Help... insulating lower part of E250?

[[email protected]]

Hi all
Does anyone know of a good website with photos or videos on how to insulate the lower part of the sides of a Ford E250?  Its anything but straight and its full of holes and cavities.

I've got nice straightforward 1.5inch polystyrene on the top half... how do I do the bottom half that has zero straight lines?

thanks!
Carolyn

 

[jonyjoe303]

On my van I just cut the foam into small sections and hotglue into position. By cutting in small section you can go around obstacles/curves. The picture shows a section of my roof but I use the same method on the sides/floor. In the picture there is about 3 layers of 1/2 inch rtech insulation hotglued on top of each other. 

I just eyeball the cuts and place into position, any small gaps I just fill in with even smaller cuts of foam. If you have any hotspots add another layer of foam to that area. I use hotglue because it dries quickly and has no fumes. 

 

[dellaterra]

When I was insulating My E-350 I filled in the spaces where the curves are with the expandable insulation in a can, in addition to the rigid insulation. It filled in the gaps well. I made a "frame" with strips of wood that the cut insulation fit into. Where there were gaps I sprayed the expandable insulation.

 

[[email protected]]

thank you - that is extremely helpful!!

 

[BinDerSmokDat]

I have an E150 and because I was boxing out around these lower areas, I insulated the boxes themselves with 1.5" of EPS pink board.
I used only a layer of foil faced polyethylene foam over the lower walls themselves before I fitted the paneling.

I'd be careful spraying foam into some of the lower wall gaps, those areas are meant to remain open so any condensation runs down the outer wall and leaves via the weep holes.
In fact I made sure all of my lower panels were free from debris, using compressed air and a thin tube on my shop vac to suck out junk and crud.
years of being an exposed cargo van menat nails, bottle caps, crud, dirt, wrappers, etc had found there way into those areas.
I also cleaned the weep holes and lower panel holes out carefully.
On my Ford there was some factory applied fabric tape applied over some of them.
It looked like it was meant to breathe, so when I pulled it off, I replaced it with some fine mesh screen, glued over the holes to keep critters out.

 

[Rob-Goose]

depending what you are putting on the walls you could always use rock wool, just strip it down to the thickness you need, and you can also cram it in (lightly mind you as to not loose R value), into the channels. then either ply wood over it, or board and baton.

 

[Plant]

Yeah the walls are not straight in the least. 

What I did was run 1/2 x 2 1/2 wood runners at three levels to attach paneling to. Left and right sides were done in the most advantageous way I could find to straighten out the walls without gaining extra thickness.  Fiberglass and foam was used with 1/2 polyiso on top, matching the depth of the wood runners.

The left side lower section in the rear does not have the wood runner due to it sticking out further.  The paneling is attached directly to the metal back there.  Looking down the wall using straight edges, that was the best way I could make the end result straight.

The runs on the right side are at different levels than the left, taking into consideration best places to screw them in solidly, and providing the straightest backing for the paneling.  In the front they butt up to the steel post, not on top of it.  The end result was a straight run for the panel.

 

[[email protected]]

On my van I just cut the foam into small sections and hotglue into position. By cutting in small section you can go around obstacles/curves. The picture shows a section of my roof but I use the same method on the sides/floor. In the picture there is about 3 layers of 1/2 inch rtech insulation hotglued on top of each other. 

I just eyeball the cuts and place into position, any small gaps I just fill in with even smaller cuts of foam. If you have any hotspots add another layer of foam to that area. I use hotglue because it dries quickly and has no fumes. 

Thanks so much!!

 

[[email protected]]

Yeah the walls are not straight in the least. 

What I did was run 1/2 x 2 1/2 wood runners at three levels to attach paneling to. Left and right sides were done in the most advantageous way I could find to straighten out the walls without gaining extra thickness.  Fiberglass and foam was used with 1/2 polyiso on top, matching the depth of the wood runners.

The left side lower section in the rear does not have the wood runner due to it sticking out further.  The paneling is attached directly to the metal back there.  Looking down the wall using straight edges, that was the best way I could make the end result straight.

The runs on the right side are at different levels than the left, taking into consideration best places to screw them in solidly, and providing the straightest backing for the paneling.  In the front they butt up to the steel post, not on top of it.  The end result was a straight run for the panel.

That's brilliant!  I'm going with your method.  Thank you!