65 Caravel upper cabinet doors made of?

[ghageysh]

The PO stripped whatever was originally on the upper cabinet doors and covered them in contact paper. Does anyone know what was on the doors? Was it veneer or what looks like a kind of grasscloth?

[Bubba L]

From what I understand 1964 was the last year for Zolatone wall paint and 65 was the first year for the vinyl clad interior aluminum. I’ve read that the aluminum sheet manufacturer would clad the sheets with the vinyl at the factory and ship to Airstream. I haven’t seen a material that would match in texture, not that there isn’t one out there. We stripped our 66 walls of the vinyl due the state it was in and painted the walls with Zolatone. The headlocker doors were replaced using the original hardware and painted with Zolatone Flex to match the walls. Good luck

[dbj216]

My 66 Trade Wind had the vinyl laminated plywood coverings on the walls and cabinets. Mine was in decent shape and I left it. The vinyl was only on the overhead locker doors. The lower cabinets were just plywood. The International upmarket trim level had fancier woods. Mine was a base model Land Yacht.

David

[VetteGuy]

On my 66 caravel I noticed that some of the wood was peeling off the cabinet doors. This stuff can be bought at Home Depot in a huge 8 X 4 sheet to match the color exactly all I did was wipe some clear coat varnish on it and it lightly tinted the wood to match the rest of the cabinets although most of the cabinets are thicker I realize that many of the cabinets are pressed together with multiple pieces of wood I've been glued so roughly about 5 layers pressed by wood. The top lockers it's just grasscloth wallpaper you can get this anywhere

[ghageysh]

That's what I thought, in photos it looks like grasscloth. Thanks! I already have some of that wallpaper so I can use it on the overhead doors.

[jwschnettl]

My ‘65 Caravel is a “Land Yacht” trim level built in Jackson Center. It had Zolatone paint on the interior walls. The overhead cabinet doors were a 1/4 plywood covered in vinyl material with extruded aluminum lower edge trim and piano hinges on the upper edges. The frame material was beautiful mahogany wood stock. Given the scarcity of Central American mahogany today, it seems bizarre to see it matched with vinyl.
I remade all my cabinets using eastern black cherry (very common and affordable here in NE Ohio) for the frames and 1/4” and 1/2” marine grade Baltic birch. I stained the birch with a fruitwood oil based wiping stain to give it a nice honey color that complements the natural cherry which darkens over time to a beautiful medium dark brown that is not quite as dark as the original mahogany.

[Flostream66]

ghagaysh, I am in the process of restoring a 1966 Caravel '17. It still has the original, textured vinyl covering on the upper cabinets. I have submitted photographs of the cabinet coverings in the thread I started, to try to get some suggestions for re-gluing the panels on the inside of the upper cabinets. Perhaps these will be of help to you. Here's a link and the photos are entry #35: https://www.airforums.com/forums/f13...ml#post2408744

Happy to take more photos if that would be helpful to you. While grasscloth is beautiful, I would not recommend it for this application. It is intended for use where the moisture levels are low. The grasses tend to give out if subjected to a lot of moisture, such as above a kitchen area. I think the original textured vinyl gives the look and feel of grasscloth, but with the ability to wipe it down to clean [I used white vinegar and water on mine.]

You can find textured vinyls that might give you a similar look in most wall paper stores. Good luck!