Back in the van this morning, first job was to fit the sound deadening and insulation to the tailgate now that the wiring has been done for the reversing camera.  I also finished insulating the sliding door and the rest of the near side panels. I followed the same approach as before, cutting the foam insulation to the size of the panel and then cutting it up into smaller pieces to fit it, before finishing it off with wedges of foam and duct tape.
The ThermaWrap was cut to size and taped on with duct tape, punching holes through for the panel clips. I changed the approach for the tailgate. As I'm going to be removing the panel in the future to allow for fitting the reversing camera, I decided to glue the ThermaWrap to the back of the ply panel, which I will then carpet, so the whole thing will come off as one piece. I'm going to carpet the tailgate too as I like the finish of the carpet, rather than leaving it painted with just the panel carpeted.
While finishing the insulating and looking at the two threaded inserts, I figured I'd need to add a pull handle as Han is only 5'4 and won't reach up to close the door without it.  I'm not sure when I'll get the part, so I just want to cut the ply panel in the meantime to accept the bolts to fit it when I do. I'll just carpet over it and cut the carpet when I get the part.  I just used a couple of strings to transpose the positions of the inserts to the ply panel and cut the holes out. Job done and ready for tomorrow.

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.