Minty's been on the road for a few years now and I've been sorting out small problems, chasing down squeeks, leaks and EEK's! I've decided to do the interior myself and came up with something fun to make.

I started with applying two layers of sound absorbing material on the body shell, including the floor. I also did a layer on the underside of the floor for good measure.



Then I did a few layers of light, "air bubble" insulation.




Now I've decided to line the interior in used wine corks. I've felt an obligation to Minty to increase my wine consumption (after all I'll need about 3000 corks) and beg used corks from friends and neighbors.




I've built up the side walls with layers of insulation and contact cement until it's flush with the "ribs."




And then hot glue the corks directly onto the insulation, taking care to expose any name or graphics on the corks. It's not real fancy looking but it is interesting just sitting there reading all the vinyard names.

I've gotta tell ya, that contact cement will get ya high! LOL Gotta keep those windows down until fumes are gone.

 

Looks like your having fun lol . But with the amount of wine needed I'm not sure it falls into the budget catagory .

 

All that cork should give you some additional insulation and noise control.


Thumbs up and happy uncorking!


Bobby

 

You may have some 'splaining to do with the first whiff an officer might get. Enjoy the ride.

 

Good job Dirt Boy!

That should eliminate the "whining" noises and provide heat protection as well.

Looks labour intensive but the results should offset the work.

 

Greetings! Using corks like you are is somethings I would never have thought of. Wanting to control the noise level in a Panel truck is something I can certainly relate to, however. I completely missed the threads on the restoration of your truck. I'll have to go back and catch up. From what I see in your current thread, it looks like you have a really great truck. I'll be interested in how your noise suppression efforts turn out. Thanks for sharing.

Jim

 

It may be a bit after the fact, but did you think of cutting the corks in half, affixing panels between the ribs, and then gluing half corks to the panels? It would hide any of the visible insulation, create easy access panels, and cut down on the overall number of corks, unless you need an excuse to drink that much wine.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm hoping the multi layers of insulation plus the insulating properties of cork should help both with both sound and temp. Also, the "wrinkled" surface should defuse even more sound.

I'm estimating 3,000 corks to do the whole job. I've found a source of used corks (Amazon of corse,) 500 for $70. I was happy with the first batch, some cool vineyard names and graphics. I had about a hundred corks I've been saving and friends have donated about a hundred, to date.

I did consider cutting the corks in half, and they are available pre-cut on Amazon. Have you ever tried to cut a cork lengthwise? PITA LOL And dangerous without the right equipment. So I decided to go with what I had; whole corks. Now that I'm into the project I've thought of several ways I could have done things just a little better but I could always go back and correct later. It would be pretty easy to repair/replace any part of this piecemeal.

I guess I should post the story of rebuilding Minty; 8 years, suitcases full of money, tears, LOL. Now that she's on the road and getting sorted the tears have turned to smiles. Not only my smiles but the reaction from strangers. The thumbs up's, huge smiles, the one guy who stopped to tell me he'd rather have Minty than a Ferrari! LOL I have hundreds of pictures ..... some day.

 

Do post some pictures for us late comers. The pictures in your older restoration threads are not accessible anymore.

Jim

 

I like it. I think it's fun. We need more fun!

 

I've made a few changes along the way but I'm really happy with the way it's turning out. At first I was gluing the wine corks directly to the silver insulation but I wasn't happy with the way the silver was showing around the edges so I got a thin sheet of cork and started gluing that on first, then the wine corks onto that; worked great but now I've got to go back and redo the first sections.




I was going to cover the whole interior in wine corks but I found sheets of half inch thick cork and decided to use that as a headliner instead. I'm using contact cement and I wanted to put the cork up in whole sections, this proved difficult as I'm working alone. I deliberated days about how I was going to line it up perfectly and apply the glue without moving anything. Then I ran through several dry runs before actually gluing it down (or up in this case LOL.) It worked!!!



Looks good and insulates well. It doesn't cover the whole area so I'm doing several rows of wine corks along the sides to fill in the blank.


I've also put LED lighting (on a rheostat) down each side of the roof.


Two of the three headliner sections are done with zero waste, all I had to do was cut the cork sheet roughly in half.

Very happy with the noise and temp reduction. Next I'll be addressing the noise and heat coming from the floorboards and firewall areas. I've just heard of a product called "Roadkill" and I'm told it's the best sound deadener available. Anyone used this stuff?

I took Minty to a motorcycle event two weeks ago, camped out for three nights and got lots of positive feedback.

 

That's a beautiful green. Was that it's original color? Larry

 

I don't remember seeing the exterior of your panel truck. Very very nice! I like it. I went to your album to see more pictures.

If you had a vintage tent that pic would look like it was taken in the 50's.

 

I too went back to your album. It is an original color. Love it! Larry

 

I love it!! What a sweet truck!!