How To Clad Your VW Caddy Camper With Tongue & Groove Cladding!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2021
- I'll show you how to clad the inside of your van using tongue and groove cladding. I personally think this effect looks amazing inside a van and really makes it stand out, giving you that beachy vibe.
I bought all the wood from Wickes and installed the tongue and groove cladding into my Volkswagen Caddy Maxi. The concept of tongue and groove cladding is that each board/plank has different edges on each side. One edge sticks out and the opposite each has a slot. This allows you to slot planks together getting a seamless finish.
Step 1
BUILD THE FRAME. The first step you'll want to do is build the frame for the cladding to attach to. I built this out of batons (12mm x32mm). I went for thinner batons so that they could bend to the curves of the van. I installed three batons down each side and four along the ceiling. To attach the batons to the van, I used 25mm metal easy drive self tapping screws, which I purchased from Screwfix.
Step 2
THE CELING. Once you've built the frame. The easiest step to do next is the ceiling. You want to measure each piece of cladding, cut it to shape/length and then screw this into the batons on the ceiling. Secure each plank/board by using wood screws and slot each board into the previous board.
Step 3
THE WALLS. To attach the cladding to walls, again cut each board to shape and length. Place each piece on top of the previous piece and work your way up the way. Don't fix the pieces into place at this stage. This allows you room to make an changes before it's secured down. Once you're happy with all the measurement, take off the boards one by one and then re-install the cladding boards but this time attach them to the wooden beams underneath, again with wood screws.
Step 4
THE DOORS. To attach the cladding to the two rear barn doors and two side sliding doors, you can use the old ply lining kit. If you don't have plywood on these doors, you can buy these from eBay or make your own. Lay the plywood panels on the ground and layer up the cladding on top. Once you have slotted enough cladding boards to cover the plywood panel, slide the panel out from underneath the cladding boards. Place the plywood panel on top of the cladding and draw around the panel. This will give you the exact shape for the cladding to cover the panels on the doors. Then you'll want to cut the cladding boards to shape/length. To attach the cladding to the plywood panels, use some wood glue and wood screws. You can now re-attach the panels to the doors using the 25mm metal self tapping screws.
Step 5
FINISH, you can now finish your cladding however you like. You can either leave it, paint it, or varnish it.
Orange Tool I used for shaping/marking curves:
amzn.to/3ZcoYyN
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Products used for van conversions, (Please let me know in the comments if links are broken.)
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Sound Deadening - amzn.to/39DMzUt
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Aluminium Tape - amzn.to/3xK0znt
Self Tapping Screws - amzn.to/3oC0xKq
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Great video thanks for taking the time to make it.was very helpful. 👍
That's alright no worries, I'm glad it was. Thanks for the comment, it's always great to hear back what people think. Are you working on a van yourself?
Thanks for the video . What iv realised watching this video is thats too much work to do im older so i would rather just go with carpet but video did help
I'm glad it helped! It is super time consuming and the carpet looks great anyway! Good luck with your build!
Thank you so much for posting this video!! Great info!
No worries, glad you think so! Are you building a van?
Great video, thanks. We just bougth a 2018 VW T6 Transporter, would love to do cladding inside but couldn't work out how to attach it to the inside/frame but now we know.
Thank you! Ah brilliant, that will be sick! I'm glad the video has helped, I hope the build goes well.
Wow great video, this has helped a lot with how I'll intend to go about cladding my van, especially the sliding door and wheel boxes. What great idea!
No worries, I'm glad its helped! Are you doing a caddy as well?
@@willsvanadventures No I'm doing a Toyota Hiace though I had ply lining and wheel arch boxes in good condition that came with the van. I'll re-use in the same way you done your sliding door and glued your wheel arch boxes back. Instead of screwing them in, I'll glue them now to prevent rusting.
@@janetanderson422 ah awesome that's ideal! Saves a lot of money and yh that's the best way to avoid future rusting. Good luck!
Hi Will , Great job bruv , but I would have also put vapour barrier on the ceiling. Looks superb .
Thanks! Yeah I agree, have done this on more recent builds! Have you converted a van?
Looks great Will
Thanks! Really pleased with the finish on this one! Are you doing a van conversion yourself?
Will Evans noo not yet :/ I will do one in the future! Hopes and dreams hahah
@@IrishLegend64 ah awesome! I'm sure you'll love it once you take the plunge!
This Video inspired me.
I'm glad it has
nice video , thanks for share
Thanks for watching!
VERY NICE JOB
Thank you!
Are you cladding a van atm?
Sick videos, keep em coming. Love to see what you’re going to do regarding a bed & utilising the living space inside. I’m guna be using these videos as a reference for my own conversion. Hoping to buy a caddy maxi in the next couple of weeks!
Hey Harry, thanks! Glad you're enjoying the vids and they are helping! Yeah you'll see in the future vids what I'm going to do on the inside. It'll be great when you get a caddy!
Did you get and do your caddy? If love to see it
Nice one bud looks great ! I’ve tried screwing these batons in but the metal must be really hard in my van cause I’m trying to drill holes but the drill bit keeps snapping 😂
Oh wow haha what van do you have? I just used self tapping screws straight off with no drilling needed. When drilling into van metal I know if the angle isn't quite right and you force it, it'll snap the screw bits.
Loving the videos! I’m going to pinch your cladding idea. I wondered how much carpet you needed for all the extra bits?
Hhahah tha KS! Glad you like it, and not much, just a few meters 🙂
AWESOME THANK YOUUUUUU
No worries! Are you cladding your van?
@@willsvanadventures yes gonna start in twijfel weeks building my caddy
This looks so good! How do the screws look when you painted over them? We're in the process of doing our van at the moment and are trying to work out the best way to attach the cladding to the battens.
Hey, yeah I ended up using wood screws and once painted you could barely see them. To be honest you couldn't notice them at tall. But initially I didn't want to use screws as I wanted it to be a seamless finish but it seemed to be the only way that would hold the force to the battens.
Will, that looks really good, looks really neat & once painted the white looks good as a contrast to the Grey carpet.
Did think before you painted it, whether it would look as good varnished instead, is there a reason why you went for white, bright, space, etc?
But that does look fantastic, so what's next?
Thanks! I agree as you say the white and grey looks really good. I was unsure on painting it white at first as you say the natural wood did look really amazing. But the plan was always to go white with the grey carpet. Just liked that style and colour scheme tbh. Makes it look fresh and neat. I think if I didnt have the grey carpet then I'd have kept it natural with a clear varnish.
Going forward I've got the flooring video to edit, the lanyard hack for the back door. Cab clean, a video about installing the van x curtains and then a final video tour. Haha so a few to get through.
@@willsvanadventures for me the van x curtains ended up being the best fifty quid I’ve ever spent! So easy to river into place and the outcome is brilliant! I did use more/other rivets than was supplied though as they kept breaking 😂😂
@@MortsLindholm yh I've put them in and they are great. Was quite a job as the screws supplied kept snapping so took a lot longer than expected haha.
Great video, much appreciated, what type of wood did you use for the cladding?
Thanks! And it's just your standard tongue and groove cladding. Think it was about 9mm thick. If you go to wickes they have the 9mm option or 14mm I think.
great video will! just about to start doing up my van and tackling the cladding! just wanted to ask what wood screws you used to secure cladding onto the existing plywood? and did you use a 8mm plywood? many thanks and keep up the good work !
Thanks! Glad to hear you are doing one as well! Umm honestly I can't remember what screws I used sorry. Would just be standard wood screws. The cladding was 9mm I believe so maybe the screws were 20mm or near about that?
For the floor the plwood was 10/12mm. The cladding was fixed to a frame. 🙂
Progressing well great job! Just one question Will how do you go about locking/opening the doors e.g. have you made one of the doors in the rear openable to overcome the central locking system? And if so can you please post details.
Hey, thanks! Sorry I dont really understand what you mean? I've added a lanyard to the back door so you can open it from the inside. Is that what you met? If you meant for the van locking again, I've never had an issue, just unlock the van and all the doors stay unlocked?
@@willsvanadventures Thanks for that, it was just the possible issue of locking the doors whilst in the back of the van for added security and not being able to get out unless you use the key pad locking system.
@@davidvardy8582 oh I see, yh I've just had to unlock the back with the keys to get out.
Hi Will, great job.
Small Q, did you need to pre-drill any holes for this?
Ta
Thanks! Sorry I Missed this, yeah I did on all bits before screwing.n
Hi, great video Im converting a caddy maxi myself and your videos have been very helpful. Im planning on cladding the roof like you’ve done here, do you happen to know how many packs of the cladding you used just for the ceiling? And did you buy the 2.4m lengths so there were no joins? Cheers, Kieran
Hey, thanks for watching, I'm glad the videos are helping! And yh I bought the 2.4m packs. Think i got 3 packs, and then got 2 of the shorter packs for the doors. Hope that helps!
@@willsvanadventures Great thank you!
How much did the 3 packs weigh. Also all timber attracts and holds moisture
Just remember tongue and groove has a lot of movement it will decrease and increase depending on the weather... no more nails is for wood to wood not metal.. still looks mint thought.
Yh that's true it will. I screwed in the cladding instead if using the no more nails stuff. I was only going to use the no more nails for wood to wood but it didn't even work.
Hi mate. Great video. What screws did you use?
Thanks! For securing the frame to the van it was 25mm self tapers. Then for the cladding I believe would have been like 15-20mm (something around that length) wood screws.
Great video, what thickness is the cladding please and did you notice a weight difference in the van after cladding it, I've got a Citreon Dispatch thinking of cladding it cheers
Hey, sounds like a great idea! It was 9mm thick and nah not at tall. Still getting 60mpg so hasn't made any difference!
Should nail or screw through the tongue for hidden fixings. You can also buy tongue and grove screws with tiny heads
Ah that's a good idea! Didnt know you could do that. I'll have a look thanks
Is this much heavier than ply?
I'm going to start a Berlingo conversion and hopefully learn enough to eventually do a bigger van.
Oops just see that you attached the Tonggue and groove. Planks onto the ply?
Hey, I'm not sure in the weight difference tbh. I don't think it'll be much more. So I attached the cladding to a frame on the main sections. But on the doors I attached it to the ply.
great video! what cladding did you use? cheers
Thanks! So I used cladding from Wickes, I believe it was 9mm width. I have a video on my channel about what wood it was and how much I used. :)
Hi. How do you get those upright rear batons to bend inwards?
Did you secure the top, push it in then secure the bottom whilst you're pushing/bending it inwards? Or have you tapped it to the metal in the middle
Hey, yeah so I secured the top and bottom and then pushed the middle in and secured that.
Hey Mate, thanks for the video already. The tool you are using to get the perfect cut. I couldn’t find it in the list of things. 😅
What is it?
I already shared your video to 2 other friends who want to clad soon
Hey, thanks for watching! Glad it helped and thanks for sharing it with your friends! I'll find the link and send it over.
Hey, here is the link for the tool - amzn.to/3ZcoYyN
Maybe they changed the formula or something ?... as I used Evo Stick No Nails to tile the bathroom back in November 2004 with 12 x 9 tiles and 18 years later its still holding up well !
You made a nice job of the van, One important thing though, unless your rear light clusters can be unscrewed from the out side of the van, then it would have been a good idea to make a section of the cladding by the rear lights accessible by using some Velcro strips to secure these access sections in place, that way if a bulb blows, you won't have problems getting to the rear lights to change a blown bulb...
Oh that's mad. I mean it should work like that. Just didn't on ours for some reason. Maybe I did it wrong but followed the instructions 😂
Thanks! And yh I haven't thought about this in the past and on my current van. Was quite difficult to do and couldn't see a good way to do it with the cladding in the end. Unless I lost a load of inside space.
@@willsvanadventures Maybe the instructions were wrong lol
Saying that, I remembered a few years ago the valve went on my shower and I was then forced to remove one tile which had a round hole cut out, I think it was around 80mm in dia or something... anyway, I tried to be as careful as possible to get the tile off in 1 piece, I raked all the grout around that tile then tried to use a wall scraper to pry it loose... let's just say it was going nowhere !, after about 3 hours trying everything not to damage the tile, I lost my rag and took a hammer to it ! lol
Even with the tile smashed parts of it needed the claw of the hammer to break the no nails bond ! - seriously.
Lucky I had a few spare tiles the same unused sitting in the basement so I just recut the 80mm hole in another spare unused tile and put it back up when I replaced the shower valve - this time I used plumber's gold sealant ! instead to fix that tile back in place...
hi there, what carpet did you use? looking for a cheap option... thanks!
Hey, used the 4 way stretch carpet from ebay, depending how much you want it's good value. Just ordered 2x3m with 3 cans of adeshive for £29.
great video, quick question - why do all cladding fitting on vans use the batton method? what's wrong with cladding over ply pannels and screwing them back in ?
Hey, thank you! It's just to save money and weight as you don't need both. But your not wrong, you could do the ply first and then put glad onto that. Would be faster and easier. But would just cost more.
@@willsvanadventures Hi Will thanks for this. Apologies for the late reply. I've left my ply lining out in the elements so don't want to T&G over it so am going ahead with batton's. How do I ensure I'm not going to be drilling these into any wires or through the body work of the van ?
@@solred8093 no worries. What type of van do you have? Most vans have a inner skin which you can drill into. If you drill into the outer skin then it'll go through to the outside of the metal. Hope that helps.
@@willsvanadventures hi will I’ve got a caddy 2013 standard size.
@@solred8093 oh cool. Yeah they'll be an inner skin of a metal frame. You can screw/drill into that.
Hello mate I’m planning on cladding my caddy maxi in the next few weeks and I was just wondering if this effected your mpg if so how much?
Hey, don't think it's effected it at tall tbh. I'm still getting 60-70mpg most trips. Motorway I'll be getting high 50's/60mpg.
Hey Will, just looking on the Wickes website for our build, did you use the 8mm thickness softwood timber cladding or the 14mm general purpose softwood cladding - I don't want to get too thick or too thin it might snap ?
Hey, I I used the 8mm stuff. Once it's all together it seems stronger and if you put enough batons behind it then itll be fine. If you are worried then go for the 14mm but you'll be adding more weight etc. Hope that helps!
@@willsvanadventures Okay awesome thank you! 8mm seems thick enough - thanks for the advice! Feel like we're following every one of your videos as we go on with the build - Taking the van somewhere to sort out the electrics because we don't have a tutorial from you guys on it ;) All other tutorials on youtube are complicated on the subject
@@katielee1870 no worries and that's good haha sorry I havent got the other videos up! Have got one on flooring, curtains and general tour to go I think. Just need some time to edit them hahah
And yh i didnt do electrics in the end as i ran out of time but i found the sam as you say. No one seemed to have a decent video on the subject. Something I'll deffo do in th future.
@@willsvanadventures Awesome, definitely need one on flooring - so i look forward to it!
@@katielee1870 hahah ill try squeeze it in soon!
How much weight did this add to the van? Surely when you also start adding presses, beds, etc you be damn close to the max weight of the van before you load it,..
Hey, I'm not sure tbh but it wont be near to the limit as the vans are designed to be loaded up as they are builders vans. :) they can carry upto near 800kg.
How many packs of cladding did you end up using?
So I think I used about 4/5 of the larger packs and then bought another 4 of the smaller packs. Sorry that's not super helpful!
Hi mate, I’m looking to do a similar thing, how much cladding did you need to buy to complete the whole thing?
Ah awesome! So I reckon you'll need to buy about 5 packs. I'm just doing my caddy now so could confirm soon.
@@willsvanadventures thanks mate, what dimensions did you get?
@@oliver123620 so I got the 94mm x 9mm x 210mm, I believe its that so the one that's nearest if I'm wrong haha
Does it matter where you screw the wood into the van? Is it possible to put a whole through it or am I just being paranoid?
Hey, yes it does. If you screw into the metal in the wrong place you will go through to the outside and put a hole in your van. In most Van's you have to metal layers. An outer layer that goes through to the outside and an inner metal layer.
If you screw into the inner layer then you won't go through to the outside. Hope that helps :)
Nice boxers!
Only the best for TH-cam!
How many packs did you use will?
Hard to say haha I think I started with 5 but ended up buying another 3 of the shorter packs. So I think youd need at least 7 of the 2m packs. But just measure up to check. :)
@@willsvanadventures thanks will! Is yours a maxi?
@@Bexstreetmonster yh it is :) have you got one as well?
A white was would of looked good so you cab still see the grain and knots.. Unless you did that cant quite tell 👍👍
Hey, do you mean a white wash?
@@willsvanadventures yes a white wash 🤦🏻♂️
@@mayhemnmadness9266 haha yh thought so. We used a thicker paint in the end. But you are right, a white wash would have been good.
It’s called a profiling gauge
Cheers!
It’s caddy maxi?
Hey, yeah it is , have you got one?
Pleased you painted it otherwise it looked like a mini sauna 🤣
Haha that's true
I don't really understand why you're shoving a cavity of still air full of insulation materials? The conductivity value of air is 0,026 W·m-1·K-1, and the same for insulation is about 0,037. So, theoretically, by shoving those cavities full of insulation materials, you're actually making them less insulating...
It deffo works and is worth doing. I guess why would anyone Insulate houses if an air gap was better? Might not be the math like you say but it works.
"I am sure you will agree it looks amazing".... Hmm, if you like the shed look I guess! Personally I think it looks appalling, but thats not a slur on your work by the way, just my thoughts on cladded vans! ;)
Haha no worries! Everyone has different tastes and opinions which makes life far more interesting. Thanks for watching though!
2 many adds unfortunately
Don't think I mention one add?
Too heavy and you loose precious space
Only loose an inch or so and weight doesn't make any difference as vans are made to carry a load. Still get 60-70mpg.