cheap sound deadining options

[Mot]

Well I have my new shell all torn apart and I'd really like to explore some options in reducing road noise without spending a ton of money on name brand stuff. Any advice is welcomed.

[StereoInstaller1]

Concrete

[Mot]

thanks luke.

[James Crivellone]

turn the radio up.

[1987E30project]

Subscribed

[moatilliatta]

I just posed my car in members rides. I have some links under some fotos of the sound deadening that i did. It worked out quite well and I would highly recommend it.

[StereoInstaller1]

Mottie, head on down to your local car stereo shop. Look at some Dynamat "Extreme".

Go to home depot. Head to the roofing department. Find something similar. Clean the hell out of your floor and apply.

Now, head off to Perfect Fit/McDonald (somewhere around 7th& Stark) and buy some "the Insulator" and lay it on your floor, under your carpet.

Or, just fill your car with concrete.

Luke

[StereoInstaller1]

Oh yeah...do the insides of your rear wheel wells, behind the panels.

[Schniddy]

http://www.raamaudio.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

I did my research a little while ago and this RAAMmat shit is the absolute best product for the price. There is this article comparing all the name brands and this shit outdid dinomax for most of the categories and came in a close second for the rest ( couldn’t find the site, but search a little and read up on it).

I ended up spend over $200 on RAAMmat and Ensolite on a impulse buy. Haven’t used it yet, but I'm planning on it with my new E30. I'll have enough to cover the whole car once and put down another layer or two on the critical areas.

IMHO for a 20yr old daily driver its money well spent. Reduces road noise, helps audio quality, and insulates heat/ac

[aaron325ix]

I used peel n seal from lowes. http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=100466

what you see there is 2 rolls about $30 each. it definitely took the edge off the road noise. you could also double layer it if you want.

[Schniddy]

couldn’t find the site, but search a little and read up on it.

Found it.

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/conclusion/

basically peel and seal is comparable to bondo...

[StereoInstaller1]

Let me say this clearly.

Do not expect a massive transformation of your road noise unless you are willing to spend tons of cash and lots of time. You MUST strip the entire inside of the car, including pulling the dash, going inside the doors...every fucking inch matters.

Or, just expect an improvement, not a miracle.

Luke

[Schniddy]

Let me say this clearly.

Do not expect a massive transformation of your road noise unless you are willing to spend tons of cash and lots of time. You MUST strip the entire inside of the car, including pulling the dash, going inside the doors...every fucking inch matters.

Or, just expect an improvement, not a miracle.

Luke

Your right, but do you think the $200 is a ton of cash? RAAMmat is middle grade stuff. I can't see spending the big cash for the premium Butyl with a non-asphalt filler products. Those products would include Second Skin Damplifier, Damplifier Pro and Dynamat Xtreme as the cream of the crop. There isn't THAT big of a difference between the mid grade shit and the premium shit. Now if you want to compare the asphalt based products ( peal-seal) with the mid grade products such as RAAMmat ( Butyle w/ with Asphalt filler), there is going to be a bigger difference with the $200 spent. Most importantly you get the reassurance of not having a nasty ass asphalt smell on a hot day and having the layers start to slip off and fail. The less heat resistant the product is, the less it is going to mute road noises and therefore you are wasting money.

[Dozyproductions]

raammat is not middle grade stuff and never has been. Never had a problem with it and i use to live in San Diego and it lasted with +100 degree temp in my car and never had an issue. Definitely decreases road noise.

A lot of people recommend it over secondskin because how practical the price is.

[Schniddy]

raammat is not middle grade stuff and never has been. Never had a problem with it and i use to live in San Diego and it lasted with +100 degree temp in my car and never had an issue. Definitely decreases road noise.

A lot of people recommend it over secondskin because how practical the price is.

Actually it has been in the past. They used to you Asphalt and had failure with that. If you read the article the guy has some pretty good tests that he demonstrates. Raamat comes out almost at the top for everything he tested, and when you look at the price comparison, you can't go wrong for the price. It would be stuiped to pay to get Dynamat Xtreme with the results you get from Raammat:

Conclusions
As I have stated repeatedly, this isn't a rigorously scientific review. I got a bunch of samples and did what I could to evaluate them. While this approach is obvious lacking in a lot of ways, I think I learned some essential truths that should help in your evaluation. Additionally, since I posted the first version of this project, I have been contacted by some legitimate experts in this field, several of whom contributed important context and guidance.

Ideally, I would have loved to actually measure the effectiveness of the samples I had. How well do they dampen?. How effective are they as a barrier? These would be great things to know.

I think I have gotten to the bottom of the product failure problem. In the asphalt versus butyl debate, I am convinced that butyl based products are better in every aspect. So what do I recommend?

I would have no qualms about using SecondSkin Damplifier or Damplifier Pro, Dynamat Xtreme, RAAMmat BXT or B-Quiet Ultimate. That said, two product lines stand out - one of these will meet your requirements.

Highest Quality
Second Skin's products live up to their "Over Engineered to Over Perform" motto. They are clearly a higher quality alternative to Dynamat Xtreme - designed for greater heat tolerance, with higher quality materials.

If quality is your most important requirement, Second Skin Damplifier or Damplifier Pro are the obvious choices. Dynamat Xtreme is close, but being more expensive and not as good isn't a winning combination. I congradulate Second Skin Audio for their obvious dedication to providing the best product possible.

Best Value
RAAMaudio's RAAMmat BXT is a high quality product priced to compete with asphalt mats. If you are considering an asphalt sound deadener based on price, please reconsider.

Remember, you are not just buying square feet, you are buying mass. Most of the asphalt mats are thinner and the lighter than the butyl products. This means you will need more layers to accomplish the same result. The only close comparison is eDead v1SE vs. RAAMmat. They are close in weight and thickness, despite the fact that Elemental Designs significantly overstates the density of their products.

If I were to repeat my own installation - 300 square feet of damping mat - here's how it would price out for RAAMmat BXT and eDead v1SE, shipped:

RAAMmat BXT $594.00
eDead v1SE $513.00

There is only $81.00 between the two. If you use less, the difference will be smaller. This is not even close. Buy the RAAMmat BXT.

If you only needed 100 square feet:

RAAMmat BXT $198.00
eDead v1SE $171.00

That's just $27 dollars.

If you really need to do this in the absolutely least expensive way and are not convinced or concerned by the demonstrated inferiority of asphalt based sound deadeners, go to Home Depot or Lowes and get a roll or two of Peel & Seal. This is the least expensive option and you won't have to worry about shipping costs. I can see no difference in Peel & Seal and the asphalt based aluminum skinned products in this review. If you are going to live dangerously, do it right.

I hope this helps.