95 Civic Del sol stripped apart, Sound deadener showdown product install

[(((BOOM))) 10+ year member]

"barrier" style of mat? is not a barrier, dur.

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

Now we need about 20 more of these to build enough case evidence to complete destroy the "more is better" and "you can never have too much" attitude on "deadening." //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
Loved the part about Don telling you he did not know the answer. The true mark of any professional is to know his/her limitations. This is not very common in the "sound deadening" industry. Wonder how much CLD mat would actually go into cars if manufacturers reduced their self-indulgent blowing of smoke up their customer's asses by 50%?

Agreed

You know. I just realized...pretty much all OEM car manufacturers do that. Pull up your carpet and look in your trunk. I never realized that those little strips of "deadening" were actually doing their job. In a normal listening envirnoment with stock exhaust and stereo, those little strips they add do the job in getting rid of vibration. I always thought they were a joke when I saw them and thought the OEM was just being cheap. Now I've seen the light.... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif.

We ripped the stufff out that had air trapped underneath it and replaced it with CLD. However on the driver and passenger floor there were two huge mats that were really on there tight. Don said it seemed like it was doing its job so we worked around it. No use putting vibration damper on top of vibration damper.

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

I went from this in my 92 civic: http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u14/krisfnbs/White%20Civic%20Install/

To this in my 95 del sol: http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u14/krisfnbs/95%20del%20sol%20sound%20deadener%20showdown/

Not only have I spent less money, but I have completed about 75% of my entire car not only with vibration damper, but with closed cell foam, and MLV. In my 92 civic, Nothing but the 2 front doors and entire trunk are covered with Dynamat. What a WASTE!!!!! In my 95 del sol, its all spread out. I cant wait to get my doors done.

Im telling you guys, night and day difference. I drive my 92 civic now and im shaking my head... thinking to myself **** I spent almost 30 hours doing this work and its nothing compared to what I could have done.

 

[Vegas WRX 10+ year member]

Nice review. How hard is it to get all panels and all back on after buiding everything up like that?

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

Nice review. How hard is it to get all panels and all back on after buiding everything up like that?

On this car it was not so hard. It did take some maneuvering, however it is mostly about remembering what goes where, and cutting out holes for the screws and clips so they will go back in nice and tight. Thats what your aiming for a good tight seal between the plastic and metal. Some areas we had to trim down on because it just wasnt going to work. We used 1/4th inch all around and it took some work to get the seats back in etc. I guess every car would be different. There are some areas in which we could have added more, but the difference wouldnt be too noticeable.

Thats also another good thing about Dons products. More could not really hurt anything, but its a waste of money. He tells you the correct method to put on, and really knows what hes talking about. It took alot for me to realize this because I had been brainwashed by this **** forum and other people beforehand.

 

[Twistid 5,000+ posts]

Hmm, learned alot from this thread... I too, used to think to just put layer ontop of layer of deadener to get that classic "thunk" sound when closing your hatch/door.

Is there a difference between the two methods in bass heavy vehicles? I would think the more the better idea would come into play with 145+db vehicles atleast in the trunk/hatch areas.

 

[Vegas WRX 10+ year member]

Thanks. I am considering using his product!! Just got to get the money togethor. Good luck with the rest of the build!

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

Hmm, learned alot from this thread... I too, used to think to just put layer ontop of layer of deadener to get that classic "thunk" sound when closing your hatch/door.
Is there a difference between the two methods in bass heavy vehicles? I would think the more the better idea would come into play with 145+db vehicles.

I honestly don't know. In theory it kind of sounds correct so instead of the base 25% theory, you could do say 35-50% for a bit more coverage and what is really going to make the night and day difference is the MLV. Layer on layer of vibration damper doesn't get much done.

 

[Compjake 10+ year member]

very nice, this makes me want to work on my car now

lol, same here.. luckily I have to swap my brake pads, thermostat and replace a Pitman arm on my car today, then I get to investigate a CEL on my moms car.

 

[Rudy 10+ year member]

Nice review. How hard is it to get all panels and all back on after buiding everything up like that?

It really is a nice writeup - thanks Kris for taking the time to do it.

There is almost always plenty of room for these materials but you have to take your time and think ahead. The floor is simple because the carpet has plenty of give to it, but it is always a good idea to test fit the trim panels as you go along to see what sort of space you have to work with and where all of the clips and screws need to go. You sort of figure out what is ideal and then have to make some compromises to deal with reality. One of the nice benefits of this is that the CCF/MLV combination fills up what was air space and the entire vehicle ends up feeling tighter than it did before.

A perfect example of compromise is the back wall in Kris's car. We wanted to use both CCF and MLV behind the entire thing but there wasn't space. We ended up using MLV everywhere and CCF only where the gaps were wide enough. This did a great job of blocking rear wheel and exhaust noise and the CCF got rid of the rattles. He still has some squeaks because of all of the plastic that he's going to track down. I think if the car was mine I'd pull out the plastic shelf/bin thing and replace it with a fiberglass sub enclosure.

Hmm, learned alot from this thread... I too, used to think to just put layer ontop of layer of deadener to get that classic "thunk" sound when closing your hatch/door.
Is there a difference between the two methods in bass heavy vehicles? I would think the more the better idea would come into play with 145+db vehicles atleast in the trunk/hatch areas.

That's an interesting question. As Kris suggested, there's no harm in going a little above 25% coverage and it might help under extreme conditions. You should keep that 25% goal in mind though. It's not a magic number, it's just an indication of where you are starting to waste your time and money.

An SPL competitor should be mechanically reinforcing the vehicle's panels before doing anything else. I'm working with a few competitors right now to develop solutions for their application, but what's right for them really isn't right for 99% of us. They can't waste a single dB with the vehicle parked - no matter if it's music or just sound energy. Most of us want to reduce road noise so we can hear what we're playing or just have some quiet while we're on the phone. Most of us don't want it to sound like we're driving a rattle can down the road. It's all about deciding what you want to accomplish and doing what makes sense to get you there.

The thing about the barrier (MLV in this case) is that it not only stops noise from getting in, it stops the sound you make inside the car from hitting the sheet metal with as much energy as it would have otherwise - works both ways.

 

[Rudy 10+ year member]

Kris got some good shots of the floor - CLD Tiles and CCF. We both forgot to take final shots with the MLV in place because our brains were pretty much baked by the sun at that point. I pulled the carpet back to take this:

 

[mvw2 10+ year member]

What was used to determine where to put the tiles?

 

[Rudy 10+ year member]

What was used to determine where to put the tiles?

Just tapping on the panels. It's pretty easy to here which areas are flimsy/resonant. The trap you don't want to fall into is tapping to determine when you are done - tapping on a panel is very different than what happens to it under normal conditions. Tap to find weaknesses but not to figure out when you are done. Vibration damping is cumulative. Don't worry about adding more until you have treated all of the areas that showed they needed work the first time through.

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

Looks good.

 

[krisfnbz 10+ year member]

Kris got some good shots of the floor - CLD Tiles and CCF. We both forgot to take final shots with the MLV in place because our brains were pretty much baked by the sun at that point. I pulled the carpet back to take this:

Ah yes the MLV picture I did not have. This is what I forgot to take a picture of. I will be taking step by step pictures when I do my doors. Im also going to try and do it extremely slow to make sure I do it correctly the first time. I literally want to get as much MLV/CCF in there as possible. The CLD tiles will be super easy to install, the 6x10 cutout idea is BRILLIANT.

Also did I mention this stuff is EASY to cut?//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif