Steve,

I'm not after Lexus-like quiet, but Odyssey-like quiet would be nice. Oh, all right, it's probably already at least as quiet as my former Odyssey. How about Rav4 quiet?

And as I was relating to Sox-Fan today, it would be nice to be able to drive somewhere, leave a cold drink in the cupholder, and not come back 15 minutes later to coffee-warm soda.

I never thought about insulating the outside of the wheelwells, but that's what Sox-Fan did with his C5 and found it worked well.

Anyhow, it'll be good to take apart the Corvette. That'll kind of break the ice and I won't then feel hesitant to do other things to it!

 

Wow, so nice to meet you today and so gracious of you to let me take your Vette for a ride. Boy, oh boy do I miss having a Vette now!

Yes, I did the wheelwells from both inside and outside of the car and pretty much the entire hatch area inside. It did make a noticeable difference.

The Thermal abs that we talked about was located at http://www.eliteengineeringusa.com/T...tes_Order.html. Made a nice difference in console temp, with a small added benefit of increased chassis stiffness.

I also got the frame rails http://www.eliteengineeringusa.com/Frame_rails.html. Never had to worry about hockey pucks again. Take the car in for an oil change and never worry if they used the pucks again.

Good luck with your new car, she's a beauty.

 

Sox-Fan, the pleasure was all mines. Thanks for all of the advice, and we'll do a rerun of today once I get the insulation in.

 

here is my take on the subject...

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/paci...t-results.html

jeff

 

What about this? http://dynamat.com/download/vss/2657...y_Corvette.pdf

Ditch the G2 tires, I did and it helps a lot!

 

I had an automotive upholsterer put this stuff in my C5 Z06. Combined with a partition a lot of the sound was reduced. The partition alone did probably 1/2 the deadening. The material I used was Brown Bread from B-Quiet. It took two rolls for a little over $100 back in '04. The Brown Bread has been replaced by B-Quiet Ultimate.

http://www.b-quiet.com/ultimate.html

I suggest you do some reading on the web about the sound harmonics before investing much time or money. IIRC you don't gain a whole lot from deadening material unless you cover quite a bit of the car. Kind of like closing a door to cover sound--it's those last few inches that really pay off. Also, you can have different noise in the car, some of which requires a different approach to be successful. I always thought the sound from outside just permeated through the chassis/floorboards into the cabin. In reality a lot of the road noise can be conducted by the chassis to other parts of the car. You have to use the right type of deadening material in the right places to get maximum effect. I put the brown bread stuff from the rear all the way up to the firewall under the pedals. It seemed to do a good job. However, it is still much louder than my Subaru Outback.

 

Thanks for all the feedback. There are definitely lots of ways to do this, and I'm pretty certain i want to do this, if for nothing more than for the heat from the tunnel.

Maybe first I should ask if there is anyone else who really wants to do this. If so, I think doing both cars the same general way is ideal, and I'm flexible. So, any takers? Bunch3131?

 

I will likely be going down the Dynamat route myself...unless you can get at least a 6db sound decrease, you're pretty much wasting your time.

Another good thread here on sound dampening http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...ieter-c6z.html

 

Dave Hale/Madvette says he's going to be in Seattle on June 11th. Being the infinitely lazy butt that I am, I contacted him to see if he'll insulate my Vette. As much as I had hoped to do this myself, I'm just not motivated enough and don't have enough time.

I don't know how long he'll be out here, but if there's enough demand, he might try and accommodate more folks.

 

I did the forum HVAC insulation kit and I didn't think it really made a lot of difference. I did buy one of the BLOCKIT drop in mats and it made a big difference.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...ation-mat.html

I would not do the insulation again. If I was going to do that I would would use dynamat or similar. I also saw some paint on stuff that looked promising. I think this would be a big help in the cargo area as that is a big drum.
http://www.quietcar.net/

 

Please disregard this message. Found the information I was looking for.

 

Hey guys - sorry to jump in late, but I just saw this.

It looks like there are some misconceptions on sound deadening - just wanted to set the record straight.

Dynamat (and Raamat, Damplifier, etc) is a vibration dampening material (mass loading material). It's purpose is to stop materials from vibrating, which either creates or amplifies sound. This is especially important to consider in C6 Coupes as the rear hatch area acts really well as an "echo chamber" of sorts - certain sounds coming from the outside react with the natural resonance frequency of the hatch area and get magnified. This is one of the biggest contributors to "drone" from exhausts. Think of blowing air across a bottle, or a "bullroarer" that you swing in the air.

Foam insulation (like ensolite, or MadVette's insulation kit, or the stuff from Home Depot) act as sound barriers. They prevent sound waves from continuing their path into the car.

When you use dampening materials, you only need enough to stop the panel from noticably vibrating. Typically 25% - 50% coverage using a good quality material (Dynamat Xtreme or Damplifier Pro are my favorites, but I've been wanting to try BXTII next) will prevent any body panel from creating sound on it's own. Anything over that is really overkill, as if the panel isn't vibrating, adding more won't help. You can use more, and I think Dynamat even says you can fully cover to create a vibration dampener and sound barrier, but it's typically unnecessary to use really expensive dempening material to create a sound barrier.

When you apply a sound barrier, more is more. Sound will transmit through barriers, so the more layers you add, the less sound comes in. Also - any gaps will fully allow sound to travel through, so it's important to get as close to full coverage as possible. Closed cell foams are great sound barriers as they're lighter, less expensive, and you can ensure full coverage since they don't interfere with everything fitting back together.

Ideally you would apply both - dampening material to kill vibrations which create sound on their own (either from vibration through the chassis, or outside sound reacting with the panels), and then apply a sound barrier on top to prevent external sounds from making it into the vehicle.

I'm finishing up the door panels on my Vette right now. 30% coverage with Dynamat Xtreme, and 1 full layer of ensolite. Might add another layer (or MadVette's insulation) before I'm done.

I already did the trunk - went full overkill with deadener because I was getting major drone with my SLP PowerFlo exhaust. Got rid of 90% of the drone. I'm thinking of applying another layer of sound barrier next time I tear apart the hatch area.

I'll be doing the center tunnel and floors in a few months, when I get around to redoing the seat skins.

I'll be happy to have anyone ride in my car to see the difference it's made in noise levels.

 

I've already done the floors, tunnel and hatch area, but have not done the doors yet. Would appreciate any advice on how you disassembled the doors and your installation.

Thanks,

 

Vette Essentials (Forum vendor) has instructions on their website for just about all interior removal processes. It's a great site.

 

Top flight repro also has good instructions. Go down to the "door pulls" section and click on the installation instructions link.

One thing that isn't mentioned is you might want to order a few door panel pin receptacles. It's pretty difficult to remove the panels without one or two of the receptacles getting deformed. My local dealer didn't have them in stock, so I'm still waiting to put the panels back on.

There are one or two bolts to remove (one on drivers, two on passengers) and 8 panel pins, and that's about it. A panel removing tool is really helpful.

Let me know if I can help!

 

Thanks, and I'll let you know how it goes.

 

As others said, change tires..

 

BTW - I put about a 30% Dynamat Xtreme cover on the outer door panel, and 30% on the inner door surface (not much inner door panel surface area to begin with though). I installed a set of the door filler plates from RaamAudio (with some Dynamat just for the heck of it). And then I covered everything up with a single layer of Ensolite. It's really quiet now.

 

I couldn't agree more. Couple of months ago I got a great deal on upgrading my wheels and tires to West Coast 944 19 front and 20 rear, with Continental D/W tires, and as everyone has said the noise level dropped significantly from the Good Year runflats. But I still plan on doing the mod to the door panels soon.

Thanks,