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Rutledge wood near back of his delivery truck
tub of lizardskin spray on ceramic insulation
jug of lizard skin sound control coating
lizardskin spray gun and mixing wand
pouring lizardskin coating into a spray gun cup
applying lizardskin spray coating to inside of a vintage delivery truck
rutledge wood showing off inside of his delivery truck

How do you keep from roasting like a Thanksgiving Day turkey when you drive an aluminum box on wheels? If you’re Rutledge Wood, you get 16 gallons of LizardSkin Ceramic and Sound Control Insulation, a spray gun, and go to town. “I thought I didn’t need to insulate the van’s interior,” he said. “I found out that driving the van is like wrapping aluminum foil around your head and sitting in the sun for five minutes.”

LizardSkin Ceramic Insulation is a water-based composition of high-grade acrylic binders with air filled reflective and sound absorbing ceramic particles. It’s non-toxic and Class A fire-rated, and forms a sealed, seamless and flexible black membrane. LizardSkin Ceramic Insulation is completely water soluble, meaning easy cleanup with just soap and water.

LizardSkin Sound Control Insulation is a high-tech coating that stops the vibration of sound waves coming from a surface before they enter the air. Typical applications include firewalls, floor pans, transmission tunnels, doors, hoods, trunk lids, under headliners, inside fenders, panel van walls, and other areas that generate vibration and noise. For maximum acoustic performance, you should coat the entire interior surface and the floor, inside and out. It’s water soluble just like LizardSkin’s Ceramic Insulation.

Most spray guns cannot handle the higher density and viscosity LizardSkin insulation. That’s why LizardSkin makes the SuperPro spray gun kits designed specifically to spray on the goopy stuff. The kit includes a spray gun head, one-quart pot, 90 degree tip, mixing paddle, wet film gauge, and instructions.

LizardSkin is pretty thick stuff, kinda like cake batter. The best way to mix it is with the paddle from the SuperPro gun kit attached to an electric drill. When using Sound Control and Ceramic Insulation together, you need to spray the Sound Control first for best results.

Lizardskin goes on smoothly with the spray gun set to about 70 psi. Each 2 gallon container covers 46-50 square feet approximately .025-.040 inch thick.

Is Rutledge a happy guy now? “What a difference LizardSkin makes!” he told us. “You immediately notice a difference by just tapping. Before everything would just ring, now it sounds so solid. It’s crazy stuff.”

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Rutledge Wood has been driving the wee out of his 1949 Chevy Step Van since he built it in 2013 (you can see the build story here):

While he’s still head over heels in love with the self-described “toaster oven on wheels,” Rutledge noticed that something was amiss.

“I was a dreamer when this project started,” Rutledge said. “I thought I didn’t need to insulate the van’s interior. Well, I found out that driving the van is like wrapping aluminum foil around your head and sitting in the sun for five minutes. And when you crank up the Chevrolet Performance LS3 engine, it’s a lot like starting an engine in a storage unit. It’s just…loud.”

Fortunately, a solution to this vexing problem came in the form of LizardSkin spray-on insulation. LizardSkin Ceramic Insulation limits the heat entering a vehicle’s interior and reduces inside temperatures by up to 30 degrees F. LizardSkin Sound Control dampens rattles and vibration and can even improve the sound of high-end audio systems. LizardSkin insulation products spray on easily, clean up quickly, and provide a barrier against moisture and corrosion. What’s not to like?

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of LizardSkin to insulate a 1949 Chevy step van—eight gallons each of Ceramic and Sound Control insulation, to be exact. The pros at Kenwood Rod Shop in Georgia covered the van’s cavernous insides in a couple days.

This video shows you how easy it is to spray LizardSkin and how good it works.