Ply, Insulation, Carpeting and Flooring
Following the numerous threads dedicated to this subject, I felt I was well prepared for this stage of the build.
Ingredients!
- "]Carpet and high-temp spray adhesive from Mega-Van-Mats (If you are unsure how many metres you might need for your build, contact MVM. They were really helpful with the questions I had). I have a SWB with half bulkhead and 11m was enough to cover it all.
- Insulation (following advice on this forum, I went with recycled plastic)
- Flashband - I ordered three rolls, think I only used two though.
- Aluminium foil tape
- Decent scissors (to save on stanley blades)
Preparation
I started by removing all of the ply, I reused some of the boards that were of a decent quality - but a number of them needed replacing so I used them as templates. (Apologies, I have no photos of removing and cutting ply).
There happened to be a bit of rust on one of my wheel arches where some sort of frame was drilled into it. I took it to a local body shop and got them to cut/weld a small piece of metal there. Top job but no pictures.
Next, remove the head lining... not as easy as you'd think! You can try using an allen key, but sometimes that doesn't work.
Where the allen key fails, you'll need to get a drill involved.
Top Tip!
If you do happen to destroy any of the plastic fixings when removing the head lining. You can get replacement ones. I decided to go for the
clear/hidden roof clips from MVM. They're great to use because they are blind fixing. Simply attach them to your headlining, then cover over them with your chosen fabric. They then just slide up into the existing holes T:.
Likewise, if you snap any of the black clips that hold the diving head lining strips, you can
get replacements.
Flash Band
Next stage was the flash banding... Again, I followed the advice on the forum and applied the flash band to all outer panels, a few strips on the roof and wheel arches.
Insulation
I used the sandwich technique to insulate.
Foil - Insulation - Foil.
Follow these steps until you've done the entire van, including roof.
Top tip!
Do not block the slam vents! You'll see I left mine open.
Carpeting the ply
This stage was pretty fun!
The carpet from MVM was very easy to use, although it eats through stanley blades! Investing in a decent pair of scissors is my top tip, once I did this things went a lot smoother.
Top Tip!
Spray the adhesive from a distance, sounds fairly simple, but you want it to look a bit like a spiders web when it lands!
Another Top Tip!
The nozzle (on the MVM supplied cans) is adjustable, so if you find the adhesive spraying in clumps, try twisting the nozzle slightly.
Start with your ply. Spray with glue on the side you want the carpet to go.
Get some extra pair of hands and remove the ply, then lay the carpet down flat. Spray the carpet.
Lay the ply over the top of the carpet.
Trim the excess around the back.
Top Tip!
The carpet really is very stretchy. To get nice crisp corners, do not be afraid to use some elbow grease and really mould/bend/contour the carpet into shape.
Carpeting the metalwork
I found the easiest way to do this was in one length of material...
Start spraying the bare metal from the top corner of where you will start. Then spray the back of the carpet. Apply the carpet.
Once that section is done, get back underneath the carpet, and spray the next section of metal/carpet. And so on...
Cut out the section where the ply will go, and you're done.
I went for a modular effect, rather than one large length of ply. So you can see here the effect I'll have once the boards are screwed on.
Top Tip!
Don't be afraid to use scraps of carpet to hide joins. I found, particularly along the base of the tailgate, that sometimes a join is needed because you can't do the carpeting in one large section. In this instance, I used a scrap of carpet, cut it to size and then gently rubbed it toward the join, eventually it covered the seam and you couldn't even tell the join was there.
The bulkhead was fairly easy to do, one large piece of carpet and plenty of adhesive. The contouring was achieved by using the back of plastic screwdriver (to avoid carpet burn).
I was more than pleased with the final result, and what a transformation it has made!
Flooring
Finally, the floor! Pretty straight forward.
The cut in my floor was done length ways (from tailgate to bulk head) due to the width constraints of the ply available to me.
I went to a carpet store and chose a length of vinyl that I liked.
Using the ply, I drew around it to make a stencil onto the vinyl and cut it out (slightly larger than I needed).
The ply was then drilled into the floor.
Using some adhesive glue to give it some tack, the vinyl flooring was then laid down.
As the vinyl is one large sheet, I didn't feel the need to then screw it down as well. A Rock n Roll bed and units will be more than enough weight to ensure it is held in place, although the high temp adhesive has done a great job so far.
Ply/Insulation/Carpet/Flooring Complete
Thanks to everyone for their advice on ply/insulation/carpeting, and to my Dad for the amount of time and effort he put into helping me complete this phase of the build!
LOL:
