Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 14:44:37 -0500
Reply-To: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
Subject: front table for non-Westies
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
In an effort to make our Weekender more camping friendly, I started
the motions to get a front table into the van.
Chris Turner found a partial breadloaf Westy table set for me, which
included two brackets with bolts and an L-shaped swinging arm. You
should be able to pick these up from junked loafs or shows. There's
also this flat-funnel-shaped part that mounts to the bottom of the
actual table. I don't have one of these yet and cobbled something
together in the mean time. After glass-beading the parts and
spray-painting them, I set out to mount the brackets.
The brackets can be mounted on the side of the box under the
driver's seat at the right rear flattened "corner." Having never
checked out a Vanagon Westy, I presume that's where your table goes
as well. The hard part is drilling the holes just right. There are
other metal plates in the box and you need to get the holes aligned
so that you have some place to put the nut from the bracket bolt. I
put the bottom bracket about as low as I could and still have the
hole come out just slightly above the bottom of the inside of the
box (right through the welded line).
The other thing to consider is that you want the brackets some
minimum distance apart to reduce the leverage of the arm (i.e. it
doesn't rip out). With that in mind, I put the top bracket as high
as I could and still be able to reach the bolt on the inside for
applying the nut. There are the darned plates to consider again.
Also make sure the top bracket is tilted right so it doesn't bind
the table arm.
Now, the loaf arm is actually too long in both directions. It's easy
enough to hack off the vertical aspect, but the horizontal part has
a cylinder welded to the end that actually holds the table bracket
(funnel thing). You can get a weld shop to reposition the cylinder.
I'm going to use it as is and see how badly it annoys me before doing
anything about it. It actually appears to be the right height when
you swing the table between the driver and passenger seats, but too
high for the bench seat (unless you're a dog and prefer to eat right
out of the dish :-).
-Karl
Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
'87 GL Weekender "Beverley"
VW shop list: http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/vwshops
