Had my converted panel van over 5 years now and its time to spruce up the interior as a little winter project for me. The old homemade wooden units are gone and just the bed remains. Done most of the L90D paint job and its rather pleasing. Now the old 'lino' floor has to go as its looking rough and I don't want a brown/orange floor. Clearly the PO used a ton of glue to stick the lino down to the ply floor, its a pain to remove and even with care some of the ply surface is peeling off. But good to get rid of it and the ply is wet and black in places along the walk through area so water has got in and travelled down to the wet area. The van is on the driveway, nose down. When the lino is out, I have to decide what new flooring to have and I would like some advice please. What are my options and do I really need to glue it down. Re the damaged ply surface, could I just use wood filler and sand to an even finish? Also do folks seal around the floor edges to prevent water getting to the ply? If yes, what sealant is best.
If the ply was WBP or marine ply then it probably would not have come apart as you peeled the vinyl. Having gone that far I would lift it because wet ply touching vaguely painted metal equals a strong chance of rot. Throw it all away, refinish, repaint metal, fit Celotex then WBP ply . Varnish the new ply or use a carpet like Flotex which has a waterproof backing.. .
Old lino now removed. Horrible stuff, its hard, brittle and hessian backed. Glad to get rid of it. Working inside the van, raining outside, water is dripping in through two of the side windows and clearly the seals are not doing their job. The seals do not seem to be closing against the glass properly and the corners have some wrinkling. That would explain the wet patches in the ply floor, gap between ply and surrounding metal would allow water penetration. So looks like I am up for some window surround repairs and new seals, anyone done this and where do I get the best quality seals. Looks to me the existing seals were the wrong size as the gap for the glass looks too big. So its probably let water in for some time. The old ply is screwed down with allen key hex screws which could be interesting.
I used vinyl sheet in black and white square pattern. It's loose laid , the cupboard s and bed frame are on top of it
I redid mine in the lock-together vinyl flooring, stuck down over old vinyl tile strips which had started to lift. Only issue was having to trim the aluminium floor trim, as the whole lot had become about 5mm too thick. Sealed around the edges with black silicone mastic. Looks super, really pleased with it
Schofields do decent seals. (Assume you have factory fitted windows, rather than converted van windows)
Its a panel van with cut out windows. Anyway YouTube has come up trumps and I just found this clip from our friends at Combe Valley Campers.
At least Allen key hex screws provide ready made guides for drilling the heads off... If you are repairing metal then it might be worth checking you can get seals for exactly the same shaped holes that you are repairing. In case of creative thinking e..g. you have windows fitted from some other convenient (at the time) donor.
Black and white squares in Lino for me, on top of ply. The lino is stuck down with Lino tape, supplied by our local carpet fitters: apparently it comes back up easier than just regular glue. Do the job properly if you’ve got all winter to do it. And post some pictures.... I may have missed them, but in all my time on here, I’ve not seen a photo of your van @mgbman ! Good luck with the resto
I'd spend some time digging the muck out of the heads with a pin. The deeper you can get your Allen key to sit, the more successful you are likely to be