I’ve been working on the van a little less this week, but on the plus side I’ve been kiting and climbing a lot more. We had a west wind most of the week so I got two good days of kiting at Dog Beach. It would have been three, but I had to call a mulligan on the first day because I had some issues with my lines and then lost the beach when the tide came in. There were a bunch of people still kiting at Nahant, but I was afraid of being blown out to sea and drown. A reasonable fear in an off-shore wind.
That being said, I still managed to finish putting up the first layer of insulation in the van. Because the exterior of the van is essentially a metal drum, the van is quite loud inside when driving. All of the walls vibrate like a diaphragm and the sound can be quite deafening. To counter this effect, I installed FatMat RattleTrap Extreme. The FatMat is basically tar paper. It’s about an 1/8″ thick and sticky on one side. I cut strips of this stuff and rolled it onto all of the large flat surfaces in the inside of the van. This gives some mass to the flimsy panels and dampens vibrations. Seems to make sense. I decided not to put any on the floor because it’s ribbed (not paneled) and doesn’t vibrate the same way as the walls. I have seen some people coat every surface with sound deadening material, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.
The ceiling.
The rear doors.
Phew! That was hard work. Time for an ice cream on the beach.
