Removing your headliner and insulating/sound deadening

Curious if anyone has tried to insulate the roof of their truck before. I've seen countless posts about people having their sunglasses distorted from being in the overhead storage during the summer and being in the heat all day. Although I haven't had mine personally distorted or damaged, I'd like to avoid it because all my sunglasses have prescription lenses in them and they easily end up costing me double whatever frames I choose. I have had them burn the bridge of my nose when I get in my car during the summer- so I know the sunglass holder gets really hot (100* F plus). Also saw a few reviews of dark cars vs. lighter colored cars and how they trap heat from sunlight. Buzzfeed has an interesting video- I'll post a link if I can find it again. So enough background:
I was wondering if anyone has added Dynamat or a similar product to the roof/ceiling of their trucks and noticed a reduction in cabin temps. I've used their products before on cars I've restored so I'm sure it would work, but I can't really compare a 40-50 year old car with no AC and minimal weatherstripping to modern cars or trucks. I don't really care about noise reduction (a side benefit, but not my main concern), but just curious if the work/investment of removing the headliner and installing insulation would be worth the effort.
Thoughts/experience would help. Thanks folks...


*EDIT:
The project was completed on page 4 of this thread with amazing results. Here is the text from that page for those that don't want to read all the way through. Although I would suggest at least browsing since there was a lot of helpful information provided by various members.

Update:

I finally got around to finishing this project this weekend which was perfect as it's been unseasonably warm for February in SoCal. We were in the high 80s this weekend and expect to see low 90s this upcoming week.

The first step was to drop the headliner. There is a youtube video that briefly goes over how to drop it on 2ng gens. I feel that the video missed a few things that I can shed some light on hopefully. Unfortunately for viewers at home, I tend to get caught up with my projects and forgot to take pictures during some critical steps. I'll try to describe them here as best I can.

There are several things holding up the headliner and they're easy enough to figure out if you take your time. Most have exposed or hidden fasteners with the majority being 10mm bolts or phillips screws. The ones that don't are the visor clips and coat hangers on the rear of the headliner in double cabs (not sure if AC or RC have these). They come out by turning them 1/4 turn counter clockwise and just pulling them out. They have small retaining clips that keep them up there, but the hidden sheet metal is keyed so they come out easily.



Next is the sunglass holder. Easy enough. There is one phillips screw in the rear holder. Remove that and pry with your fingers at the front of the plastic and it should pop right out. There are retaining "fingers" on the rear of the plastic trim that keep the sunglass holder in place, but only clips at the front. Don't forget the wiring harness for you map lights. 2 clips there.


A-pillar on both sides has 2 10mm bolts behind the small covers. Pop them out and unbolt the two and you should be good.


These little clips along the side of the headliner that are labeled "air bag" do not contain and air bag. They hide two more 10mm bolts (one per side). I used a small pick tool to pry the cover open to access the bolts.


Here's where I got ahead of myself and didn't take pictures. The side panels between the doors of a double cab and the corner panels in the rear of the cab (where the seatbelts are attached). These things are kind of the hardest part of this whole process. They are held on by plastic clips and two hidden 10mm bolts at the bottom of each of the 4 panels. To get to the bolts, you have to remove the lower section of each trim panel. To remove that trim panel, you have to pull away the door weatherstripping. To pull the weather stripping, you have to remove the sill plates all around. Sound like a PITA, doesn't it? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical. It's a PITA only because its a multi-step process. If you take each one at a time, and go slow, you should be fine. Once all that stuff is done, the headliner should basically just drop out of place. You should be looking at this: A whole bunch of notching but bare sheet metal.

There are some wires attached to the headliner for your map lights, dome lights, etc.. Be very careful with these as they are super thin and glued or taped in place. The glue is there to keep the wires from vibrating and rattling inside your headliner. (Ask me how I know. Never mind, don't ask- also rhetorical.)

While I was at it, I also removed the rear cubbies so I could follow the process on the rear of the cab. No real trick here. A few 10mm bolts and they pull right out.


Now the good stuff. Here's what UPS dropped off:

The foil backed sound deadener:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PCLPXXQ?refRID=96SZR7392TRPKZY8QTJ3&ref_=pd_bia_nav_t_3
And a roll of foam heat insulation:
http://www.amazon.com/Noico-Automot...xgy_263_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=068B8ZE8F1Z422ETHHTZ
While you're at it, get an application roller.

$12 uxcell Car Sound Deadener Application Rolling Wheel Roller 5cm x 3.5cm

http://www.amazon.com/uxcell®-Deade...263_img_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XMPB67HVDS5E5RX1RK8
For an extra $4.50, it pays for itself by saving your hands from getting beat up when pressing this stuff into place. You want a tight bond and there really isn't a substitute for the roller. A little known fact is that you can use the rounded tip of the handle to press the deadener into tight curves in the sheet metal. Anything with more of an edge would tear into the product and make your application look like garbage.

It'd be a good time to mention that just as in anything, proper prep for installation is key to prevent product failure. Before sticking down my first layer, I cleaned the roof with household all purpose cleaner and did find a little dust had made it's way up there. Probably not enough to affect full adhesion, but just to cover my ass, I gave it a quick second pass with alcohol to remove any residue left by the cleaner.

And I got excited and did the whole roof (both layers) before I pulled out my camera for pictures again. Here you can see the black foil backed sound deadener and the lighter grey layer is the heat insulation. BTW for people looking to do the TPMS delete mod. I believe the little black box there on the rear of the headliner is the TPMS module. Disconnect that and no more TPMS light forever! I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere on here. If it doesn't work, don't blame me- you should've done your research instead of listening to strangers on the internet.


Not sure if you can see it here, but I also went as far as sound deadening and heat insulating the metal bracket that holds my sunglass holder. For anyone that has put on their sunglasses after your truck has been parked in the sun all day and burned the bridge of your nose- here's your chance to fix this issue.


Once you get as much coverage as you can go and put your truck back together. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Call your friends and amaze them with something that they will never see and will never understand why you're so excited about it.
I'd say total I spent about 4-5 hours (I wasn't really keeping track) doing this by myself. A second set of hands would have made this go faster and possibly ever removing the seats out of the truck. I spent a lot of time running around my truck looking for that one last clip or bolt that I missed. Hope this helps you guys that are planning to do this. So far, with one day of driving, you can definitely tell the difference with the sound deadener. This project is well worth the effort involved. As far as heat reduction, I want to say I felt a difference today, but that's more of a "butt-dyno" approach. I will be doing some more scientific testing in the near future with another members truck in similar configuration. I'll get temp readings and everything once we both have time to park our trucks out in the sun.

 

Here's some reference:

http://jonathansantos.com/do-black-cars-get-hotter-white-cars

http://tom-morrow-land.com/tests/cartemp/index.htm

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/under...ng/do-black-cars-get-hotter-in-the-summer.htm

 

I would look for a purpose built material rather than something like Dynamat, which isn't intended as a heat shield. Something similar to this (no experience with this product):

$19 Thermo-Tec 13575 Adhesive Backed Aluminized Heat Barrier, 12" x 24"

http://www.amazon.com/Thermo-Tec-13575-Adhesive-Backed-Barrier/dp/B00029KC2K

My black on blank 1991 BMW 535i had a different trick up its sleeve to solve the problem. You could program the computer to cycle the ventilation system in 10 minute intervals at specific times. Knowing I was leaving work at 4, I would set it to cool the car at 3:45. It made a noticeable difference in cabin temp when first getting into the car.

 

Tint works well for me in this Florida heat. Hell I park on the roof of my parking garage and it's not too hot

 

Some possible suggestions:
http://www.fatmat.com/shop/hood-liners-6567 <---Expensive, but according to some, it's worth it. Yes it says hood, but was suggested to put in the roof liner too.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/t...B8xPT0dW9sWjc2ES1n7_xz0D1q9nS8EeJPhoCDxbw_wcB

 

Get some wind deflectors and just leave both front windows cracked about an inch. Nobody can see your window is down and rain won't get it. Now you have a way for the heat to escape.

 

Thanks Jon. I'm not opposed to using for something other than it's "intended purpose". If it works, it works!

I have limo tint all around and all though it helps from direct sunlight, the problem I'm seeing is radiant heat from sitting in the sun all day. As this year has been the "hottest year on record" (as has every year prior), definitely a must in my opinion. It felt weird driving away from the dealer with no tint. I felt naked... Ha!

Solid idea, but security is an issue for me. These trucks are easy enough to break into as it is. I saw an infomercial once where they were selling a solar powered fan that you mount to the inside of your slightly cracked window. It acted like an exhaust fan and even came with extra rubber weather stripping to fill the gap not covered by the unit. Again- great idea, but it didn't work very well. The fan worked as it was supposed to, but was way underpowered and did very little to cool the car.

 

That would be awesome if Toyota came up with something like that. Dynamat does have heat reducing properties, but usually you have to couple two of their products together to get maximum effect (Use Dynamat as a base, and add Dynaliner over that). I've seen Thermo-tec and a few other companies with similar products, just have no experience with them. Most complaints I hear though is that they are all basically overpriced fiberglass mat.

 

You may want to look into some cheaper alternatives to fatmat or dynamat.

There's been lots of talk on this forum lately about a product made by frostking for duct insulation. Seems like it would work pretty well in your situation as it's basically just a product meant to stick to sheet metal that insulates against cold and heat. It may not have the same sound deadening characteristics as fatmat or dynamat but that doesn't seem like much of a concern to you.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King...ick-Foam-Foil-Duct-Insulation-FV516/100028603

 

I've seen that also. I know @Crom is in the process of doing this right now (at least to his wife's car) and I didn't want to fill his thread with my nonsense. Perhaps he'll chime in here? I believe he's doing it more for sound deadening purposes though so his end result may be a little different than mine. If it works as a heat shield, I may try it! Far cheaper than the big name stuff.

 

^Interesting...I'll have to look into that too.

 

And before anyone mentions it: yes, I know about Lizard Skin and similar products. That's a bit more of a project than I'm willing to take this, so not really an option for me. I'm just looking at stick-on alternatives at this point that would be relatively cheap. I may end up doing a test of a few different alternatives and science the hell out of it to get some real figures. Seeing as how winter is coming, I may not get the full effect until next year, but it's not getting any cooler for us with the way we're treating our little ball of mud.

 

Thanks! I never thought of that!

 

Anytime

 

The only part of the stick-on sound reducing "Fatmat" or "Dynomat" products that might be construed as heat reducing is the aluminum backing that is "assumed" to be a bit of an infrared reflector. Probably isn't. The plastic "tar" they use for deadening the panels isn't exactly a heat insulator either. There are sound isolation products that may double as a heat control - but the panel deadener isn't the right stuff.

Better yet, use a real heat insulator product - temp resistant foam or fiberglass felt. The duct insulation sounds like a good choice to me.

 

Thank! It looks like that may be the way to go. I used to work in construction and have seen a myriad of products and methods to insulate damn near anything. Just wondering if anyone has attempted this on our trucks. Also since your name is @GREENBIRD56 , and your avatar appears to be a 56 T-Bird , Ill add this: true, Dynamat itself is only a minimal thermal barrier. To get maximum thermal protection, they suggest you add Dynaliner over it. It seem like they just want my money by making you buy two of their products. I'm looking for a one shot deal.

 

Looks like the way ill go too, might have something to do this weekend now.

 

Please post if you do. I'll be doing something soon, but if you get done before I do, I'd love to hear some feedback on how it went and how it worked.

 

Yeah, for sure. I'll see if I can do some sort of temperature readings before and after, however minute they may be.