Does anyone have a good technique for attaching new plywood panels on the side and rear doors?

a bit on topic...

Since I don't know what the inside of your build looks like i'll share what is working in our DIY setup.

We went soft walls on all surfaces rather than panels and it is working great five years after install.

Here are two shots of the areas you mention. My wife did all the detail work and you don't even notice the seams it is that nice:

Slider:



And the rear doors:



Under all areas are bubblefoil/reflectix all applied with 3m 77 adhesive and covered with marine grade Hull Liner.

Best wishes on the project,
Thom

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Greetings from the Sunny Southwest, USA
2017 RAM Promaster Conversion. SOLD: 2010 Chevy Express AWD
Van Build Thread @ SMBForums

What is the soft carpet-like material you used for those surfaces?

I've been considering covering my interior with something more like carpet to keep the sound levels down while driving. Hard surfaces reflect sound around again and again.

Of course, I could go 1970s full shag...

-- Geoff

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2004 Ford, SMB 4x4, RB-50
https://octopup.org/sportsmobile

Nice job. We did just that on other surfaces in the van but wanted to keep the doors somewhat waterproof. Thanks for the reply.

I used 3mm plywood when the time came to re-do some of mine. (I used ply mostly because I just happened to have a big pile of surplus 3 & 4mm marine grade ply lying around. Almost anything would work, though the ply is much nicer to work with than Luan or masonite. In a fit of OCD I actually glassed the faces of all the sheets to make them a bit more resistant to damage if I was using the van for hauling stuff, but it really was unnecessary!)

I glued Home Despot interior/exterior grade short-nap carpet on top of the panels, using spray contact adhesive. I laid the carpet carefully on top of the pre-glued panels, pulled over the edges and secured with glue and staples on the back. I used regular sheet metal screws for attaching the panels and with plastic caps to hide the screw heads. In a couple of places, I did attach scrap pieces of 2x4 behind the sheet metal if the ply had to be pulled in a lot.

You can pre-drill pilot holes or just use the sheet metal screws that cut their own pilot hole. I used the 'cutting' kind. No idea what the technical term for them is but they are used in roofing a lot and usually have a good sized shoulder to the head, making them quite secure for holding relatively weak sheet in place.

FWIW, I did add self-stick damping mat to all the exposed sheet metal before closing it up. That makes a HUGE difference in sound levels in the van, even though it was only a cheap bigbox brand. Then I stuffed as much fiberglass in the cavities as I could and taped reflectix sheet over the openings. The carpeted panels went over that.

The interior is holding up pretty well but I would spend more money on a more robust carpet if I were to do it again. The carpet has been torn in a couple of places from having something dragged against it. I suspect the hull liner carpet that another Forumista used would be worth the extra cost.

Sorry for the late reply. The material we used is under a general heading of "Hull Liner fabric"...a google search will give good results. We were able to purchase our material at a marine fabric store in Portland in fall of 2010. Still looks new.

Here is an example link to the same type of product in our build.

: ) Thom

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Greetings from the Sunny Southwest, USA
2017 RAM Promaster Conversion. SOLD: 2010 Chevy Express AWD
Van Build Thread @ SMBForums