Alternative Soundproofing/dampening

I stripped it down last weekend. Drilled out the speakers and took out the carpet. Here’s a pic. Sorry, I was in the garage and didn’t have enough light so I brightened it up. You can see the trunk and hybrid battery in the front and the dash in the back.

I used 2 gallons of sound damping paint. I didn’t paint anything except the interior; wheel wells, floor, inside and outside door panels; trunk walls and floor. Right now, I only have the carpet, front seats and console back in. It doesn’t sound like a real car when it’s going down the road. Lots of clicking. And kind of a whoosh. Right now I can’t tell how much quieter it will be. I’m still trying to find rattles and loud spots before I add speakers and put the rest on the interior in.

It takes a couple of hours to take it apart. I spent one hour (so far) putting it together and about 4-5 hrs/gallon to paint it. I did it over 2 days so the layers would dry better. I’ve got some Dynamat extreme but only put in a little bit so far. I’m going the use the rest when I put in the speakers.

 

Thanks Bill, It’s always time consuming and the paint wasn’t much faster than doing dynamat.

Like you said, the doors needed it the most. After that, the four wheel wells, the walls of the trunk area, around the back seat and just in front of the firewall. There were small patches of white sound dampening material in the car but not a lot. The floor and spare tire space had a lot of the same heavy asphalt that my Tundra had. I was surprised to find that.

Considering the dampening effect versus time/money; the floor and spare tire may not have been worth it as much as the rest of the car. But when you’ve been painting for four hours and still have a quarter gallon left, the floor looks great. I gave it two coats.

The problem with doing the rear wheel wells is the electrical cables. The 12V is on one side and the NiMH is on the other. For some reason, I couldn’t get myself to stick a wet, possibly conductive brush near that big orange cable. I used dynamat there.