Date:         Thu, 21 Sep 1995 16:34:58 CST6CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Dan Houg" <fairwind@northernnet.com>
Subject:      Re: Can you make the bus quiet?

James asks:
> Dan, isn't open celled foam likely to trap moisture?  I hate to rain 
> on your parade but I heard a couple of nightmare tales here about 
> buses rusting from the inside out.  I would think that a nice closed 
> cell foam would work a little better.  What do I know?  My bus has 
> more rust than body.  Jim

good point.  no, great point.  i worried about that too.  especially 
after i had been driving around a while with the westy accessory 
cutouts (elec, water) open in rainy weather and the foam got and 
STAYED very wet. 

when i had installed the foam, i'd placed as much as i could in 
there.  if a little is good, then more is better, right?  I'd found 
that any foam that curled upon a horizontal surface accumulated water 
and never released it.  so... i cut away all foam on horizontal 
surfaces, leaving only vertically suspended foam with a 'free drop' 
before the sheet metal curved horizontally on the bottom panels.  
with the foam affixed in this manner, it dried very quickly as any 
water in it traveled thru the open cell design and dripped out the 
bottom.  i feel confident that it will release water now and not hold 
it or prevent its evaporation...  but then ask again in 3 years   :)

i considered closed cell foam but it was very expensive compared to 
the egg-crate stuff.  also, i worried that any moisture trapped 
behind the closed cell foam would NEVER evaporate...  i dunno.

-dan