The interior assault has begun. I decided to go with stained (polyurethane actually) birch ply as many have done lately. It looks somewhat retro but is real wood and looks much better than the pressboard stuff. I also badly wanted to pull up the flooring and pull the wall panels to add some things, and to see what was there. Luckily, I found no rust except for bolts.
I was pretty surprised to find that there was essentially NO insulation in my van. There is now. Basically, SMB (in 95) just used this blue foam stuff, about 3/4 for carpet padding and sound deadening in the walls. There were a total of 2 squares of insulation on the rear walls, one on each side, measuring about 24x24". That's it.
And even though I had no sign of mice, they had been there. 2 nests on the driver's side and one on the passenger side. Looked pretty old though. Now cleaned and gone. I didn't even realize the rig smelled, but it smells like new wood and carpet now, not old camper, which I'm starting to realize is the smell of mice nests.
Before the cleaning
After
Here's some pretty stained panels which I FINALLY got installed in the last day or two. I had to look at them for about a week before I could shore up everything behind them and move on.
After much deliberation my wife and I agreed on black carpet. Her problems (and mine really) with the pergo/wood flooring we did last van was that it's just too hard on the knees when accessing low cabinets and the fridge. We considered coin flooring and a Bedrug, but cost and ease of install means this happened. 1/2 rigid foam, 1/2 OSB SMB flooring re-used because it was in OK shape and no rot, residential carpet padding and Lowe's indoor/outdoor black carpet, plus Reflectix underneath the wall panels.
I hate the idea of black carpet really, but I plan to use some rugs/mats on the high wear areas (down the middle and galley). The biggest problem here is color coordination to match the stained birch and the original SMB curtains and trim, which is gray AND tan in different places. I sure miss my simple solid gray 2002 interior sometimes!
The doghouse and cab area are really insulated well now and I added trays today under the front seats. Bullet lights are now black too, as are the curtain slides and hardware. Yippee!
I prewired for solar while I had the walls out, as well as adding switches and 2 outside lights (one on each side), prewired for sub amp, and added the outside shower too. This weekend I'm planning to get the plumbing and electrical sorted out and be building cabinets by early next week. Big trip coming up in a month, gotta stay busy!