Budget van top

Back when I first got my truck I had a vision (well drunken idea) "how difficult would it be to turn my black truck into a commerical?" After many pints later, i decided that the easiest method would be to get the windows tinted. However around the same time, a mate of mine had gone out and bought his own jimny and had the same done - £150 for the rear and both sides - NOT A :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: ING CHANCE was my response - had better things to waste my cash on.

Roll on 2 years, and my mates jimny was sold, but I've still got mine. This idea of mine still kept playing in the back of my head and having relocated back home, with a nice flat drive on which to work my magic, the beer started talking again, but this time with more aggression. I looked into the idea of tinting again, but in the mean time Adamski posted pics of his tidy truck with vinyl sides, hhhhhmmmmmmm............

Would vinyl be easier?? At the same time, I started to play about with the idea of an internal cage to keep the dog in the back and not in the front. We'll i think I've crack both - heres the results

As you can see from the pics (not all uploaded), i had the idea of using a normal cheapo dog guard from a well known catalogue. Unfortunately the dog, soon realised that he could crawl under the bottom. This resulted in a trip to my local iron mongers for some more weldmesh. Well for £20 quid the off cut they gave me, has provided enough mesh for the front of the cage and enough to do the back and side windows - my thinking being, if tinted/ vinyled an thief that did manage to peer in would see the cage and think other wise.

Roll on today, and a trip to my local sign makers gave me enough vinyl for the side windows for a tenner - the colour match is almost exact. Took a while to apply, but for a tenner, it was alot cheaper than tint.

So to total up my budget van top

1 dog guard - £25 quid
1 off cut of weldmesh - £20
1 sheet of vinyl - £10

Grand total of £55 quid!! Alot cheaper than i ever imagined paying. Plus i've still kept the seats in, just incase i need to transport any more than two. All that needs to be done when i sell it, peel off the vinyl, remove the mesh and bingo, back to normal!!

As the meerkat says - SIMPLES!!! I love drunken ideas when they finally get finished

As you can see from the pics above - almost spot on colour match and nice and smooth

Tidy job- the wonders of vinyl!
This surely puts you in line for the Captain Cunning award, nice flat area for some Big Jimny stickers;0
atb
Mike

ps how is mesh held onto inside of side windows? It isn't going to get pulled off by the dog jumping about? Maybe a couple of tiny P clips and small self tappers would do the trick?

Thats exactly how the weldmesh is secured - P clips from a well known orange DIY place

Looking very good ! I love mine being van style, I got the rear window tinted limo black last week and now the interior is very dark and cave-like... I love it!