We don't want to hear it.

Rattles that is. 

We do want to hear from you.

It's rattles, squeaks, and vibrations that'll drive us nuts though.

One of the first things most people do to a new metal box of a van is to add "sound deadener".  You'll see them referred to as Rattle Trap, KilMat, HushMat, Noico, Siles, Dynamat, etc. These are rubbery, gooey, weighty panels that typically have a foil side and an adhesive side.  In between the two can be various products such as butyl rubber, foam, bubble wrap type plastic, etc.  They are also (unsurprisingly) one more van build controversy.  

Ford actually includes some sound deadening material on (some of) the flat sheet metal in the van production.  The white rectangles adhered to the metal in the below image are Ford's sound deadening material.  This is a side wall, towards the back of the van.. The same material is used in some of the flat roof panels as well.  

We see sound deadener (SD) as a way to cut down on the vibration of the large, flat, thin metal areas of the van that make you feel like you're inside a drum.  The theory is, the SD material adds some weight to these panels which keep them from reverberating so loudly.  Tests indicate that covering only 25-30% of each panel is necessary to reduce these vibrations. More coverage doesn't do anything to significantly reduce vibration.  I also don't believe there is much to gain by covering thicker, supported, or corrugated/bent metal as these parts don't reverberate the way a large, thin, flat piece of metal will.

Whereas often different brand names are actually the same products, just branded differently, these SDs can be quite different across brands.  Generally the biggest differences are the core material, thickness, and the adhesive.  A few are made to be effective heat insulators as well as sound deadener, but I'm not sure it's the best bang for your buck - or your pounds.  One of the greatest issues throughout the build is trying to keep weight low - in both physical location as well as total pounds we're carrying.  SDs tend to run about 0.5-.8lbs/sqft, which adds up quickly if you try to use this as an insulator.  We're going a different route with insulation, which we'll talk about later. 

So, we don't need a product that offers thermal insulation.  We do need a product that will stand up to the temperatures of the metal van walls - some adhesives/core materials may not hold up to how hot the metal of the van will get.  They may get gooey, drip, or just plain not stick.  We also want something that's thicker (than thinner) in order to give the panel some weight to quiet the reverberation.  We also wanted something butyl based vs asphalt based.  We didn't want the smell of asphalt in the van.  I have a theory on asphalt and it's ability to suck the life out of you, but I'll leave that for a different conversation.

In the end, we decided on using Noico as our sound deadener.  While the big name in sound deadener is Dynamat, the price for Dynamat is generally anywhere from 2 to 3 times more than Noico.  Noico is very similar and performs very comparably.  Having said that, the current price for Noico is MUCH higher than usual and in line with Dynamat.  I can't remember if maybe the product itself is out of Russia or if one of the materials is sourced there - but guessing this is why the price is so much higher - just like Baltic Birch plywood which is sourced from the same region and is crazy expensive right now.  We'll tackle that later.

We ended up only buying two 10sqft boxes and are only using on the flat panels as well as covering the wheel wells as that's a source of quite a bit of noise.  We've seen some people cover every inch of their interior metal surface and just aren't sure what you gain for probably 150-175lbs of material (guesstimating), not to mention the elbow grease and  hundreds of $$ in additional cost.  These sound deadeners are called "deadeners" for a reason - to deaden the vibrations - not to block ambient noises you'll hear when sitting still.  In addition, we believe that once you start adding your actual insulation, along with your wall materials and "furniture", sound deadeners become less important in noise reduction.  

The material is pretty easy to install - peel back adhesive, stick to the metal, use a roller to fully adhere the panels.  The foil (outward facing) side of the SD has a diamond pattern that mostly disappears when you roll it heavy enough, giving you a visual cue that you've applied enough pressure.  You can see this in the photo below - where we've only rolled the left side of the SD.

As mentioned, we did completely cover the wheel wells.  These are probably the noisiest part of the van, so we'll do a couple of things to try to insulate these to control both temperature and sound.  We realize these aren't reverberating like the larger, flat panels, but want to quieten road pebble pings, temperature, and get a good, solid, thermal break.  On top of the SD (in photo below) we'll later add a layer of cross linked, closed cell foam.  We'll further insulate those when we get into insulating the rest of the van.

I'm not completely convinced sound deadener is crucial as we were expecting the van to be louder with vibrations and such when we picked it up.  Given this, and given our expectation that our next steps will do more to quieten the van than the sound deadener, we have just done a minimal amount of sound deadening.  

We intend to remove the headliner in the cab of the van at some point and will probably use a much heavier hand when applying SD in the very pronounced "forehead" of the van.  We'll also insulate well before replacing the headliner.  Removing the headliner will be a job in itself, and I'll probably include a write up and photos when we do for future reference.  

Next step is making a template of the floor - and then on to getting an even surface to work from in the van.  These floor corrugations are hell for kneeling (on 50 year old knees anyway).