Hello again guys, this is my new favorite forum of the month!

I'm converting my econoline to a track bike hauler (motorcycle racing), and one of the things i want to do is improve the interior while making it a little quieter.

Any suggestions for panelling / insulation / or other things I can do to the walls and roof to clean it up and make it quieter?

I don't need to install shelving, but pannelling of some kind appeals to me.

Panneling (like peg board) that I could hang things off of might be something I'm interested in.

 

Get some masonite and some R-13 or R-16 fiberglass house insulation. Stuff the insulation in every nook and cranny you can, then use the masonite (or luan, or 1/4 inch finish grade ply) to cover it. It'll look nice and be a lot better insulated. We've done that to two of them. One was an '83 E350 15 pass that needed some help, and the other was an '04 E150 cargo, it helps a lot with road noise and the hvac system.

 

That sounds like a great idea. Thanks!

 

Check out JC Whitney they have some sound dampening materials as well. you might also install a full length cargo liner. we use ours for camping in the desert while quad riding and that cargo liner really comes in handy. and a lot easier for removing dirt, dust and spills.

 

What is a cargo liner?

 

It's a rubber mat like a truck bed mat, but it's designed for the van.

 

One more thought to the idea of finishing interior van walls: If you are in an area where road salt is used, you may want to have your van's body oil-sprayed for rust prevention. I was getting a quote from an oil-spray place recently, and they mentioned that it would be easy to spray into my E-350 hollow wall cavities, because the interior of my van, is the factory bare-bones version. They also commented on the difficulty that they sometimes encounter in vans with completely finished interiors. Their suggestion for people who plan to cover their walls, is to panel the interior in a way that would still allow access to the bottom of the walls, via removable panels. Then when it's time to oil-spray, they can reach the areas where they want to go.

 

Why would one oil spray the interior panel cavities. It seems resonable to expect that if a body panel was going to rust it would rust from the outside. By the time the rust spoy reached the interior oil spray it would be too late.

 

In answer to your query: "Why would one oil spray the interior panel cavities. It seems resonable to expect that if a [font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]body [/font][font=verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif]panel[/font][/font] was going to rust it would rust from the outside. By the time the rust spoy reached the interior oil spray it would be too late."

On my 2003 E350 van in particular, when you look into the interior / lower sidewall areas, the rust is clearly underway. If you look at the exterior of my van, there is no rust visible... yet. My experience with rust has been that it nearly always begins on the underside of the metal. By the time you see rust appearing on the painted surface, the corrosion is well underway, and is working it's way through the metal from below. The only way that I know of to arrest the process, is to keep oil on the hidden metal. Particularly in areas where roads are salted in the winter, and the vehicles are driven through salt-laced slush.
Vehicles owners from hot southern states, have a natural defence. Because it is consistently warm, condensation is less likely to form on the interior of body-cavities which cannot been seen, such as sills, interior fenders and double-walled areas. The other benefit of living in a warm climate, is that road salt is not used, and as a result it greatly reduces the electrolyitic action that occurs when wet metal is exposed to salt.

 

For a bike hauler I would install a rollbar behind the front seats, then put a partition (got mine from the junkyard for only $25!) behind the rollbar on the storage side. Then form thin aluminum panels for the lower half and bolt them on. On the back of the panel I would put sound deaden material/sheets and fiberglass bats glued to the van sides over which you put the panel. Then I would bedliner the whole thing with duraliner that is fire retardant.

I would use the seat tiedown holes to put in big D rings for tiedowns that screwed/bolted into the holes and use the 2nd row ones for a sturdy bump stop with vertical bars to fit the front tires through.

I would put a moonroof or something between the front two seats.

Wheel well tool boxes in the very back, but, leave enough room to change bulbs and relays.

 

great ideas, thanks!

 

I put 1 inch thick strips of wood across the back of the van floor every 16 inches or so and put 1 inch think fiber glass in between. Then covered with 3/4 inch plywood. Made a nice floor and helped with noise reduction and AC (when I had it) insulation.

 

You are welcome. I went to the junkyard and picked up spare seat bolts for my projects since most places do not carry the fine threads in that size. Only drawback is the torx heads.

 

I used 1/2 inch plywood (as it was free from a friend) and put bolts up from below held in place with nuts up top, but long enough to bolt bike shoes to to hold my off road bikes. I also put some tie down cleats in the back and in the side door well. All with backing plates, of course.

Here is a pic of a bike shoe, as well as some entertaining ideas for finishing the inside of your van....

http://www.crazyted.us/trailer.html#ATK_Bike_Shoe

I also put these on the walls:

http://www.ancra-llc.com/consumer/literature.asp

go to the truck/trailer pdf and look for part 40890-10, which is just little bit of a scroll down once the pdf is open. Best part about these is you can unplug them when you don't need them.

Last tip: I cut rectangle shaped holes in the plywood and screwed metal cake pans on the back side of the panel. These give me pockets in the walls to store tie downs, and other small items in the walls. You can use different depth pans depending on how much room you have between the panel and outside wall of the van.

 

i dont wanna snag a thread but i feel bad bout starting a thread that kinda related to this. Do they build the walls out , on conversion vans or does the sidewalls fit agaisnt the side of the van, i wanna strip the plastic panels out of my clubwagon and build new walls covered in velour. but not sure if they would fit right. also how can i deal with the wall and window frames? I like the conversionvan looks but i got this clubwagon not conversion LOL and i know i cant find sidewalls made for the clubs long windows. so its up to me. anyone make new sidewalls for their van?