Roof boards instead of headlining?

[MattBW]

Has anyone boarded their roof space instead of headlining?

I am pondering boards lined with suitable carpet, rather than a headlining in the van but Im not sure how easy it is to fix in place?

[CJH]

I did that for one section of my headlining, between the hole into the pop top and the rear overhead locker.

I used hardboard covered with carpet lining. I found it tricky getting the shape correct - maybe because I was trying to get it to butt up hard against the curtain track. My van used to have traditional headlining here, which was secured against the overhead locker using a curved former, so I duplicated the curved former for the other side and then screwed the lined hardboard to the formers - a couple of screws either side was all it took to hold the shape, as the flex in the hardboard tends to hold it against the curtain rails. On the advice of Megavanmats I simply put a slit in the carpet lining where the screw went in, and it 'self healed' over the top of the screw head.

[MattBW]

Thanks that looks really smart, do you think it would be doable in the cab area or a nightmare ?

[CJH]

Thanks that looks really smart, do you think it would be doable in the cab area or a nightmare ?

It's going to be very difficult if there's a curve in two directions. I can't remember what the shape is in the cab area, but I'd imagine it's curved front-to-back as well as side-to-side, so I'd imagine it's going to be tricky. Maybe you could add formers to take the front-to-back curve out, and to give you something to screw to.

[MattBW]

I think once I get the van back I will have a good look and see what I can work out. An option that may work better may be headlining the cab only and then carpeting the rest

[JonB]

Just doing this at the moment to my panel van. It's a real ball ache figuring how best to fix it up securely but I think I have a plan....without it looking really crap.

Currently its a standard size 2440x1220 6mm ply board cut to 1100x1220 and shaped for the rear as it narrows and curves. The plan was then have 4 pieces of ply screwed on and over hanging the board width by 5mm either side to ensure a nice curve then an additional 5mm tab which would fit into the headlining rod holes on the side of the van securing it in place.

Annoyingly the tabs broke on one side when I fitted it.

I've been convinced I needed to secure it from the sides however I'm going to try and make a wooden batten for the end piece and shaped to curve the ply roof. Then I plan on using a strip of plywood fixed to the double skin roof support using fir clips.

If that works, the middle section will fit under the same support in the middle and I'll do the same again at the roof support between the cab and load space.

For the cab area I don't think ply would work so would definitely be keeping/updating the existing headlining.

If the weekend goes well I'll post up some photos.