Drivers Side Aircon Shield

There's a lot of plastic gubbins pretty exposed and unprotected on the drivers side of the van.
Here's how I made them safer.

I used some 40mm angle, 1.2mm thick sheet, and some 25x5mm strap I had lying around.
Made up this box shape and welded the hanging straps from it.
The tab at the top of the hanging strap is about 25mm long - enough for whatever self tapper/etc you decide to use there. I used self drilling screws - about 8mm x 30mm.

The top right corner - in the picture above - make sure you leave it open and don't weld it. Why will be come obvious when you see how it attaches to the body.

The side steps were a little close so I cut an inch or so off of this end.

After the initial install someone suggested I put a bevel on the front to so its less of a plough when it eventually hits something.

Here it is installed (before adding the bevel to the front).
The straps go up and screw straight into the chassis rail.

Here is the view from the outside. As you can see it attaches to the body panel seam. The side of the box is on the outside of the body and screwed through with pilot holes in the box and then self drilling through the body. I then unscrewed them, squirted in some silicon and re-screwed them (to help prevent corrosion).

Should be strong enough :-) Certainly more protected than it was.

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