Hey everbody, I'm looking for some input on how to further "utilitarianize" the interior of Roxanne, my 86 ea82 wagon. So far, I've Herculinered the floor in the passenger areas (with much better luck than that guy in the thread brought up in the offtopic forum:D ). I'm probably going to make floormats out of some sort of dark outdoor carpet pretty soon to help quiet down the road noise. Next, I'm gonna move to the back cargo area, which is where I'm not sure what to do yet.

 

The carpet will be the first thing to go. I know it will get full of mud, oil, etc. in short order. I've thought that maybe I could just Herculiner everything back there too, well at least everywhere that there is currently carpet. The other idea I've come up with is to put marine plywood down in place of the carpet.

 

I like the herculer that I've done so far, but it's kinda expensive. I'm pretty good at basic woodworking, and the plywood option wouldn't cost nearly as much. The only issue there is that stuff might slide around a lot, but I could cut some cross-hatch grooves into the wood to prevent that. If I went with the wood option, I could also build-in some storage areas for the gear that I always carry with me, which would drastically reduce the clutter that's there now.

 

What are your thoughts on this? Any other ideas? I just want to get rid of carpet forever in this car so I don't have to worry about stains, dampness, or nasty smells when offroading or hauling stuff. I also don't want to spend a fortune on this project either.

 

Thanks.

What about custom-cut diamond plate for the floor (hinged so you can still get to the jack and concealed storage), and plywood side panels? Even regular sheet metal for the side panels would look good, even dirty. 18 gauge aluminum or steel is malleable enough to fit to size and bend where needed. And it can be Tech-screwed into place very easily.

Use the wood, build your storage compartments, then herculiner the hell out of it all.

strip the interior have the entire inside rhinolined

Snowie:

 

I love the "utilitarian" treatment on cars - especially Sube wagons. That's essentailly what I'm talking about when I refer to "Alleywagons".

 

On the rear cargo area, let me suggest something my brother did on his. He took a thick rubber pickup truck mat and cut out a piece large enough to cover the entire cargo area with the rear seats folded down. Looks and works great and EXTREMELY durable.

 

You could probably make matching floor mat sections out of the scraps.

 

good luck, John

I've been thinking about the same... so far, I've thought about taking a sheet of plywood and cutting it to shape, fitting in a hinged section for those two compartments on the sides (one for the jack, the other for ?).

 

Then taking that stuff that's normally used for lining shelves, cupboards, dashes, etc... epoxying the **** out of it to the plywood so it won't rip as easily, if I drag something across it. Might build up a few layers of it, depending on how it looks/acts.

 

I've got everything organized in a big plastic tote right now, and it slides all over the place... hoping that liner stuff would keep it from sliding. Don't imagine it'd be too easy to clean, though I suppose you could pull it out, spray the **** out of it, and let it sun dry. Be kinda awkward in the colder months, though.

hmmm, I like that rubber mat idea. It could probably be screwed down in place of carpet pretty easily. That would prevent sliding around. Still not sure what to do with the plastic in the back, since it's already pretty scratched up and will get a lot worse. Maybe I'll rip out the plastic and make wood side panels with storage pockets.

Snowman, do you remember seeing this post ?

custom interior tie downs

I use a piece of old "mine belt" in the back of my wagon.

Tuff stuff to cut I used a saber - jig saw after making a cardboard template.

BTW

I remove the lower seat cushion so I can have a flat rear cargo area and still lean my seat back.

Hope this gives you some ideas

in like the idea of building shelves on the sides, over the wheel wells, like that in a commercial van, put mesh behind them so tools dont go thru the window!

I've been contemplating pulling out the plastic sides around the cargo compartment and doing aluminum or sheetmetal storage compartments

John

 

I'm diggin the rubber mat Idea..I don't want to make mine a complete utility vehicle, but it does get used for some nasty stuff sometimes.. Don't know why I didn't think of the truck mat idea.. I have had one of those in the back of my truck for years..