JPFreek - Index

JPFreek - Spring 2008 - Index

SPRING 2008 JPFreek Garage
Insulating your Jeep® Vehicle with
Lizardskin’s Aerospace Technology
Text by Frank Ledwell, Editor
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.
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 by measuring the dimensions of the
interior space 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. In addition, we removed all
the seats as well as the floor-mounted seat belts. We then
removed the center console and plastic enclosures around the
gearshift knob and base connecting to the dashboard. We
finished off by enclosing the bolt placements on the floorboard
with scotch tape to keep the ceramic insulation from penetrating
important crevasses.