Hot Air Tube Y-Piece Alternative?

[Bay_Buster]

Hi everybody,

The next problem on the resto horizon is the hot air pipework. I thought I had a salvageable Y-piece to reuse, but after cleaning it up it's waffer thin like a crisp packet in a couple of places. As far as I'm aware there are no repro early Y-pieces available to buy, so I'm scratching my head for magic alternative ideas. I already plan on using a piece of 68mm plastic downpipe to replace the long straight section of tubing (basically same size, plastic = no rust and naturally insulating).

The best idea I've come up with so far is to try source a silicone Y-piece, which seems like it may be possible...

https://www.viperperformance.co.uk/silicone-hoses_10124_y-piece-silicone-hose_120947.html

The angles look about right. I'm not sure the stock sizes will be a simple push-on, but with a 5mm wall thickness there's some room for modifying for a gentle bit of blown air passing through. It may also be possible to have the correct size piece manufactured if there was sufficient interest, but I'm guessing someone would have made a repro steel part by now if that was the case.

Does anybody have any better ideas, or already sourced an awesome alternative? Maybe?

 

[ozziedog]

Mine was in much better condition than yours when I went to re use it thankfully. I did however have a plan in place ready for this situation and it’s not often that I even consider covering up rust, but that was my solution. Lots of places on my van I used a two pack rubbery solution that I got from ‘Rust Eaters’ I think the place was called, they primarily supply rust proofing products for restoring old jallopies. I used it on my gutters ten or twelve years ago after replacing my complete roof panel and can’t rails , it’s still in fab condition. When using, you have to mix the two parts together and I was using old milk cartons as a container because as it cured, any left over stuff formed into a rubber bung shaped like the bottom of the milk carton and was tough as the proverbial old boots. So my plan was to clean it up within an inch of its life then do one of two things. Coat it up on the inside then destroy the y piece of metal, and use it as a mold to make a new one In this two pack. Or, coat it up in more than one coat to make a y piece over the existing and let it rust away inside. The other good things about this way is this stuff readily accepts paint so it would look ‘factory’ plus it’s not massively expensive and you know it’s gonna fit whatever pipes you start off with including the angles etc etc.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, nice to see other solutions too :mrgreen:

 

[fallingoffalot]

I seem to remember that there was someone on here a few years ago, probably not before June 2019 as that's when I got my van, but they had bought a repro Y-piece, it was a poorly made thing but they managed to get it looking good with some additional fabrication. I've just done a quick search, but unfortunately some posts have missing images. It may have been on someone's resto thread in the gallery section. I'll keep looking as it's something I want to do to my van in the future.

 

[fallingoffalot]

What about this...

https://www.coolairvw.co.uk/product/211255755c/

 

[Bay_Buster]

Ahh yes I've seen that one already, Schofield's sell it too and I'm sure a few other places as well. It's the correct item for the late bays, but not the earlys. The late bays use a larger diameter 'long' pipe running the length of the van, so it would need a fair bit of additional modification to reduce the size and make fit. Possibly need other mods as well, I'm not sure. Something which doesn't seem appetising for a thin pressed steel part that you gotta pay £130+ to start with.

I've had a possible brainwave and decided it was worth spending £5 on two 68mm downpipe bends:

A stroke of pure luck means that the 'small' end of the fitting that is suppost to have downpipe slot over the top of it, actually slots snug over the original bent metal tubes as you can see in the pic. So, the plan now is to cut segments out of the bends and manipulate them to get the correct angles, then use solvent weld glue (really good on the right plastic types if you've ever used it!) to fix them solid. Then the tricky bit will be 'halving' both bends down a centre line, so they can be stuck together to form the Y piece.

Sounds like a lot of pissing about, but I think for £5 it's worth a crack. Plus it will never rust away if successful!

 

[Bay_Buster]

Just incase anybody was wondering, the £5 plastic project has gone well so far...







I measured the original Y-piece branches as approximately 40 degrees off the centre line, so that's what I've roughly set the new angles to. If you're going to do this yourself you'll need a pretty steady hand with a rotary cutter and a decent eye for cutting stuff level freehand. Patience is needed to fine tune the fit - a flat board with coarse grit sandpaper on is a big help.

As the plastic 'branches' are not as long as the original I plan on extending them with a short section of the 68mm downpipe, and to keep the fit snug on the metal bent tubes I'm going to buy another cheap plastic fitting and chop off the 'insert' or 'male' end of the fitting which will slip in the 68mm pipe and reduce it's diameter down to fit the metal tubes. Sounds like more messing about again, but I'm fairly confident this arrangement of slide-on extensions will allow me to remove/refit the new plastic Y-piece after the metal bent tubes are welded back in place on the van - will be very useful for painting and future rust-proofing of the metal bent tubes. When everything is fully painted up and it's being fitted for the last time I'll run a bead of silicone around the pipe joints to make them air-tight.

 

[Bay_Buster]

Just in case anybody digs this thread up in the future and wondered how everything turned out, this is the finished item just push-fitted in place. I decided to bulletproof my construction with fiberglass tape (plasterer's 'scrim' tape) and two-part araldite-type epoxy resin. I may use some silicone tube for the joint to the metal pipes when it's permanently fitted after the paint is on, but you get the idea.

 

[mike202]

Nicely done !


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[fallingoffalot]

Wow, that's neat & tidy, love it!! I am motivated to do mine now. How did you fit the long pipe in down the middle?

 

[Bay_Buster]

The 'long pipe' is 68mm plastic drainpipe - from memory 1mm smaller diameter than the original steel tube? So pretty damn close. I've not finished the front end fixtures yet (where the pipework gets funky to go up and over the front axel), more plastic wizardry is due there. So back to the question - to fit the long pipe in I slid it in from the front end. With it cut just a little too long to fit everything you should be able to slot the rear end through the crossmember, and with the Y piece removed slide it far enough back for it to clear the front crossmember, and allow you to then slide it 'forwards' through that one. Hope that makes sense. For a retrofit application where this isn't possible you could cut the pipe in half and just use a plastic straight connector joint in the middle - might need modifying to make a 'slip' fitting, might not.

 

[ozziedog]

The 'long pipe' is 68mm plastic drainpipe - from memory 1mm smaller diameter than the original steel tube? So pretty damn close. I've not finished the front end fixtures yet (where the pipework gets funky to go up and over the front axel), more plastic wizardry is due there. So back to the question - to fit the long pipe in I slid it in from the front end. With it cut just a little too long to fit everything you should be able to slot the rear end through the crossmember, and with the Y piece removed slide it far enough back for it to clear the front crossmember, and allow you to then slide it 'forwards' through that one. Hope that makes sense. For a retrofit application where this isn't possible you could cut the pipe in half and just use a plastic straight connector joint in the middle - might need modifying to make a 'slip' fitting, might not.

Rather than a slip fitting, possibly just use an external collar cut off from any fitting and split it in half. Position pipe with both ends where they need to be, then fix el tempraire, then glue half your fitting on to the top of the pipe and half onto the bottom of your pipe and if you wanted to extra strengthen it, do it again over the joins. You could even incorporate a down pipe bracket to hold it up in the middle if you liked.

Sorry got distracted and went up the pub.

Or, if you like and everything lines up perfecto, then a collar cleaned up will make a super slipper with the groovy glue. Am I right in saying that the modern solvent weld / glue is not quite as strong as it used to be ???

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,any excuse to get the glue out :msn4: under the van for the snooooze :mrgreen: :roll: :mrgreen: