Trim panel on Thetford C1/2 for AS Talent

Hi All, having recently acquired our 1996 AS Talent, we are going through the 'bus' to rectify age related wear and tear....

The blue / grey trim panel mounted in front of the Thetford C1/2 has sustained some damage at some time - there is a crack in the front and a piece broken off on top - right in front of the toilet seat. It is covered up OK when the seat cushion is mounted over the top, but it does look a bit unsightly.

Does anyone know if these panels are still available? I spoke to AS Spares a few days ago about other bits and bobs and was told.... "we wouldn't keep any spares for anything that old". I decided that further conversation with said person would probably not yield much fruit - so said my thanks and plodded on. I have been told by another AS owner (99 Trident) that the spares folk are generally really helpfull.

Any advice greatfully received... thanks

If it's an A-S specific part (i.e. not one made by Thetford), you've got to have some sympathy for their spares dept... It would take acres of warehouse space if they kept just one spare of every type of panel that they fitted to every type/variant of van that they have made since 1996!

In general on vans that old the only option is to find a replacement part at a breakers (very unlikely for a Talent which, AFAIK, was not made in large numbers originally) or to repair/replicate.

Hi, sorry I can`t help you with the trim, I had a similar reply from Auto sleeper, parts not available for a van that old! I wonder if you could help me though, we bought our Talent one month ago, & have discovered that you could buy two in-fill cushions to makeup the double bed, sadly our van hasn`t got them. Of course the design needs to be spot on, any design info` would be great.
 I hope to hear from you, 
 J.C Powell

Hi there,

If it's a Thetford Trim then it MAY be in here somewhere.

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Best regards,

J.C POWELL wrote:Hi, sorry I can`t help you with the trim, I had a similar reply from Auto sleeper, parts not available for a van that old! I wonder if you could help me though, we bought our Talent one month ago, & have discovered that you could buy two in-fill cushions to makeup the double bed, sadly our van hasn`t got them. Of course the design needs to be spot on, any design info` would be great.
 I hope to hear from you, 
 J.C Powell

Hi J.C. Powell - first of all, Congratulations on your excellent purchase   I searched long and hard for a Talent as it is in my view the best layout in a SWB T4, secondly - apologies for the late response - we were away in the Talent for 2 weeks and I simply enjoyed the absence of lap top too much.

Will continue with the thread in question in my reply to Dutto - but to answer your question:

Must admit, we did battle and struggle for a while to get the best bed solution, but we are 95% there. It may merit another topic, but how many Talent posters are there out there? We tried all sorts to bridge the gap in front of the main centre infill - also, the drivers seat back drops a bit too low and makes the bed uncomfortable. This is our solution - for now:

Put one headrest sideways under the front seat back when it is down - to prop it up a bit. Put the other headrest flat on the floor behind the gear stick. Place luggage (in our case 2 small ruck sacks) on the floor and head rest. We then use two self inflating kneelers and wedge them in between the seat backs on top of the luggage. We cover the whole bed area with a fabric covered king size (Yes!!!) memory foam matress topper (about 1.5 inch thick) and then put an elasticated corner sheet over the whole lot - Hey presto - King size bed in a T4! The topper rolls up tight enough to fit in the overhead locker with 3 pillows, a duvet, the sheet and the kneelers.

Dutto wrote:Hi there,

If it's a Thetford Trim then it MAY be in here somewhere.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Best regards,

Back to the Toilet thread....   Unfortunately it is an AS piece of trim - I have finally worked out how to remove the whole toilet assembly from the van and take the AS parts off the Thetford bits. The panel has been bodged before and is actually quite delicate. The same problem with the flimsy moldings under the toilet runner rails. One is damaged.

AS have no spares   so I think the only thing to do is to take it to someone who does plastic car body repairs etc.... or to simply fill it with fibreglass matting on the inside, fill the outside and respray it.