Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Upholstery and Interior mods Best Overall Thermal, Moisture, and Noise Insulators

It's been brought up a million times, whats once more..

After I get the service up to date on my 1985 G20, I am going to be starting on the interior.. First things first, I want to make absolutely positive that it stays rust free. After that, I want to quiet it down and keep the temperatures reasonable.

I have read a million different threads on here about which products to use for each issue (moisture, noise, temp), but I'd like to discuss which items work the best (money is not the primary concern), and which ones work best with each other.

From what I can gather, the best thermal barrier to use that is least prone to condensation and causing rust is reflectix. Some of the threads say to put it directly on the walls (glue?), while others mention mounting it to the interior framing and creating an air gap. I'm a little lost as to which is better. Also read that it doesn't insulate noise that well, so I've thought about using a dynamat type material on the walls and reflectix in the framing.. But then I have heard some horror stories about dynamat rusting underneath, and the number 1 priority is to prevent rust..

Also, the floor, I was kind of leaning toward reflectix underneath marine grade plywood, but then should I use some sort of spacers underneath the wood to keep some sort of air gap and to let any moisture evaporate? What about the weight of everything crushing the bubbles in the reflectix.

Am I way overthinking all of this? I just it to be comfy and quiet and not rust out in several years.

For heat, use Reflectix on the back of the interior walls with an air gap between the Reflectix and the outer skin of the van.

For noise, I recommend browsing this website: http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com

If you have the money, a spray on product such as Lizard Skin will do both sound and heat.

For rust, POR-15 is a very highly regarded product, as is Ospho.

The determining factor here is the amount of money you have to spend on this. If you have unlimited funds, strip the van to a shell and get the entire interior sprayed with something like Lizardskin. Then install some sound deadening products from sounddeadenershowdown, then build the interior and put Reflectix on the back of the interior panels.

Wow! http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com is quite the goldmine! Lots of neat info there. I'll keep them in mind when I start in on mine.

On my panel truck, for the hot rod power tour, I used the following on roof and sides: 1) bare panel, 2) GT mat sound deadener from EBAY, 3) 3/4" foil-backed styrofoam, 4) reflectix, 5) Masonite board to hold it all in. I tried to cut the styrofoam big enough to friction fit; this was so I didn't have to use glue. It is held in tight by being compressed a little with the Masonite screwed to bracing, "ribs". It made a huge improvement in both sound and insulation.

Not that I'm advising using it, as I'm sure there are way better products out now...
BUT the most rust free parts of my van when I stripped it was the inside of the panels where the "pink panther" insulation had been glued on. I think the conversion company used so much spray glue that it formed an impenetrable barrier to moisture. It looked like crap but underneath the old spray glue (which looks kinda like rust and filled me with dread when I removed the panelling) the paint was like new.
So maybe the answer is to buy a huge barrell of spray glue and get crazy!!!!!

Highly recommend SecondSkin for sound deadening, http://store.secondskinaudio.com/ gutted the inside and applied 10 gallons to roof, walls, floor, door panels and inside doors as far as I could reach. Amazing how quiet it is now. The more you apply the quieter it gets. Used an under coating gun to spray in the tight spots and rollered the big areas. Its pretty touch coating I would assume it will help protect the metal. I put roll on bedliner as a top coat on the floor to help protect it. Packed the walls, doors and ceiling with R-13 pink panther now it's quiet like a luxury car.



I can now run my A/C on low when it's 110 degress and the whole van stays cool. A lot of work but well worth it.

thanks for the info. good to know that it works.

Which product from SecondSkin did you use exactly? Sounds neat

Used the spectrum noise and vibration coating