Since I have only had my van a little over a month, progress on converting it from an empty cargo van to a recreational + functional van comes in fits & starts. While it is tempting to just start doing stuff, it is obvious that taking a moment to plan, research and test skills will lead to a better finished product.

Along those lines, I have been considering how to cover some of the lower wall panels. My van included black panel covers for all the lower and mid-height spaces. They are made of plastics. I could replace them with wood (using the plastics as templates) or I could try covering them with fabric. Some folks even use a fabric plus padding material.

Since I had already tested an upholstery + wood panel on empty upper panels, I have decided to cover the existing panels with fabric as well.

My next step is to test adhesion on some scraps. I want to make sure the glue doesn’t push through the fabric and also test a couple different glue products. I have used 3M 90 and 3M 77 sprays, both of which work well. Depending on the substrate, you can spray both the panel and fabric, or just one or the other. The fabric is very smooth, so I’ll also need to make sure I can apply the material to the larger panels without any wrinkles. I would imagine some frustrations might emerge - and possibly new swear words could be created if this goes wrong.