Leaderboard

Sound proofing pics

At first when I was getting ready to cut the supports, I just visualized what needed to stay and what didn't. I wanted to use as much of the existing hardware as possible and not take away the structural support. It was a little nerve wracking to be cutting things out of a new vehicle lol. Once I was sure, I used chalk to mark my lines and used a sawzall with a metal cutting blade. Once all the metal was cut, I put it back in place and put cardboard over top and carefully marked and cut it to shape. Folded it half and traced the other side which gave me a perfect match on both sides. I put the cardboard back on top, poked holes for where I wanted the bolts to go through and hand tightened them down to make sure it was a perfect template. Took it all apart and traced it onto 3/4 inch ply. I used a circular saw and jigsaw with the capability of angling the blade on a 45 to cut it out. I wanted to take the edge off the ply to make it a smoother transition from foam to wood once I placed the mat back down over top. Cutting the foam from under the mat was a pain, I used some black craft paint on the wood and pressed the mat with foam down on top. That gave me a rough idea of where to cut the foam. Slowly but surely, I kept taking bits of foam away until it fit smoothly over top. Measure twice, cut once. I can say now, that it was so worth the extra effort and money. I went on an extended roadtrip this summer and I was able to hide all kinds of stuff in there. It's amazing how much space is wasted in that area. I should mention that there is even more space to be had under the front seats. There's styrofoam inserts under there about 3 inches thick (once you pull the extension floor out, you can see what I mean). I decided to leave them in there for two reasons. One, insulation and road noise. Two, if you pull them out, the mats won't sit down in that space correctly without cutting them, so I let it be.

Here's the tension rod we used. I can't remember the dimensions exactly and my sketches and notes are at home. I know it's about 46.5" wide and I'm 6'3" tall and can lay down completely in the fully-extended platform. I'll get exact dimensions tonight and update the post. I might even include my sketches, too. That was the goal! We ended up taking the third-row seats out semi-permanently. We kept them folded down since we bought the van anyway and the extra cargo is nice. We are keeping them so we can put them back if we need the human cargo space, but that's highly unlikely for us. The bottom line is that we wanted to keep the full passenger functionality while being able to use it as a mini-camper, too. Nothing is holding the reflectix except for the second-row windows (sometimes). I cut the pieces to a size that would slot into the window and fit snug. When we have the windows open and the tops of the second-row reflectix folded down for ventilation, they don't stay, so I keep four shims to hold the front and have some small velcro strips to hold the back. This last weekend, we camped with our dogs and the reflectix stayed in the whole time without a problem. I'll have another update with the dog adaptations that I built/am building when they're finished, but here's a preview of a second-row removed platform so our pups have a place to be that's safe for their paws while we travel: