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Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:51 am

I did a search but came up empty. What is the thickness of the plywood subfloor suppose to be and does the plywood subfloor extend under the z bed frame?

I have a 71 westy!

Thanks

Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:29 pm

will get the thickness for you when I get home from work in the morning. Off the top of my head, I think 5mm. I have a piece of scrap to measure at home. The thing is, that you need to uses European stock 5x5. You can ussually find it at aircraft, speciality woods, and ping pong table repair shops.
Best Regards,
John

Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:01 am

You need 1/4 to fill up to the floor hight. Then 3/8 sanded (good one side,to mount your sheet goods to ) over the whole floor. It go,s under every thing . Z-bed ,jump seats ,refer.
Karl

Wed Jun 07, 2017 7:12 am

Original Westfalia Cargo Floor 1968

Fri Jun 09, 2017 1:04 pm

More pics in my gallery, but when I did mine the base plywood (1st layer on floor) was about 3/8":

And the top was on ~.20" (5mm) but I used 1/8" since my sheet I was using was thicker than the original. Next time I'll use 1/4".

I had trouble finding 5'x5' plywood sheets in my area, but of course found it after I was done. Here's the final result after finding this checkered sheet stuff from the UK since I couldn't find it in the US:

Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:29 pm

The base ply is metric, but 3/8" works. The vinyl is attached to ~1/8" ply. The floor does not extend under the bench seat/bed but does go under the jump seat and sink unit.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7600248&highlight=#7600248

Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:12 pm

ewdb92 wrote: The base ply is metric, but 3/8" works. The vinyl is attached to ~1/8" ply. The floor does not extend under the bench seat/bed but does go under the jump seat and sink unit.

The Z-bed/cabinet goes on top of the flooring so it actually does go under the bench seat. Also, my original flooring is on plywood thicker than 1/8", but less than 1/4". I just measured it and it reads as 4.42mm thick for just the plywood that the flooring is glued to.

Sat Jun 10, 2017 7:23 am

lintbrush wrote: ewdb92 wrote: The base ply is metric, but 3/8" works. The vinyl is attached to ~1/8" ply. The floor does not extend under the bench seat/bed but does go under the jump seat and sink unit.

The Z-bed/cabinet goes on top of the flooring so it actually does go under the bench seat. Also, my original flooring is on plywood thicker than 1/8", but less than 1/4". I just measured it and it reads as 4.42mm thick for just the plywood that the flooring is glued to.

You're correct, I now remember the floor does go under the seat a few inches - if you look at the second picture I posted, you can see a faint line where the front of the seat rests. There are two 3/8" ply blocks (small, only a few inches across) that sit under the back end of the seat near the the seat belt attachments - similar to the rectangle ply block near the sliding door in the first picture. The ply the vinyl attaches to is metric as well, so it is thicker than 1/8" (hence why I used the ~), but 1/8" ply will work.

Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:17 am

Yep Erik. I used 1/8" too cut from 4'x8' sheet so had 2 pieces. Of course I found 5'x5' plywood in both 1/8" and 1/4" right after I glued down my vinyl flooring. Like you said 1/8" works fine as long as you have the proper support pieces under it. I too had the small pieces you mention in the back to help support/shim it to the rest of the underpayment. Thx.

Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:36 am

lintbrush wrote: Yep Erik. I used 1/8" too cut from 4'x8' sheet so had 2 pieces. Of course I found 5'x5' plywood in both 1/8" and 1/4" right after I glued down my vinyl flooring. Like you said 1/8" works fine as long as you have the proper support pieces under it. I too had the small pieces you mention in the back to help support/shim it to the rest of the underpayment. Thx.

Your floor looks great! Did you put the sink unit back in? How did the mounting holes through the metal bulkhead line up? I've always wondered what issues will pop up since we typically can only find standard thickness ply. When I did the wood panels, I used 1/8" ply which is a bit thicker than the originals (3mm?), it fit, but was tight in some spots.

Did you treat the plywood layers with anything? I used a wood sealer, just for kicks. I have kids, so there WILL be spills. Happy bussing!

Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:28 pm

Jumping on here a little late, but if you want to use 5'x5' plywood sheets in metric thicknesses, here is a link to a company that sells Russian Birch 5x5 sheets in varying thicknesses.

http://www.plywoodcompany.com/MainSite/Store1/StoreProducts/ProductList/1297

Tue Sep 26, 2017 2:04 pm

ewdb92 wrote: lintbrush wrote: Yep Erik. I used 1/8" too cut from 4'x8' sheet so had 2 pieces. Of course I found 5'x5' plywood in both 1/8" and 1/4" right after I glued down my vinyl flooring. Like you said 1/8" works fine as long as you have the proper support pieces under it. I too had the small pieces you mention in the back to help support/shim it to the rest of the underpayment. Thx.

Your floor looks great! Did you put the sink unit back in? How did the mounting holes through the metal bulkhead line up? I've always wondered what issues will pop up since we typically can only find standard thickness ply. When I did the wood panels, I used 1/8" ply which is a bit thicker than the originals (3mm?), it fit, but was tight in some spots.

Did you treat the plywood layers with anything? I used a wood sealer, just for kicks. I have kids, so there WILL be spills. Happy bussing!

Sorry Erik, missed this first time around. I didn't have any alignment issues. I treated the first layer of plywood with a poly (both sides) just in case. I'm hoping water doesn't come up as I replaced the rubber plugs all around and made sure I sealed the area under the sink with homemade rubber gaskets.

Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:48 pm

lintbrush wrote: ewdb92 wrote: lintbrush wrote: Yep Erik. I used 1/8" too cut from 4'x8' sheet so had 2 pieces. Of course I found 5'x5' plywood in both 1/8" and 1/4" right after I glued down my vinyl flooring. Like you said 1/8" works fine as long as you have the proper support pieces under it. I too had the small pieces you mention in the back to help support/shim it to the rest of the underpayment. Thx.

Your floor looks great! Did you put the sink unit back in? How did the mounting holes through the metal bulkhead line up? I've always wondered what issues will pop up since we typically can only find standard thickness ply. When I did the wood panels, I used 1/8" ply which is a bit thicker than the originals (3mm?), it fit, but was tight in some spots.

Did you treat the plywood layers with anything? I used a wood sealer, just for kicks. I have kids, so there WILL be spills. Happy bussing!

Sorry Erik, missed this first time around. I didn't have any alignment issues. I treated the first layer of plywood with a poly (both sides) just in case. I'm hoping water doesn't come up as I replaced the rubber plugs all around and made sure I sealed the area under the sink with homemade rubber gaskets.

No worries. I did the homemade sealing around the drain pipe. Seems to have held up just fine. I'm sure it's mostly protecting from road spray anyway.

Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:07 pm

txjake wrote: Jumping on here a little late, but if you want to use 5'x5' plywood sheets in metric thicknesses, here is a link to a company that sells Russian Birch 5x5 sheets in varying thicknesses.

http://www.plywoodcompany.com/MainSite/Store1/StoreProducts/ProductList/1297
I contacted them to get a quote on shipping costs and they replied that the pieces were too large to ship and if they could be "cut down". That rules them out unless you are local to them. I think they are in Texas.

Mon Oct 09, 2017 1:04 pm

Nice work on the bus! Thanks for the pictures and plywood info you posted, should be very helpful for me in the very near future..