to the
poles, so yep no inwards pull at all on the rails, only loading them in shear
quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
try sending a message to Claire. she builds ambulance bodies for a living and may have some suggestions.
If you do decide to glue rather than bolt through, use vehicle window bond with the appropriate primer/cleaner, put some 3mm spacers between the
surfaces you bond and it will be ultra strong.
Al