Interior paneling

[Matap]

Does anyone know where I can find some vinyl paneling much like the factory made RV's. Been trying but can't seem to come up with anything. Any direction would be great.

[Kyle1911]

I found 4x8 sheets of 1/8" waterproof white textured plastic sheeting at my local Home Depot, for about $20. I will be using one for a shower surround, but they could be used on the wall also. They are pretty flexible, and would need sheeting behind them, though. I didn't slide a sheet out to check the weight, as I only need a single, but it might be an option. For walls, I plan to try my hand at 1/4" ply, primed, texture sprayed, and painted. We'll see if I can pull it off!
Regards, Kyle

[Matap]

Thanks Kyle. I might give those sheets a shot. I just don't want the wood look inside if you know what i mean. Kind of want to have a modern look to it.

[jwhite]

Lowes has a really good selection of paneling and some look like marble in different colors.
I bought 5 sheets of that really nice wood paneling that cost 39.00 a sheet for the roof of my trailer,and was going to use the same for the walls but when I went back to buy more the color of finish had changed.
I bought the white sheets that are made for the bath area and was very disapointed after I glued it up.
It's hard to explain but they recommended liqued nails to make it stick but it had what looked like large bubbles where some areas stuck and some didn't,the material was soft not stiff like most sheets are.
I can live with it in the bath area because it won't be seen.
lowes also has some great premade counter tops with some really nice colors and they have the 4x8 sheets that match,I think I would go that route if I were doing it over,but I found some nice carpet remnant and glued that on the walls and saved some money.
here is a photo of the counter top they are premade in 4ft sections,you can buy them longer than that and cut it down but 4ft was all I needed.
they also come in a - tan- black -this is grey.

[86 slo-vo]

the white stuff you are talking about is FRP is generally what it is called, used mostly in resturaunt kitchen type stuff. liquid nails isnt the best for it it really needs a mastic glue trowled across the whole sheet then applied so it doesnt do like what you had with area's loose and some stuck

[Shadow Catcher]

I think what Matap is talking about is the paneling that looks like some sort of cloth material it is I think Vinyl on some sort of backer, I think he is looking for something like http://www.all-rite.com/paneling-batten ... p-420.html http://www.vipco.ca/manufact.php

[fromeo]

Does anyone know where I can find some vinyl paneling much like the factory made RV's. Been trying but can't seem to come up with anything. Any direction would be great.

Hardboard/MDF backed stuff is fairly easy to get through the big box stores. I wanted stuff for my build that had a 1/8" luann backing and it was really hard to find. I think I spent about 3 hours on the phone chasing some down and then had to drive 1.5 hrs one way to get it.

Not sure where you are located, but here's a few sources I found.

I wound up buying mine from a place called "Builders Surplus" in Northeast, Maryland. Northeast is the name of the town. I paid $9.99 a sheet for 4x8 1/8" Luann backed vinyl coated. Plenty of pictures in my build thread. He had about 10 different patterns to choose from, and the prices varied from about $7-20/sheet. If you are within driving distance, look them up and give them a call.

When I was out in Elkhart, Indiana combing the RV surplus places, they all had it. I saw some at RV Surplus Salvage, Bontragers and at Factory RV Surplus, all in or around Elkhart.

Also when I was out in Elkhart I walked through a Menards (we dont have them out here). They had at least a half dozen patterns with luann backing.

I spoke to a few places that dealt with mobile home parts and some of them were able to get stuff. Prices varied (a LOT), but I couldn't find any within driving distance that carried it or were willing to order. I spoke to a fellow down in Texas (found him on the web) who had a ton, but shipping was not possible.

Finally I spoke to a company I believe in washington state that still manufactured the stuff. I just dug thru my notes and unfortunately I can not find the name of the company. The sales guy I spoke to claimed they had a bunch of retailers on the west coast, but nothing east of the rockies.

- Frank

[edcasey]

You can order the wall and ceiling panels used in factory built RV's from any RV dealer. They order them from which ever RV manufacturer they deal with. The panels are 3/32nd thick luan with vinyl wall paper glued to them. They are very light weight and the vinyl paper is usually pretty durable. The problem is shipping and crating makes the panels very expensive. When I was a service manager at an RV dealer, I would order 50 or so plain white ceiling panels at the beginning of every year from Dutchman or Coachman to have in stock. They would place the panels in a new camper that was being delivered to our dealership so there was no crating or shipping charge. When you do it that way, the panels aren't too expensive. It was fairly common for me to make the same arrangements for customers who wanted wall or ceiling panels for a repair or projects and didn't want to pay for shipping and crating. Of course, how long the panels took to come in depended on whether we had new campers being delivered.

[vreihen]

FWIW, the white vinyl luan sheeting used inside of cargo trailers and car haulers is referred to as "designer board" by Millenium Trailers in this article:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Enclosed-Trailer-Wall-Construction&id=529445

A quick web search does not reveal any obvious purchase sources, though.

I was thinking about using the 1/8" white hardboard that they sell at the big-box stores and many people use for homemade whiteboards inside my trailer. The only thing that stopped me (besides winter!) is that the Lowes web site does not recommend using it for ceilings, and recommends putting it up over a solid surface and not directly to the studs like I was thinking. They are OK with mounting 3/16" and 1/4" hardboards directly to the studs, but still not for ceiling use. I am still tossing around the thought of putting foam insulation between the studs to create a "solid" surface, and then trying to glue the 1/8" hardboard to that sort of like a sandwich core. I just don't want to carry the extra weight of another 1/8" of inside paneling if I can avoid it, since an extra 15 4x8' sheets in my 24' trailer would certainly add hundreds of pounds of weight.

Of course, the shock value of having this 1/4" hardboard inside of a Featherlite trailer might be worth the weight penalty:



Speaking of trailers, today's project is going to be digging it out. It's buried in a 3' snowdrift right now, and I haven't checked inside to see how my car is fairing since before the Christmas blizzard.....

[Kyle1911]

With my trailer completion date a few weeks out still, I've been searching this forum like mad for ideas. I found a a post (and promptly lost it again), that showed some very nice, factory built-looking paneling. Here is a link to the manufacturer's website. I read in the gentleman's post, that he had purchased this at Menards. It was a very old post, and I live in Washington State, so no Menards here. I will call the manufacturer in the next day or so, to see if there are any dealers in the Seattle area. If you follow the link, look at the top bar of the website, and click on "Paneling". Scroll down to "Designer paneling", and check out the options. I'd love to have the Sahara, or one of the Leather designs. There are some neat wood tone panels in other areas of the website, also. They are located in Mississippi.
-Kyle
http://www.americanpac.com/index.php

[michiganflipper]

check out a rv surplus like Bontrager's they have it in stock
http://bontragers.com/