Using Noico Sound Mats to Sound Proof My Ford Transit
Materials needed for this project →
- Noico 80 Mil 36 sqft Car Sound Deadening Mat
- A utility knife
- Pieces of cardboard
- Work gloves
Watch the video if you get bored with the reading!
Step 1:
Figure out where you want to install your fan (if you are installing one at all) and where you want any windows (if you plan on installing windows).
I left two wall panels completely blank of Noico Mats because I know I would be installing windows in those panels. I also left a space near the front of the van on the roof where I knew I wanted to put my Maxxfan.
The Noico Mats can be removed after sticking them to the van but you risk tearing the mat and leaving residue from the adherent. Better to just plan out where you will leave blank spaces and work accordingly.
Step 2:
Measure, cut, and stick pieces of the Noico Mats all over the van!
We used some cardboard on the floor of the van, a marker, a ruler (for straighter lines!), and that trusty utility knife to cut shapes that fit different parts of the van walls and ceiling. We also managed to slip into some of the recesses in the lower wall of the van and stick fitted sheets in there.
The installation is ultra simple. Just try to put a sheet on most of the larger, flat exposed surfaces on the van. Most people agree that roughly 30% of the surface of a van covered in soundproofing mats suffices.
Pro tip: make sure your camera is capturing THE best angles at all times…
Step 3:
Special attention for the wheel wells.
The wheel wells can be a major source of sound (annoying sound) in the van. Especially while cruising down the highway. While we placed sheets of Noico Mats rather freely in the rest of the van, we tried to make sure the wheel wells were almost entirely encased in the Noico Mats.
If you take a full sheet of Noico and cut two cheese-wedge-shaped chunks out of each side you can get a fairly nice fit over the odd angles of the wheel well. Once we fit the large piece on (the cheese piece) we used the little bits and pieces to fill up each open space like that iOS game, Zen Block (lame, I know).
Final Thoughts:
We made sure we had about 1–2 sheets of the Noico left over because after we install the windows I want to place some Noico on the still-exposed metal. I know the window won’t fill the entire open area I’ve left for it so I will use whatever extra I have left over to cut and place all around the window to round out the coverage on the van!
It definitely does not hurt to apply more sound deadening mats than we did here. Some people cover their entire vans because they are so sick of noise. I have found that with the Noico Mats and the Thinsulate insulation I installed, the noise is quite low and almost never noticeable.
