SecondSkin Damplifier installation

Finally had some time last weekend to start the project. My whole body is sore now, but it was a good learning experience. A few scratches and cuts, a few drops of blood, lots of sweat. No tears yet though.

I started w/ the front driver door. Bad choice for a brand new beginner. Too many wires and plugs to deal with. Also, I took the time to unclip all the wirings (difficult not to break them) and cut holes in the mat so that I can re-clip the wires and their harnesses back in when done. That took extra time and effort, but I liked the result much better. I only broke one clip holder on the door panel, hopefully it won't rattle too much.

Next I did the rear hatch door. Same tedious work. Lots of wirings and harnesses to unclip, lots of holes to cut. The hatch door has only one small opening to get to the outer skin, so I couldn't put a whole lot of damp in there. Just some small patches.

Then came the spare tire well and outer skins of the rear. Lots of room to work with since the Prius is a hatchback. You can sit comfortably inside while working. Just hot as a furnace after a while (i.e. lots of cold beer consumed).

The last portion was under the rear seat. I didn't take the carpet completely out so it was a bit tricky applying the mat to the vertical wall of the seat. However, I did see that there already was some SD applied to the floorboard and the bottom part of the rear seat. Not a whole lot, but much more than I expected. I put Damp all over it anyways.

In fact, there were also a small patch in the front door, on one side of the rear, and lots under the spare tire (see photos later). So at least the salesman was somewhat "honest" when he told me the package I bought had "soundproofing". No wonder it's not as noisy as some other Prius owners have complained.

Anyhow, so far so good. The sound level average came down from about 78 to 72 at 65mph highway driving (tested it last night). Can't wait to do the other three doors, and if I still have some Damp left after that then I'll do the floor. I just hate to take out the front seats since there are side airbags to have to deal with. But we'll see. Where there's a will I'm sure there's a workaround...

Driver Door pictures

Hatch Door pictures

BTW, I need some advice on what is the best way to attach an aftermarket speaker to the universal mounting template? See pictures.

Thanks!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Jul 17 2007, 12:08 AM) [snapback]480072[/snapback]</div>

I ended up using modeling clay and screws instead, which worked really well. As for isolation from the door, the template sits on top of a layer of Damplifier so I think that should be OK.

Some more pics of the Damplification of the trunk

 

As part of the ongoing Damplification project, last weekend I added some SD mats to the floor. I hadn't planned on doing this, but since I already had half the carpet pulled up anyway to run cables for the subwoofer, I went nuts and took out both front seats and put Damplifier everywhere I could reach.

Turned out the seats were really easy to remove once I figured out how to unclip the various wiring harnesses. Each clip is a different design, so I had to experiment a bit with a small flathead screwdriver. (Tip: unscrew the four big bolts first, then lean the seat backward to get some elbow room and see what you're doing). Oh, and don't forget to unplug the 12V battery first to prevent accidental activation of the airbags.

Once the seats were removed, the dampening didn't take long at all. Not a whole lot of cutting was involved.

I decided to leave the flooring under the driver's foot alone because I didn't know how to remove the gas tank lever and didn't feel like messing with it. Another time, perhaps. I also left most of the center console in place since I didn't feel a need to put SD mats under there anyway. But taking advantage of the seats being gone, I did remove the console's outer covering to run the remote cable for the KSC into the "secret compartment". Worked out great.

BTW, when putting the console cover back, I intentionally left out two screws in the middle so if I need to remove it again I won't have to take out the seats (the seats kind of block access to those screws, unless you have a special type of screwdriver).

Floor Damplification effect: definitely quieter. But now the tire noise gets even more pronounced and annoying as a result! Arghhh!

Related note: we replaced the tires on my wife's Xterra with Michelin tires two weeks ago, and now the SUV is even quieter than the Prius with all its damplification! I test drove her SUV with my sound meter and the average is a paltry 68dB, compared to 73dB on my Prius. I was shocked.

Moral of the story: If you want to improve your sound system, the first thing you'll probably want to invest in is a nice set of tires! No kidding...