Van interior replacement

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Hey all,

Just wanted to spout a little about the work I'm doing in my van.

The carpet had a definite moldy smell about it, so I decided to replace it. The headliner was also sagging, so I decided to do that as well.

So, when I was at costco the other week, I had found a nice 5x3 foot rubber backed matt in a nice charcoal grey color. It looked really nice, and I know I needed 5 foot wide, so I decided that would be good for the seating area (I just have front buckets in there) It cost $10.

For the back, I was pondering several things:

Rhinolining it like the spray-in pickup bedliner
Rubber matting
Carpet

I went with carpet because I couldn't find rubber, and the rhinolining tends to be a little stinky.

Anyway, I found a nice 'area rug (basically what home depot does with big chunks of scrap is to sell it as an 'area rug.' Just about the same color grey as my interior, I got a 6x9 chunk of carpet for $19.

So, this weekend, I ripped out the seats, ripped out the interior, ripped out everything…found where the sitting water in thefront (I can just assume it's from feet from the previous owner, or being parked outside with the windows down…who knows) had just started to bubble the paint on the floorboards…so I scratched it all up and used a can of POR-15 silver (super rust preventative/metal paint) and then started cutting carpet…It's amazing how easy it was to do the whole floor…

Anyway, so the floor cost me roughly $30 to do, and it looks fantastic…well, $50, actually, as I also invested in some nice floormats (which incidentally match the carpet I used in the front.)

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Today's chore (for after work) is my headliner.

I got the thing out almost undamaged (there is one crack on it about 6 inches long...) I think that, as long as it doesn't get worse, it'll be alright)

I went to walmart and found some grey velour type material. It was $5 a yard, and I needed a little under 3 yards...so $15 for that. The glue (3m adhesive spray) was roughly $7.

So, if everything goes well, the whole headliner should cost me $22.

Wish me luck (i've never done a headliner before, but it seems pretty straightforward.)

Headliners are a pain make sure you scratchup the surface of the backbord or you will be doing it again in a year. Trust me! At least the van is easier to do than an 86 K car almost have to take the seats out to get the backing board out.

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Next on the list...door speakers...

As you may or may not know, the speakers in the front of a mini are 5.25s in the dash...They sound like a$$...mine are slightly blown, so they sound like super-a$$.

Anyway, on ebay (i'm a regular there) I found a set of nice components (6.5 inch JL VR series) for WAY cheaper than they should have been (this happens every now and again if you look hard enough)

So, those are going in the van.

But, there aren't any door speakers in there, so...no holes.

Easy enough...I stripped off the door panels the other day (nice metal clips...refreshing change from GM's crappy plastic-majiggers.)

Anyway, right where i wanted to put the speakers, there is a cutout that isn't quite on center.

So, i got out the handy dandy saw, cut the holes bigger, and i plan on cutting some 1/4 inch plywood to cover the oversized holes. Then, once I get the wood cut and on there, i'm going to sound deaden the whole door. I have some extra dynamat lying around, so that should work super.

Then, I just have to mount the tweets and get a new cd/mp3 player and I'm set...

Anyway, sorry for the 3 long posts...just wanted to share my cheap a$$ interior renovation.

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