It's a family affair..

by Unknown December 19, 2015 0 comments Cleaning Conversion Sound Deadening

This project is a family affair, so with the kids all given a different part of the van to clean, it only took about three hours. We went through three buckets of soapy water and a whole heap of sugar soap to get all the dirt and dust off the walls and floor. We also had to empty the hoover out twice! I'm not sure this van has ever been cleaned on the inside! Anyhow, it all got done, even though the photo of the floor doesn't look that much better than before! The key is to get rid of all of the dust and grease, especially in the lower panels, as the Silent Coat is adhesive based and won't stick if the panel isn't clean.

 With the cleaning done and after a spot of lunch we broke open the pack of Silent Coat and got started on the sound deadening. The theory is that the panels in the van reverberate when driving and the noise echoes and bounces around inside the van when you're driving. As a work van and with a bulkhead, this isn't as much of an issue, but after my drive across Scotland yesterday, I can attest to the fact it's noisy - very noisy. The sound deadening simply adds mass to the panels so they don't reverberate. To test this, after application, from the outside, knock on a panel with the Silent Coat applied and one without. The one without pings, the one with thuds (in a good way!). This stuff goes on really easily, albeit slowly when you're being helped by a four year old. I'd definitely recommend getting a roller to apply it though, especially when it comes to the detailing on the wheel arch and when you're getting it down into the lower panels where there isn't much space. I found the easiest way to cover the wheel arch was to apply two full sheets, then cut out shapes to fill in the gaps. It takes about three in total, although apparently when applying this stuff, you get the most effect from the first 30% and after that it only adds a small bit extra. My thinking was that, the more sound deadening the better (it was really noisy) and also the fact that it is foil backed must help, in a small way, when it comes to insulation, so I covered about 95% of the surface, reaching as far down as I could into the panels. The hardest part was getting it up into the pillars, just above the inspection light in my photos, but all in all, a really satisfying and straightforward job.