Mud Flap Replacement

The original

Had been hanging on for dear life since I bought the van, the consequence of a sideswipe in the city. Since this piece of rubber is the only thing protecting a 30+ year old propane tank, I figured this would be a worthwhile investment.

The replacement

is available on busdepot.com, it's also good to pick up a set of grommets to hold the new screws in place.

Removing the existing flap

Should be fairly straight-forward. In my case, the entire upper portion was already disconnected from the van. All that remained, was to unthread the screws holding the bracket to the body. For me, one of these screw was missing entirely making the disassembly fairly quick and painless.

Installing the new flap

The new flap came with no instructions so I figured it out on the fly:

1. Remove the thin filler rubber on the flap.
2. Loosely thread the new hardware through the flap using the old flap as a guide
3. Attach the flap to the body via the threaded holes beneath the van
4. Adjust the fit of the flap until it is in the correct position
5. Mark where the new screws should be inserted into the flap
6. Remove the flap from the body
7. Insert screws into the flap
8. Insert grommets into the body, I used a dab of silicon to hold them in place
9. Install the flap screws first, and attach the bracket to the body
10. Fill any gaps along the flap and the body with silicon to form a seal