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If you want an easy makeover for those exquisite wood panels in the back of your van, here's a quick and easy do-over: *Purchase a quart of pickup bedliner paint, in your choice of color (mostly you will find black). Try not to notice how much it costs. Some Nitrile gloves will spare your hands. I chose a water-based Polyurathane material which was dry to the touch in an hour or so, and had minimal fumes. *Remove the panels. The fasteners come out very easily by prying from both the tiny slots at the same time with two small screwdriver blades. Don't lose or damage them. * Use a sanding block with some rough sandpaper (80 grit is good) to roughen up the smooth front surfaces. This will make dust. I suggest you have plenty of old newspaper on hand. It doesn't take much sanding. Just enough to get the shine down. *Stir your paint thoroughly. It will have goop that has settled. Use the worst brush you can find. The more frayed and splayed the better. No primer or undercoat will be needed. Place your panels on newspaper with each one supported above the paper on something like wood scraps. This will keep the panels from sticking to the paper as they dry. *I found the easiest method was to scoop a bunch of paint material out of the can with my wide stir stick and drop and dribble it onto the wood panels. On the two large ones only do about a quarter of the area at a time. Now take your splayed brush and STIPPLE the paint around until it evenly covers the area. DON'T BRUSH. Use a dab-and-jab method (Think of Bob Ross doing his Chik - Chik - Chik technique to add trees to his bad landscape paintings). You are essentially distributing the goopy material around to get an even coverage of sorts. The more you stipple, the more even the texture. I wanted a rough finish so I didn't stipple too much. If you were smart enough to by the gloves you can handle the panels to get some paint on the edges without worrying about the mess. You can go back right away and touch up any spots that show bare wood. * I let my panels dry overnight before re-installing them. When re-installing the panel clips, pull the center post almost completely out of the clip before attempting to push them back into the holes. Hold the panel up and pop in a clip. If you do it right it will easily go right back into the hole. You follow up by firmly pushing the pin all the way down until flush. *I spent less than two hours on this project. The reason I chose the bedliner paint was because I wanted some texture, a durable surface that can easily be touched up, and ease of application without having to use primer. I feel like a much classier guy now whenever I look into the rear of my van. My next project is to fit Alupanel Aluminum material over the ugly metal sidewalls - and then perhaps an insulating headliner.

Has anyone mounted the turbocharger from a 1.6L Ecoboost engine onto the 2.5L engine in the wagon model? I'm not knowledgeable about this topic so please forgive the question if the answer is obvious. Thanks!

Hello, we want to utilize the barn doors (Transit Connect Wagon LWB) for storage. We removed the panels and found them to be hollow. Does anyone know of a company that sells a kit to convert this into storage space?

Cargo net attachments?

Hello tcconvert. Why are you spending your time on trying to resolve your noise issue? You have a brand new Transit Connect. Bring it back to the dealer. The noise happens every time the van moves, so you will not get a "no problem found" from the service department.