Blinding blinds! Help required.

[nybongo]

The missus decided she wanted to take the blinds down and replace with black out blind material. Fair enough says I, I'll look on the BFF and find out how to do it. So off I go. Seatbelt mounts off, grab handles off. Undo the 2 little screws holding the black end pieces on, pull out the blind only to hear a whirring noise as the blind spring unwinds. Funny thinks I, no one mentioned that. Let me look on the BFF again. Ah yes, gently remove the spindle somehow holding the end so that you can count how many winds you need. Bugger.

So here I am, I have the nice new blind ready to go, but don't know which way to wind up the spring or how to hold it while I fit it in. Do I put one of the black end caps in first etc? Does anyone have advice on how I can get these darn things back in?

We tried a few times, till the missus lost the black end cap down the bottom panel, which had me cursing as I had to remove the seat bolts etc to get it out. Argh!

ny

[Velocette]

The missus decided she wanted to take the blinds down and replace with black out blind material. Fair enough says I, I'll look on the BFF and find out how to do it. So off I go. Seatbelt mounts off, grab handles off. Undo the 2 little screws holding the black end pieces on, pull out the blind only to hear a whirring noise as the blind spring unwinds. Funny thinks I, no one mentioned that. Let me look on the BFF again. Ah yes, gently remove the spindle somehow holding the end so that you can count how many winds you need. Bugger.

So here I am, I have the nice new blind ready to go, but don't know which way to wind up the spring or how to hold it while I fit it in. Do I put one of the black end caps in first etc? Does anyone have advice on how I can get these darn things back in?

We tried a few times, till the missus lost the black end cap down the bottom panel, which had me cursing as I had to remove the seat bolts etc to get it out. Argh!

ny

I Have done quite a bit of maintenance on old roller blinds, but not automotive ones, however this might help but you would need to modify the technique.

On sprung domestic blinds the spindle locks automatically.

The way you set the tension is to pull them down, release them and if they don't go all the way back up, take them off the brackets roll them up by hand and put them back on the brackets. You can then increase the tension by pulling them down a few inches, taking them off rolling up and refitting, should then be perfect.

If they are over tensioned take them off rolled up and unroll them by hand and put them back up.

[missfixit70]

That doesn't work on the bongo blinds unfortunately, I've had mine off a few times trying to get the blackout blinds working right, always took a few attempts to get it right, & can never remember which way it goes, why not uncover one of the others & check that as a template?

[nybongo]

Darn it, I thought there was an answer there ! Any other help - anyone?

[longhaul8]

[quote][/quote]

Don't listen to the wife

Have you tried the members area ? there is a fact sheet on removeing washing and refitting blinds not sure if it will help you but you have nothing to lose.

[nybongo]

Thanks, but unfortunately its that fact sheet that I was working from. It reads a lot easier than it seems to be. There was supposed to be a video, but I don't seem to be able to access that. The putting back together instructions don't quite seem to gel with what I think I have to do either. So maybe I haven't done something right. Are you supposed to take the frame out too, or just the roller?

[nybongo]

Yay! I've managed to get one back in. The rear nearside blind. I undid the two bolts holding the top of the frame for the blind to the side of the van. That gave me more room to manoeuvre the blind. I also used a couple of elastic bands to hold the blind rolled up until it was fixed in place. Did about 20 turns on the spring in the direction the blind goes down so that it would pull the blind up. Still seems a bit counter intuitive, but worked fine. screwed the spring end cap on to the frame, then carefully fastened the other end, careful not to lose the little screws. Tightened up the two bolts holding the frame to the wall then snipped off the elastic bands holding the rolled up blind before testing. Worked a treat.

Just need to do the other three!