Fourth Saturday No. 6.
I haven't blogged about our Fourth Saturdays for a bit. Since finished up No. 3, our projects have been smaller. Random. This month is part big project (read: our van) part small project.
After getting our van back on the road after an issue with the transmission, we wasted no time getting back to work. Next step: soundproofing. After a fair amount of research, we ended up going with 75 square feet of Rattletrap. I had read 50 square feet should cover a regular wheelbase van. We bought some extra for our other vehicles. Time to stick it to the walls.
Oh, but before I get ahead of myself, there's the issue of the seat. Once we picked up the van from the shop and got back to K's parents, Scott and I attempted to install it. There are two brackets: a short one and a long one. We quickly drilled the holes and bolted in the short one.
The long one, closest to the driver's side van wall, is a different beast. Two issues:
- It mounts directly above the fuel tank which needs to be dropped to the ground.
- It lines up directly over a longitudinal framing member that runs the length of the van
Not cool times two. We knew about the fuel tank. The trouble is this freaking van gets something like 25mpg and it has a 26-gallon tank. We've driven it 550 miles and it still has a quarter tank left. It needs to be empty because we'll have to disconnect the fuel intake. The framing member is almost more of a pain. Once we finally run this thing out of diesel and are able to drop the tank, my plan is to drill through the floor and framing joist with a long 1/4" bit. Then back up through the joist with a 1-3/8" hole saw. That should give me enough room to fit the 17mm socket up through that hole to tighten it down on the bolt holding the bracket to the floor above.
We'll see how it goes.
Back to soundproofing. Before we began sticking it to the walls, I took the van out for a spin. We have to burn some fuel, after all. I brought a good ol' fashioned Radio Shack sound pressure meter with me I picked up at a garage sale years ago. I'm that dorky. Not only that I have something manufactured by Radio Shack, but that I also have a sound pressure meter. Comes in handy every once and a while. Case in point: we wanted to know how loud the van was before adding any soundproofing. The answer: around 100dB lumbering around town. A little higher -- about 105dB -- at 50mph. When the back doors would jostle after hitting a bump, it'd shoot up to 110dB. Yikes. That's loud.
Okay, baseline loudness accomplished. Time to get cracking. We finished the walls in short order.
I took it out for another spin, this time to Costco to pick up some vinyl laminate flooring that went on sale this week. The good news: it was down to about 95dB. Darkness fell. We got Squish down to sleep before heading back out to the van to finish up the job.
Today's test drive to Home Depot to get insulation and plywood for the subfloor yielded an average of 93dB. Much better. The cargo and sliding doors close with a dull thud versus a metallic ring. Our voices no longer echo. We'll put a bit more in the headliner, if there isn't any already. Mercedes took the liberty of installing sound deadening materials on the floor of the cab, as we discovered when we pulled out the flooring to clean it. We reinstalled the flooring last night, along with pieces of trim we removed to clean.
Home Depot didn't have the 1" insulation material we needed in stock, so we'll have to wait a week. More to come on the flooring install.
In the meantime, from her craft room K worked on the custom camera bag she designed for my upcoming backpacking trip in the Sierras.
She's working on a bag that'll cover my camera while hiking with it attached to my Peak Design clip. Their Shell is crap. I've tried it. I wanted to like it. Except the thing renders my camera basically dead weight on my shoulder. K's will still allow me to use it with some ingenious combination of waterproof and stretchy fabrics. I'll prototype the bag next week and give her some feedback.
Yep, my wife is awesome.
