Cabin noise

Originally Posted by Guard Dad

Ok, I just finished installing the Luxury liner pro and here are my thoughts:

Phase one:

Installed 36 square feet of Dynamat Extreme on the doors and hatch.
Cost: $140.00 from Amazon.
Weight: About 20 pounds.
Results: Significant noise reduction, the harshness of the noise significantly reduced. Tire and road noise significantly reduced, and the feeling that you are able to determine the exact composition of every road surface by it's overpowering sound is significantly moderated. The sense that you can hear EVERY grain of sand and every pebble that hits the chassis is almost gone.
Bottom Line: Great bang for the buck! The weight is not excessive considering the positive result. Probably good enough for most owners.

Phase two:

Installed about 20 square feet (2 1/4 panels) of Second Skin Luxury Liner Pro.
Cost: About $130.00 including shipping and a can of spray adhesive.
Weight: About 25 pounds.
Results: Additional noise and harshness reduction. Sand and pebble noise is gone. Changes in road surfaces can be noted but they are no longer annoying.
Bottom Line: Provides an extra level of refinement. Noise from the rear is no longer an issue, most noise is now from the front of the car. A moderate low frequency resonance/rumble over some road surfaces is now noted from the front of the car, apparently it was previously masked by the noise from the rear. It's not especially objectionable but it seems a bit out of place in the now, quieter cabin. I could have been very aggressive and installed even more material but I was reluctant to add any more weight. I think that most of the benefit can be obtained with two panels applied to the hatch floor and the wheel wells, about 80% coverage. I skimped on the rear wall of the hatch and I don't think it had any negative effect.

Notes:

Dynamat is fairly thin and easy to work with but in this application it goes on just about everything (about 90% coverage) so it is slow to install (about 8 -10 hours but I'm sure I could do it in about 1/2 that time now that I've done it once) the many pieces needed to do the job.

Luxury Liner pro is thick and heavy and not that easy to work with but I didn't try to apply it to every nook and hollow in the hatch so it actually went in fairly fast, about 4 hours. Avoid gaps wherever possible. Reinstallation of the trim panels is not going to be as easy as normal, I trimmed about 3/8" from the bottom of the styrofoam blocks surrounding the spare and it was still a tight fit to get trim panels back in place. Due to the bulk of the Luxury Liner Pro I had to pass on reinstalling the retainer buttons that the factory uses to secure the styrofoam blocks, they stay in place just fine without them.

More stuff:

I call this Chicken Soup because as they say "It couldn't hurt": After the original Dynamat I had some short pile (1/4" prox.) indoor outdoor carpet left over from another project so I applied it over the floor of the hatch and I stuffed some hollows behind and below the seats with polyester batting (basically pillow stuffing) and applied some of the Polyester batting on the backside of the hatch trims with spray-on contact cement.

Lay a thick soft blanket over the perimeter of the hatch opening to protect the paint from scratches. No watches, rings, bracelets, belt buckles, button front pants or pants with rivets, your paintwork will thank you.

Luxury Liner Pro is a two layer product. The soft side (feels like Temperpedic mattress foam) faces the body, the firm side is a dense vinyl and faces the interior. The material is bonded to the body with spray adhesive, one can seemed to be more than enough.

I found myself wondering if 3/8" rebond carpet pad could be substituted for Luxury Liner and still obtain most of the benefits, for those on a budget it might work, who knows?

Well that's about it.