Lots of Little Jobs Done & Some Rust Found :-(

A couple of days of messing around in the ambulance has seen a few changes.

I recently got hold of  2 Renault Espace front swivel seats.  I took the VW seats out and to my amasement the bolt holes width wise lined up perfectly with the Renault seats.  Not that this is going to be much use as they need to be raised 75mm to get the right height to drive but it does make the new brackets easy to design.  I pick them up tomorrow from a local sheet metal works.  I could have fabricated these but having them pressed will make a much more aesthetic finish.

Originally I was only going to have the 2 channels
but decided to weld in the cross bar in for
lateral rigidity.  Sprayed satin black.

I did try to use the base of the VW seats as these have a height adjustment as well, but even on the lowest setting they were too high, so 2 seats will be going on ebay soon.

The near side of the ambulance had a window ambulance style.  Not only was it ugly it was also where a wall will be going so I have removed this and replaced it with some GRP sheet. A wooden frame screwed to the outside from the inside provided the support for the new panel until the glue and reinforcing strips have cured.

External support frame.

Temporary internal bracing.

Job done, just needs finishing with filler.

Other things done include re-wiring the front high level lights, refitting the now cleaned head lining, repositioning the A/C unit in the overhead space, fitting the 240v inlet,

Fitted where the  original 110v was.

putting the floor liner back in and changing the start battery.  The latter as luck would have it was the exact same one I had already from my car.  Reason.......  electrical fault was misdiagnosed as a failing battery, a new battery didn't fix it.  The fault was eventually diagnosed as a faulty A/C sensor.  So that turned out well in the end.

The step insert on the drivers side was removed when I took out the floor liner and there was a bit of rust there that need some treatment, at the time I was not able to unscrew the passenger side so today I drilled the heads off the screws and removed it.  Glad I did as below it was a large area of rust that needed cutting out.  

Rust cut out ready for welding.