How to Install Vancillary Ford Transit Headliner Shelf

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A headliner shelf in our opinion is a must have when traveling in your campervan full-time. The factory headliner shelf isn’t very practical and leaves a ton of open space wasted. We decided the best way to maximize and utilize this open space is to install a headliner shelf above the factory one.

As a disclaimer, this is not a sponsored post, but we do have a coupon code for you. Use code: JJ10 for 10% off your order!

The Vancillary Ford Transit DIY Kit was purchased with our own money. At first, we thought $120 was a bit steep for brackets, bolts, and a paper template, but going this route saved us so much time and stress which made it well worth it. The brackets are sturdy and fit perfectly. When self converting a campervan you run into enough problems and obstacles as is, so why make things harder than it needs to be? Here’s how we did it.

Table of Contents

Trace and cut the template for the headliner shelf

Supplies Needed:

The DIY Kit comes with a template for the headliner shelf and lip. The first thing you will need to do is trace the template of the headliner shelf on a sheet of plywood of your choosing. We chose 1/2 inch birch plywood.

Photo Cred: Vancillary.com - Photo of headliner template — Photo Cred: www.vancillary.com

After the template is traced, cut it out using a jigsaw and give it a light sand. We decided to test fit the shelf to get an idea of what it will look like and to ensure it fits.

Prepare the headliner shelf for install

Now, on to finishing the shelf…

Supplies Needed

This step is ultimately up to how you would like the shelf to look. You can paint it, stain it, or wrap it in fabric like we did. We found an aged faux leather fabric at Joann’s. Pro-tip they always have coupons available on their mobile app. We used one of those coupons to get our fabric 1/2 off!

Start by laying the side that is seen down on to the fabric. Next, begin to staple down the side with a curve since this is not to be seen.

To get a clean fold and get the fabric to lay flat, make sure to cut away any excess fabric. Secure the fabric to the plywood with 3M High Strength Contact Adhesive. Spray it, let it get tacky, then apply the fabric. Be sure to to smooth out any lumps and keep the fabric as tight as you can. Doing this will help prevent the fabric from sagging down the road. Once this side is complete, flip the shelf over and repeat the steps above for applying the fabric.

Attaching the shelf lip

Supplies Needed

The Vancillary DIY Kit comes with a template for a lip that is about 2 inches or so. The height of the lip was too short for our liking so we decided to replace this part with a 1in. X 4in. piece of wood that we stained. If you don’t want to DIY your own option you can simply glue or nail gun the template cut wood to the front of your shelf with the finish of your choosing. We placed 2x2in. supporting blocks behind the 1x4in. lip to help secure it to the shelf. See below.

Installing the headliner shelf

Supplies Needed

The first step is to install the provided brackets. To do so, you must remove the existing screws from the factory shelf.

Next, slip the bracket in and loosely screw back in the factory screws. Repeat these steps for the bracket on the other side.

Now that you have your brackets installed, carefully place the headliner shelf on top of the brackets. Ensure the shelf is positioned to your liking then mark holes through the bracket and onto the shelf. Next, drill the pilot holes and place the shelf back on the brackets.

Align the holes on the headliner shelf with the holes of the bracket. Fully secure the factory screws in, then use the Vancillary provided bolts to secure the shelf to the brackets. The bolt closest to the back is very tricky and you will need some sort of right angle tool to properly tighten this. Tighten the bolts on each side and your installation is complete!