Hey folks,
Let me start by saying God Bless Matthew Bulley.  I just finished doing some
soundproofing, inspired by his infamous "Heat, Rust, and Noise" web page.  It
works great.  The resounding klang when closing any door is now replaced by a
brief and quiet thump.

I wrote to the list a little while back about my body panel skins being loose
from the inner support frames.  This was causing a lot of noise - the panels
would vibrate freely, and would bounce off of the inner structure.  Closing
the doors made almost a 'gong' sound,   BWOOOONNG.  So I decided to quiet it all
down, Bulleyesque-style.

I used Great Stuff expanding foam to lock all the pieces together.  It is a
very sticky, and impossible to get off of stuff when it is cured.  Sounds like
polyurethane glue to me.  I sprayed a ton of it into the insides of the
frames, and entombed the outside of the frames and skins.  In fact, I put a layer of
it all across the skin.  It took a few cans, but it was on sale for $1.99 a
can, not too bad.  When this layer cured, it was solid as a rock.  When you tap
on the outside of the van, it has no metallic ring to it at all.  Just a
thump.  Nice -- no more vibrating.  On a few areas that weren't covered in foam, I
used some sound-dampening sheets to kill the sound there, too.

In addition to the foam and dampening sheets, I put a layer of fiberglass
insulation over it, taped it all in place, and put the panels back on.  It is
awesome.  I should note that my '85 GL 7-pass had NO insulation or soundproofing
in it.  The areas behind the interior panels were completely empty, unlike the
Westy's, so I was starting from scratch.

The sound of the sliding door closing is the best part.  It sounds like a new
car does, not like a big tin box.  The comparative difference was the real
indicator of how well I did.  After doing one section, I went outside the van
and tapped the insulated and non-insulated panels.  The sound difference was
pretty amazing, from pinging like a bell to a short thump.  Cool.  I've got a
couple more areas to finish, then I hope to road-test it soon.

A note to anyone doing this kind of stuff -- hit the low areas and seams on
the panel with some wax-oyl, krown, or other rustproofing stuff before you
start filling up the areas with insulation.

Bill Marshall
85 GL Tiico "Pandora's Box"
Aurora, IL