[GUIDE] How to fit Van-X curtains to a T6 (barn doors, VGC flush-sliding windows)

[Andysmee]

Just starting to contemplate this job and can't see a good thread on here about it so will try and capture the steps.

The caveat is that I have barn doors and VGC flush-sliding windows on each side, with a single sliding door, originally a SWB panel van.

The kit I bought is the Van-X premium curtain kit of two side windows and 1 x barn doors, which I am assured is one pair of barn doors' curtains i.e. one pair of doors, one pair of curtains, they only need one each!



The kit has three bundles of curtain/pole/fixings and a free bending jig (perhaps free with the kit).




For reference, my local convertor quoted £140 to fit these. He mentioned that the downside of the van-x ones is that they aren't pre-bent, but otherwise no particular concerns. It seems a fair price for a fiddly job. I'll be able to judge better when I've done it myself!

Any tips, please tell me asap. Here's one set of tips: Post in thread 'Vanx Curtain Fitting' inVanx Curtain Fitting

Van-X instructions are here: Fitting Instructions - Van-X

I don't have a clue how far the rails need to go round the corner so off to measure with a fabric tape measure. There a ton of excess rail, so no problem there...



On the offside side window lower rail it looks like 92cm of flat and then some bending. To each opening edge makes it 99cm but then do I need more? Not on my side windows due to the extravagant blanking of the window, but the tie backs have to pull to the wall... which only stretch to 11cm.





The tightest bunching of curtain on the rail is about 14cm, but they are stretchy where they tie back. So min 14cm from each window is where the rail needs to start, and the window is 14cm from the wall . . . interesting so I need to bend quite a lot if I want the curtains not to impinge on the view.

 

[Andysmee]

I've read their instructions but I don't understand where the screws go through the rails. Can anyone mark an x on this picture, and tell me which side of the rail goes nearest the glass?



Edit: found a clue...

The rails have changed, so by widest channel they mean no channel. The (only) channel now goes away from the glass and the screws go through the flat part of the rail nearest the glass (as evidenced in the picture of a T4 where you have to do the opposite!), so the curtains hide the screws.

Hey, Van-X, if you read this, pull your finger out! Update the instructions, include the need to screw the end caps of the rails into the door frame, and that you screw the tie backs directly into the wall through the unnecessary male poppers!

Edit edit: and don't send me f*cked screws in the pack, I can do that myself:

 

[Andysmee]

Okay, so...bending!!!!

My recent upholstery work led me to pin up the curtains to find where to place the ends, with a useful finding...

The ends line up with the bottom of the window opening.

So I measured the length of the surface between the ends and it was 101cm and then you need to add in about 7mm inside each end cap, so 102.5cm. And it looks like about 85mm each end needs bending. So I cut one rail and tried bending the offcut with the jig. I made a template from the wall first.


I got it to the right shape but the jig was too wide for the rails and the channel bent.

But, with the help of a trim tool to pack out the jig, I went ahead with the real thing, and it got easier...

 

[Andysmee]

The rail doesn't need very much bending in actual fact, you just need to know where! The bending jig needs packing out, definitely, and a template you can go back to over-and-over is pretty essential, as you can't do both ends at once.

What I found was that the rail bends some way away from the pivot point, which makes bending the very end almost impossible even though that is where it needs to tighten the bend the most, partly because the cap is flat and not curved! So you need most of the bending done with the very tip in the jig. You could just use a soft vice to achieve the same effect as the jig.

 

[Dave Lawson]

Mine arrived this week so I’ll probably have a go at them this weekend, thanks for the tips!

 

[Dannyb6467]

I think I'd pay the £140.....

 

[Andysmee]

I think I'd pay the £140.....

But that's a tank of fuel!

...

Well, that's one rail out of eight I need to do!!! Next job is to drill the screw holes in the rails and into the door. It looks like the long rails need 5 screw holes plus the 2 screws in the end caps, the barn doors need 3+2 on each of four rails...lots of drilling required..

 

[Dave Lawson]

But that's a tank of fuel!

...

Well, that's one rail out of eight I need to do!!! Next job is to drill the screw holes in the rails and into the door. It looks like the long rails need 4 screw holes plus the 2 screws in the end caps, the barn doors need 3+2 on each of four rails...lots of drilling required..

What size pilot bit are you using?

 

[Andysmee]

Not sure yet. The screws are 3mm diameter, <7mm head. Ideally 2.5mm drill. Hence will break!

 

[Andysmee]

So I found I had a 3mm bit on my Dremel and that made the rail drilling easy.

Then I had in mind how I'd make the pilot holes with a percussive approach. Yep, a sharp punch and a hammer, and after trying it for one hole I carried on and did all the screws that way - the self-tapping screws self-tap, they just need a tiny hole in the metal door frame to start.

The second rail was easy to bend, it was the same length as the lower rail, just less aggressive bends at the ends.

But then mounting the poppers was a problem.. Van-X supply screws for the poppers with too small a head, so the first time I tightened one on a popper it pulled through the popper.

I had to go to my random screws box and find better ones, which is a problem as I don't have enough for the whole set of curtains. But one window now done.

Only three more to go. Have fun with your van!

 

[Andysmee]

Started on the barn doors and it's not obvious where the rails should fit (I've discarded the Van-X instructions by this point!). I've settled on bending the rails around the face of the door where the recess disappears, otherwise the curtains won't reach the edge. I feel like I can't be the first forum member to have been through this...

 

[bobbybasic]

What are the benefits of the Van X curtains versus the Transporter HQ ones that don't need the rails bending?

 

[Andysmee]

What are the benefits of the Van X curtains versus the Transporter HQ ones that don't need the rails bending?

I've no idea, but the bending is a pain in the proverbial.

...

So, I've now finished and I hated this job, easily worth £140 to let someone else take the pain. The screws from Van-X are sh*t. They are, in the main, much longer than you need. The clearance on the barn door metal work meant I mainly used my own shorter screws, and all of the poppers required different screws as the little ones they send are too small and pull through the poppers.

There are several places where there is solid steel which needed drilling, and one spot where I'm glad I didn't, I would have drilled into the sliding door lock. All in all, a horrid job.

I won't put up close-up pictures of the wavy rails where I bent them, and notches where I tried to then open the rails back up a little. I'm not done with the rails and I'm going to paint them a darker colour and smooth off the kinks. It is, at least, easy to take the rails on and off once each screw has tapped a thread, I've had all the rails on and off and on and off. The poppers I daren't ever take off.

 

[Andysmee]

Just got round to spraying the curtain rails so they blend into the carpet. Hence a rather underwhelming picture or two