I bought this van and its inside upholstery/liner/carpet are pretty much done after all it is 12-yrs old by now. So I have removed factory walls and headliner then I got stuck on the floor since there is glued-on carpeting all the way from the rear doors up to the firewall, all padding glued to the floor. Behind the driver/passenger seats there is some 1/4" plywood which is also glued on hard to the entire floor (it is an extended size van), not glued here and there, just plain stuck onto the metal. Any advice since I have to remove the old carpet, old padding and now the old plywood? Is this how the trim normally is or did the previous owner do some mods too? Thanks!

 

plywood is not stock.
post some pics

 

I have a '03 re-fitter conversion with the same plywood/carpet treatment, it was done on an incomplete van and they like to glue the plywood down! but the ribs in the floor give you a good spot to get a pry bar started. depending on how good the glue/adhesive was/is it can splinter the plywood or break away in large sections (like mine did). I did not take off the carpet first which might have helped keep the plywood together... I started by removing the rear threshold trim piece (which is held down with those horrible nylon fake screws into nylon expanding clips which are often not re-useable in my experience, no bite the second time around!)

 

Thanks dziwei! The floor ribs do seem clean so I'll use that for leverage and I'll keep that carpet on for grip. That was good insight because I would have pulled off the carpet first; the plywood seems like it is the stranded wood type, I guess it will make a mess coming out. Yeap, I saw that rear trim plate on my van was weak, I'll re-use it for now but I'm thinking diamond plate in the future. I'll post pictures of this adventure, honestly I didn't expect to have glue in there.

 

Vettex2 I'll get some pictures up soon.

 

If you need interior panel clips, fasteners or some Ford Connectors I've found these people to be very helpful. Ford

 

Good knowledge networking here ppl! I have been using these furniture connectors in black (bolt only), which hold great but you need access to the back side for a nylock nut & washer, the rear doors only have good access to a couple. (link is just for picture, I got them at home center). that link JC looks like a gold mine to me! in the planning steps of building out a camping van and need to do the entire interior & high top ceiling...

1/4-20x35mm Joint Connector Bolt Hex Drive 17mm Head (Bronze) | Baltimore Hardware

 

If you are going to be redoing the interior, depending on what material you use, these little screw cap covers might work out for you. These are what is in my van to cover the screw heads. My vans have plywood with glued on cloth and vinyl.
https://www.rvandvansurplus.com/butt...Vehicletype=RV

you can also find other companies with a bit cheaper ones and smaller too.

 

annaleigh, thanks for that link! great resource. I wish they had the 1" foam backed upholstery material, that stuff really fills in troublesome areas... I am considering your idea of fabric covered ply (1/4?) I planned on using 1/8" luan (usually looks like mahogany red/brown with no knots) but hard to find in my area (they have 1/4" but not flexible enough). home depot has something similar called 'utility board' but its natural/light so can stain easily unfinished but with fabric over it should work well, did you use foam backed fabric? 3M 90 spray adhesive?

 

FYI to all https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...flicjjgj?hl=en

 

Here is a door panel from the drivers door. I removed it to check for rust inside the door. I found the weep holes at the bottom of the door were covered over by the door weather stripping and water wold build up inside the door, almost up to the speaker hole...

So let me see if I can explain how the door panel is covered. Sorry I only have the one pic of the door panel.

It is thin like paneling, a little thinner then 1/4“. I believe the panels are generically cut to fit several model ford vans of that year.. Example is mine does not have electric locks or windows but there is a hole cut in the wood panel for the switches if they were used. The unused holes were just covered over with material.

There is a 1/4 foam backing. I don’t know if they bought the material with a foam back or glued the foam on first and then the material, but it wraps around the back edges and is stapled in place with very short staples.

There is a cloth pocket on the inside of the door panel. I added the black lines to represent the cutout in the wood. The outer cloth wraps around the inside of the panel through the cutout and is glued and stapled in place. That gives a finished edge to the cutout.

Now for the pocket. The peach colored cloth was glued and stapled in place from the back side of the panel. After that the grey was glued and stapled on on the back side edges. Te result is this forms a storage pocket on the inside of the door panel.

The door panel is then screwed to the inside of the metal door and the matching color caps are placed over the screws. .
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I believe there may be a combination of 1/4 and 3/16“ wood used in the MakrIII van interior because there are a couple of places where 1/4“ plywood would not bend as much as it is bent.

I believe that thew very center ceiling piece of wood only has a very few screws holding it in place and those screws are covered over by other trim pieces.

I will eventually be pulling out my interior to re-insulate and make some overhead storage cabinets. The walls have some house type insulation but the ceiling has none, nor does the doors.

As you can see I have several windows and that complicates designing a camper van. I may black out the front two side windows just behind the drivers seat, insulate them, and cover over them to make room for a kitchen. The second idea is to build my kitchen in the back.

As to carpet, I am thinking i might use carpet in the front cab area and use that commercial grade wood floor looking material you see used in hospital or doctors offices. It is very durable and non skid. I could place rubber backed rugs over top of it if I decided to. Wood laminate scratches easy and hard sole shoes slide on it. Vinyl tears easy. The commercial grade flooring is expensive but it is not that big of a space. I would like to leave the 3/4“ plywood and put 1/4“ underlaymeant on top to smooth out the seams. BUT I believe my seat pedestals were bolted down first and then the plywood put down. If so then either the plywood has to come up or I have to cut around the seat pedestals and then patch the plywood then use an underlay on top.
I have a 1985 and a 1988 e150 mark III conversion van. They look almost exactly alike except for the interior. I think it is the 85 that the plywood is screwed down to the floor and the 88 is glued..

Some of my interior is cloth while other is a vinyl.