Vlog 2: Ply me to the moon

An early part of my conversion of the Toyota Proace into a campervan was to take out the factory-fitted ply lining on the walls and floor, partly so that I could have a look at the state of the metalwork, partly so that I could give it all a good clean, and partly so that I could put insulation in. It turns out that removing the ply wasn’t as straightforward as I’d imagined.

Whilst the side panels were held up by a few screws, all of which came out easily, the wheel-arch boxing was both screwed and sealed to those panels; not a problem but it made things more awkward in getting the panels out. One wheel arch box came off very quickly, the other one required more persuasion (and the locating and removal of a screw hidden under the sealant).

The floor was another matter. Despite taking out all the screws, the three pieces of 9mm ply were connected by three metal kickplates at each of the cargo bay entrances. These should have just unscrewed but didn’t, with screws apparently having also been glued in place. I had to hacksaw the kickplates into two.

Then I discovered that the floor panels had also been glued down to a series of thin battens on the floor, which were in turn glued to the metal. I don’t know what glue was used but it was really good stuff as I had to haul away at the plywood, nearly breaking it in the process, but eventually had all the panels out.

The good news is that the screws through the floor boards had all been positioned so as only to go into the battens so there are no rust-forming holes in the bodywork of the van itself. I shall likely re-use this formula when re-fitting all the conversion items. Hopefully I might be able to re-use some of the floor ply too although it does have some mug-sized holes in it from where the tie-down straps were bolted onto the van.