Sealing And Deadening the Doors

[f0rge]

Question from a complete n00b:

Couldn't I just take a big sheet of the CLD stuff and cover the whole inside of the door including covering up the stock plastic sheet? Wouldn't that seal the door better than cardboard and duct tape?

Why wouldn't I want to do that? Other than maybe weight.

[WolfSongX]

Originally Posted by f0rge

Question from a complete n00b:

Couldn't I just take a big sheet of the CLD stuff and cover the whole inside of the door including covering up the stock plastic sheet? Wouldn't that seal the door better than cardboard and duct tape?

Why wouldn't I want to do that? Other than maybe weight.

It will flex. Rigid = better. The signboard with the CLD is plenty stiff so that there is not a lot of flex. Most of the audio guys would use plywood to plug these holes, the signboard is a much lighter weight alternative and provides about 80% of the rigidity at a fraction of the weight. What you are trying to do is concentrate the area that is flexing and creating sound waves to the driver itself to focus things, otherwise you'll be getting reflections added from the flexing sheet of CLD.

I guess the argument is that since the doors aren't truly sealed, will this make a difference? Maybe not, but I do know how big of an improvement the whole package was on cleaning up the stock stereo especially the bass. Before the door speakers were so indistinct and muddy due to the reflections, now they are very focused and clear.

Feel free to give it a try and see if you still have good results.

[f0rge]

Ok cool thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not even convinced I want to go down this rabbit hole.

[WolfSongX]

Originally Posted by f0rge

Ok cool thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not even convinced I want to go down this rabbit hole.

You are right... it IS a bit of a rabbit hole, because then it draws attention to the other shortcomings of the car... but it's also a stopping point if you just want to take what you have and improve it without having to buy a lot of gear and wire the car.

It is a trade off... and if you're not that big into audio, it may not be worth adding the weight to the car. Depends on what your goals are, but if you're on the fence, or want to tackle the door rattles and are deciding whether to get the extra supplies and go that extra mile... it's worth it.

If you really don't care and just want to make the system louder but really don't care about the sound quality... then the money's probably better spent somewhere else.

If you want to improve the stock audio, it's worth the effort as far as the sound improvement goes, the sound deadening in this car absolutely sucks and the amount of echo and rattles these door speakers produce is pretty significant. This mod all but eliminates this extra noise from the system. If you just wanted to use big sheets and eliminate the tap and stick method of deadening, then you could significantly speed up the process, at the cost of a few pounds of extra weight.

The improvement to the stock system is enough to make it bearable. I could not stand the stock radio before I did this. The sound improved enough that it allowed me to spend my money on improving other areas of the car before needing to tackle the audio.

My personal "rabbit hole" is that now I've established this level of quality, then I'm going to feel compelled to make the rest of the cabin and trunk comparable to be able to listen to the stereo loudly without a whole lot of distracting rattles.

Good luck with what you decide.

[mid_life_crisis]

After the doors are tight you do the trunk floor to get rid of road noise, then you start pulling panels off all over the inside of the car and coating their backs to prevent vibration and it goes on and on and on...

[WolfSongX]

Originally Posted by rupert

This is what I ordered:

http://www.tmsoundproofing.com/Mass-...d-40-feet.html

I know it is not the 20 sq/ft you were looking for, but it is less of the product.

Nice find Rupert... that is definitely a good price for the quantity, when you get a chance, please post your thoughts on the product and how effective it is.

I was thinking of picking up the 4 sheet pack of Luxury Liner, and this is an extra 4 sq ft for $20 less. This is also a lighter weight of product, Luxury Liner is 1.25lbs/sq ft vs 1lb/sq ft, but if there's not a huge increase in effectiveness, then the weight savings of a few lbs might be tempting.

Based on their literature the STC rating of the product is 20 for the 1/2 lb/sq-ft, 26 for the 1 lb/sq-ft, and 29 for the 2 lb/sq-ft but I really couldn't find a good easy indicator of whether 1-2 points on this rating scale would be a noticeable difference.

[rupert]

Originally Posted by WolfSongX

Nice find Rupert... that is definitely a good price for the quantity, when you get a chance, please post your thoughts on the product and how effective it is.

I was thinking of picking up the 4 sheet pack of Luxury Liner, and this is an extra 4 sq ft for $20 less. This is also a lighter weight of product, Luxury Liner is 1.25lbs/sq ft vs 1lb/sq ft, but if there's not a huge increase in effectiveness, then the weight savings of a few lbs might be tempting.

Based on their literature the STC rating of the product is 20 for the 1/2 lb/sq-ft, 26 for the 1 lb/sq-ft, and 29 for the 2 lb/sq-ft but I really couldn't find a good easy indicator of whether 1-2 points on this rating scale would be a noticeable difference.

Sure thing! It might be a few weeks out though.

I haven't really looked into the STC rating, but I can only hope it is logarithmic like decibels

[Thongpocket]

Excellent thread! I am about t embark on a similar project myself. I have a bit of hushmat leftover from my STi and I think I am going to pick up some Overkill pro CCF and Damplifier to go with it. I definately want some of thosespeaker tweakers. I plan to do the doors similar to your method. I also would like to do the rear shelf and trunk before I build my amp rack. Any idea how much total materials I would need to do everything you did as well as the rear shelf and trunk? Thanks alot for this write up!.

[OICU812]

For sound vibration damping, (stereo) related I use Vmax matting made by cascade, and I've used Dynomat and honestly everything else out there nothing has touched cascades stuff. For sound deadning ie: exhaust and road noise I use a specific thermal matting again by cascade. Often what gets confused is the difference between an isolator and a damper product. Sure slapping Dynomat or whatever you like every where helps, but the difference between an actual sound isolator matting for trunk area is likely 200% fold improvement over a standard stereo related stick mat. Zeronoise webby has tons of this stuff and they really know their shit for those looking.

[tonystewart]

The OEM Audio Plus Reference System sounds great! So glad I insulated.

[jx86]

Do you replace the oem vapor barrier or not bother? (the plastic sheet)

[tonystewart]

I reapplied it to its original position in the door

[boxer 2.5]

Your grammamer is perfantastic^ Lol. Great write up my man! I look forward to doing this in the spring on my BRZ!

[speedrye]

Thanks for the write-up! I did this (though a little differently) and the difference is amazing. With stock door speakers, bass output is at least doubled if not tripled. All bad vibrations are gone and the doors now sound solid when closed. As a cheaper alternative to the Garage Sale sign, you can go to Lowes, in the plexiglass section and get the corrugated plastic panels in larger sections for cheaper. For tape, I opted to go with Polyken flashing tape, a butyl adhesive tape with an aluminum skin. Extra sticky, unaffected by temperatures, but also adds to the sound deadening. I'll post pictures when I take the panels back off to replace the speakers once my adapters come in. Great job on this!