L31 Extreme Budget Build

[L31MaxExpress]

Are you gonna give it a paint job or are you like me? The outside is for everyone else.

Painting this is not in my immediate plans. Potentially in the future.

Almost finished insulating the roof as well as well as creating a somewhat flat surface to install the headliner boards to. Discovered the roof is pretty much exactly 3 widths of 48" wide plywood in length and just shy of 60" wide. That is 1" thick, aluminum faced foam insulation board with a R6 insulation value. 1-1/3 sheet covered the roof, leaving me with plenty left of the 3 sheets I bought to insulate the walls with. I left enough room to run the new wiring down the sides for the interior stuff. I will most likely use some of the butyl sound deadner stuff I have left to finish the outside edges as well as some of the weirdly shaped areas. The next step is to finish the flooring, then the headliner. Once those are in place, will create new door panels and figure out the walls. I kept all the old stuff I pulled out for templates.

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[Scooterwrench]

Painting this is not in my immediate plans. Potentially in the future.

Almost finished insulating the roof as well as well as creating a somewhat flat surface to install the headliner boards to. Discovered the roof is pretty much exactly 3 widths of 48" wide plywood in length and just shy of 60" wide. That is 1" thick, aluminum faced foam insulation board with a R6 insulation value. 1-1/3 sheet covered the roof, leaving me with plenty left of the 3 sheets I bought to insulate the walls with. I left enough room to run the new wiring down the sides for the interior stuff. I will most likely use some of the butyl sound deadner stuff I have left to finish the outside edges as well as some of the weirdly shaped areas. The next step is to finish the flooring, then the headliner. Once those are in place, will create new door panels and figure out the walls. I kept all the old stuff I pulled out for templates.

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That'll help the A/C. Oughta be able to hang meat in that thing by the time you get done.

 

[tayto]

Covering the inner door skins on the rear doors with about 85% coverage or so with that butyl sound deadner insulation material made a dramatic difference. Will definitely be using it again in future projects. Greatly reduces the sheet metal rattling common with GMs. I was pounding on them fairly firmly with a closed fist. Only took about an hour to cover the 4 doors I have done thus far. Front doors will get the same treatment. I will use the same material on the 97 when I swap out the speakers in the front and rear doors in the future.

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I get something locally similar to dynamat called "B-Quite" based out of Alberta. I have done a few vehicles now the first one being my squarebody. we did inside the doors, under headliner, under carpet and behind seat. i did new weatherstrip, rebuilt the quarter windows and a new/heavier-than-stock firewall pad. made a huge difference and less tinny. i still get some wind noise at highway speeds but i think thats just the nature of squarebodies. I'd love to get the 88 or 89 quarter windows as they are a 1 piece gasket and I think would make a difference.


What's your opinion of the Holley exhaust manifolds so far? also curious since you have a newer express van if you think these manifolds would work in then aswell?

 

[Scooterwrench]

A friend of mine was doing a Nomad restomod and was using some kind of mat that he got from Home Depot. He said it was the stuff they insulate steel buildings with. It looked just like Dynomat but according to him a LOT less expensive.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

I get something locally similar to dynamat called "B-Quite" based out of Alberta. I have done a few vehicles now the first one being my squarebody. we did inside the doors, under headliner, under carpet and behind seat. i did new weatherstrip, rebuilt the quarter windows and a new/heavier-than-stock firewall pad. made a huge difference and less tinny. i still get some wind noise at highway speeds but i think thats just the nature of squarebodies. I'd love to get the 88 or 89 quarter windows as they are a 1 piece gasket and I think would make a difference.


What's your opinion of the Holley exhaust manifolds so far? also curious since you have a newer express van if you think these manifolds would work in then aswell?

I swapped the Holley manifolds for Thorley tri-ys. Did not seem to add a ton of HP but added a lot of low-mid range torque.

Those manifolds would fit the Express no problem as long as the EGR was not needed.

 

[tayto]

I swapped the Holley manifolds for Thorley tri-ys. Did not seem to add a ton of HP but added a lot of low-mid range torque.

Those manifolds would fit the Express no problem as long as the EGR was not needed.

I assume you mean the headers added the low-mid range torque?

A family member has a '99 Express 1-ton motor home with a pretty bad exhaust leak. I haven't verified but they claim the manifold is cracked, was thinking these holleys would be an improvement along with a custom Y-pipe.

 

[tayto]

A friend of mine was doing a Nomad restomod and was using some kind of mat that he got from Home Depot. He said it was the stuff they insulate steel buildings with. It looked just like Dynomat but according to him a LOT less expensive.

"peel and seal" is asphalt base where as dynamat/b-quiet is butyl based. i haven't personally tested back to back but there is a difference..i think the actual sound deadening material is thicker/ denser

 

[L31MaxExpress]

I assume you mean the headers added the low-mid range torque?

A family member has a '99 Express 1-ton motor home with a pretty bad exhaust leak. I haven't verified but they claim the manifold is cracked, was thinking these holleys would be an improvement along with a custom Y-pipe.

Your assumptiom would be correct. Headers added a very noticeable amount of torque.

The Holley manifolds would be better than the stock manifolds. The 1-ton van should have dual 3" pipes off the stock manifolds to the muffler. The worst restriction to that exhaust is the OE cats and muffler.