Carpet and step

I used the old carpet as a template but I cut slightly on the generous side then had to trim back in parts. You can see the wheel arches covered in this shot as well which shows how much the carpet trim can be worked and stretched. 

Not sure what to do around the step as you can see the ply.

Insulation/sound deadening

Flashing tape on the bare panels to reduce panel noise, this is the ceiling prior to thermo bubble wrap.

For the sides I decided on Celotex first then thermo bubble wrap held in place with aluminium tape but not sealed in like the slider I did earlier. I should then be able to take a panel off and look for condensation if I really want to. I am hoping to get some insulation benefit from this but without doing the cab and having windows all round I think its always going to be compromised. The floor already has what looks like laminate insulation under the (very good) ply. Rubber backed carpet is going over the ply.

Carpet trimming

I took some time off work to properly trim and insulate the rear of the van. Materials are from Megavanmats, easy to use and recommended. I was looking forward to doing this work but I had some doubt over my ability to do a decent job. I started on the nearside, from the rear with one piece. The ceiling panels came down first off as I wanted to carpet right up to them. To start I glued the top so it would hang and allow me to push it about into the various curves - and there are plenty. Then I started gluing one area at a time eventually reached my most feared area - cutting round the windows.

 

This is the result, not too shoddy. I found it essential to change Stanley knife blades really regularly using a combination of hook and standard blades in two knives. I cut the carpet trim with about 5mm spare that I was then able to persuade under the edge trim using a flat bladed screwdriver and an old cutlery knife with varying degrees of neatness and effectiveness. This is the first window I did. The end of the handle of the knife was invaluable for pushing the carpet into the tighter curves particularly round the window. Gluing a bit a time was definitely a good idea. I still got into a bit of a mess with the glue but the glue remover supplied was very good at cleaning up the carpet trim where I over sprayed. I pulled the seals off the doors and trimmed to the edge of the metal. The seals then go back over the carpet and the metal, make sure you glue right to the edge or the carpet will roll back when you put the seals back on.

The next job was to cut apertures for the cavities in the panels. This is much easier than the windows but you still need to concentrate as it would be easy to misjudge where the finished panel covers sit.

Here's a few more photos from the offside. On this side I had to work out where there would be joints as the area is just too big.

Carpeting panels

Okay, this was my first attempt at carpet lining. The panel is ply, fixed with self tappers with screw covers. The little panel next to it is fixed with orginal fixings. I think I prefer the original fixings, this panel needs to come off again as the next job is the metalwork. I look forward to this with some trepidation as there are loads of compound curves and the windows to cut round. Below is a close up of the different fixings.