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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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