Why do so many van interiors have the cheap looking wood grain panelling that looks like a kitchen from the 1960s? I do see that many new vans are bringing their colour schemes into the new millenium (even that is 15 years ago) and that has much more visual appeal to me.
Unfortunately a brand new van is an enormous cost so I was wondering about the possibility of buying a 5yo van and renovating (re-veneering or painting) the interior. A bit like renovating a house. Not just the cabinets, but also the walls.
I've done quite a lot of searching and I can't find any companies that do this sort of thing. With so many vans on the road that are in perfectly good mechanical condition, is there a market here for "freshening up" interiors?
Has any one done this or know of a company that does this service?
-- Edited by spreadsheet on Saturday 26th of November 2016 05:02:57 PM
At least wood grain paneling looks a lot warmer & attractive than all the sterile laminex that's currently in vogue. Some modern vans look like a toilet cubicle.
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I guess your interior colours are a matter of personal taste, we opted for the white wall panelling and also the lighter coloured flooring because it made the inside of the van look light and airy even gave you an impression of having more room. If we had then chosen lighter colours for the bench tops, cupboards, fridge facing, splash back, upholstery etc. it could have ended up looking a bit too sterile just as Desert Dweller suggested. Good luck spreadsheet I'm sure that there are people out there who would do this type of work for you, have you tried searching on google ? Be careful about buying a van that is only 5 years old, out of curiosity on resale value I was looking at the same make/model as ours that were being advertised around that age and found that people asking around $15K less than what we paid for the new one as part of a show deal. Add to that what you would then have to pay for stamp duty on rego transfer, materials and someone to do the refit work and you may not be that much better off. My suggestion would be look for something a bit older, do the refit yourself or keep searching until you find one with an interior that you like. We saw a number of timber finishes that were really effective especially when they were done in a lighter coloured timber.
The advantage of ordering a new van is that you get to choose whatever you want, the advantage of buying an already built van is that you can see what the finished item looks like.
And that is the reason why the ultra modern vans with all the fancy cabinetry weight 2000kg plus, plus, plus.
It seems that with the plethora of backyard brands out there now, it has become de rigueur to contract out the interior build to a kitchen cabinet maker. And then they justify the bloated weights with claims of superior strength cabinets for improved off-road capabilities and along comes the bloated prices too.
BULLSH!T
20 years ago you got strong but lightweight wood framed cabinetry with 3ply coverings and a paper veneer. A 16 foot van would weigh 1200-1300kg loaded and could be towed by a mid-sized family sedan.
Now, because of demands from ignorant buyers you get kitchen cabinetry built like your house. Enormously heavy stapled and glued 6-10mm chipboard with melamine coverings and all the bathroom and laundry facilities you have at home. And to support all that weight it requires oversized chassis members and coil-sprung suspension over 2 axels. And a 16 foot van weight 2200kg and requires a 4by or ute to tow it.
Heads up peeps, those fancy new, supposed off-road vans, fall apart way quicker than the old ones do, because of the weight.
I for one wouldn't buy a 'new' van unless it had lightweight veneer ply panelling and cabinetry.
I just love being able to set the cruise at 110kph and to effortlessly zoom past those oversized rigs doing 90kph with my stable single axel 16' 1080kg Jayco being towed by my Toyota Camry getting 800km per tank. I can not only relax and enjoy the journey without stress with a lightweight and stable rig but I have no concerns about off-road capabilities. They are not something you have to worry about when you have little more than a ton on the back. Drop the tyres to half pressure and off you go wherever you like.
Hylife we could all go out and buy a Kingswood and a plywood van and pretend that we still live in the 70s but unfortunately time has moved on. If you are happy towing a single axle Jayco with a Toyota Camry no problem enjoy the experience - love your imitation French though mon petit chou.
Just wondering what your observations on the capabilities of these new 2200kg vans are actually based on is it from your own personal experience, something you read somewhere or maybe you just heard people talking about them at beer o'clock ? Sorry I got a little off topic but I thought the original post related to refurbishing the interior of a caravan not how well a Camry will tow a 1Tonne camper.
Why do so many van interiors have the cheap looking wood grain panelling that looks like a kitchen from the 1960s? I do see that many new vans are bringing their colour schemes into the new millenium (even that is 15 years ago) and that has much more visual appeal to me.
Unfortunately a brand new van is an enormous cost so I was wondering about the possibility of buying a 5yo van and renovating (re-veneering or painting) the interior. A bit like renovating a house. Not just the cabinets, but also the walls.
I've done quite a lot of searching and I can't find any companies that do this sort of thing. With so many vans on the road that are in perfectly good mechanical condition, is there a market here for "freshening up" interiors?
Has any one done this or know of a company that does this service?
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If you were in Brisbane or South East Queensland, we would recommend a caravan repairer at Burpengary just north of Brisbane who comes with some very good skills. One of those is old fashion carpentry and explains why he is into repairing caravans.
Over the last 5 years he has resealed my caravan, repaired water damaged interior, $10800 worth hail damage, fitted 4 season hatch. With our new secondhand one replaced 2 bathroom hatches, fitted solar and extra water tank. Could not be happie.
My only complaint he don't make coffee, we feel we get value for money. I have seen 3 caravans he has restyled, just awesome.
The bottom line is, yes there is people who do this work.
spreadsheet wrote:Unfortunately a brand new van is an enormous cost so I was wondering about the possibility of buying a 5yo van and renovating (re-veneering or painting) the interior. A bit like renovating a house. Not just the cabinets, but also the walls.
I've done quite a lot of searching and I can't find any companies that do this sort of thing. With so many vans on the road that are in perfectly good mechanical condition, is there a market here for "freshening up" interiors?
You will not find companies doing that as you would be spending more on your van than building to your requirements from scratch. There are two forms of building vans.
Firstly there is the old type that are framed up, the furniture attached inside and secured from the outside. Finally the outside sheeting is applied and the windows, door and other bits installed. To remove the furniture requires removing the outside aluminium. To install the furniture would involve doing more work than building the van from scratch.
The second form of construction involves building the body from sandwich foam panels, then attaching the furniture, windows, doors and other external fittings. If you want to strip those vans and rebuild the interior with new panelling as you suggest would also require removing windows hatches and doors so the interior trim around them can be reapplied. The new panelling and furniture will add extra weight thus taking away some of your precious load allowance. If you are going to do any less then the result would not look much better than you just painting the inside of the van.
I doubt if you would get anyone to do your work when they could build a new van for less than the price of your acquisition plus the cost of their work. Suggest you be reasonable about your requests.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
