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You 'speed-nuts' would probably kill me for this...this sound deadener added about 100 lbs to the car. However, being that I stripped away all of the rubberized coating on the exterior floorboards and chipped away the interior sound deadener prior to paint, I wanted to do something to quiet down the cabin on this car. There is more to a car than acceleration, braking, and handling. It has to be enjoyable to drive all-in-all.
Anyways I started researching sound deadening. 'Dynomat' was of course where I started...only to find how expensive it was and then doing some research on its effectiveness..I found that it was no better than other less expensive sound deadeners on the market.
I ended up using material and taking advice from Don Sanbrook, owner of www.sounddeadenershowdown.com His products were by far the least expensive (one man owned company). i also liked that his 'Multi-Layered Vinyl' pad was seperate from the 'Closed Cell Foam'. Most sound deadener companies glue the two together. Having them seperate makes custom installation easier and quicker actually even though it is two seperate pads.
So the process consisted of three parts:
1. Lay CLD panels (basically sheets of urethane with foil back) directly on the panels of the car. CLD panels only are required to cover 20% of the panel. Covering more does nothing to increase effectiveness of the sound deadening...just cost more money and makes it harder to remove them if you had to repair a steel panel of the car down the road. (Dynomat doesn't tell you this...they want you to buy tons of their product and cover the total inside of you car silver!). If you don't believe me, take a look at the documented test results in the sound deadener showdown website above. You can back this up from other sound deadener products, group/community forums, and even industrial sound deadening services.
2. Lay a layer of CCF (Closed-cell foam) covering 100% of the panels. The CCF just provides an 'air-gap' between the panel and the next layer, the MLV. The company I used sold CCF in 1/8" and 1/4" thickness. The thicker CCF just gives you more of a cushion to prevent flattening out the foam and causing the MLV to touch the panel but its thicker, which isn't good when it comes to putting your interior back together. I used 1/8" everywhere with exception to the floorboards - used 1/4" there.
3. Lay a layer of MLV (Multi-Layered Vinyl). This is the second barrier for sound deadening (CLD panels are first). It's important to cover as much as possible with a minimum of gaps/holes as possible to put a 'barrier' in your car to block sound. Obviously this is the black mat you see in the photos.
CCF was glued to MLV as required using HH-66 contact cement (awesome stuff!) Velcro strips were used to secure MLV/CCF to vertical panels. Also used extruded butyl rope (ribbon caulk) on the gaps between the outer sheet metal and crash ribs on the door (look at website for more details on this).
Tools needed:
1. For CLD: a small maple roller (bought on the website) and tin-snips
2. For MLV/CCF: craft paper or cardboard (to make templates), a razor blade, pair of scissors, straight edge, pen, and tape measure
Extras:
1. Can of HH-66 <-- a must! Glues anything vinyl to vinyl...and just about glues vinyl to anything else in existence! Be carefull not to get it on the paint of the car, because it will strip it!
2. Velcro strips (bought from website)
Photos:
CLD Panels:
