Camper Conversion part 5: the floor in the interior – the basis for all that may come

In Built in the workshop, inspiration by bianka

There were black rubber mats in the interior, they had to come out if I wanted to examine the floor panel.

No sooner said than done. The mats were quickly gone and overall the sheet metal made a good impression. But there were also a few rusty spots that I had to take care of.

Of course our body builder Jürgen knows how to do that and so he equipped me with the necessary tools and explained everything to me:

First drill out the holes with the cordless drill to remove the rust in the hole, then use the grinder to grind away the rust on the surface. Then clean the area first with brake cleaner and then spray 2 times with Brunox rust converter. Wait 20-30 min between the first and second spraying.

Rust spots removed

removed rust spots, rust converter

I want to put a floor plate in the interior and decided to use 15mm screen printing plate. Of course I have to fix it somehow. Screwing through the sheet metal is not sensible, then it will rust again. So I will glue wooden strips lengthwise in the recesses, so that I can fix the plates on it and with wood screws.

The recesses are about 8mm high, the insulation I put in between – again Armaflex XG and self-adhesive – is this time only 9-10mm thick. So the battens need to be 18mm thick so I can screw the board on top and the insulation fits comfortably underneath.

18mm screen printing strips glued in with Sikaflex

18mm screen printing strips glued in with Sikaflex

I also cut the skirting boards from a leftover 18mm silkscreen board and glue them to the sheet metal floor with Sikaflex special mounting adhesive. Where exactly doesn’t really matter, the main thing is that it is fairly regular and also at the edges, so that the floor doesn’t sag at any point when it has to withstand loads from above.

the floor / sheet metal is prepared

Finally cut the insulation and glue it between the battens and now I can take care of the actual floor plate. But not today ;D

total working time 6-7h

Costs for brake cleaner, rust converter, strips and insulation about 150 EUR