Removing wallpaper

[John Merchant]

Recently bought an 88 Champion, and it has a poorly done, aftermarket, wallpaper applied over the factory panelling. Some of this has already been peeled away, and I've managed to peel some more, but there are strands and remnants of the wallpaper that looks like it's going to require something more. The junk looks like maybe peel & stick shelf lining paper, not real wallpaper.

Question to anybody who's gone through this or is knowledgeable: Is the "textured" surface of the original paneling likely to suffer if I use a steamer to remove the rest of the sorry junk wallpaper? Is that textured surface cloth, plastic or paper? And has anybody found any better way to remove such?

Also what's the best way to clean the dirty wall paneling?

[Tracy]

I wouldn't recommend steaming, or really anything. There are products out there that remove wallpaper, i.e. DIF and a Paper Tiger - available at Home Depot. But these will remove the factory wall paper too. Then you have bare gypsum, and thats not a real good place to be. Probably your best bet is to tape and texture the whole ting, or buy texture paint. Peel off as much wall paper as you can, and then decide how you want to hide the differences in texture. Remember, test an area, you may need to prinme your walls before you paint.

Tracy

[Jill Cavitt]

You can texyure the walls right over the paneling and get rid of the strips

[marilyn]

If the paneling beneath it is wood,usually you can use warm soapy water with a little bit of alcohol or a small amount of acetone on soft scrubby scotch brite pad to remove the glue.
To clean dirty wood paneling I use my own mixture of the following:
Murphy's Oil Soap,MR.Clean (lemon variety),a small amount(1/4 cup)of household ammonia,and Dawn Dishwashing liquid in a bucket of very warm water,use a soft cloth (watch out for small splinters!), and rinse with a clean cloth in plain water,and wipe dry with an old towel.I also sometimes put the mixture in a spray bottle if it is a very small area.