Robin, even the 84 models here have the yellowish pads below the
carpeting, from front to back.

Somewhere around 88 VW changed the rubber front door seals to a much
quieter design. The difference is apparent just looking at the front
edges of the doors from the outside.

Mark

Robin Oomkes wrote:

> Reinhard,
>
> what I've noticed from all the Westies I've had (I'm now on my 4th, all
> diesels/turbodiesels) is that the '84 and '86 were MUCH louder than
> the '88
> and '90. Don't know if that applies to US vehicles, too. Could be that in
> Europe, VW used more utilitarian Transporter versions with less
> soundproofing for Westy conversions earlier on.
>
> I haven't compared side by side but my current '88 (and my previous '90)
> have massive sound deadening layers under the carpet in the front. It
> is a
> yellowish, fiber-like material (don't properly know how to describe
> it) of
> close to an inch thick. The difference I perceive is that wind noise is
> somewhat less (possibly because the insulating material also sits against
> the front bulkhead) and road/tire/engine growl is a lot less than in the
> '84/'86.
>
> Maybe you can get hold of the underfloor insulating mat of a post '86
> vanagon?