When I lived and traveled and fixed cars out of my 56 Commercial Spitty- I
considered the same too - just lift up the rear hatch to 45
degrees....extend the bed/floor out back a few feet, fill in the gaps.
Done.
Any pics of yours ?
Scott
www.turbovans.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
levi hawkins
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 1:47 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Power output of actual vans? (long)

I did exactly this with a splitty back in the 70's. It looked surprisingly
good, to my eye, though I'm sure no one today would appreciate that being
done to a split. Access to the engine area in a vanagon would be hurt,
though it changed nothing with the splitty.

Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> wrote: Re the cone on the
rear idea, to fill in that low pressure area,
And thus reduce drag,
I've always noticed that if you just open the rear hatch about 50
degrees.....
You've got most of that 'rear cone' already.
Plus it's got a window right where you want it !
Plus it increases interior useful volume .
What's not to like ?!
Just a matter of finishing it off cleanly, having not look dorky,
And Keeping engine access reasonable....
Perhaps the whole rear hatch re-made in fiberglass.............but in the
form of a bubble....about like you opened the stock rear hatch halfway and
then filled in all the gaps.

And retain the stock rear window and rubber window seal.
Hinges at the top so it's out of the way when opened....
Rounded off some so no sharp edges.....
Done right it could look and work quite nicely, with increases in interior
volume, reduced drag at speed, no particular weight penalty if done well
enough,
.

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