Demolition Begins
 

Well I couldn't wait till spring :) I needed to open things up so they could dry out. Going to try a few photos. Also can anyone tell me if their converter is hardwired or plugs in, as mine is missing. I found the 12 volt wires but not a 120 volt wire just a recep above the 120volt panel box.
Cheers
GaryK

99 Aliner SofaBed
96 FunChaser 24L
06 Toyota Tundra V8 w/towing package

If it has an air conditioner you should remove it and put in a new seal, this is just my opinion but repair and seal the roof first before replacing the ceiling. Spray with a water hose to make sure there are no leaks.
The converter plugs in on my 95 but the 09 is built in the wall.

I think if I stripped it down like that I would try something like this. Would not have to worry about leaking with it. Handi-Foam Quick Cure Spray Foam Insulation Kit, 105 BF | eBay

That is heartbreaking to see the neglect on that trailer. The great thing is that you can't screw it up any worse. :)

All in All it's not in any worse shape that a lot of 1996 cars. All the appliances are like brand new and everything works so far. The only things I haven't tried are the AC and Hwh. Nothing rotted where the seal rides and the seal is in real good shape, I was worried about that. A little Ingenuity some paneling, styrofoam, and a roof coating (Kool Seal) and it WILL be good to go. :D Plus it help that I have a shed full of woodworking tools and a welder ;)

Gary

Demolition begins
 

What a shame the trailer is in this condition. Esentially you are rebuilding the entire top half. Do you have to rebuild the roofon the outside.? Go to Rv education 101 by Gary Polk. He rebuilt a veryold 1960 something trailer-Yellowstone. Be sure to go over my 1990 Classic restoration.I have tried to take some pictures and tips as we went along in the hopes that it would help someone have an easier time. Suggestion: take the time to cover all the floors with cardboard and duct tape. Take pictures of where any curtain hardware is and do a measured diagram. Don't worry about doing a total ripout as the windows need the one inch foam,1/8th underlay and 1/8th paneling to give the window stability. Cover all appliances with heavy plastic. There is no way you need to do a total tearout of the walls until spring. In the spring when you tear out everything on the walls you will just be able to dry off your fiberglass on the inside with an old towel. Start by putting a new seal on the airconditioner,reseal roof vents. Be 100% sure you have no roof leaks before you fix the walls. You can use some externabond to seal on the roof. Any metal structure that you expose should be treated for rust. I just wirebrushed mine wiped off and will prime with Rustoleum and 1or two coats of rustoleum paint. Not all of my metal structure on all sides is exposed. My walls on the upperhalf have a curve to them. We are going to try two 1/4 sheets of insulation then 1/8 underlay then 1/8 paneling with one side with vinyl. We are now thinking of using low voc contact cement between the layers. Use butyl tape to seal all windows then reinstall. Key be 100% sure you have all the leaks sealed. I hope this helps you. We are just DIY,I did consult with JR Repairs in Ohio. We are here to answer your questions and help in any way you can. Wehave a 1997 Truck and It is in showroom condition.!!!!Thanks to a trip to the body shop and rust proofer each year.

I tried to weld the cracks in the steel roof members, however, all I did was blow holes in the metal so I scabbed 1" angle iron on both sides and bolted it fast.

Cheers
Gary

PS Anyone know who might have a wide assortment of "wood" paneling in NorthEast Pa. besides the big box stores.

I put up a You Tube video of our work in progress

Our $1.00 1996 Hi-Lo Funchaser Camper - YouTube

Gary

Demolition begins
 

Gary, watched your you Tube video of your demolition x2. If you can run your furnice as this will help to dry things out. In the summer the solar heat will be your best source of drying. If you can store your windows then go ahead and tear out every bit of the side walls down to the rail. Scrape with a razor blade. The next step would be to use bondo to seal the inside walls. Walmart might carry this. When you have the walls torn open then prime and paint any exposed metal. Rust oleum works well for this. Leave the Ref. propped open to prevent mold from forming on the inside. I would take your cabinents and put them in storage. Then I would scrape any caulk off the outside of the trailer and reseal everything with Lexell caulk. I was able to find this at Ace hardware. You are right the windows have to be taken out and Butyl tape applied,two rows. Then put back in place and lexell caulk applied to the exterior to seal the window. Others have had to rebuild roofs and did pictures on Yahoo.com You might want to consider putting a power jack on the front. That is if you have any $ after buying other parts for the trailer!!!! I have a good feeling about your can do attitude. You are wise to search the internet for the best price on any materials that you will need. Take a look at Georgia pacific paneling 1/8 thick and vinyl coating on one side. Our local ace Hardware store was able to order this in for us. You are right on about repairing the exterior top of the roof first. Look up Mark Polk restoration of his old Yellowstone trailer. Since you will be replacing the entire Roof you might consider putting on a rubberroof. Mark has an entire video series on the internet detailing his entire restoration. Mark Polk Rv Education 101. Are the top of your walls curvy or straight. Best of luck as you plug along on your restoration. The Handi Foam Quick Cure Spray Foam insulation Kit ,105 e Bay looks very good for yout application. Your trailer does look like it wasn't used(toilet,stove,Ref.) Very puzzling.!! A roll of butyl tape does two times around a big window with some left over at 7.95 a roll. It comes in different widths. We used the smallest width. You can get on the internet and request a master catalog from camping world. Toys to drool over all winter long. My 90 RV also has the inside ends in excellent condition so no way to match 21 yr. old wallpaper. Found something close.

Demolition
 

Hubby just watched your youtube video. He got excited about your project and said he would defeniately put on a rubber roof. Possibly the water dammage/bad roof also dammaged your floor. This could be the source of your smell. Maybe the floor just needs a good washing/odoban. Are you a welder? My hubby is a semi retired sheel metal fabricator(no welding).

Sam,

The only bondo I'm familiar with is auto bondo, so I looked it up, are you talking about Rotted Wood Stabilizer to seal the wood around the bottom of the top where the seal is?

The metal will get wire brushed and primed and painted.

Power Jack? The DW needs something to do ;) Actually I was looking at the one at Harbor Freight, with a 20% off coupon, it would be right around $100.00 but I can't find any reviews on it.

We will be looking for paneling, thanks for the tip.

The only curve in our camper is the roof.

I have an email into Kool Seal asking them about their products and my situation. I think most of the pinholes I have are back passenger side about a 3' x 3' square on the roof. That's the only place I see pinholes as of right now. I also have an email into mikew, a forum member, about his roof repair with the pinholes and how it's holding up.

I checked out the floor before I covered it, there are no soft spots or discoloration of the vinyl anywhere in the camper including under the cabinets and behind the refrigerator panel. I know a little about floor damage as I replaced a third of the floor in our 99 Aliner about 5 years ago.

What glue are you using to glue the styrofoam to the filon or aluminum or paneling. I'm doing a test right now with some outdoor carpet adhesive, a piece of styrofoam and a small piece of paneling 1 1/2"x3". The glue is not eating into the styrofoam and I can't pull it apart with just my fingers after 12 hours.

As far as being a welder, I'm a handyman welder, I weld just enough to get by :p

Cheers
Gary

Demolition begins
 

Call JR in OHIO. When I called with my questions Greg answered the phone right away. He answered my questions and explained how they would repair the trailer if I went to Ohio. The phone # is 1-419-883-3002. Specificaly ask about wall repair and roof repair. This will be a great source of information for you. A great place to get parts. Your trailer could be some what different than mine in construction even though we both have Classics. Mine is a 90 25ft.Classic. When you first go on the HTF go to new thread then Off topic. See 90 HiLo Classic restoration. I have taken some pictures and described the process as we went along. I promise to take a few more pictures and will post again soon. I did not have to rip everything off all walls. We ripped that which was soggy wet and delaminated. One area by the dinette was totally ripped out to the wavy fiberglass. The BR wall on the passenger side wasripped out top half only. Both sides of the Br wall had two pieces of 1/8 paneling glued together. This probably to give it extra strength. The rest of the trailer had singly 1/8 paneling. Only the areas that were ripped out to the fiber glass were treatred with Bondo. The bondo is a waterproofer. We will put Lexell caulk around the metal frame where it meets the bare fiberglass wall. Since you are having to tear out all your side walls you will use Bondo to waterproof your inside fiberglass. I am assuming your walls are fiberglass. You can only tearout the wallto where it meets upto the guide rail. Our guide rail is not rotted and the few areas wher we see some black on the wood/top of rail just dried out. Soon we hope to start putting back the 1/8 underlay/1" Foam board and 1/8 Paneling. We think we are going to use contactcement to the 1" foamboard then contact cement to the 1/8 inch underlay then liquid nails on the back of the paneling. Our paneling directions call for liquid nails. Our friendwho did construction told us to put liquid nails on both surfaces and press together(rub together) then take the paneling off for aprox 10 min. to let the liquid nails tack up. Then reapply for good. Yesterday we bought a gallon of contact cement(lowVoc) at Ace hardware. Ouch 42.00 $. Ask Greg how thick of a paneling you can use. We are not experts just DIY to save $. I truly believe the older HI Los were made sturdier than the newer models. Caulk any where you possibly can and use some spray foam in a can to seal from water and air leaks,also mice. Hard to describe all this. Send me a Pm any time and I can call you. My quess is you will be at this repair for quite a while in the spring and summer. However you will have a great HiLo that should last for many years.

HI GaryK
If interested, I have a extra power converter. It does hard wire in. Came out of my HiLo. I upgraded to a better one. I use to build log homes so have quite a supply of butyl tape left over. It is in rolls 1/4 inch thick 2" wide and 20 feet long. It is grey in color. I think it could be rolled out and cut in narrow widths with a pizza cutter. Would donate to your project, just pay the postage. Let me know if interested.

Jim,

I'll be glad to take that stuff off your hands :D Shoot me an
email at com.yahoo@garyk_52 (reverse) with the shipping & handling charges.

Thanks
Garyk

Testing indoor outdoor carpet adhesive
 

I'm doing a test on Henry 663 indoor outdoor carpet adhesive for putting the ceiling panels up in the spring. I'm using a piece of styrofoam and a 3X6 piece of paneling which I glued and put a heavy book on overnite. I have hung a 5lb weight from it and going to see how long it will hold, hopefully forever :)

Cheers
Garyk

Well after 5 hours hanging it left loose. Back to the drawing board.

I know this was a few months back, but wondering if anyone has found a good adhesive that works between the foam and the inner wall panels?

What to use when gluing styrofoam and paneling
 

When you first log in go to off topic under my 90 HiLo Classic restoration. I took pictures and descriptions for the complate restoration. We tried contact cement/no good. Tried liquid nails for foam/no good. Then we tried regular liquid Nails/no good. We ended up using Heave Duty Liquid Nails and it worked like a charm. $2.00/something at Walmart. Apply extremely generous. Could use 2/12 tubes per 4x8 sheet. Hubby forced good adhesion by using a floor roller on the wall. Curious how much paneling do you have to reglue.? Are you doing a total restoration? It is extremely critical that you find and correct any leaks before you repanel or you will be wasting time and materials. Ask any questions and I will answer. We are just DIY.

Replacing thoof
 

Gary 52, I agree with popRichie77That you should repair and seal the roof first. Then put a new seal on the air conditioner and make sure all your roof vents are okay. I would again suggest that You checkout RV Education 101 by Mark Polk. He did a complete Rubber roof on a 1967 Yellowstone trailer. It is a great ten part award winning series. I just truly want to be helpful. I know we are going to get some snow this weekend. I truly think your best source of drying will be the the hot spring and summer sun. Take lots of pictures so you can remember several months from now how things go back together. Somethings you can do now,cover your countertops with cardboard and ducttape. Cover dinette ect with heavy plastic. Take down all your curtains ans wash. Gather supplies. Walmart,Bondo for the fiberglass on each wall. Lots of Lexell caulk. Razor scraper and blades. Stiff putty knife to remove windows. Multi tool to do any necessary cutting..Butyl tape. Lots of googone. Probable a case of Heavy duty Liquid nails. !" styrofoam to line walls. Then 1/8 underlay then 1/8 ' paneling. Paneling nails. Primer and paint to do the metal structures. Stain for the underlay. It is my understanding that you don,t use the pink fiberglass because it will sag and fall down. I wish you lived closer to me as I would give you everything that I have left over from our restoration. I feel your itch with this 40 degree weather we have been having. I,m stuck in the house recuperating from major surgery. Trying not to think about the the two major surgeries I need and the one lesser shoulder surgery I need. The hightlight of my week is going to Walmart and riding in the electric cart. The last time it died on me in the middle of the storeand the one hubby got me ran out of power after I cashed out. What do you expect for free!!!!

Paneling needed for restoration.
 

Talked with DH about your paneling .Said you could use 1'/4" paneling because you said your walls are straight. In our case because the walls have a curve to them We needed the 1'stryrofoam then 1/8 underlay then 1/8 paneling to accomodate our somewhay curvy wall.

Sam,

My wife and I found 1/8 inch paneling and lauan at a local lumber supply store which happens to be on my way to work, so I will be using 1/8 inch for everything. The main reason for not going with 1/4 inch paneling is weight. I don't want to put anymore strain on the cables and pulleys than I have to since I'm already going to have a total of 1/4 inch on the ceiling. Here is the paneling I'm going to use on the ceiling it's called Athena at $28 a sheet LifeStyles Decorative Wall Panels The walls will be getting "Ivory Elements" at $29 a sheet
American Pacific: Ivory

The reason I will not tear off the metal roof and go with something else is because I believe the metal is part of the structual stability of the top. ie metal roof glued to 1/8 inch sheeting which is glued to 1 inch styrofoam which is glued to the ceiling panels. I'm replacing approx 3 1/2' x 12' of the sheeting and then covering the whole works with new paneling.

for your styrofoam to fiberglass glue j & r uses a 2 part glue that is time sensitive to application.. it also must be clamped together when bonding. also if you are testing glues for your ceiling and walls , don't forget heat and cool cycles, as some glues will freeze and loose their adhesion,then when heated,it will expand

Glues for repair
 

If you were going to send the trailer into JR repair I believe after talking to them this what they would do. Disconnect the top and bottom half. Then a crane would be used to lift the top half off. Everything would be totally striped off to the skin. The skin would be treated on the inside with maybe bondo or something similar to seal any pinholes and guarantee no leaks. Every inch of metal studs would be sprayed with primer and rust oleum paint. Then the walls would be put back together with a laminating machine. Two part glue would be used. In my opinion the material you use to put the walls back together just have to be acliminated a day before install. We were very successful in using Heavy Duty liquid nails and a floor roller to put in the underlay and styrofoam and paneling. It would have been a nightmare to use time sensitive glue two part. In other words we aren,t comparing apples to oranges. Home repair vs JR repair. I can only share with you what we did and what worked for us. I may well have the sequence wrong what JR does. Who wouldn,t love to have the trailer factory repaired. Isn,t worth the $ vs value on our 1990 HiLo.

Demolition
 

Gary, Had DH read your post. All your plans are good. Love your choice of ceiling panels and wall paneling. Is the wall paneling vinyl coated? We found in our BR that the walls had two layers of paneling,stryrofoam and underlay. Still didn,t keep them from getting water dammaged. Had a discussion with DH about the Bondo we used on the walls. We got this two part epoxy at an auto/body speciaty shop. They sell to all the local body shops. He thinks this is different from what you can buy at walmart. In other words not the same product. Trust me on this one. Better to seal your walls with this premium bondo and lexell caulk than to do a half job and have leaks. Whennall is said and done you will have a sweet trailer that you can use for many years to come. It will be worth far more than you paid for it!!!! Take your do it once and do it right. So excited for you.

Sam, I believe my walls are different from yours. Yours looks like it is corregated while mine is smooth, no ridges or valleys. I don't see any light looking from inside out like pinholes or anything when turning lights on inside and looking outside to inside when it's dark out. And yes, the paneling is vinyl coated.

Cheers
GaryK

Vdubn,

I'm going to use a combination of Liquid Nails and Henry 663 (doesn't dissolve foam) indoor outdoor carpet adhesive. Should be good for all temps. I redid my test using a 3 lb weight instead of the 5 lb. It's been hanging in my basement since 12/10/2011 (3 lb weight hanging from 3x6 inch piece of paneling.) Ceiling will be a combination of Liquid nails, Henry 663 and trusty 1/4 crown staples and the wall will be mostly Henry 663 with a small amount of Liquid Nails and possibly some Gorilla glue. I'm also going to cut 2 inch slots 1/2 inch deep in the styrofoam around the perimeter with my table saw and glue in plywood strips.

Cheers
GaryK

Demolition
 

DH read your posts.I realize you walls are different from ours. Please strongly consider using Bondo on your walls. You could possibly havecracks or sm. holes you can't see. They even do this with wall rebuilding at JR in Ohio. I know they make liquid nails in a gallon size. It might be more cost effective,also more messy to apply to the wall paneling. Sounds like a good plan to cut strips for reinforcing in the walls. DH suggested that you might cut into the styrofoam easier with a Multi function tool. If you don't own you could pick up a cheap one from harbour freight. That is where we got ours. At any rate you will fabricate as you go along. We are going to visit our HiLo tomorrow and put in the two new LED bulbs. I,ll see if it passes cleaning inspection. DH did this while I was in the Hosp. I'm pretty sure you will want to use liquid nails only to install your wall paneling as per manufacture instructions. Be sure to aclimate your material to the HiLo before cutting/fitting.DH left the paneling in the trailer a day before cutting. Forgot to mention that we did a rebuild on our door a few years ago. so we were sure it didn't have to be removed for repaneling.

Sam,

I bought a Harbor Freight multi-function tool before I started tearing the camper apart. Best $20 I ever spent on a tool. I'm going to try and make a foam cutting wire and use my weller soldering iron to heat the wire in places where I can't use the table saw or router. I used to fly RC planes and cut foam wings using a homemade foam cutting bow using a 8 amp battery charger. So I will see what I can come up with. Didn't the heavy duty liquid nails eat into the styrofoam or did you use foamboard which is a little different from the styrofoam which is in the camper.

Cheers
GaryK

Demolition
 

We used 1" foam insulation. We might have been able to use different glues but we had to run the furnice. The HD liquid nails was the only glue that would grip and hold. Once we put the glue on and placed the insulation,underlay or paneling we never pulled it off. DH sealed the deal with pressure from his floor roller. We just came from Home Depot. We were looking at ADA toilets. The one we wanted Kohler no longer caries in biscuit. ANyway we are in no hury. I cruised by the carpet glue to see if I could read the henry can and see if it was recommended for paneling. They now carry some other brand. I,m thinking you had this left over from some other project and just want to use it up. Can,t say as I blame you. Materials are so expensive. If you arer doing some of your project in blazing hot weather you may be able to use a lesser liquid nails. When we tried contact cement it just soaked into the foam insulation and had no glue factor left. The foam liquid nails just didn't stick at all. Can't remember if their was a price difference between regular liquid nails in the tube or HD liquid nails.I,m sure you will have the time of your life with this project. The multi tool is inexpensive the blades cost as much as the tool.

I spoke with J&R about using Liquid Nails, and they were pretty adamant about not using it, since it dries hard. They said that you need an adhesive that dries flexible, as our trailers flex a ton. I also stopped by my local trailer store to ask what they use in their trailers, and they showed me their gallon sized can of standard Contact Cement, which dries soft and adheres to foam, etc.

My father-in-law used to lay carpet, and said that Contact Cement should work excellent, so that was my plan. I'm not familiar with Henry 663, but will look into it.

I know that they make tons of different types of Liquid Nails, so maybe you found one that dries soft and will work well.

I am also going to do this, as I have channels already cut in my foam, where there was like 1/4 or 5/16 plywood already, that was the anchor for the cabinets (it was totally rotted in mine, hence the reason my cabinet was falling from the roof). I was thinking of using OSB instead of plywood, as I thought it might be resistant to water more than plywood... any thoughts?

Discussion on what glue to use for repairs
 

Vdubn, could you start at the beginning of your story. Do you have a classic or a towlite.? It is it just one cupboard that you have to remount? Look under 90 Classic restoration to my description and pictures of each step of our restoration. We did our restoration this past fall 2011 and early 2012. We had to run our furnice to be able to have a consistent temp and for the bondo and heavy duty liquid nails to dry properly. We tried contact cement and it just soaked in and wouldn;t hold anything. I have just about a gallon of contact cement left that cost me $42.00 plus tax. No projects in mind to use this on. The point I want to make is that JR has the equipment to laminate 1" styrofoam insulation,1/4 underlay and 1/4 paneling to the walls. In a DIY situation our directions on the paneling called for liquid nails. We also used 1" paneling nails along the seams and stapled trim at the ceiling. Our paneling was left in the RV to aclimate prior toinstalation. I sure am not going to pull it off to see if the liquid nails dried out. We only use the Rv about one month a year. Dh has a large garden and plenty of lawn mowing weed wacking to do in the summer ect. I,m curious as to what JR would recommend to glue the lays together for repair. We tried contact cement.ragular liquid nails,liquid nails for foam board and none of this worked. My gut feeling is if it had been blazing hot then the contact cement might have worked. I,l let everyone know how the repairs hold up.

sam, i mean no disrespect when i quoted what j & r uses or used to assemble my wall when they rebuilt my 88 22L, I was just trying to help a fellow hi-lo guy,and i wish that i had the help and knoledge to do an extensive rebuild like yours. I admire your extensive work, and the ability to try other application methods,i especially like how garyk52 tested and reported his findings to try to duplicate or better the "j&r way" this not only lets us know it can be done but also saves us a bunch of money, which we could all use for the raising gas prices. by the way, your work on your hi-lo which i have been following daily, is fantastic, it looks better than new!

contact cement
 

when i apply contact cement to raw or bare wood, i always apply a heavy coat on the bare wood,let it soak in and dry for at least an hour, then reapply the contact cement to both application sides, let it tack up to being almost dry, then apply. I would test it first like you did with the weights

There's a reason OSB is less than half the cost of plywood. :p OSB won't hold screws as good as plywood. OSB doesn't like moisture. I don't like using OSB :D

Cheers
Garyk

Will LIQUID NAILS Adhesive products become rock hard after they dry?

No. LIQUID NAILS construction adhesive and caulk products remain flexible to allow for expansion and contraction of the substrates.

LIQUID NAILS Adhesive FAQs

Good to know... I wonder why J&R were so against the use of liquid nails? Thanks for the info, I will be using plywood for my walls as well.

Discussion on glues.
 

Robod, no offense taken. I never thought to go on the site for liquid nails. I thought maybe we had goofed. Our directions from georgia pacific said to use liquid nails. If we didn,t we would have voided the warranty on the paneling. Our HiLo dealer also told us to use liquid nails. Our dealer hates wall rebuilding with a passion as it is very time consuming. Shure who wouldn,t love to have a factory rebuild(laminated process). Spent some time reviewing Mark Polk and his 69 Yellowstone and was horrified to see he only used a combo stainpoly on one side of his wall rebuild. He had to do tons of frame rebuilding and left all the wood bare. He used no glue whatsoever. Everything else he did on the trailer was aplus,very talented. Very scary to just reapply the old skin and depend on the caulk to prevent water intrusion. The old trailer did have a metal roof and he did replace it with a rubber roof. Thanks for the compliments on our restoration job. I was expecting it to turn out reasonably well as DH is a sheet metal fabricator with lots of additional course work and life experiences. Thanks for the explination on using contact cement. I do have a structure under our celler stairs that hubby painted redwood before I knew him. I hate redwood and we will be refacing. Probably could use the contact cement. I will try to do this in the summer when it is blazing hot. Wouldn;t know what to do withmy self if I didn;t have some kind of project going!!.

Gary, what are you using for replacement paneling in side of your trailer? I have been looking at the 1/8" bathroom paneling that is fiber-backed, at Home Depot, and it looks like it should work well. I will have to scuff it though, as its really smooth, then primer it, and paint it.

I was told by the fellows at J&R, that I could also primer my original vinyl covered paneling, with Kilz or BINZ, then I could paint it as well, that way the whole wall can match.

Just curious what your plans were.

vdubn,

if you go back to message 20 on this thread, you can see the paneling my wife and I picked out. I need 10 sheets at around $30.00 a sheet. That will do the whole top except for the ends which I'm not doing. I'm using plywood paneling with a vinyl covering. I looked at the paneling at HD and Lowes and most of theirs is hardboard or mdf and not plywood.

Cheers
Gary

Good Call.... I guess you are replacing all of your paneling at the same time. I may look at a local wood store to see if they have plywood backed paneling as well, but I need to paint all of mine anyway since I am not replacing everything.

Thanks for the help.

What paneling?
 

Just a thought if you could find some hardwood paneling you could use stain/poly to seal both sides. Our underlay had a very pretty grain to it.I stained both sides of five sheets. It was too pretty to cover up. My only thought with paint is how is it going to look if you get a bang in the paint. I wish I could have bought the matching wallpaper to be able to do the remaining wall and inside end caps.

Vdubn,

Look and see if you can find 1/8 inch lauan and compare it to paneling before you buy. It looks just like plywood with no lines and it looks to be very paintable. I paid $12.71 a sheet including tax. If I was going to paint, that is what I would be putting on the walls and ceiling.

Cheers
Gary