I can clearly remember how upset I was when I reversed into a hidden post and damaged the rear corner bumper, not long after we first got Rafe 9 years or so ago. I had all these feelings of wanting to turn the clock back and things I could have done, too late, damage done. Time to get it fixed.

In those early days, I was able to get a spare “Lamp Holder” as they’re called, and it was a 5-minute job for Vantage RV to stick it on. They stick on with Velcro so they’re expecting you to break a few… it was then $150… They’re now $1100!!

Since then, I’ve managed to break a few on both sides. It’s usually just the plastic join breaking a part of the way up and an easy glue job with Gorilla Glue. The Gorilla Glue expands and fills all the gaps and is very easy to sand.

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The hidden pole I hit this time though was a real wallop and the corner piece disintegrated into 4 different pieces.  A much bigger job than usual.

So, I repaired it in two chunks, the side bit of 3 bits into 1 part and then glued that after 3 hours to the back panel. A bit of Gaff tape was used to hold it together while the glue went off. The next morning, I was able to sand it and it didn’t look too bad from a distance :-).  Enough to get home from Rotorua.  See the pic above.

Once I got home, I got the sander out and gave it a real clean up. Then I put on some Ados Automotive two pot body filler.  Great stuff which allows you to fair it properly.  See above and below, sanded.

I had to add bits a few times as I wasn’t happy with the finish and because it’s on thin plastic, it doesn’t allow you to sand the filler as much as you probably could on metal… I got there in the end also dodging the rain too.

The last bit was sanding it up to 800 grit by hand to smooth it all out and then masking it.

Then on with the paint.  The paint I used which is the same colour as the bumper. It is certainly within a whisker of it, anyway.  I used Colour Lab’s Premium Gloss paint putting three coats of paint on and then 4 coats of Premium Clear High Gloss.

It certainly cost me a lot less than replacing both panels although I did replace the two marker lights as they were only $20 each.

Because I shaped the damaged side to hide the join completely, I had to do the other side to match 🙂

I think the result is pretty good and now I’ve got the hang of this Ados Filler, I reckon I can do it better next time…!

One of the things that broke around the South Island was our habitation door flyscreen. There are 4 strings that keep it steady in the middle and the second one down just let go from old age. The string was knackered. We were in Te Anau when it finally let go and although we could still use it, after we left the Te Anau midges behind, we didn’t really need it.

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There are really no clear instructions for fixing these things and by the time I’d done mine three times and picking up bits and learning as you go, I managed to get mine working nicely. Fiona had to keep me settled and there was the occasional swear word that leaked out here and there. Just as well the Grandkids weren’t here 🙂

The Research

After doing a bit of homework on it, I talked to Bruce Philpott who has the same van as us. He replaced his a few years ago with a locally made customised one.  He was really helpful in giving me the rundown on how to get the blind cassette out of Rafe with out breaking to much other stuff!

Then I read John Pedersen’s blog on the fun he and Sarah had with theirs when it let go a few years ago. He talked about how he banished his to the “Naughty room” a few times until he and Sarah could deal with it. I understand completely 🙂 Johns blog is a good read.

Clever Engineer, Alan Watt has also done his on his Dethleffs Trend and had lots of useful advice. Like John, he advised me not to throw away the old string so I could get the right lengths and also to use Fishing Braid with glue which I did. The best advice I got from Alan was take it quietly before you rip into it, study it,  when its in bits and as you go to understand how it works.  Once I got my head around it, it became a lot easier.. great advice!

Most European Motorhomes are supplied by either of two Dutch manufacturers and although I found a pdf file from the one I’m sure ours came from, there were differences. But the BIG tip I got from that is where to tie the knots from the blinds. This was from Horrex in the Netherlands.

There is also a good video online which doesn’t have sound but is well worth a look at too.

Getting Underway

After a good chat with Bruce on where the screws were and things to look out for, I set out to remove the cassette from Rafe. It came out pretty painlessly and I set up a table and laid it out ready to drill out the pop rivets in each corner.

Click on the Gallery to see “the bits” enlarged.

The end of the bottom rail showing the string going through the outside casing.

The top rail (left) showing the string going through the outside case and to the tensioner. Tension BEFORE you pop rivet it back together.

A closer image after I cut the old string.

An overview shot showing where the string goes. Top this end.

From the bottom end.

Fiona sewing the blind (no 3)

Its a good idea to  spread out the bits and get phone snaps how it all goes together in case your is different from the ones below.

Once the pop rivets were drilled out, and we had it all in bits,  we just had to take the blinds pack out from their slide on handle and slide the case from the back.  We cut the old string out and we sewed the new string though the holes. The string goes around the back of the blinds, and back to the front, both top and bottom.

We  tied the ends together and then glued the knots. The cord runs out the ends in opposite directions. Top strings out the bottom and bottom strings out the top.  Some use cut off electrical connectors and squash them rather than tying them.

After tying and positioning the knots we taped over the string on the back of the blind pack to keep the string in place.

On went the slide on back case over the tape and the slide on front handle onto the blind pack.  Tip: make sure you’re  careful to feed the string through the handle in both directions. (top to bottom and vice versa)

It was time then to  start pop riveting the bits together around the outside starting with the corners at either end of the blind pack. The Handle sticking out with the string. See below.

The bottom on ours had a fixed knot on the end of the bottom rail away from the blind. Don’t forget to feed it through the side of metal case first. See below with the old string before it was cleaned 🙂

In went the tensioner and we tied a knot to it along the top rail.  This needed to be done and tensioned  before pop riveting on the outside metal case as the string goes through the end and gets jammed by the outside case.  I had to drill out the pop rivets and redo that corner again after tensioning 🙂

As I said, I took three goes before I got it to work reliably.

The first time, I made it too tight and broke the string the first time we tried to open it 🙂

No 2, It was too lose so we completely pulled it apart only to find all we had to do is drill out one corner and tension it properly 🙂

Third time lucky..

I reckon I could do it in a couple of hours or so now but it is finicky and can be frustrating..   If you’re handy with a drill and a pop rivet gun, give it a go.

One of the lovely little gotcha’s that come with a Motorhome is the occasional failure of the Air Bag ECU. They’re only small, about a size of a fat CD Case and they’re usually easily accessible. In a Fiat Ducato, they’re just under the cover with the Starter battery but they’re an absolute bugger when they go wrong!

They’re also very essential for getting a WOF or a COF as if the error light shows for the airbags, you won’t get a certificate.

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I had one go in Rafe when it was just over a year old(six years ago) and fortunately it was in the middle of a COF period and while there were no spares in the country at the time (par for the course so it seems), Andrew Simms told me to come back in a month while another one came here from Italy. The cost if I was paying for it I believe then was about $1050 including fitting. Luckily it was covered by warranty.

Fast forward 6 or 7 years to October ’21.. After provisioning Rafe for a trip away in the Countdown supermarket carpark, I started Rafe and there were the dreaded lights on the dashboard.

With more Fiats now in the country and the parts situation just as chaotic, there is a chronic shortage of these units and they were now $1100-1200 depending on where you went.

On trawling through Facebook, I came across Shayne Cooper, The Circuit Specialist who works in Manukau repairing these units for anywhere between $300-500 depending on the unit and the fault.

I took my unit out to Shayne and he cheerily said “a couple of days” but also said he was busy so I left it for over a week before I rang back and it was ready.

Talking to Shayne afterwards, the most common problem seems to be the data in the Eeprom getting corrupted. Shayne gets in there with a Hex editor and manually tidies it up so it can work again as advertised.

According to Shayne, although there are faults in other ECU’s apart from Fiat Ducato’s it does seem to be a lot more common in Motorhome installations which is interesting.

Shayne thought it might have something to do with Solar panels or something like that.

He’d spent a bit of time on it finding some issues on the PCB as well (sounds to me a bit like dry joints). I rushed home to put it in and it was great.

Day two I had to move Rafe and there was the error again so out it came and back to Shayne… a few more days and I had it in my hands again and reinstalled it.. this time perfecto.. and it seemed a lot more of a solid start. I was encouraged and started it a few more times just for good measure 🙂

Shayne had said that he found some muck in there sitting under a capacitor pulling down the voltage to 2 volts! .. easy fix.

Shayne has just been frantic with these things and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better…. Its a big disappointment for Fiat owners especially.

I know of several people who are waiting on these units to arrive but they aren’t expecting anything much before April and there are a lot of them.. think 100 plus!  That’s a lot of Motorhomes without certification for many months..

The dealers need to look at making an effort to get these units repaired as most of them can easily be repaired for less than $400 instead of being replaced at $1200 odd. .. such a waste of money.

I’m just so pleased we’ve got Shayne here to fix them. There is someone in Wellington too I believe who can do this as well.  A friend of mine  who had this issue a while ago put me onto  crashdata.co.uk as well in the UK.  He found them really good so that’s an option too.

Update: There’s a chap in Taupo,  who’s sorting these out too.  Wayne Frost of Car Computers NZ Ltd. Phone 027 288 4837