Installing New Paneling for a Four Wheel Pop-Up Camper

I used the 38-year old plastic-lined, splintered paneling to trace out new panel patterns. It was a surreal experience.

For the wall paneling, I cut the 1/4" Maple-faced plywood patterns, and then sanded and finished the pieces. These pieces are stacked against the wall in my living room.

For the walls that formed the seat compartments, I used 3/4" Maple-faced plywood, then sanded and finished the pieces. Yes, that is the dining room table under the wood.

In this project, I learned a lot about finishing wood. This is part of my backyard with a workbench under the plywood.

These pieces are Baltic Birch (BB)-faced plywood. If I redid the project, I would do everything with this plywood. They are quite beautiful when finished. The maple-faced plywood sounded pretty, but was quite plain in comparison, with little figure.

These became the finishing products of choice:

1. Microfiber cloths

2. Nitrile gloves

3. General Finishes (GF) Seal-a-cell (applied only if staining a piece)

4. GF Oak gel stain

5. GF Armrseal (semi-gloss)

6. Gripper primer

7. T-shirt cloth cut into small squares

I re-used a refrigerator from another camper but hated the plastic wood front veneer cover.

So I cut and stained some 1/8" Baltic Birch plywood and finished it to replace it.

I used BB plywood for the 1/8" paneling along the sides under the wings.

I used pan-head screws to put in the paneling, both on the upper walls and below. The original paneling was stapled on, so this was a slight variation from the original, but carefully considered. The wood rot repair is shown in the upper right of the photo.

Things taking shape

I also used 1/8" BB paneling on the front. I was so excited to see how good it was looking that I made a mistake. Subsequent photos show the remedy.