I did a re-cover on the "shrinking vinyl" clad panels a couple of years ago
when I stripped and painted my '82 westy.

What I did, and I would do it slightly differently now, was to re-use the
panels but glue on some 3/8 open cell foam to them, beveling the edges, then
wrapping said panels in upholstery material. I wanted to use the same kind
of khaki cotton material that I used to re-make the curtains (amazing
material, no fade after 3 years, opaque enough for privacy, hang nicely),
but couldn't find enough (mind you, it would have made the van into some
sort of rolling Gap ad).

The material that I found was nice enough, but tends to fuzz a bit when
abraded.

The panel over the driver and pass. seat had to have buttons (black plastic
jobbies that are F**d replacement parts) to keep the material against the
foam on tat concave curve.

Anyhoo, it went well and looks a heck of a lot better than the vinyl.

To do It differently? Would look harder for the cotton khaki material
("every van in khaki") and make the foam and material cover into separate
panels that snapped onto the wooden panels...that way I could remove them
for cleaning (dogs, you know).

Alistair

PS find short, short staples for your gun when securing the wrapped material
to the panels

on 06/03/2002 11:01 AM, David Higginbotham at dahigginbotham@NCDRAGONFLY.COM
wrote:

> I have read several posts in the past about redoing the interior panels in a
> vanagon and as I recall most speak to attempts at matching the original
> panels. Has anyone done anything odd or different with these panels? I have
> thought about such things as tye-dye cloth applied with some kind of
> adhesive, using some type of wood paneling, or even painting a mural of some
> kind. I would love to hear others ideas and perhaps see any pictures if
> there are any available.
> Thanks!
> David Higginbotham
> 82 Westfalia
> Silk Hope, NC
>