The Ply Lining project!

[MrCoffee]

Having searched high and low for templates for this sort of thing, and coming up empty handed, I decided to document as much as I could during this project. A little background first;

The Transit in question is a 1995 100 SWB standard roof panel van. The idea is to install a row of 3 seats behind the driver, then partition off the whole rear of the van for all my gear. The extra seating area will get carpeted throughout, and a windowed SLD with a deep tinted window. The cargo hold, will simply be ply lined. So heres a pic before I started...

[MrCoffee]

OK, 1st things 1st, I gave the rear of the van a good clean, and waxoiled as much of the arches area as possible, paying close attention to cramming as much through any holes as I could. Next, a few coffees and some cigarrettes later, I decided that the OS panel would be the easiest to start with. My reasoning behind this is, I'd like the floor to be removeable in case any welding needs doing, so that will be a 2 piece section that goes in last, held in place with an angled metal strip at the back door slam plate. Therefore, the build should be something like OS panel, NS panel, Bulkhead, roof and wheel arch boxes, then finally the floor. I`ll be leaving the SLD for now until I source its replacement.

So, after a bit of rough measuring and cutting, I come up with the following template; NOTE: The grey lines are the structural bits behind. Its handy to know where to drill and screw onto!

Just realised, the van is a 100 SWB NOT an 80. Dont think that will make any difference though...



Please note, this is pretty much the easiest amount of cuts and with a simple box arch. Of course you could try and be smart like I did, and try to angle the wood around the arches, but without a proper angle tool, I decided to just box them. If done carefully enough, the section you cut out for the wheel arch can be your basis for the boxing section. All you have to do is to build the sides and top. I decided against this as I need the arch to be strong, so will box it in with 10mm ply.

Next, a quick spray of adhesive on the panels, and a very roughly chopped up loft insulation roll (called Space Blanket or something...less than a £5 per roll from Wickes), a dab of gaffer tape to hold the weight of the insulation, and we end up with the following;

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[Luke]

i think i'll get some of that insulation stuff before i do my mk1

[MrCoffee]

Next, I took the pre made panel, and drilled 3 pilot holes in it with an 8mm drill in the centre of the panel, and at either end of the grey centre line. As these will be the areas with most force in the bend, I used these to shape the panel as I went along. I`d advise to use larger self tapping screws and some washers under the heads to ensure they dont rip through the ply under the pressure!

Once the 3 pilot holes were secured, it was simply a case of screwing right along the centre grey line with countersunk screws with metal countersunk washers, keeping the fixings about a foot apart. If I get too many squeaks or rattles...I may put some more in later. So simply go around the panel, and add extra screws where needed. I eventually used a total of about 20 screws for this panel. I didnt bother screwing in the very bottom edge, as this will be secured by the floor ply, and it doesn`t move anyway really. So, we end up with this;



The fit could be a little better toward the rear door pillar, but I`m not going for perfecting here, and dont have a wood plane anyway. You`ll notice that the ply sheet is a little shy of the upper frame of the body, but once the roof lining is in, I can easily add a 'skirting' to it to finish the job nicely.

Tomorrow...the Nearside!

MrC

[MrMPuk]

If I was gonna do mine again I would do it in 2 pieces down the middle so I could have it right up to the roof.

[100ps_drw_hicube]

i have done mine with the small bit at the bottom less noticeable i think but next time i will do mine as you say mike would look better i think

[MrCoffee]

OK, so today I did the Nearside. Because there will be an extra row of seats fitted, but I wanted as much loading space as possible, the bulkhead will be positioned right to the rear edge of the side loading door step. Once the bulkhead is in place, Steel angle strips will be used to protect the corners, and make it look neater.

So, same again with the cleanup, waxoyl and insulation;



Then I set about cutting the wood to fit. I tried a different method for the wheel arch this time, because they`ll be boxed and the gaps hidden anyway. I stood the ply up against the vertical part of the wheel arch, then with a pencil flat on the arch, just rolled it over the arch to trace out the shape. Straightened these lines with a ruler, then cut. As you can see in the final photo, its much neater. Once measured up, I came up with the following template. Again, the greay lines show where the screws should be placed;

[MrCoffee]

You can see the cutout at the top right of the panel, this is to clear the top SLD mounting. Because the panel was snuf to the top of the arch, I chose that as my pilot holes, then worked my way around the panel, keeping the screws 10-12" apart. Finally, we ended up with this;




You can see in the above photo that the 'boxed' cargo area will be seen when the door is open. Once completed, the bulkhead and this corner will be carpeted, and have the metal edge strip to prevent damage to the corner, and clothes!

Tomorrow (if I can be bothered), boxed arches and bulkhead. (I chose to leave the roof till last so I can fix the bulkhead to the roof, then line over the brackets with the roof section).

MrC

[pce-hq13]

Looking smart MrCoffee

Looking to redo mine soon

You have given me a lot of ideas

Thanks dude

...Paul...

[MrCoffee]

My pleasure, and only 1 splinter so far!! Hopefully the templates will be of some use to someone, even if they dont do the same design

Right then, today was bulkhead day. Step 1: Take a measurement from across the floorpan between the 2 side panels, cut a sheet of 8x4 10-19mm wood, then realise you`ve ballsed it up and start again!!

Take a measurement from the widest point which should be on the same line as the grey lines on the previous templates. (where your horizontally aligned screws go. On my van, this was 69". Then I cust the 8x4 sheet to this length. Next, I took mesurements at the floor level (67"), and the roof level (63"). Once the angles are cut, this gives a kinda hexagonal shape to the bulkhead. As I was cutting the side angles, theres a certain amount of guesswork and trial and error involved, shacving off little bits at a time, until it fits as neat as possible. Obviously, as the van sides are curved, this can take some time. The template below, just shows the straight angles. Note the cutout for the SLD top mounting again.



The grey squares are where I placed right angle brackets to secure the panel to the OS and the floor. The NS edge is fixed through the NS panel as shown below;



Try to make sure everything is straight by fixing one corner, then working vertically, then horizontally , fixing as you go. The trickiest part of the fixing was my bulkhead is only 10mm thick, and screwing into the dead centre of the edge takes care.

MrC

[MrCoffee]

Finally, once everything is fixed securely, I ran the edges with NoNails to kinda glue it together, and hide any gaps.



Finally, The arches. These were dead easy;



Should really mention here that the end pieces that make up the wheel arch box will not be the same size at the top and bottom. It depends how curved your side panel is. To make it look as neat as possible, the top measurement was 7.5", and the bottom 6.75". Also, for some bizarre reason, the drivers side wheel arch was 0.5" taller than the passenger side

Then finished it off with some NoNails again;



I think I`ll be doing the floor on Sunday, then finally the roof and the carpeting.

MrC

[Andrew E]

Looking good Mr C ! I've got a mate whose a chippe, who replaced the floor in his van and was a bit shocked where the screws had rusted the floor so he Grip/pinkgriped the new floor down - oh and from experience the stick on lead flashing from wickes is good at getting rid of drumming from the side panels.
Andrew

[100ps_drw_hicube]

oh and from experience the stick on lead flashing from wickes is good at getting rid of drumming from the side panels.
Andrew

bit heavy tho to line the whole van with good idea i stuffed insulation in my wheelarch boxes nice and quiet

[MrCoffee]

So far the only holes drilled through the floor are the 2 holding the centre bulkhead bracket down and these have been waxoyl'd from underneath. As I mentioned earlier, when the floor goes down, it will not be fixed to the floor in any way. I plan to make the floor in 2 halves lengthways, and held together at the rear with a steel/aluminum trim.

If I get vibrations from the wood on the floor, then I plan to fit a sheet of carpet underlay underneath the floor. I planned to waxoyl the floor prior to the final fit of the floor, but with MOT coming up in August, I`ll do it after that. So once through the MOT, I`ll waxoyl the inside floor, then lay down the underlay, then finally the 'jigsaw' floor panels. And finally get the whole underside waxoyl'd. It`ll be messy if it ever needs to come out, but hopefully it should stop the rot to some extent.

MrC

[hdegroot]

Looking good, mine is almost the same. But why dont you buy a stock mid-section as most dual cabs have??


Mine