Prepping for Sound Deadening

Paul, you make any headway on your project? Any pics to share? Results?

 

Yep! I've sound deadened the front doors, and the rear wall. I actually ran out of Noico closed cell foam (CCF) but still have a ton of vibration dampening (stinger roadkill). I'm waiting for another roll of CCF to come in from Amazon. I'll have to find my pictures to post up. I can say that this is time consuming! Each door takes about 2-3 hours. Its easy, mindless, but cutting and sticking takes forever. The rear wall is a real bitch to get the storage bins in and out without busting the little plastic Christmas tree clips. All in all though the products are extremely easy to work with and bend and stick very well.

So far I've placed the vibration dampening inside the door on the outer door skin, the inner door support, and then sealed off the entire door off with the CCF, then reattached the inside door skin (interior). There is an obvious sound difference. I can hear almost no road noise from vehicles next to me when they are directly next to me. Sound from other vehicles goes up a noticeable amount when they are even with my rear door (as the doors are just stock and have no extra dampening).

I feel that now that I can actually tell a difference I will be diving even further into this project once I get the rest of my matieral (time, money, and especially wife permitting) by doing the entire roof and floor. Its going to be a while until that point but I'll make sure I document it. Until then if anyone has any questions let me know!

 

I found your post because I searched the forum for "Noico". I noticed you used their foam. They

Noico 80 mil (2 mm) 36 sqft (3.4 sqm) car Sound deadening mat, Butyl Automotive Sound Deadener, Audio Noise Insulation and dampening

also make mat, any reason you skipped theirs and used the stinger product?

I am interested in treating the doors to stop road noise..

 

Honestly, the only reason I didn't use the Noico mat is because I didn't know it existed until after I purchased the Stinger. I had never seen Stinger Roadkill for 95 bucks so I jumped on it (I had known about the Stinger product before). If Noico's vibration dampening mat is as good as their CCF, I'd buy it.

 

I'm currently in the process of sound dampening my truck as well. So far, I've got the back wall and rear doors complete. The floor is almost complete, but I ran out of material. I'm using
RAAMmat and Ensolite from RAAMaudio.

To prep, I vacuumed, cleaned with 409 and denatured alcohol. You don't want to use acetone, because it'll screw up your paint.

And let me just add....this is a ton of work. I've got about 10 hours into the project so far.

 

I did the back wall first and noticed an immediate difference in noise level. But keep in mind that I don't have my rear seats in, which will absorb a lot of that noise to begin with.

 

I didn't clean anything before CLD. My truck is pretty new though. I used Fatmat and it sticks to anything no problem. Just finished CLD last night on Roof, doors, rear wall and a little on the floor. Now it's time for CCF and then MLV. Extremely tedious process. A little at a time seems to work for me for not getting overwhelmed. I have pics in my build if you are interested.

 

I noticed after reading up on peoples installs that there seems to be a trend to just use mat, followed up by foam and that's it. It seems a lot of folks skip the MLV barrier.

Yet when read up on the sound deadner showdown site, which is extremely educational, he recommends the MLV as it's good at blocking sound.

I have not decided on which method I'm going to go for.

 

When studying up on the subject, I found an article about using sound deadener in light aircraft. They showed an interesting technique of evaluating the panels - trying to keep the amount of weight to a minimum ( a bit different than for a pickup truck). The metal panels were "tested" by thumping them with a small rubber hammer and judging them by sound. It was pointed out that the larger and flatter the panel - the more the sound (DUH), but also that the noise level was tied to amplitude. At the edges where the panel was restrained - not so much movement - at the center, a lot. They cut the vibration deadener into strips and "X'd" the panels to leave a double layer at the center - and not so much (or none) at the edges. After trying it on my T-bird and a 2002 Camaro, I can tell you the technique works - and really cut the amount of "Fat Mat" I would have used if I just closed my eyes and covered it all. The double weight at the center of the span (where a pair of strips cross) is way more effective than a single layer. After a while "thumping" - you get pretty good at evaluating which areas are going to do some good - and which are a waste of time and material.

 

After many "thump" tests with my knucke over the past few days I can attest to the previous post. You should see the lack of skin...

Test as you go for resonance. Much more tedious to cut for this technique but way more efficient.

Did I mention not to use your knuckles...

Interesting about the double layer in the middle. I may do this on some larger panels before CCF today.