Posted by David Sherman on Sunday, October 28, 2007 at 16:26:11 :
Anybody have a good idea for what to use to replace the insulation in my M43 ambulance body? I'm going to end up taking out all the interior panels because some have rusted through and the insulation has gotten soggy, mostly due to various unplugged holes in the roof. Mice have added to the mess. It's not going to be easy, especially with all the rusted screws, but I think it's the only way to do it right. Then I can repair the holes, replace the worst panels, and paint the inside of the outer body and the outside of the inner body so as to preserve it for another 50 years.
It's insulated with what looks like 1" thick fiberglass batting. This was probably state-of-the-art in 1952, but I'm wondering if there's something better now. If not, does anybody know where to get 1" fiberglass? If I take normal house insulation that's made for a 3-1/2" space and compress it down to 1", I don't think it will insulate very well, and it will probably also make the walls bulge. I would use styrofoam, but it needs to curve a little bit to fit the van roof, and it needs to curve a lot to fit the cab roof. The van sides I could do with styrofoam, though.
There must be something they use in van bodies, reefer trucks, box trailers, etc. nowadays.
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