Hot Rods Quality product to insulate your car interior ?

Going to order insulation for my cars interior. I have used different products in the past some with unhappy results . .The last one was with a black tar product for a backing that turned out to be a pain .I had to back up and remove the insulation, made a mistake!! and I was left with a sticky black tar like product that would not come off leaving me with a lot of work and a mess. I see a lot mentioned with (Dynamat insulation.) Never have used this ,a bit spendy.. Question, I see it is only .067 in thickness and want to use it for ( sound deadening. )how can it be sound deadening being that thin ?? Gene

 

I have used FatMat products on a couple cars, it is very similar to Dynamat but significantly less expensive. I spent around $400 in soundproofing materials for my truck, it made a drastic improvement in interior noise levels. I would do it again in a heartbeat...

 

Rattletrap is great and cheap.got it on amazon

 

Kilmat....I had great results and if you search, a lot of discussion on it in similar threads here.

http://kilmatproducts.com/product/kilmat-80-mil-36-sq-ft-sound-deadening-mat/

 

Sound waves don't actually directly penetrate the sheet metal of the body panels. The sound waves cause the panel to resonate to reproduce the sound at the other side just like a speaker surface. Anything that dampens the resonance/vibrations/waves of the panel dampens the sound transfer. That single 1/16" layer of deadener is the most bang for your buck and will eliminate a hefty percent of the sound. You can add a second layer but that will only net you maybe half of what's left. So that doubles your cost and weight but only gets you a fraction of what the single layer did. There is a diminishing return the thicker you go.

*As always, I am not an expert so just eat the meat and throw away the bones.

 

I'm thrifty so I used duct insulation. You can get it at Home Depot, Lowes or Maynards. It's foam with adhesive on one side and foil on the other.

 

There are about a hundred threads on insulation. Use the search, it is your friend.

 

I used the Kilmat in my '32 and it has made a huge difference in the cooling and with the sound. HRP

 

Very interesting Shift Wizard Thank you for clarifying that for me, always thought the thicker the insulation the quieter the inside of the car would be...

 

Law of diminishing returns.

 

How is it on vertical/upside down surfaces? I’ve used rattletrap before and it fell down.


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i used Kilmat also, worked good. When I put it on the ceiling I cleaned the surface with acetone first. It stuck and has been up there for five years.

 

I use closed cell foam. We use it in aircraft (Ensolite). It's also in your seats in a commercial aircraft, light and it will float. It has to be glued, I put it in my buddies '47 chev, as a headliner. Of course then covered with material. This was completed in 1998, car is black, and no signs of coming loose. Hope this helps, as most insulations are pretty heavy (weight wise)

 

After lining the interior with Rattletrap I added a layer of FatMat floor liner from the top of the firewall to the back of the cab. It has a medium density foam layer and a rubber like material as a top layer. Overkill? Maybe so, but the truck seems very solid and even with a big block and Flowmasters there is no resonance in the cab.

 

I highly recommend what lobucrod here on the HAMB sells.

 

The short answer is....... it is quieter the thicker it is.
It's just not linear. Double thickness is quieter than a single layer thickness but it isn't twice as quiet.

 

I have Fat Mat Rattletrap on my floors. I still get some exhaust noise, but I need to close off my rear package area and get my trunk weatherstripping in place. Also it is more flexible than Dyna Mat, I used a heat gun to get it to conform to contours.

 

Yep I used FatMat too

 

Or the stuff they put under corrugated roofing iron on commercial buildings. I got enough offcuts out of the dumpster to do 10 cars, for the right price (free).

 

I used Lizard skin spray . both the heat and the sound proofing on this car when I built it.
It was a mess to do as you need to tape off everything you don't want it to stick to including yourself. I did the floors, side walls and the roof. Plus the insides of the doors and the inside of the firewall.
when it was done you could really tell the difference just by tapping on the metal. then you can just use the cheaper insulation.
If you are just doing your floor pans then you can roll it on.

 

I used several rolls bought from Lowes, it's foil and butyl at about 10"-12" wide. it's used for sealing around windows on new home construction. Very affordable and I had no problems with it falling off. I've had several friends that have used it with good results also.

 

I used Fatmat, and I've also used "Peel and Seal" which is a roofing product that comes in a 6 inch wide roll which is great for spot work. They're basically the same thing and both worked well for me.

As for sound deadening, a little goes a long way and remember this stuff is heavy. A 6" strip of this stuff on an inside door skin will do wonders to the sound of your door closing. If you wallpaper the insides of your doors you're gonna need two hands to open/close them. As previously mentioned, the goal is to dampen resonance, not to shut out the whole outside world. When I did my doors, I drummed on them with my fingers and applied the stuff to the spots that made sounds I didn't like.

The audio guys put tons of this stuff on but with their big amps, speakers, heavy cables, and extra batteries, they don't care about weight, and their goal is to keep the sound in and keep the car from vibrating itself to death.

 

Like Mike said. I've used brand name stuff, and I've used the peel n seal versions. Both do the job. The auto stuff looks nicer, larger sheets. But once you cover it with carpet its all the same. my 57 has brand name insulation and nice mufflers and full interior. Its like riding in a caddy.
My f100 has peel n seal. some reflectix, and a little bit of upholstery shop foil backed insulation on the floor below the carpet. burned out glass packs, and steel panels inside. Its noisy and rowdy. But I can attest that the insulation did help!

 

Thus far I haven't seen any indication of the kilmat not staying in place, regardless of direction.

I have used the old style expanded aluminum insulation in the past and I did have problems with it staying in place. HRP

 

There are lots of high tech insulation materials out there. Some paint on some stick on. I have tried some of them and they worked well enough but were a pain in the butt to put in.

What I use any more is that bubble wrap looking stuff that is silver on one side from home depot. It works well enough for me and is cheap and easy to use.

 

I used that for the first 30 years in the old beater. before I upgraded to the kilmat. HRP

 

The bubble stuff is a great thermal insulator but it won't dampen sound resonance.

 

Last spring I pulled out all the old carpet jute, cleaned up the floors, and laid down a layer of kilmat.

 

LOL you never experienced the before and after in the Pusher. I was getting a lot of transmission noise (enough to not hear yourself think) when I switched to the 355 and turbo 400. Glued bubble wrap on the hump and it quieted it right down.

 

I use NOICO, its the same stuff as Kilmat but doesn't have all the advertising on it, you pay a few bucks more to eliminate the advertising. It comes in silver, or for a couple bucks more, you can get it in black. I have the black in my 39 Dodge pickup, it may never get any more of an interior then just the NIOCO on all the interior panels, carpet on the floors (over the top of the NIOCO) and partial board inserts in the doors. I think I paid $67 with free shipping off Amazon for 36 sq ft. of the 80 mil last year. It took about 1 1/2 boxes to do the complete interior of my 39-47 Dodge truck cab. Gene