Belly Pans - Are They Necessary?

[Clem]

My old van (late model) had side pans and was a twin slider and a bolt on centre pan. I used to get any rusty bits patched up along with the outer sills. One time I bought some new side pans on an offer so cut the old ones off to replace them. I ended up spending a few months replacing almost everything back to the central chassis rails

I bought a late high top on eBay unsighted one night , it had a mot so went to collect it and drive it 80 miles home. Amongst other horrors, the underside had a one piece belly pan in place that was a plain sheet of steel that went from one sill to the other and was vaugley curved to fit. The wheels all came loose after a few miles but it got home ok …. sold it on but never disturbed the big belly pan

 

[mcvw]

Might get some ally ones fabbed up - gotta be cheaper than some NOS ones?

 

[Clem]

Might get some ally ones fabbed up - gotta be cheaper than some NOS ones?

Some one did some abs ones a few years ago , protection rather than strength but were a decent idea.

 

[Earlybay1]

My outer ones were welded on but when they were removed the underside main chassis was near on perfect. The middle part protected the centre too. Surely they must also help with reducing drag and fuel consumption. VW thought of this long before Bernie Ecclectone had his ground effect F1's !

 

[Mechanoid]

No, no, no, actually I said that all vans had. ‘ Pedal Pans ‘ originally but I still don’t know if that’s 100% accurate and I said belly pans are a great idea if they are removable. When I refit this pedal pan to the front of mine I’ll butt it up against a nice big bead of sealer but wipe the pan first with oil so it don’t stick, that should sort any rattly issues

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, keep that muck down to a minimum.

Apologies! Miss-read what you typed, Other than that what I said is correct.

 

[easy]

The tide has turned on belly pans. They were a nightmare for old uk buses as they hid horrible rust issues for years and when they were finally removed the vans would be scrap!
For vans with a better history that are rust free then they are good!
Weren’t the central pans just on later bays? Can’t remember for sure.

Mine is an original UK RHD bus, now pop top, 1 sliding door and orginally a microbus. It had belly pans fitted from new. I think they were an optional extra
When i removed mine the original paint was perfect and looked NOS under there, i still treated them, used a sealer and screwed back on place as original. Should be good for another 50 years, especially as mine is always garaged in in insulated garge.

 

[Whistler]

I remember wanting to put them back on mine when we did ours before.

Scrolling through the last few days to remind myself of what things are I found these which I was going to do unless anyone says otherwise?

https://www.alanhschofield.com/ourparts/cat_1499072-Belly-Pans.html

 

[sparkywig]

I remember wanting to put them back on mine when we did ours before.

Scrolling through the last few days to remind myself of what things are I found these which I was going to do unless anyone says otherwise?

https://www.alanhschofield.com/ourparts/cat_1499072-Belly-Pans.html

 

[craigtayla]

Ours is the same @craigtayla

No front pan to cover the pedals etc. though – has yours?

It does now after I realised it was missing after sniffing around other buses. It did have the holes for fixing a pedal pan though, just a missing pedal pan or shipped to Devon works without one? Cheers

 

[Whistler]

It does now after I realised it was missing after sniffing around other buses. It did have the holes for fixing a pedal pan though, just a missing pedal pan or shipped to Devon works without one? Cheers

No idea on the answer to if it was shipped to Devon with it or not, but my Devon does have one.