New To Us Chinook Makeover

[NewTrailWagon]

Hey all I have been reading through all kinds of things on the forum. My fiancé and I acquired a Chinook from her Father and are in the process of giving it a "Face Lift".The Chinook is a 97 Premiere with 56000 miles on it. It has the Quigley 4x4 Conversion and has been stripped of the decals. We are cleaning out all the mouse poop, and fixing some leaks that look to be present in the windows. As we peel everything back to put new life into it I think that it will all start come together well here soon. Right. now we have ripped a lot of the stuff out and are preparing to put new floors in, put new upholstery on the ceiling, and upholster the walls. We are going to build new cabinets and update the kitchen. We are thinking we will just paint the back part of the Chinook where the Fridge, Closet, and shower are. We don't feel like taking any of that out. Here are some pictures of the destruction. Hopefully next week I can upload pictures of the new Floors.

[Blue~Go]

We always enjoy seeing "guts" photos around here

[Norman&Michele]

Looks like a really fun project to me...blank slates are always fun!

[eporter123]

So the sticker on the side says "Premier" under the drivers mirror. Top roof rack rail looks like the Baja rail? What kind of bumper is on the front? Maybe they optioned this with some of the baja features? Looks cool!

[pdemarest]

Hi and welcome - let us know how it goes with upholstering the ceiling. I've been wanting to do something with the boat hull liner that is used on the ceiling but my upholstery guy said that cloth paint won't stick to it is not sure that gluing fabric or vinyl over the hull liner will stick. If anyone has had some success with getting that stuff off or covering it let me know. We replaced our lovely "harvest gold" carpet with mostly white vinyl flooring and it made the rig feel a lot bigger on the inside. I'd love to lighten up the ceiling as well.

[Blue~Go]

If anyone has had some success with getting that stuff off or covering it let me know.

I haven't done either of those, but....

I'd agree that doing anything "with" the hull liner might be chancy. That stuff is like teflon when you don't want teflon.

BUT, I can think of a couple of possible techniques.

1) At least on my Chinook (and others I've seen) the overhead is a sandwich, with the inner (bottom) layer being a fiberglass layer. I wouldn't attach anything structural to it, but you could certainly screw some types of overhead to it (thin boards, other flexible materials, or...?).

2) I bet you could also get the carpet off the fiberglass liner layer. I think it's held up with some kind of contact cement. Would be annoying working overhead (plus solvents to get gunk off) but you could. You could then put up whatever you want, fair and paint, or....? I've seen photos of an older Chinook (18+ IIRC) wherein the fiberglass was just shiny gelcoat (not sure if that was stock or done later).

3) You could just "fill in" the center raised portion with something light and bright (like say white beadboard or white glossy fiberglass). Then you'd get a fair amount of brightness, but not have to work with the curves on the sides. Most of it could be held in place with things already fastened there (air-con, vent garnish, lights) (or fasteners hidden behind them).

When I removed the air-con there was a "dented" carpet area left behind. I covered it with a mottled foam board that matched the overhead pretty well - it's held up with industrial velcro to the carpet. I have thought about filling in that whole center strip (kdarling did with tin ceiling I believe). I'd likely add 1/2" of rigid foam just cause I could.

[pdemarest]

Hey Blue - thanks for the info. I think that screwing some other type of material down the center of the ceiling makes sense. I'd love to put some white vinyl up there but I think it would have to have multiple ribs of metal showing in order to keep it in place. I'm going to ask Kevin about how he attached his tin ceiling tiles - maybe that will shed some light on what my options.

[Blue~Go]

An idea if you'd like vinyl (Sailrite has some nice "headliner" vinyls) is to take an 1/8" ply board and then wrap the vinyl around it and glue/staple. Then attach that to the ceiling. Then you wouldn't need battens or stiffeners. You could put buttons over the fasteners. That said, I doubt you'd have to have very many fasteners, because it'd be under the fan garnish, under the lights, under the AC shroud, etc. Actually, if you put velcro on the back (this would "picker up" the carpet upon removal but if you aren't going to remove...) I bet that plus the various garnishes etc. would let you have no fasteners.

[Scott]

Hey Paul, I put up a wood panel and trimmed out the skylight. You're welcome to stop by for a look to see if it meets your taste ...

[NewTrailWagon]

So we have some work to note now. Finally we are putting things in, instead of taking them out. We have new floors in. I will find some pictures of that. We have a new ceiling in, re upholstered, and we have given life to the AC unit and fantastic fan. Things are starting to come together. Take a look.