Video: How to soundproof your campervan conversion using Kiravans Sound Blocker

 

Video transcript

Hi guys, quick video on Kiravans' sound blocker, which is our sound deadening mat. Now, obviously when you get one of these vehicles, the manufacturer doesn't bother spending a lot of money ensuring that they're quiet and warm. So they're basically just a tin box with a very thin skin of metal. So if you're converting this into a camper van or a kombi van, you want to make it as quiet and warm as possible. And the first stage in doing that is to use some sort of a deadening product.

So we sell this sound blocker. The next batch that we get in is going to be branded with sound blocker on it, but this is the same product. It's a thin kind of two millimeter thick probably self-adhesive mat. You peel off the backing paper and then you've got this adhesive layer here, which is a butyl rubber, it's a little bit like blue tack. And then on the inside, you've got this foil reflective layer here.

Now I did one of these videos back in 2017 and I was a little bit overzealous. I've since learned that you don't actually need as much of this stuff as I previously thought. So, basically this will reduce the booming noise that you get from having these large flat panels in your van. So really, it only needs to be put on, as I said, the flat panels. Anything that's got a crease in it like these wheel arches or the floor or even the roof to that extent doesn't really need to be deadened it's already it's quite a dead sound already. Compare it to the sides, you can really hear that booming that sort of echoy noise and as you drive along the road that's going to be sort of amplified through the vehicle. So the idea with this stuff is that it adds a bit of mass to those panels.

Now I've made up a couple of little sample squares here just to show you what I mean. So this is my little experiment. So this is, I've cut the window panels out so I've just trimmed a couple of squares of sheet metal from those panels that I removed and this one has got nothing on it, it's just plain metal. This one I have stuck a bit of our sound blocker on the back. So just to hear the difference, if I tap this one, Okay you can hear that's quite tiny, it does echo a bit and then this one with the sound blocker, okay there's really no, there's no resonance coming off that one at all. That's a dead sound, and that's a sort of echoey sound. So that's just a little demonstration to show you what this stuff will do.

So it's very easy to put on. Always worth giving your panel a bit of a wipe with a de-greaser just to help adhesion. You don't need many tools. A Stanley knife will cut it very easily. And then if you can get a little hard roller, I got this from Toolstation and that just helps to really get full contact between the sound blocker mat and the side of your van.

So if you buy a lining bundle from Kiravans for example you're going to get 10 sheets of this stuff which will be plenty to do a panel van of this size. What I'll do is I'll do a time lapse of me sticking it on just so you can see where I put it in this van but basically I'm going to get some on here some on to this panels, the same on the other side and we'll put a little bit into the sliding door as well. I'm not going to bother putting any on the wheel arches or the floor or the roof for that matter. Once you've done this stage then you move to the sort of step two which is our seven ml thick closed cell foam which will also help to increase soundproofing properly as well. But for this video I'm just going to show you how to put this onto the inside of your van. Okay let's take a look at how we do it.

Okay, so that's that job finished now. That literally took 45 minutes, I think. So yeah, you can see how quick and easy it is. You don't need to be too neat. It's never going to be seen. It's basically, it's just deadening those panels and what I've done there should do a really good improvement on the van. I've still got, well, you know, two and a half sheets left, so I'll probably stick a little bit in the tailgate. But that'll give you an idea of how far this stuff will go.

Obviously, if you don't have the same number of windows, you may want to put some into these panels or if you have windows in the back quarters, you'll probably use even less. But yeah, you can put as much of this stuff in as you like. I tend to think that sometimes you're just adding unnecessary weight. But yeah, this should do a great job.

Hopefully this has helped you and I'll move on to insulating this van next. Good luck with your project and I'll see you next time.

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