Electric Curtains (components)

Hi,

I'm in the process of importing a 2001 Super Custom. It comes with curtains - but from the photos there are no curtain control switches on the dashboard.

I was curious as to what would be needed (if parts are still available) to convert these to electric curtains? Are there much shared components (runners etc) or would it be an expensive, thankless task?

Interestingly, it's possible there's a (longer) curtain fitted to slide between the front seats and the rear compartment - I haven't seen one of those before.

Hi Goose.

Firstly I want your long curtain. I haven’t seen that and it is awesome!

Secondly ours has working electric curtains but interestingly the control switches are only located in the back and the armrest for some strange reason

The system uses little electric race cars to drive them open and closed. It is very expensive to replace. Just the tracks and little cars were like 400 a side when I priced them last year. That’s not wiring or switches either. Inside the runner is a wired track glued to each side. It’s way up in there and not serviceable if it goes bad. Not easily at least.

Not trying to talk you out of this, I have a race car, an Italian motorcycle and a ton of questionable projects and decisions that define me. I think it’s fun to tinker.

If you want to go this route I’ll get PN’s, pictures or anything you like to keep it moving forward. Just let me know when you’re ready to break ground and what you need help with.

Good luck Sir
-Bryan

Thanks for the help. I'll probably leave it if they're just manual curtains. Auto curtains would be fun to have but the cost of retro fitting then sounds too much. But I'll double check when it gets here eventually. I'm in the UK and there is no 25 year rule on imported vehicles, so this is a later facelifted version and the curtain controls should be next to the radio, I believe.

About the large front curtain. My wife wants to eventually replace them all with something more funky, which should be less complicated if they're not motorised. If that happens and we no longer need the original front one, I'll give you a shout.

Hello both.

Who’d have thought there’d be a thread on haberdashery?

Mine, being a camper has curtains, which are surprisingly good and have lasted very well.

The curtains were very grubby (I mean proper grubby; filthy) and I was a bit reluctant to put them through the washing machine, fearing that they might disintegrate, but figured they were so grubby they had to be cleaned and if they didn’t survive a wash them they probably wouldn’t last in the van, either.

Yours might be completely different but here’s my experience.

Firstly, need not have worried about going through the machine. The fabric is extremely good quality and they were very well made and came out like new, but the water was so filthy!


The curtains (my van) have typical wire hooks of old and plastic parts to connect onto the runners. To avoid spots of rust from the wire hooks I wonder if stainless types are available(?) and the only weak part has been the plastic hangers onto the metal rails as the sun etc has weakened these a bit and some are a bit brittle, but they are a normal curtain part and widely available.

They generally have poppers on the ‘closed’ side of the curtain and sometimes a couple of poppers to hold the curtain closed, plus a tie with a popper to hold the curtain open.

The cross-curtain is a monster! It spans the full cabin width and top to bottom behind the front seats. It has poppers to attach to the B pillars on both sides and is gathered and tied back as the others so not to close when driving.

As my van has a ‘kitchen’ behind the driver’s seat there’s a horizontal blind (what we used to call a Venetian blind) for that window, presumably for limiting fire risk etc. It’s superbly well designed and made and even has a bespoke curtain flap to cover the top rail (with 9 poppers at top and a metal rod at bottom to stop it flapping in the breeze). Here’s a picture of it:


The rest of the curtains are fairly normal with poppers and ties and are single (RH rear window, which poppers to the hanging cabinet area) or double (tailgate, LH rear area, sliding door), but again really well made.

After washing the curtains were just hung to dry then the poppers were checked and lubed with a blob of white Teflon grease (Starbrite fastener grease) to keep things happy.

I wouldn’t be interested in adding electric closing / opening to the van as the curtains have tie backs and were never designed to be electric, but the EPC has all the mechanical details. If in doubt always consult the EPC, for example:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/regius_ace/lh119v/114894/electric/8514/

If either of you need further details, please ask. I took detailed pictures before cleaning in case they turned to mush. Here’s an example (tailgate); before washing obvs. Now it’s like new!
L side


R sde:


These are poppered to the metal frame and run on metal sliders top and bottom. On the R side the tie back is so arranged to hide the contents in the cabinetry when the tailgate is closed. Clever!

As an aside, on vans with front swivel seats the front curtains tend to attach to the front doors and windscreen. A relative of mine has a VW T4 that has a rail that runs around the front of the cabin on to which hang curtains, but they are always flapping into view (or blocking it) especially if the front windows are open. I think there are better option with magnetic panels and suckers. My curtains are fairly dark but not blackout. A blackout layer could be added but the curtains are more for privacy rather than absolute light blocking.

As a further aside all the soft furnishing (seats and carpets) of the van has been treated to a very comprehensive deep clean with a quality carpet wet-vacuum using hot water and detergent, which liberated kilos of muck in my case. This really needs to be done in hot weather if you head down this route and the very best way to clean the carpets is to be prepared to get them really quite wet with hot detergent then agitate the foamy soup deep into the pile before sucking the muck away and leaving to dry. Also best if you can do this out of the van if necessary, but this is a big ask!

HTH!!