Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 21:44:17 -0800 (PST)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Charles D Earl <cdearl@cats.ucsc.edu>
Subject: head liner fix and easy extra curtain project (long)
For ages the vinyl surface covering used throughout my van has been
peeling-off and curling-up. Recently, I fell into a temporary frenzy and
started madly tearing it off the headliner. This left me with patches still
stuck on and diff. to remove. I removed the headliner, handsanded
and feathered the edges of the stuff I couldn't scrape-off and then
painted it with 4 coats of some leftover flat white interior latex paint. Looks
great! It brightened-up the interior and is washable. Took about an
hour.
Now I would like to resurface the walls. I don't think the paint idea
would be so hot here. I considered an interesting pattern of cloth (neat
to look at and pleasent to the touch) but can't think of a way to attach
it without glue soaking through. I'd love to hear any suggestions for
materials and attachment methods.
The curtain. After the paint project I made a curtain which hangs
directly behind the front seats. I bought a length of velcro tape, used
rubber cement to glue the "hook" side of the tape all the way across the
rear edge of the headliner and down the door pillar a few edges on each
side (I didn't like the look of this, but it was needed to "seal" the
edges of the curtain, also the rubber cement is removable if one changes
their mind).
I searched the fabric store odds and ends bin and found a piece of cloth
that was large enough (a nice brown guatamalan design). My SO was kind
enough to seam the edges and sew the "loop" side of the velcro tape
across the top edge. Done. Cost: $5. for tape and cloth. Time: ~2hrs.
It works very well. It can be attached almost instantaneously. I use
it when I don't want to put up the original "wraparound" curtain, great
for quick privacy and it can be left up when driving. Sort of creates
"another room" downstairs.
Possible improvements include "splitting" it down them middle and making
some tiedowns to roll it up out of the way.
I'm probably not the first to do this, also, didn't some of the older buses
have a factory curtain in this location? If someone wanted the
cloth measurements I used I would be happy to supply them.
Charles
'83.5 GL Westy
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