Passenger van rear floor material and plugging holes

J

jbm-sd

Member
I have a 2016 Passenger van, and it comes with a corrugated plastic floor, rather than the plywood floor of the crew and cargo vans. I plan to remove the rear-most seat brackets, and I want to make plugs for those bracket holes in the floor, and incorporate some kind of recessed cargo anchors or something similar.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what kind of material the OEM floor is, and what I could use as a plug material and how to bond it. I just need the bond to be strong enough to maintain the plug in place, any loads would be transferred through it to the sheet metal floor. I plan to adhere coin flooring over the whole thing, so appearance is not an issue either.

Thanks!
 
gltrimble

gltrimble

2017 170 4x4
It will be difficult to get a strong bond on the plugs unless you raise the floor and laminate the backside of the plugs. That is what I did. The factory composite floor is only 3/8” thick.

I raised the floor 1/2” and reinforced critical areas with 1/2” Baltic ply. This also allows you to install surface mount L-Track which is 1/2” deep. The remainder of my floor was filled with poly iso insulation.









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Last edited:
J

jbm-sd

Member
My floor material is a bit different, a kind of corrugated polymer. But I agree, I'll probably need to add some height around the openings to provide 3 dimensions of bonding/support.

I'm just trying to figure out what will make a good bond with the floor material.
 
gltrimble

gltrimble

2017 170 4x4
My floor is the OEM 2016 crew van floor with a corrugated finish. Could be some type of wood/plastic/epoxy composite. 3/8” thick, and dense material.


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K

kcshoots

VanTripping.com
You can fill it with wooden plugs to match the holes and glue those in. You may not even need glue if a tight fit and a solid surface flooring over it will bond all of the plugs to the main floor. I have a set of Hein's wooden floor plugs if you want them, as I couldn't use them as I had originally planned.
 
gltrimble

gltrimble

2017 170 4x4
jbm-sd said:
This is what the floor in a passenger van looks like. Since I don’t know the material, I’m having trouble selecting an adhesive/filler.
Click to expand...



Definitely plastic. First time I have seen a floor like this on a Sprinter. Does it compress easily under weight? Perhaps Mercedes assumes no significant cargo in a passenger van?


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GSWatson

GSWatson

2013 144
kcshoots said:
You can fill it with wooden plugs to match the holes and glue those in. You may not even need glue if a tight fit and a solid surface flooring over it will bond all of the plugs to the main floor. I have a set of Hein's wooden floor plugs if you want them, as I couldn't use them as I had originally planned.
Click to expand...


I’d be interested in the plugs; my project has the wood floor and we’re using cork on top.


Greg
 
sprinterPaul

sprinterPaul

Well-known member
gltrimble said:
Definitely plastic. First time I have seen a floor like this on a Sprinter. Does it compress easily under weight? Perhaps Mercedes assumes no significant cargo in a passenger van?


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Click to expand...


It's on all the passenger vans.


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M

mike183

Member
gltrimble said:
It will be difficult to get a strong bond on the plugs unless you raise the floor and laminate the backside of the plugs. That is what I did. The factory composite floor is only 3/8” thick.

I raised the floor 1/2” and reinforced critical areas with 1/2” Baltic ply. This also allows you to install surface mount L-Track which is 1/2” deep. The remainder of my floor was filled with poly iso insulation.









Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Just found this thread searching for factory floor reuse options. I just bought a 2019 144 crew van and its got the factory plastic/ ply floor composite material. I think I am going to reuse it after I lay down some mini cell foam under and then do a rubber coin floor over it in the garage area. Not sure I want an added layer of ply under the factory floor like you did for height reasons. How has this set up been working for you a year later?
 
gltrimble

gltrimble

2017 170 4x4
My flooring has worked out great and I would do it again the same way. I had to add the 1/2” ply under the factory floor in order to provide enough depth to install the recessed L-Track. The added 1/2” also allowed me to extend the floor over the slider step for my galley. And it provided for space for some added insulation. More details of my flooring install are on my build thread including installation of my Loncoin vinyl flooring and boat carpeting.
 
M

mike183

Member
gltrimble said:
My flooring has worked out great and I would do it again the same way. I had to add the 1/2” ply under the factory floor in order to provide enough depth to install the recessed L-Track. The added 1/2” also allowed me to extend the floor over the slider step for my galley. And it provided for space for some added insulation. More details of my flooring install are on my build thread including installation of my Loncoin vinyl flooring and boat carpeting.
Click to expand...

reading through your build thread now. Not as much detail on the floor build as the other parts. Why did you put the factory floor back on top of the ply wood? Why not just leave it with the ply and then vinyl on top? I am thinking this causes a height issue for some
 
J

johnc711

New member
Is there some issue other than filling the seat platform holes for not simply using the factory V39 option above and nothing else? I assume it doesn't need an additional vapor barrier and from my experience driving it's pretty quiet. Could maybe put down some lizard skin or something adhesive based vs spray; and then use the V39 and cover with material of choice?
 
hein

hein

Van Guru
We CNC filler plugs for the wood floor. My guess is that the corrugated plastic floor is likely to be polypropylene. The best adhesives for polypropylene are speciality hot melts.

All the best,
Hein
DIYvan
 
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