Starting to get a little chilly out...Gettin' to be camping & hiking
weather!!! : )

The interior is now basically complete in Suzy's van. In a future (HUGE)
posting I will share all of the secrets of soundproofing, rustproofing and
thermal insulating. For now, check these unbeleivable stats. Suzy's van now
includes:

Five packages of Evercoat "Q-Pads", (adhesive 1/4" thick asphalt/rubber
sound-killer pads
A fifty foot roll of 3M "Sound Deadener" (similar to above)
An entire roll of R-13 fiberglass insulation
A can of 3M Rust Preventative (like Waxoil)
Four cans of polyurethane expansion foam sealant
Four gallons of "Kool Patch" undercoating
Two rolls of JCWhitney's "Sound and Heat Insulation used by NASA"
A roll of Fiber-tech Fiberglass/silica exhaust wrap heat shield insulation
Eight yards of 4-mil plastic
A "Dual Trumpet" 135 db air horn, (okay, that's actually OUTSIDE the van)
11 yards of 1/2" multi-fiber sound absorbing upholstery padding (similar to
NASA stuff but no aluminum foil facing)
Eight yards of "chip-foam" carpet padding
12 yards of upholstery cloth
11 yards of curtain material
Five cans of contact adhesive
1,250 staple-gun staples
11 luggage anchors
30 large sheet metal screws
Six yards of industrial "berber" carpeting
12 ounces of clear silicone sealant
Two yards of 3" thick foam padding

The neat thing: now that the panels and carpeting are back in, You can't see
any of the "stuff" that makes this van SOOOOO Quiet. Inside, it looks like a
nicely upholstered bus with a double-hinged bed folded up in the lugage space
behind the rear seat. From the outside, it just looks like a '76
school-bus-yellow Transporter with a beautiful, tall, young babe driving;
hands-off, that's my Suzanne! : )

I am not joking when I say the only "noise" in the van is the air coming in
through the vents at highway speed. Even the DPO's Yokahama-S-701's are
quietly cooperating; road noise is nil.  (We have Y-370's on order at S-ears)
Wind noise is acceptable. Body reverb and noise transfer on the highway is
nil. At 70mph you can talk in a conversational tone! Any noise that makes its
way into the van is quickly quelled by the sound-absorbing padding lurking
behind the upholstery cloth. Pretty sneaky, eh?

Instead of the sliding door reverberating all of the van's sheet metal for 5
seconds on closing: sounding like
"roooor-aaarrrrr-cladd-ddunkk-ahh-chack-aaaaaannnng", it now rolls silently
to a "cludunk". Prior to this interior work, it sounded like we had a
sheet-metal pounding factory AND an air compressor running inside the van. You
 can still hear the motor, but only as a distant, faint, low burble.This will
be very nice for highway motoring, and that was the goal.

We still have a 128 quart cooler (will take the place of the back seat), side
tent, and window tint to engineer/install, and some mechanicals to do before
our 5-week tour of the USA & Mex in Oct./Nov. Getting VERY excited. Will keep
you posted.

hear no evil, speak no evil,

gmbulley
fairfax, va