The Knotty Wood
Finally the step that will bring the whole camper together. This will cover up all the wires, insulation and all the metal of the van. This is the step we’ve all been waiting for. The knotty pine paneling.
On the search for this knotty pine we went to 4 different local Home Depots and and 2 Lowe’s and nobody had any in stock. We had to order it online and had it shipped to the house. This stuff is great. It has a V-groove that runs along each plank which they all interlock with each other fairly easy. For those that don’t want to join, you give them a slight tap with a hammer and they will find their ways to come together. They are a little shy of 4 inches wide and 8 feet long. One pack gives you about 14 sq feet. We used about 225 SQ feet of the paneling.
The Knotty Pine, come in a pack of 6 per sleeve.
To maximize the the yield of each plank we had to add wooden beams that came down vertically. We needed to do this because the 8 foot plank did not end where there was a metal support of the van. So we used the 1×2 pine to make the vertical beams at 8 feet from the end, and one more or less in the center of each plank to help stabilize and support each plank.
The vertical beams out of white pine.
Using the Kreg mini jig we made the hole that will allow us to drill a screw to attach the pine to the van.
We started this process by holding up an 8 foot piece at the rear of the van. At the rear end of the van where the metal of the van is we used a trim screws to hold the end in. Your going to need to pre-drill a hole with a drill bit to be able to screw in the trim screw. We decided to only screw every other one in at the ends.
Nice clean install.
So the 8 foot plank starting at the rear will end at one of the wooden beams. Using pneumatic brad nailer we nailed each panel to attach them to the vertical beams, the next plank will start at the same vertical beam. We did have to cut some off with the miter saw to have it fit properly.
(For those without a compressor to power a pneumatic nailer, they do sell electric brad nailers. We’ve personally never used one but should do the same thing.)
The next row up we did the same, except starting out at the other side of the van (the front). So the row below wouldn’t fall on the same ends of the planks to give us an offset of the ends. Every other plank will end in the same spot giving it a uniform finish through the van.
