There’s so many different ways to build a ceiling to complete the van build. I’ve seen vans with curtains or clothes hanging from above, or even bamboo curtains. Because every other part of your van build, it’s important to create what’s comfortable and within your budget. For mine, this meant installing a plywood ceiling.
Aside from walls, installing a plywood ceiling into a van likely has to most curved area. This can make it difficult for so many reasons. Such as what materials and tools to use to work with the curvature of the ceiling. On top of this there may be insulation to cover, and a light in the back. Installing a ceiling will have you on the path to a cozy van life.
As part of my partner and I’s van build for our Ford Econovan 1999, it took some strategy to get the ceiling done perfectly with these concerns in mind. For installing the ceiling into the van, we tackled it just like the rest of our van build, and it turned out to not be as difficult as we previously thought.
Our ceiling was actually the first plywood installation in our van after doing the insulation. Mainly because it’s challenging to do something upside down and otherwise the insulation wouldn’t stay in.
The curve of the ceiling was still difficult to work with though. What we did to accommodate this was install a trim from the front to the back of our van. This helped to cover where the ceiling and walls didn’t meet together from both of their curves.
Similar to installing the walls, we used a plywood 3mm thick, which is slightly flexible. We were able to drill the plywood into metal beams that previously held up the original cardboard-like ceiling in the van.
Installing a Plywood Ceiling into a Van
Materials
- Two – 1220 x 2440 x 3 mm plywood sheets (or any other plywood sheets that fit well in your van)
- Jigsaw with wood blade (or metal*) blade
- 4 L White acrylic undercoat paint**
- 500ml coloured paint
- Battery Drill
- 2.7 mm metal drill
- 50 25 mm Metal screws
- 50 30 mm Metal screws
- Measuring tape
- Flat pencil
- Painted trim cut to length of ceiling (optional)
*We used the metal blade to cut the wood, this is because of its thickness. If we using the wood blade, the cut looks rougher. Instead, the metal blade gives it a cleaner cut.
**We used the entire 4L undercoat to cover all the wood paneling in our van.
Method
- Measure the ceiling space
The first step to installing a ceiling into a van is to know how much plywood you need and how it will be placed. For our ceiling we cut it into three sections. The first covers the area where the front seats are. The back plywood panels separate near the middle where the van’s back light is. A big factor for how we decided to cut the plywood was so that it would align with the current removable metal frames. This is what we screwed the ceiling into.
- Remove other panels and install insulation (optional)
Before going further with installing the ceiling into the van, we first removed the old cardboard-like panels on the ceiling. We also installed insulation, if you need help with this check out how we did it in my guide.
- Measure and cut plywood
As you’ve previously decided how to arrange the plywood on the ceiling, now it’s time to cut the plywood. As the ceiling is one of the biggest spaces you may install plywood, it’s usually one of the easiest to place the biggest cuts of plywood. After cutting, make small adjustments with the pencil to adjust until it fits well. An adjustment we made was creating a square for the van’s back light.
- Paint the undercoat on both sides
With the white undercoat, paint both sides of the plywood and dry according to the label. With our undercoat we only had to do one layer.
- Repeat #4 with coloured paint
Use the coloured paint only for the side facing inside the van.
- Pre-drill holes
There’s a few benefits to pre-drilling holes, which can be done with the metal drill. I don’t enjoy the extra work of pre-drilling or pilot holes, but it’s necessary for these. Drilling into the metal, even with metal screws takes a lot of pressure and can ruin the screws quickly. Also from using a thinner plywood, it’s easy for it to crack, pre-drilling the holes also helps with all of this.
- Install the front plywood panel
Once the paint is dry it’s time to install, which can be a bit tricky. The main reason for this is I wanted it to look seamless and natural. For this it’s best to start with the front panel. We slipped it into the van’s metal trim, with the insulation—it was a tight fit, but it looks good. This also means it can lean on this metal trim and only be screwed once.
- Install the back two plywood panels
The other two plywood boards followed a similar installation to the front one. Except these two had the light in-between. To start this off, I first installed the plywood panel at the very back. Same as the front panel I slipped it into the metal trim at the back. Again, this panel only had to be screwed into the metal frame once (on the end not slipping into the metal frame). The middle and last panel was the easiest because it just had to be screwed into the metal beam. It’s works out best if the measurements were correct, otherwise make small adjustments again.
- Install the trim
After installing the ceiling in our van, we had a small gap in between where the wall lined up. This was from the curve in the ceiling, mainly. We installed a painted trim to cover up the gap, it was installed in three sections from the front to the back along both sides. It can also be screwed directly into the van’s metal trim, which is better done after the walls are installed.
- Re-install the light (if applicable)
The final step to this installation is the re-install the light, if your van had it to begin with. We now use this light more than we did previous to this van build because it uses the van’s battery. Otherwise your van should be good to go!
After installing the ceiling I first went to do the floors and then the walls last. Check out my guides for your own van build.
