"window Look" Or Not?

[Epu]

So I own MK7 fiesta sport van. Now mine has these body colored plastic parts where you usually have your rear passenger windows. So the question goes should I paint them black or mayby tape them black to get a window look? What do you guys think? For you to even have a vague Idea heres a pic how the car currently looks (sorry for the bad quality.)

[L666JER]

If it was mine I would leave it as it is... but it's your car so your decision.

But if you're going to have them black, then painting is the best, if the most time consuming way

[jamesm182]

The easiest way if you were going to do this would be to get a vinyl wrapper to put gloss black vinyl in a window shape....

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Ford OC mobile app

[L666JER]

The easiest way if you were going to do this would be to get a vinyl wrapper to put gloss black vinyl in a window shape....

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Ford OC mobile app

Never fancied vinyl wrap, myself. Always thought it was a bit tacky. Just my opinion though :)

Sent from my ST26i using Ford OC mobile app

[Mike77]

Leave it as is, no point in trying to make it look like a car, looks sweet as it is.

[B13]

Nice van!! (I own a black MK7 sport van)

How easily do the rear panels come out? (I'd imagine they are pretty firmly secured, otherwise there wouldn't be much to deter a theif!!) But could you get a pair of black ones from Ford or a breakers yard and swap them out?

That way, you could get the look you want, but could swap it back to red if desired.

[Epu]

Nice van!! (I own a black MK7 sport van)

How easily do the rear panels come out? (I'd imagine they are pretty firmly secured, otherwise there wouldn't be much to deter a theif!!) But could you get a pair of black ones from Ford or a breakers yard and swap them out?

That way, you could get the look you want, but could swap it back to red if desired.

Think they are pretty much just glued so with some heat they might come off easy. Not too much of a hassle to protect the rest of the car if painting and wrapping em/taping isnt a problem ofc ( just wondering if it comes off easy when I wash the car.)

[Hjalle]

I would go for the black personally - I'm not sure if it's legal but I would pop out the panels, put in glass and then a really really dark tint. Like the one you can't see through from the outside

Even though it's not the legal tint levels, it would still give more visibility than metal panels so maybe it is legal? Otherwise I would go a vinyl wrap, I think paint would look funny

[B13]

Hjalle: I must admit, I've considered getting one-way glass windows installed in my van. Mainly because reversing in tight spots is a total 'mare - coz the blind spot is HUGE!! And changing lanes on busy motorways always leads to an Eek!-My-Bum's-Gone-Square Moment!!!

Don't know if it's easily possible - and surely it won't be illegal because they aren't windows you need to look through to drive (like the windscreen or the front windows) but if it can be done, I'd consider it.

[Hjalle]

Yeah that's what my other thought was, your blind spot would be huge - I've driven my friends Golf a few times and I find his massive so I can't imagine what yours would be like!

That's true, I know for windows on vehicles in Australia they must have a minimum of 35% light transmitance. Yours is a van though so it might be different - I mean a darkly tinted window is safer than metal

If it is legal, and you can just pop out the metal panels I would have thought all you need to do is get two pieces of glass cut to size, clean up the surrounds and then silicone on the glass?

[MartynS]

The only laws around tinting apply to the windscreen and front side windows, so you can do whatever you like with the rears: https://www.gov.uk/tinted-vehicle-window-rules

[B13]

P.S. If anyone is wondering why the heck we want our vans to appear at least slightly more car-like, there is method in our madness:

1. Commercial vehicles need to pay to take stuff to the tip/recycling centre and our vans are classed as 'Light Goods Vehicles' - it even says so on the Tax Disc. So being able to sneak in, disguised as a car is rather handy. It's not like we can fit a bloomin' bath in the load bay, but paying £25 (or whatever it is) to take some old socks, bits of kitchen, cardboard boxes, etc in for recycling would be a bit of a pain.

2. We can't drive into Royal Parks (IIRC). Bit of a pain (again) if you want to have a picnic and have spent all morning filling up all that lovely loadbay space with sandwiches, only to be turned away...

;)

I have do have to say though, that the lil' red van up above looks bloomin' well nice as it is - but I know where Epu is coming from by wanting to make it look slightly less like a van: mine's black, so it just looks like it's got 100% tint rear windows and that it's owner (me) is an 18 year old boy racer.

(Couldn't be much further from the truth!! Hee!!)

:D

[Epu]

P.S. If anyone is wondering why the heck we want our vans to appear at least slightly more car-like, there is method in our madness:

1. Commercial vehicles need to pay to take stuff to the tip/recycling centre and our vans are classed as 'Light Goods Vehicles' - it even says so on the Tax Disc. So being able to sneak in, disguised as a car is rather handy. It's not like we can fit a bloomin' bath in the load bay, but paying £25 (or whatever it is) to take some old socks, bits of kitchen, cardboard boxes, etc in for recycling would be a bit of a pain.

2. We can't drive into Royal Parks (IIRC). Bit of a pain (again) if you want to have a picnic and have spent all morning filling up all that lovely loadbay space with sandwiches, only to be turned away...

;)

I have do have to say though, that the lil' red van up above looks bloomin' well nice as it is - but I know where Epu is coming from by wanting to make it look slightly less like a van: mine's black, so it just looks like it's got 100% tint rear windows and that it's owner (me) is an 18 year old boy racer.

(Couldn't be much further from the truth!! Hee!!)

:D

Your reasons doesn't apply to me/finland!

But theres another rule! Summer speedlimits on motorway is 120km/h = Which is 74.5 Mph. However with a van you are only allowed to go 100km/h = 62 Mph. So if I make it look more like a car I know for sure that the police won't come after me.

[B13]

Blimey! I could understand that ruling for say, a fully-loaded Transit van, but car-derived vans like ours are NEVER going to carry the kinds of heavy loads (for example) that could shift dangerously at speed.

So there's no destinction in Finland between Light Goods Vehicles and Heavy Goods Vehicles?

That's just daft!!

[Epu]

Nope no distinction between however with a van you're paying less tax. Normal fiesta 1.6tdci 95ps tax costs 413.5 euros which is roughly 343 GBP a year. For the exact same car except van version it's 144.9 euros = 120 GBP. In finland tax scales with emissions and diesel cars have another tax on top of the normal one! However diesel costs less than petrol. Diesel costs 1.430-1.550 euros depending on the day. Petrol is around 1.580-1.680 for 95/E10 And 98/E5 is something like 1.680-1.780. Also our insurance system is way different. Our insurance system doesn't have any groups your cars insurance costs depends on pretty much how many have been crashed or thats pretty much how it works. So if your car is rare and pretty much no one owns same type of car the chances are your running on low insurance costs cause there isn't that many people to crash that type of car and thus not bringing the insurance costs up.

[B13]

Blimey! So Finish vehicle laws and tax are both sensible and bonkers in equal measure, by the sounds of it!!

:D

I'd love to hear what your final decision is re: your van's windows, so keep us posted!!