'95 Del Sol sound deadening project!

[Bereno 10+ year member]

hi all! I just started an account today so that I could try and document my attempt at quieting down my Del Sol. His name is Carlos... Carlos the Del Sol.

OK, so this is going to be very similar to Krisfnbz's thread from back in 2006, but hopefully I will have the pleasure of finishing it! Also, I would like to thank Don from http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com (SDS for short?) for helping me with my order! This has been a LONG time coming, and I am super excited to finally get it going.

A few things to know:

• I bought the car a while ago and left if bone stock. Also, I have a stock HU, with stock speakers. Once I get the car quieted down a little, these will be upgraded.
  
• I also have all the materials thus far, and have used Don's stuff from SDS. The only thing I don't have of his is I used a different MLV that i got on the cheap. Don't worry though, its still 1lb/ft^2.
  
• I have about 4 days to finish this, so hopefully if I have a question, someone can post on here to help me out.
  
• I like to take pictures! Hopefully there will be lots of them in this thread.
  
• Finally, I am a numbers man so I did some preliminary testing to see what the before and after results might actually look like.
  

OK. So just today, I went out for a drive that I make regularly to record the noise levels before doing all the work. I used an app on my phone to measure the noise level in the cabin of my car. I know this is far from accurate, but I just want to see some comparison numbers for the hell of it. All numbers were recorded by a passenger in my car with the readings being taken from near the center of the cabin.

Here are the results:

00mph: 47-48 dB at cold idle

35mph: 68-70 dB on regular road

35mph: 65-66 dB on new pavement

40mph: 72-73 db on regular road

55mph: 76-79 dB on regular road

65mph: 71-74 dB on new pavement

65mph: 78-80 dB on rough road

Note: all roads were somewhat wet, though it was not raining. Just an FYI

Pics:

Here is the car as of Dec 28th:

Here is the basic overview of the materials I will be using:

CLD tiles, HH-66 vinyl cement, some double sided sticky velcro, butyl rope (super handy!), along with some MVL shown below

The CCF and the MLV laying out to flatten a bit. I think this might help make it easier to work with a little bit.

1/8th inch, 1lb/ft^2:

1/8th inch CCF:

the MLV and some 1/4 inch CCF for the footwells:

The interior of the car with no seats, but before the teardown

I pay my friends with cookies!

I hope this thread is of use to someone! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Click to read more...

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

Hmm... looks like I can't post pics of the car quite yet... EDIT: Hey!! Looks like i can post pics and links now!!

Well, I had some friends over to help me gut the car, and do the basic application of the CLD tiles to the floor and rear deck. Overall, I think its going well, but its hard for me to say. Tomorrow morning i will cut the CCF to fit, and then lay the MLV over that. Hopefully, I can get the floor and rear deck done tomorrow, to leave the doors for the day after that!

Ok, the interior is mostly out, and the CLD tiles are getting put in. I cleaned each area with acetone first to get better adhesion, but I dont know if this actually helps or not...

Don't mind all the ugly wiring. That is my attempt at an alarm install - Hey, it works pretty well, so I'm ok with it lol

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

Interesting thread... You need 10 posts to post links and pics BTW

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

Interesting thread... You need 10 posts to post links and pics BTW

Thanks for the heads up. Once I get those 10 in, I will post the pics in an updated thread.

Anyway, off to start measuring and cutting some CCF!

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

Thanks for the heads up. Once I get those 10 in, I will post the pics in an updated thread.
Anyway, off to start measuring and cutting some CCF!

if you'd like you can email some pics to me and i will post them up for you. just pm me if thats what you wanna do til you are able to post links and pics. or have you tried uploading them to this site and doing it that way?

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

if you'd like you can email some pics to me and i will post them up for you. just pm me if thats what you wanna do til you are able to post links and pics. or have you tried uploading them to this site and doing it that way?

Hey thanks! That is super kind of you! I have already uploaded the first few pics to my Photobucket account and I can send you the link to the album if you would like. This would make adding more photos easier on you I think. However, if you prefer the email method, I am more than willing to do that as well. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

EDIT: as you can see, I got the pics to start working!

I finally started on the CCF.

How important is it to get the foam all the way up under the pedals? I will try and get some MLV up in there, but I'm not going to kill myself over it.

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

Ok, quick question: how much does the stock speaker cover affect the sound quality?

I searched, but most other threads were talking about studio monitors and mesh speaker covers. The stock ones I have are pretty solid that have a lot of plastic in them. Thanks in advance //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[gpgtp]

My wife has a 95 del sol si. That speaker cover shouldnt effect anything.

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

sorry i didnt see your post earlier. go ahead and pm me the link and i will do it for you bro

 

---------- Post added at 05:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ----------

 

Ok, quick question: how much does the stock speaker cover affect the sound quality?
I searched, but most other threads were talking about studio monitors and mesh speaker covers. The stock ones I have are pretty solid that have a lot of plastic in them. Thanks in advance //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

iirc it blocks out the brightness in some speakers or something of that sort. but dont quote me on that

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

Ok cool. I will eventually go with a component setup so I'm not too concerned with the high end ATM.

I will send you a PM just after I post this! Thanks again!

 

[Falcons 5,000+ posts]

firs ttime ive ever seen a new guy come in and instantly want to help people instead of either not knowing a **** thing or troll.

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

firs ttime ive ever seen a new guy come in and instantly want to help people instead of either not knowing a **** thing or troll.

lol, thanks. I always really appreciate it when others post up something helpful, so when I get a project going, I like to help if I can. However, I'm not going to claim that I know much... I do build loudspeaker enclosures as a hobby, so I am familiar with some of the basics but that's about it. Most of my projects are not designed by me. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

Ok, I have all the CLD tiles placed in the cabin, along with about half of the CCF. I will probably head back out to the garage and try and finish up the CCF tonight so that i can start tackling the MLV tomorrow. Any tips on getting the MLV to contour correctly?

I was able to finagle some CLD tiles into the door and get them to stick to the outside sheet metal. Seems to really help using the flick trick.

I used the butyl rope to wedge it between the side impact bar and the sheet metal for a little more absorption and rigidity.

I started to run out of full sheets of CCF, so I had to start piecing them together haha

My friend Eric starting to shape the CCF to one of the doors

My CCF being fitted to the passenger side door. Ignore all the extra holes... I should have measured twice, cut once, but instead I ended up measuring twice, cutting twice lol. Should not affect the SQ though.

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

OK, now that the new years celebrations are over, time to get back to work!

Question:

I have just recently been offered a large roll of 1/4 inch MLV for free! I looked at it, and its probably 60 square feet or so. I am curious if it is worth trying to use this. Would it provide much of an improvement if used? From my understanding improving upon an already quiet spot wont help if there are other areas letting sound in. Is this correct? If I did use this, I am assuming i could only put it on the floor... Any advice would be very welcome!

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

OK, now that the new years celebrations are over, time to get back to work!
Question:

I have just recently been offered a large roll of 1/4 inch MLV for free! I looked at it, and its probably 60 square feet or so. I am curious if it is worth trying to use this. Would it provide much of an improvement if used? From my understanding improving upon an already quiet spot wont help if there are other areas letting sound in. Is this correct? If I did use this, I am assuming i could only put it on the floor... Any advice would be very welcome!

it wouldn't hurt..

where did you get the mlv you bought? how much was it if you don't mind?

 

[Bereno 10+ year member]

it wouldn't hurt..
where did you get the mlv you bought? how much was it if you don't mind?

I got mine from here for $5.08 per linear foot (4.5 square feet) shipping was around $36 for 50 square feet.