Dispatch/Expert/Scudo

[BX]

What you have is an ex-taxi. They came from the factory as a six or five seater. A double or single passenger seat in the front with a 3 seater bench between the sliding doors. The conversion to taxi involved moving the bench seat rearward to the back door. 3 rear facing cinema seats (the squab flips up when you get up off them) immediately behind the original front seats. 4 pocket type restraint fixing points were fitted to the floor. There may or may not be a secondary floor. Sometimes the original foam covering was cut to accommodate the fixing points. Sometimes a plywood floor was installed. In either of these cases you should be able to find the fixing bolts underneath. Later vehicles had a crash tested floor fitted. Talk to Parfit in Dublin. They might have done the conversion and would be able to fill you in. http://parfit.ie/index.php
P.S. I have absolutely no connection to Parfit.

[sparksie]

Now that's more like it!
Yes, I did mention that it's an ex taxi, early in the thread.
Can't imagine ply being acceptable as a fixing for a vulnerable passenger, but anything's possible.
I'll take a look at the underside in the vicinity of the wheelchair harness attachment points.
If they turn out to be removable without extracting a large, unwieldy, floor panel, that puts a whole new spin on it.
All I'd need then would be a passenger one of any kind, into which I could put the kit from this one.
Thanks for that

[BX]

I'm not getting into a discussion on the suitability of various materials the field is just too wide. Suffice to say that there are various systems from various manufacturers for the safe transport of wheelchair using passengers. Most of these are homologated in the country where they are manufactured.
The conversion of new vehicles has to be done by converters approved by the NSAI and has to be done in accordance with the ECWVTA regulations.
A list of approved converters is available on the NSAI website. https://www.ddai.ie/nsai-approved-conversion-companies. I know you said you contacted the conversion companies and that they were unwilling to help. However most of these are small companies who do not trade in vehicles. In most cases the customer buys from the main dealer and the conversion is carried out for the customer by the converter. Many of them are willing to assist their customer in finding a buyer for their used vehicle. Others actually buy and sell wheelchair accessible vehicles and may have one that might suit your needs and your pocket. With older vehicles they are often unwilling to accept them as a trade in but are willing to just introduce a seller to a buyer. Following a successful sale they then get to sell a new or newer vehicle to the person who has just privately sold their vehicle. This way they have no liability under the sale of goods act for the older vehicle. No harm in making a few phone calls, you have nothing to loose except the price of the calls.

[sparksie]

Hi BX

Yes, you would expect rational, sensible behavior like that, as I certainly did when this started, over a year ago, now!
However, none of the people I approached was remotely inclined to help, even with an introduction.
I called, visited, emailed, pulled strings, all to no avail. When adapted vehicles reach the banger end of the market they vanish into the abyss.
None of the regular breakers, or ELV processors, knows where they go. None of the main-stream traders I approached knows anything.
I even tried to track down an ex ambulance, but that's a closed shop. Officially, they all go from public ownership straight to the crusher, but I did manage to find out that some occasionally escape that, going to voluntary organisations, like the civil defense, and from there into the hands of a short-listed "trusted trader". Could I get on the list? Not a chance!
That's what got me looking at ex-taxis in the first place. Those at least occasionally appear in the classified ads.
This is absolutely the ONLY circumstance in which I would ever consider PAYING for an ex-taxi. I've been servicing them on a shoestring for so long I know that if the taxi driver wants rid of it, it's terminal. I've had a coupe pass through my hands on their way to the bean can factory, but never at a cost to me. Even my trade insurance wouldn't let me drive it without an engineer's report, once I declared it as an ex-taxi!
As I said in a previous post, this one may still have a value as a source of parts to convert a non-taxi. Other than that, it's just another hulk for the crusher, where I probably should have sent it from the beginning!
Not sure where your comment about suitability of materials is aimed, but I hope you don't suggest self tapping screws holding a flat "dropped floor" in place of a structural curvy spare wheel well is remotely acceptable. Think Rolf Harris' wobble board, with a line of screws keeping it from falling into the road! The "belly" in that actually popped when I stood on it, while changing the interior light bulb, many years ago now.
It was the memory of this that had me avoiding anything with a dropped floor, several of which have cropped up over the course of the year.
Well, that and the fact that, unaccountably, most are based on Renaults, which I couldn't justify as a daily driver, never mind something that has to be even more dependable!
So, back to the drawing board, trawling the net for a Dispatch, or Expert, passenger vehicle.
Oddly, a Scudo, ex-taxi, with recent new sills, for small-ish money has been popping up for the last week or more.
I'm almost tempted to go and jack it up and swing out of it!

[Gibbo2286]

A guy in the pensioner's bungalows behind my place drives a Ford Transit semi high top fitted out for wheel chair, I don't know him, in fact I've never seen him outside the van so I don't know what his disability is.

[BX]

Plywood in various forms was and possibly is an important material in coach building and vehicle conversion. Its uses ranged from van ply lining to protect the van right up to being the floor material in midi and full size coaches. Specific ply wood with various finishes was available.
For the conversion of vans to minibus's and wheelchair accessible vehicles ply was used on top of the existing floor. Its main purpose was to provide a smooth upper surface and to spread the load more evenly across the existing metal floor. Sections were cut out to allow wheelchair restraint fixings to be finished flush with the floor surface The seats and the wheelchair fixings were bolted to the original floor using suitable reinforcements. Again ply was available with suitable finishes to give a smooth non-slip hard wearing surface. Plain ply could be used and an appropriate covering or carpet applied over it.
Now crash tested floors are the way to go. They incorporate the required fixings, are glued on top of the original floor and only have a few bolts at the back. These systems are approved to the major standards such as German TUV.

[sparksie]

Ah! Ok, I missed that when reading your comment about suitability.
I have no problem with ply as a cosmetic material, in which capacity it far exceeds plastic, IMHO.
I don't think it would be acceptable as an anchorage for seating or restraints, which should be attached to welded, structural parts of the car.
I have a Mercedes camper van, based on an ex mobile library, which has a 3/4" plywood floor in the cargo area. This has been used extensively as an anchorage for the built in furniture, but the forward facing seats and the seat belt anchor bolts are all bolted to chassis beams, as is the auxiliary battery box and the gas locker.
In the event of a collision with anything big enough to stop it, at least I won't be hit in the back by anything heavy breaking loose!
I would expect the same consideration to apply to a wheelchair, which is not at all people-friendly from the point of view of anybody not sitting in it.
Lots of sharp edges and "stabby" levers sticking out. I definitely wouldn't like to have a close encounter with one that had broken free of its' harness, occupied or not!