DIY: Sealing and deadening your door panels

First thing is first, remove your door panels. There is a nice diy here:
http://*********.com/tacoma/installation/speakers/
Note: You do not need to remove your entire interrior, mine is just removed because i was doing my entire install



The next step is to seal your door panels. For this you will need some sort of material. ABS plastic is usually the material of choice here, but because i had set aside a weekend to do my install and forgot to order it i picked up some 1/4 lexan (the unbreakable kind). Lexan is very easy to use because you can have a buddy hold it over the opening in the door and you can just trace out the piece you'll need to cut. Over each door opening (or hole) there is about a 1/8" -1/4" gap that is recessed into the door, you want your piece to fit the outside of this gap as best as possible.
There are a couple different materials you can use for this step such as:
-ABS plastic
-1/4" MDF (just make sure you seal it with plasti-dip or line-x or something that won't let the moisture in)
-Sheet metal flashing (which i personally don't prefer beause of metal on metal , but a lot of people do like to use this)
-I have also seen people use the realtor signs (the kind that are a thick plastic board with a hollow like inside)
-Perforated metal (which is also easy to trace and cut because you can see through the holes in it)

Once you have the material of choice cut out, place a bead of silicone around the hole your about the seal and place the material to cover the hole. next use some tiny sheet metal screws to hold the piece of lexan (or other material) in place so that it will not move. Then hit it again with some silicone to seal the hole.

here is the silicone i used:


Note: I have colored the lexan with a sharpie so you can see it better.



Next, Take a piece of your sound deadener and place it over the hole you just sealed (in my case fatmat rattletrap xxxtreme 80mil) . I have used this deadener on many projects and have always been pleased with the outcome, and it's not priced too bad either.


Next, Cover your entire door with another layer or two (including the area you just covered).
Note:Make sure you do not cover over the holes for the door panel clips!


Lastly, get your speaker rings and bolt them to the door. Here is a set that i made. I had them sprayed with line-x so that they would be resistant to water and moisture.




Put the door panels back on and you're done!

 

Looks great with the deadening....

But I dont understand why people are trying to seal off the doors? Its not going to be air tight. Coaxial speakers are OPEN AIR speakers. Meaning they dont need to be sealed. Your wasting your time. Sorry.

 

damn i thought this was sealing doors from water lol

nice write up tho

i think it would been nice if you also went over how to remove the door panels correctly too

 

You couldn't be more wrong, first off they are component speakers, but that doesn't matter. You are sealing off the doors to create an "enclosure" for the speakers. If you've ever listened to door panels sealed vs. unsealed you will undoubtably notice a difference. That's why all the SPL guys have been doing it forever.

 

This just sound deadoning?

 

Well the thing is your not sealing anything off? The door is still open air. There are holes all over it. Thats why i'm saying your version of sealing your door off is useless. Yes you are right about SPL guys sealing their doors but they seal it completely tight along the windows and everything.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Why can't you just put the sound deadener over the openings in the door? Does it really make that much of a difference?

Also, since you're keeping the deadening material under the door panel, would it work just as good to simply apply the material to the back of the panel instead of the door?

 

How do you feel on MLV and CCF as additional deadening. I look around and see that it seems to be the rage for really deadening sound. How much more benift would someone get by adding these types of materials? Is that extra cost worth it?

Did you add RattleTrap to the inside skin as well?

 

It makes a big difference, i've been doing professional car audio for the past 9 years. Your not going to get every single pin hole but sealing up 99% of them as opposed to leaving them all open makes a huge difference in sound quality. How about you take your unwanted and wrongful information elsewhere and stop trying to ruin a useful DIY thread

 

MLV and CCF are great to add on top of the deadener. They also make a noticable difference, and i plan on adding CCF to my doors in the future. The extra cost is worth it only if you're a real audio junkie.

I used about 3-4 layers behind the speaker on the inner skin, they rest of the inner skin is pretty hard to access for this. Behind the speaker should deffinately be deadened though.

 

The reason people are doing this is because it improves the sound quality. To what degree the door is sealed isn't relevant. Performing these steps will enhance your stereo system. I know from personal experience, the before and after difference was quite noticeable and I don't feel that I wasted my time at all.

 

^^ ditto...I can also attest to this, it is noticeable.

It's true that an IDEAL seal is a completely sealed enclosure. Although this technique does not seal the door chamber completely, it sure helps hold more pressure which will improve the speakers response.

Additionally, it also helps reduce road/wind/other outside noises which helps drop the noise floor a bit. Of course, this stuff only works for certain frequencies (which is why CCF and MLV are also great because they also reduce the noise floor...but for slightly different frequencies). So the quieter you make your cabin, the lower you can keep your system.

The benefit of listening to your system at a lower volume is because electronics tend to get more inefficient as they get hotter. The more power you are using in your amp and speakers, the worse your signal to noise ratio gets due to these inefficiencies...

 

Another very important reason to seal off those large holes on the inner door skin is to prevent the back waves from the speakers coming through and interfering with the front waves. Also most speakers that would be installed in a door are designed to be infinite baffle, so sealing off the doors isn't necessary, but may help some.

I def think CCF is a good idea to help stop rattles. I also used MLV, and it quieted down the road noise to an extent. Once I hit about 50mph or so, it's doesn't do much. But then again I have Duratrac tires.

 

I agree, i was also a mobile electronics installer for sum years. sealing off everything as best you can is better for all the reason listed above. SPL & SQL. You also want to keep as much interfering noise at a minimum...

hookedontronics...you dont by any chance have some leftover speaker adapter plates you can trace and scan into an image file for me...? would make it easy to make some using a printed template rather than measuring and cutting from scratch!

 

good write up Jake, dont listen to these fuckin trolls trying to fuck up your thread. About how much of the sound deadening material did u use? Like if i were to do all 4 doors on my truck how much should i order?

 

Thanks for the write up! Followed your instructions and did the same this weekend.

 

Sealed my doors. Made no difference. Big drain holes in bottom of door. Not airtight at wibdow gasket etc. Lots of work for almost no improvement. I put a sandwich of ccf and mlv on door and it helped regardless of sealing or lack there of. Also I reccomend NOT sealing off as it interferes with door panel fitment once you add ccf and mlv. Finally if you do seal the doors you can place plates BEHIND the hole to aid panel fitment and allow screw heads to catch the lip of the hole to clamp the front of the lip. Prevents having to screw into metal, is easily removed for door repair (like window motors) and like I said... gives more room for ccf and mlv on top.

 

None of this is true about sealing the door. It is not detectable as I have run my doors both ways. But you have to seal it from water once you remove the plastic. Time is better spent elsewhere... like installing a sandwich of ccf mlf ccf between door and door panel.

 

I probably did all 4 doors in a couple layers and the back wall with about 50sq feet.


DevL, your just wrong, go hate elsewhere. This makes a huge improvement in sound quality

 

Don't have much experience with car audio, so I have a question out of curiosity. Will sound deadening in the door panels reduce the bass in the factory system? (Or maybe make it cleaner/less obnoxious may be a better description).

I like the factory stereo, but my 07 is the worst factory system I have ever owned for an overpowering bass. I can barely listen to it without the bass all the way down to minimum. I like to hear the voices and other instruments and there is just too much muddy sounding bass even when set on the neutral EQ setting.