Project Blindsided

[Karl V]

So in an unusual turn of events, I wanted to see (pardon the pun) if others have come up with novel ways for a problem that I am about to completely over-engineer: lack of sun visor…

Picture the scene - you are hitting the B roads early morning / late evening and the huge Nomad windscreen is keeping the bugs from hitting your teeth, as you grin your way to the next T-junction.

The problem is, the sun is low and you can’t see sh1t. With or without sunglasses, the low sun and lack of sun visor means you end up closing your eyes and ‘just going for it'. I'm sure you've been there...

In my heart, I want to fabricate an aluminium tube below the windscreen, in a similar shape to the roof light bar, secured to the inside by the 3 existing windscreen bolts. That will give me somewhere to mount sun visors with P-Clips. The rubberised P-clips will provide the necessary tension to keep the visor ‘locked’ in position when needed, or not.

In my head, a less complicated solution is a simple sun-strip attached inside of the top 6" of windscreen. A graduated sun strip of course. With ‘Wayne and Tracy’ lettering as an an optional extra.

I’m ignoring right now that ‘sun-strips’ should not encroach on the area that the windscreen wipers clean, else you fail an MOT. I have 3 years to worry about an MOT, at which point I can remove the sun strip; or fit 2” wipers

Has anyone else tackled this hugely important issue (?)

Happy to move on to project 'sealing the 1" gaps in the side panels' if there is a know solution to the iPhone X shaped windscreen that is the Nomad.

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[Karl V]

Just wanted to close this one down.

I went for a black matt strip on the inside of the windscreen in the end.

Matt on the inside but looks gloss from the outside because of the glass. Seems to match the small 1cm black edging of the original windscreen and of course can be removed easily enough should the need arise.

It'll be interesting to see if this helps cut down on the dazzle from the roof bar main beams.

That is all...

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[Karl V]

Ok, so I lied a bit when I wrote 'close this one down' above.

Did a sundown drive earlier and tested the roof bar main beam lights after dark. If you haven't been paying attention, there is a slight grumble from Nomad owners that main beam with the roof bar lights does little more than light up the dirty windscreen, obscuring visability.

With the black strip across the top of the windscreen, the difference was remarkable. It was almost as if the light was being forced forward and not down. Pretty sure at least 1 fox and 2 hedgehogs survived tonight's drive due to the fact that I could see where I was going.

That reminds me - I need to bore you with my 'sealing the 1 inch side panel gap' challenge.

Another day...

[Mutley]

Hi Karl,

Have just caught up with your write-ups. Quite a tour-de-force. Should be compulsory reading for all prospective/new Nomad owners. Highly readable, just like the Nomad manual that is so far removed from the norm - which generally read like they have been written by a team of German engineers and lawyers (probably because they have been).

Great that you have provided the links - I have already ordered blind-spot mirrors. grommets and back supports. But having driven into one of those infuriating autumn low suns on the way back from the office on Friday I really need a sun visor. What did you install? I need one! (BTW - was also interested that you had somehow fixed the back support cushions. When I saw the car I assumed they just sat in the seat. How did you fix them in place?

And while we are at it, does anyone have the 'dash manual'? I don't feel the need now, but I think you can make some changes - e.g. to km etc. Would be nice to know how before the need arises.

Thanks again for all the quality R&D!

[Karl V]

Hey Chris.

The sunstrip is nothing more than a matt black 'car wrap' stuck to the inside of the windscreen.

I took the car to the local car wrapping place and explained the problem. They said they would usually stick a strip on the outside, but I opted for an inside job for a few reasons: 1) Stops the wiper blades sweeping over the wrap 2) Will probably last longer being a bit more 'protected' 3) If it was on the outside, it would be matt on the outside, gloss on the inside.

My local car wrap place is http://www.bossdog.co.uk. there are 1000s of companies that will wrap you happy.

I'll answer the seat cushion question in the relevant thread to try and keep topics together (hopefully this will help others too).

May be worth starting a new thread about the dash manual. It's not Nomad specific, so pointers may even exist in other posts / sections of the forum.

Cheers.

Karl.

[autobackup]

Mutley

Assuming that the RT2 Dash fitted to your Nomad is the same as fitted to my Atom 3.5R I have attached the manual to this post.

I can safely say that it is not the best written manual I have ever seen as it was obviously written by an engineer rather than a qualified technical manual writer.

The engineering approach to writing the User Guide simply assumes that everyone has background knowledge rather than laying out the processes logically and then explaining things properly!

[Mutley]

Thanks Karl & Autobackup. Where would we be without you!