Home >
Upgrades and Enhancements >
Body >Sound Dampening
Sound Dampening
Explanation
Intro:
The Audi's that came out of the factory before 1988 (in the US), were built like tanks. Unfortunately, inside the cabin, they also sound like tanks. The later model cars had all sorts of wax poured into cavities and dwarves inside panels, so the sound dampening (SD) was so much better. Besides the fact that the cars were just a lot damn stiffer and generally "better" constructed. This isn't a slant to the older cars, just a fact of life that designs typically get better with age. "Typically", excludes American cars.
You'll need roughly 25 square yards (20 square meters) of any SD material to do the whole car. I bought the stuff available from SoundDampeningMaterial.com,
but in case their site goes down, or the world explodes, a description of what it is: Dynamat, without the label.
A rubberized tar/cement mixture, from what I understand, mated to a flexible backing. The tar sticks to the surface, and the backing (blue mushy stuff, in my case) keeps it rigid.
This all goes out the window when the temperature climbs, as you will figure out. It is about 6mm thick, and the tar has a layer of paper on it's sticky side that you have to peel off.
There isn't much to explain, so pictures seem to be in order.
Pictures:
Tools of the Trade:
What else does one need but a tomato sauce lid, a box cutter, a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a roll of SD material?
Skin removed, some applied:
Close up:
Door Complete:
Summary:
This ain't rocket science. You're going to take off the door skins, and slap this dampening crud all inside the door shell (even behind the window glass in the "down" position). I broke my material into strips, because, given time, this stuff can sag under its own weight, and a large sheet has a bad weight vs. "stick" ratio.
Not only does this SD work on outside road noise, but annoying rice boys with their stereos up loud cannot make my chest thump anymore. Blocking rice mojo has become a primary focus of my life.
I did the metal under the backseat as well, but I had a lot of SD material to work with, and I was bored, so this may not be necessary. Also, in the future (when it gets warmer), I will be doing the back doors for further rice-blockage.
