Insulating your Jeep® Vehicle with Lizardskin’s Aerospace Technology

Text By Frank Ledwell, Editor in Chief
Photos courtesy of Gulf Coast Crawl Shop

For those who have ever left the windows rolled down in their rig during a rainstorm, or felt like the interior of your Jeep® vehicle gets as hot as the sun during the summer, we can certainly sympathize with you. It didn’t take us long to figure out that moldy carpet and furnace temperatures in our own Jeep TJ Rubicon can be a drag when preparing to drive on-road or off-highway.

 

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After tinkering with the idea of using a spray-in bed liner throughout the entire tub of the JPFreek rig, we decided to research the options and in the end, the consensus was to use Ceramic Insulation in conjunction with rubber matting. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it’s also a fully functional protective surface from the elements. So where were we going to find a high quality, water-based insulation product? The answer was Lizardskin LLC, a leading innovator of insulation technology based out of Toledo, Ohio.

 

Lizardskin first began offering insulation products in 1998 after the aerospace industry took notice of the insulating properties of Ceramic compounds. Today, Lizardskin products have become a staple for auto enthusiasts everywhere who desire a performance, high quality product that can be easily applied to a vehicle in the convenience of their own garage.

 

Lizardskin Ceramic Insulation is a one-of-a-kind product that is 100% water-based and has features that regular bed liners can’t match. For one, the sound-deadening properties are awesome, equating to a reduction in noise of 10-12 decibels after application. In addition, the product can handle temperatures of up to 500° Fahrenheit with solar heat interior temperature reductions of 25-30°F or more. Furthermore, the installation time required is not that long (3-5 hours depending on outside temperature). 

 

For this project, the guys over at Gulf Coast Crawl Shop in Houston provided their expertise in handling the installation of the product. We started off by measuring the dimensions of the interior space that we wanted to apply the product to in order to determine how much product would be needed. In this case, our 2005 TJ Rubicon required approximately six gallons for the interior tub and hardtop.

 

The next step, and probably most important, was to prepare the vehicle for the application process. In this case, that involved removing the entire carpet flooring, then removing all the seats, floor-mounted seat belts, center console and plastic enclosures around the gear shift knob and base connecting to the dashboard, and enclosing bolt placements on the floorboard with scotch tape to keep the ceramic insulation from penetrating important crevasses.

 

After this, a thorough sweep of the floorboard was done to ensure a smooth and clean surface prior to installation. From there, it was merely a matter of mixing the ceramic insulation compound with a proportional amount of water to create a mixture consistency similar to that of molasses.

 

In order to apply the product to the vehicle, several tools are needed during the course of this process in order to make the application an easy one: an Air Pressure source capable of 60-100psi at 5cfm minimum, as well as a Lizardskin Super Pro Spray Gun kit. Some applications may additionally require a variable speed 3/8”-1/2” electric drill, as well as a box cutter or knife. Also, it’s a good idea to have a water hose or bucket of water on-hand for cleanup.  

 

Once the compound had been mixed to the appropriate consistency, it was merely a matter of using the Super Pro Spray Gun kit to apply the product evenly throughout the area we wanted to insulate. Lizardskin recommends a total LCI (Lizardskin Ceramic Insulation) thickness of 20-30/1000 of a centimeter in the interior and the equivalent thickness on the exterior. We chose to not to spray the exterior of the vehicle and instead applied a thickness in the interior of 40/1000cm for added insulated benefit.

 

The process was then repeated for the application to the interior of the hardtop. Again, we chose a comparable thickness for the hardtop in an effort to dissipate the sun’s heat on the black surface exterior of the hardtop. In all, the process to this point was about 1.5-2 hours. From there, it was a matter of waiting a few more hours for the product to dry. Once dry, the process was almost complete. We knew in advance that Lizardskin’s Ceramic Insulation provides plenty of functional benefit. We also knew that while the product has some really cool features, the only feature it does lack is durability. Because of this, we planned in advance to apply either a clear epoxy to the surface of the sprayed interior to add the element of durability but in the end, we chose to go with a custom TJ Wrangler rubber flooring provided by the folks at Rompalicious 4x4. The flooring took about an hour to install and once in place, our vehicle was ready for the real test: Texas’ vicious heat and humidity. Of course, being that we did the install during the winter months, our “real test” results will be the subject of a future Freek Garage follow-up article.

 

In the end, the benefits of having a completely re-done surface interior of Lizardskin Ceramic Insulation are well worth the cost. At $189 for a two-gallon bucket of Ceramic Insulation compound, the cost might sound expensive but in comparison to what’s available on the market and the functional benefits of the product, as well as the ease of installation, we wouldn’t choose anything else.

 

 

For more information about Lizardskin and its product line of insulating and sound-deadening products, please visit:

 

http://www.lizardskin.com

 

Also, JPFreek Adventure Magazine would like to thank Javier and the team at Gulf Coast Crawl Shop in Houston for their work on this project. Contact Javier at 713-461-5595 if you have any Jeep vehicle modification needs. 

 

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