Just joined, so a bit after the fact, but thought I'd post anyway. I had exactly the same and contacted Neil at iCampers, who was really helpful (I've posted full response below, but my issue turned out to be the trim clips the converter had used as they weren't OEM. I ordered OEM clips, they looked identical in dimension, and I wasn't hopeful at all when fitting them. As it turns out it made a big difference and my door no longer rubs.
I got back to Neil at iCamper and he said it's apparently down to the harder material used in the OEM clips
Full response
Hi Kevin,
The issue has arisen 6 times now as far as I am aware.
Please find below the advice I sent a conversion company a few months ago, who had an issue that they kept repeating on a number of vans.
I am guessing, as I haven’t seen your conversion, but please see point 5 in particular. After that please see point 7: for some reason some vans have a lot more play in the lower door sliding mechanism than others. I used to think this was just wear, but we recently saw a brand new T6.1 where the door mechanism pulled the door far closer to the wheelarch than was usual and that had come straight from the main dealer brand new.
I hope this helps.
Regards
Neil
Dear Colin and Paul,
I hope all is well with you guys.
I received a call today from someone with a Loc8 Table System who said that their table was touching their wheelarch when they opened the sliding door and obviously it shouldn’t. During the discussion it emerged that it was one of your conversions and that the panel had been carpeted and was held in place by non-original clips. I was asked by the customer to contact you to simply advise on carpet covering the trim panel, as over the last couple of years we have become aware of 5 instances of the wheelarch being touched by the table, in all cases where the panel had been carpeted. As we never designed it to be carpeted, we went back and worked out what caused the problems and this is what we found.
Below is the standard advice that I now send out to customers who ask if the trim panel can be carpeted, please forgive me if I just copy it verbatim…
Yes you can trim the panel, although it wasn’t designed to be trimmed; so it is important to understand potential issues and how to avoid them. Please bear in mind the following advice:
1 Use a thinner 4 way stretch type carpet rather than something like veltrim, which is thick and hard to get around the bends.
2 Start in the lower section of the panel, as this is where the carpet will need most stretching and then work up and out from there.
3 Make sure the carpet is warm and the glue is at room temp too. Trimfix is excellent and what we have used.
4 Once the panel has been trimmed you will find that the table is tight to get in and out. If unnecessarily so, you can remove a thin sliver of carpet from up in the top retaining lugs. This won’t be seen, but will allow the table an extra couple of mm movement upwards.
5 It is essential that you don’t fit the panel to the door on top of any carpet (or wrap carpet behind the trim panel), the plastic of the trim panel must touch the metal of the door, with nothing between them . This is because every layer of carpet behind the panel will make the table sit further out from the door and if this is excessive, it could cause the table to rub against the wheelarch when you open the door.
6 It is also essential that only genuine VW 2-piece trim clips are used; under no circumstances should aftermarket copies (often sold on Ebay etc) or longer clips be used, as these will not hold the panel correctly to the metal of the door.
7 Once the panel is fitted, open the door very slowly and check that the table clears the wheelarch. If the table touches the vehicle body, remove the table immediately and seek further advice, as there may be an issue elsewhere (usually a door mechanism with more than usual play in it).
We obviously get feedback on every issue there is concerning the Loc8 Table System, which thankfully hasn’t been much and I thought I’d pass on what we have learnt relating to the few instances where the table has touched the wheel arch. I hope you’re not offended.
Take care and best regards
Neil
