Sound Deadened the Civic this weekend

[knapp9]

I know this has been posted a bunch here, but I took a little different approach and thought I'd share the results. The car has a 2K miles on it and the road noise got a little too much for me, especially on the highway. Son said to turn up the stereo , but that only made it worse. So anyway, I did the deed this weekend. Here are some photos.

[xvoltm2]

[knapp9]

The first thing I did was the doors. This thin sheet of plastic and rubber was all there was for sound insulation in the doors.

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When I took is off, this gooey adhesive was left. It was a mess to remove.



I used acetone to clean off the metal. Couldn't believe how dirty a new car was. The yellow rag was clean to begin with. This is what it looked like after cleaning one door. I finally realized I was wiping way too hard and actually removing some of Honda's cheap paint job.

[xvoltm2]

big differance?

[knapp9]

I ended up using Windex to clean the metal. Too much came off with Acetone. You can see where a lot of the black paint came off along the bottom of door in the 1st pic that follows. Look like curvey scrap marks.

I didn't use a lot of dampening mat in the car. Instead I used a lot of foam and a MLV sound barrier from Second Skin ... what they called Luxury Liner. You can see in this photo that I put a couple of pieces of damp on the outer door skin and that was it. What you see is one sheet cut into 4 parts. When done, I tapped on the outside of the door. These few pieces were all that was needed to take away the tinny sound from the door shell.



I used an old realtor sign to cover the big door holes. Light weight but stiff, easy to cut and water proof. Worked okay.



When this was done, I covered the inside of the door with Damplifier. Left all the bolts and fastners exposed in case I ever needed to get back inside the door. This is the only place I put the Damplifier on "wall to wall" like this.



Covered everything with a thin 1/8 inch layer of foam to make it look pretty. Actually, I noticed that the door panel fit snuggly against the inside of the door, so I'm not too sure a thicker layer of foam would have worked.

[xvoltm2]

wow, it looks awesome, very clean work! one question: what happenes when (if ever) you'll need to service the window components, is it still accessible?

[Silver8th]

Looks good

[knapp9]

big differance?

Like night and day. The road noise from the rear of the vehicle is totally gone. Even my son commented on how much better the ride is, and the music too of course!!!

what happenes when (if ever) you'll need to service the window components, is it still accessible?

Yes, but I'll have to tear off the material covering the access holes in the door. I took "before" pics & put them in the glove box, and didn't put Damplifier over the motor, regulator bolts, etc., in the door.

[knapp9]

I found a big source of road noise in a Civic when took off the rear side panel. There are 2 big holes in the body. The only sound insulation between the panel and the rear wheel well was a small bag of jute material sitting on the bottom of the frame. You can see it in the blueish/green plastic bag after I pulled it out. There was nothing around the big black, styrofoam side impact pad either that was in the top hole.



And there was absolutely no padding inside the rear lining. I mean really ... the only thing between the passenger compartment and the rear wheels was an 1/8 inch of plastic and 1/8 inch of steel. That's it.

[knapp9]

I treated the side panels almost the same as the doors. I put Dampilier on the outer sheet metal, covered the wheel well and finally, filled the cavity with accustical foam. Then covered it all up (including one of the bigh holes) with Damplifier and foam. I left the side impact styrofoam block alone. Here is what it looked like when I was finished.

[xvoltm2]

u make it look easy, makes me want to do it to my car

[knapp9]

I did not put in a lot of dampening material. Probably somewhere around 40 sq. ft. Not much. Instead I relied on a sound barrier material and accustical foam to do most of the work. I put in five 24x54 sheets of Second Skin's Luxury Liner. It is heavy and like a thick rubber mat. I completely covered the rear wheel wells. To make sure the LL fit, I made a paper mold first. Then unfolded the paper and used it as a pattern to cut the LL.



Kinda anal, I know. But it worked. When I folded the cut LL on the wheel wells, it fit perfectly. I used 3M 90 spray adhesive.



Here is a shot of the whole trunk area covered with the LL. I put it under the carpet in the rest of the car too. And pushed it as far up under the dash against the firewall as I could, which was only about 12 inches from the floor unfortunately. Anyway, this is what I put my money on to kill the road noise.

[knapp9]

I bought some "accustical" foam from a company online that makes sound proofing material for buildings, auditoriums, music rooms, etc. They had a clearance section selling production scraps, so I figured what the heck! This 5x6 1/2 sheet cost me a whopping $20 shipped. I used it in the big open voids to get some sound absorption going on in addition to the barrier action of the LL and the metal dampening of the Damplifier.



For example, I stuffed it in the opening above the rear strut and wheel well where I couldn't put anything else.



I wrapped some of the foam in plastic to protect it from moisture and then put those bags over the wheel wells and in the side behind the front door.

[stealth]

Damn you are the sound deadening king! What was total cost and time for this work, if you don`t mind?

[knapp9]

It was about $350 all together. 2nd Skin's Luxury Liner was the expensive part. I've used their products before. For the money, you'd be hard pressed to find something better than the Damplifier mat IMHO. The car is brand new, so I figured it was well worth it in the long run, especially on long highway drives.

I started taking seats & trim out Friday night after work and had it all back together Sunday afternoon.

[jomasoccer9]

Wow! great work!!!

[knapp9]

Here are some other shots of what I did with the foam.

I lined the side panels before reinstalling them to get at least something in there to deflect all that road noise. And that's 100% more than what Honda bothered to do.



I also did the same thing with the front kick panels under the dash in front of the doors. I love this car, hate the noise.



I even recycled the jute, cotton (whatever Honda used) and stuffed it back in the door frame void ... only repackaged so that it filled up the whole space, not just laying in big spot all by itself, as I found it.

[divinebarrel]

not my thing but nice job

[flomofo]

That looks awesome, I hope strategic placement of my second skin material gives something near what your job gave you.

Definately was wondering about the rear quarter panels on the coupe, so thx a lot for those pics.

[Nick3237]

good job man! i dont have to motivation to get into something like this, but like you said, i bet its night and day.