Chinook RV

Hi everyone. We bought a new-to-us 1978 Dodge Chinook in remarkably good condition. In the next few months we want to start tackling some inside projects and I need your help!

The cabover bunk area is covered with dated brown vinyl, as well as a wall in the kitchen, and a small bulkhead area over the rear entry door. Has anyone tackled removing this vinyl and replacing it? If so, can you please let me know how you did it, problems you encountered, and how the recovering went? I'm not really sure how to go about doing this, and don't want to rip it all out until I have a general idea of what I might encounter.

Also, the front of the cabover area, and areas around the walls and windows of the cab area are covered in lime green shag carpet. This has to go--non negotiable, and will be replaced with something....anything really. I'm just not sure what. Any thoughts?

I've attached two pictures to show you what areas I'm talking about. Yellow arrows are the brown vinyl, and the green arrows show the green shag carpet.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi,

No good question should go unanswered

While I don't have those items, I have redone the door panels in the cab and other places.

- See if you can remove the panels with the shag and the old vinyl.

- Take measurements and go to someplace like JoAnn Fabrics and look around for material that hits your eye. Perhaps a nice tan or light green micro suede to match and update the look.

- Also get some fabric glue and a staple gun. And possibly some batting to act as a cushion behind your new fabric on panels.

Once you have the panels off, you can remove the old fabric, and lay the new across the panel board. Cut so there's about an inch overage. Then, starting from one side and working your way around, you can fold the fabric over and staple it in place.

On corners, use scissors and make multiple slices slightly diagonally up to about 1/2" away from the edge and then fold each sliced piece around the panel and glue/staple it in place with some others. You'll be surprised at how good you get at this pretty quickly.

Glue is also handy if you do something silly like cut too deeply and leave an opening scar. Just glue some fabric behind the opening to cover things up.

Let us know what kind of fabrics you pick out!

Luck! Kev

Oh come on, who doesn't like lime-green shag?

Interesting to see your rig (congrats, by the way, and welcome!). In my era Chinook, the rounded cover over the door is covered in marine hull liner, the kitchen walls are a vinyl type of wallpaper (that comes attached to plywood already specifically for RV's), and the living room walls plus the pillars on either side of the cab, plus the front of the overcab (the overcab is sort of a storage/entertainment center not a bunk) are covered in headliner material (sort of a knit with foam on the back). The floor of the overcab is the same hull liner carpet (as are other things too). So the vinyl walls in the kitchen were not "done" by Chinook, but all the other things were. All of the Chinook done stuff is attached to the backing with spray contact cement. The door cover is thin plywood, the walls are 1/8" luaun, the overcab floor is something flat (likely ply) and the pillars and overcab front are molded fiberglass.

And let me tell you, after looking at "dusky blue" walls for two years, lime green shag almost sounds good!

Did I mention I hate dusky blue? And it was EVERYWHERE. So some/most/all of it had to go. To that end, I started with the pillars and overcab front piece, and stripped off the old headliner material, then solvent washed them until they were smooth bare (lightly) gelcoated fiberglass. Ahhhh. Then I considered my options, and decided to go back with headliner material. I wanted something a bit "better," but after trying a sample of the more premium "suede" headliner, I don't think I'd be able to get anything else to make the compound curves on the pillars. But the suede stuff is nice (not real suede) if you don't have the crazy curves.

I got some HHR (high heat resistant) spray adhesive (works like contact cement), and then bought headliner fabric from Perfect Fit (online). But there are lots of places that sell it. I also got some additional hull liner carpet in a light grey because in my rig the closet walls were dark blue carpet, and it was like the black hole of Calcutta in there! I'll re-do that in the light grey hull liner and actually be able to see inside the closet (imagine).

I started with the pillars last week, and let's just say there is learning curve. Literally, as making the fabric take the compound curves on those pillars is a bear (and of course you only get one try with contact cement). After the third try I think I have it figured out, but by that time I ran low on fabric (and the dye lots are apparently inconsistent enough that you don't want to mix and (not) match. So, "order more fabric" is on my list.

Just so you can see, here are the materials I'm talking about:

This is the "hull liner" that is somewhat similar to what is on my Chinook's ceiling, on the over-the-entry door piece, and also inside the upper cabinets. It's not an exact match, but is similar. It's what I'm going to put in the closet. One note is that the one that is more "dimpled" looking is more similar in texture to what Chinook used, but just because, I ordered some of the smooth stuff too. The smooth "sheds," whereas the dimpled looking one does not.

http://www.perfectfit.com/15593/154092/ ... er-72.html

Here is the headliner material:

http://www.perfectfit.com/15994/154077/ ... ng-60.html

And the adhesive:

http://www.perfectfit.com/24783/148343/ ... Grade.html

or

http://www.perfectfit.com/24783/154451/ ... esive.html

This is the solvent I found worked the best for removing the old (and then the new ) adhesive:

http://www.perfectfit.com/24783/155892/ ... eaner.html

I still haven't decided what to do on the living room walls. They have the headliner material now, but I'm not that into upholstered walls So I've been considering other options. One contender is "wall liner," which is essentially a thick wallpaper that is meant to be painted. It comes in either plain or textures. Just painting the luaun wouldn't be very satisfactory, as it's very open-grained.

PS: A couple of things I really like on your era Chinook are that little pantry cabinet next to the sink (vs. the "in your face" one in my era rig), and the simple/clean overlay doors on the upper cabinets. Really nice!

My 77 doesn't have a bunk with a window above the front but is a storage compartment with a hinged door. I'm not finished but these photos might show you what you're getting into. Not a difficult job but will require some playing around to get right. I bought some upholstery material, thin foam, and good quality spray glue from a local upholstery shop. Buy the best hi-temp glue you can- the cheaper stuff won't last and you'll end up with sagging material. Foam and upholstery material was glued onto some thin flexible board I picked up at the local Home Depot.

Continued......

Davecar59 wrote:I bought some upholstery material, thin foam, and good quality spray glue from a local upholstery shop. Buy the best hi-temp glue you can- the cheaper stuff won't last and you'll end up with sagging material. Foam and upholstery material was glued onto some thin flexible board I picked up at the local Home Depot.

Nice job !!

Blue~Go wrote:I still haven't decided what to do on the living room walls. They have the headliner material now, but I'm not that into upholstered walls So I've been considering other options. One contender is "wall liner," which is essentially a thick wallpaper that is meant to be painted. It comes in either plain or textures. Just painting the luaun wouldn't be very satisfactory, as it's very open-grained.

Because I had already remodeled two bathrooms at home this way, I _almost_ went with wainscoting for my walls. Either painted or stained wood. The idea was to go for a late 1800s custom railroad passenger car look, with wood panels, velvet cushions, brass and green victorian lamps, etc.

But in the end I stuck with the original walls, except for covering the original 1994 horizontal wall trim panels made of upholstery material, with tin and new fabric.

I considered some type of thin wood covering, but I thought that might make the window trim rings come up short, depth-wise. Although the foam-backed wall fabric is 1/8" - 3/16" I can see the foam is pretty much totally flattened by the trim rings. So my current thought is still the paintable wall liner paper, which would make it basically like a Premier or side-door Concourse (only they used the pre-bonded vinyl wallboard like the Concourse of my era has in the kitchen, but just throughout). Haven't decided completely yet.

Interesting on the "hatchet job" on the Dodge cab. I guess Dodge must not have supplied cutaway cab chassis models, so Chinook did it themselves? The Ford came as a cutaway, so the edges are completely finished and painted just like any other edges of Fords (like you'd see inside the doors or etc.). Actually, you can still see the tape that I presume Ford used to secure the plastic over the back cutaway opening in transit. Half of it is still on the metal of the cab back (This is all under fabric covered, molded fiberglass panels in the '99 - one running across over the overcab storage, and two side pillars.)

But to the main point: Nice job! I'm impressed!

I had a go at "re-fabricing" the side pillars this winter (using replacement foam and high-heat-resistant spray glue) and there is definitely a learning curve. The "plain" areas were simple, but at the bottom of the pillars are some compound curves/bulges and after two tries to get it right I ran out of fabric and need to get more. I think maybe I have figured out a plan to get those areas smooth - will try again when I have more fabric... (on the other hand those areas are at the very bottom facing the sides of the driver/passenger seats, so I guess a little wrinkle wouldn't hurt, but darnit, Chinook got it smooth so I want to figure out the trick).

Thank you all for the very helpful replies. Lots of food for thought here. DaveCar59, if you have any additional photos that would show what I might expect to see behind walls or the current shag/upholstery, or how the process continues to come along for you, I would love to see them. I'd like to learn as much as I can from others first before I venture into this project.