Elusive Eli Brackets

[PecksTank]

Gentelmen,

Sorrry for the delay in posting/ pm ing those of you that are intrested in brakets. It had been a busy year. I am not making the brackets any longer. It was too time consumming for me and had little to no profit (not that that is why I was doing it) and the logistics of shipping all over the country was a pain. I have talked with Jage and Ujoint about taking on the prodject. I will be sending Ujoint the bracket specs and the blanks. I feel that he has the best skills and shop pluse he already ships his products all over. I hope to have this done soon so that those that want them can get them again. If you can frabricate, you could buy the T1 VW mounts from Fiamma and spend a day or two modifying them. That is how I started. I will pass on to Ujoint the need to bend the top mounting plate out a degree or 2 to help clear the pop tops.

Eli

[webbmac]

Geoff, they're welded though the back of the stainless plate. The heads of the bolts fit into the large holes SMB created in the body panel, then the threads protrude as shown. We were thinking of putting the plate behind the the body panel but we felt that that would create seal issues along with rattles, etc. Too much downside for any upside in appearance, plus i sort of like the military/aircraft look of it. Doesn't make the brackets look any worse, at least, IMO.

The plate (2-1/16" stainless sheets so 1/8" total, s/b plenty stiff to distribute the weight, which is mostly outward on those brackets, btw) is then attached to the body via the screws as shown, sealed up with 3M body joint compound.

[webbmac]

Originally Posted by ANZAC

Just fyi, my van is 10 years old, and I haven't seen any cracks.... where do they form?

My body panel had cracked sideways on my middle bracket. Seems like a popular occurrence. That and all of my other 'bolts' were loose and there was realistically no way to tighten them, don't know if the rubber/neoprene hardened or something and was not gripping the edge of the holes right. I could not risk the awning coming off in Mexico so we came up with this fix fairly quickly. I'm sure there are more elegant fixes but this is what I came up with in a pinch.

[vandiesel]

Eli, would you be willing to send the drawings out? I was at my close friends machine shop today and he can easily make these. If we had drawings it would save a ton of time for both of us. I kinda figured it wasn't a huge money maker so hopefully sharing the drawings won't impede on any get rich quick scheme. . The only thing I have to go on is the picture of your first modded set of the fiamma ones that is not to scale.

Thanks,

Brad

[cellularSTEVE]

Whoever ends of making them, PM me as I will take set.

steve

[saline]

Likewise!

[Mahukaawe]

I too would like to get a set.
Thanks.

[salivan]

I'm in for a set ... an awning too, I guess.

[Tapatio]

Any updates? Waiting for the brackets before I purchase an awning.

[vandiesel]

All, I'm sorry about my delay on the brackets. I still need to take my actual awning over for fine tuning before the brackets get made. I have been slammed at work and haven't been able to. I should be able to get over to the machine shop this week. Stay tuned.

Brad