Date:         Thu, 18 Jul 2013 17:23:07 -0400
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Sound proofing, was: Muffler question
In-Reply-To:  <7B9480B3-FD44-4C8B-A810-38F9F2DCE58E@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

It's been a long time, but I'll try to describe my experience. I've never
used Peel and Seal; when I was preparing to do the job, Dynamat was the
product recommended to me. It's a little pricey, but I've come to find out
you don't need as much as I originally thought.

Dynamat comes in different formats now, it appears. I ordered it from
Crutchfield, here in Charlottesville, Virginia, and it came in peel and
stick sheets that were about 1 foot square, something like below:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_15410415/Dynamat-10415-Xtreme-Speaker-Kit.html?search=Dynamat+VENDORID154&searchdisplay=Dynamat

Cleaning the metal was harder than installing the Dynamat. I was young and
stupid and may have used kerosene or gasoline to do it; I can't remember.
The interior of my doors had some kind of yellow gunk on them that was a
pain to get off. I'm betting I could be smarter about it now and probably
use something like acetone to clean and degrease, but that information can
probably be found on-line.

I think I used my bare hands and washed up with soap and water, but it's
been a long time. The Dynamat is basically some kind of tar-impregnated
sheet material maybe. If I were doing it now, I would use Nitrile gloves,
cut a few strips, peel it and slap it on. When I did it originally, I was
trying to cover every square inch and mold it to all the interior contours
of the door. It's easy to do, you just press it on there, but you don't
need to be that careful, it turns out.

Given all the options I've seen, even though the Dynamat is kind of
expensive, it's really easy to use and I'd do it again. In fact, I likely
will, to finish up the driver's side door and the sliding door.

Eric, I love the fact that you are doing this and that you have somebody to
drive for you so that you can enjoy your Vanagon. They are so much fun,
despite their little idiosyncrasies, or perhaps because of them. I am a
musician, well, rather a banjo player, and, though I'm not an audiophile, I
love listening to music and I'd really love to be able to have a
conversation at normal conversational levels inside my van at 80-90, er,
um, I mean 65 miles per hour in the summer-time.

Have fun with this and hopefully you'll have a little cooler weather than
we're having right now to do it in. Currently about 100 . . .

Marc Perdue


On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 2:31 PM, Eric Caron <ecaron1@comcast.net> wrote:

> Mark and everyone,
>
>         This is a very helpful thread.  The comments will save me some big
> problems down the road.  I want to do this myself but remember I'm blind.
>  That means I'll be touching everything and getting my hands on everything.
>  Roofing material would be a bad thing for me to use for that reason.
>  Spray foam and spray undercoating are out for the same reason.  The
> Dynamat sounds like it has worked for people and no one mentioned a mess
> factor.  The cost was a concern but for me messing up my van interior would
> be something I need to avoid.  I also remember putting in fiberglass in
> some areas but later I was concerned that it retained moisture and blocked
> drains I didn't even realize were there.
>
>         Can someone who used Dynamat speak to how clean or not so clean it
> is to apply?  This is sounding like the best way for me to go so far.
>
> Eric Caron
> 85 Westfalia GL Auto with currently a non roof cement black spotted
> interior!
>
>
> On Jul 18, 2013, at 10:32 AM, Marc Perdue <mcperdue@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> > I put Dynamat in my passenger door before I knew anything about the "art"
> > of sound deadening. I covered the entire inside of the door as much as I
> > could. The results were pretty amazing in that the door sounded more
> like a
> > Mercedes door than a metal garbage can when you closed it. I have since
> > found that you really only need to cover about 25% of the metal to get
> the
> > same benefits.
> >
> > If I were to do it now, I would focus on certain areas:
> > 1) Front and sliding door;
> > 2) If you can get to it, the metal behind the dash. You get a LOT of
> noise
> > from the road and rain on that big sheet of metal.
> > 3) The roof over the front of the van.
>