Technical Reducing wind noise at highway speeds?

Okay, so I know a 50-60 year old car is not a new car and shouldn't be, but I am really stunned at how much wind noise my '53 Chevy makes at 70-80 mph. Droning noises drive me crazy and give me a headache (a leftover from many years spent playing in and listening to bar bands, plus years of sitting on the ole man's lawn tractor for hours at a time with no ear plugs).

What can be done to reduce the wind noise in the 1949-54 cars I love so much?
My immediate thoughts are:
1. Eliminate the drip rail, at least the part that runs down the A-pillars.
2. Eliminate the vent windows. (I know everyone thinks this is "street rod" but one of my all-time favorite kustoms, the LaJolla Chevy, has this modification and it was built in 1954-55)
3. Some sort of insulation in the A-pillars and window surround?
4. Flush-mounted side glass (which I am NOT willing to do)

Any other thoughts?
Again, I know it's never going to be as whisper-quiet as a 2014 car, but something that doesn't sound like I'm caught in a hair dryer on High would be nice! If I could get the wind noise level down to, say, a typical late '60s/early '70s car I'd be a happy camper.

 

Check your door weather strip and wing window seals. Blue masking tape them one side at a time and road test to I. D. where the sound is coming from.

Or...turn up the music!

 

Just replacing the door and window seals helps a ton.. Did that on my sons 63 Fairlane..

 

I guess I forgot to mention that I have all new seals and rubber in the car!
It doesn't whistle, it's just...noisy. I don't know the right word for the kind of noise but it's buffeting/whooshing noise and really kicks in above 50 or 60mph.
It's not the sound of air coming into the car, it's the sound of air tumbling with massive turbulence around the a-pillars and doors, best I can tell.

 

If you've got new rubber in the doors and the glass fits well, there's not a lot you can do about it...remember, the cd of that '53 isn't anywhere near the same as a new car...you, in essence, are pushing a 'barn door' down the highway at 70 mph and that creates a lot of turbulence (the word you were looking for...!!!).

I doubt removing the drip rails will help...and years ago, there were little colored plastic 'wind deflectors' that clipped on the vent window that deflected some of the vent window noise...removing the vent window won't do much for the noise.

Basically, turn up the stereo, turn up the A/C or quit driving a 'barn door'...!!!

R-

 

Throw on some 18" Brockmans and you won't hear it anymore!

 

I'm in the same boat. After decades of working around loud noises the wind noise drives me nuts. A short trip, I know, but you may want to try to find a set of the chrome tin wind deflectors they used to sell for the front windows. They came in two versions: perforated and not. Do they work? I don't know but they said they did.

 

This is a very good question. Short of massive body changes to smooth out the flow of air I don't know if you can get it much better? I'd love to see someone chime in here that has experience with a car like yours in a wind tunnel, that'd be interesting.

I wonder if more insulation in the roof, doors, and quarters would at least help? That buffetting may be transmitting through your body panels in addition to going through the glass, weatherstrips, etc, so a bunch of dynomat may help?

 

Do your new window and door seals properly contact the glass and door frames? And did your new door seals include the vent window, both perimeter and back edge. Even if they look fine, if the rubber is hard they are no good. Plus make sure there is good contact with the vent glass all around. Poorly sealing vent glass can be a huge contributor.
And if all seals are good and you have not done so also check the seals in your fresh air vent as that could be a contributor.

 

+1 on this. Assuming the glass and doors are sealed, body sound proofing will certainly help.

 

having air com inthe the cabin also helps at speed as it equalizes the pressure thats the purpose of astro air on the later cars . I find driving with the vent open helped with the noise and pressure

 

Hi. Realize your car was built when most of the country still had 50 - 55 MPH speed limits. It just was not built to be quiet at 70 - 80 MPH as it was not designed to drive that fast.

Brings to mind a neat decal saw the other day - "Do not open windows over 120 MPH". Likely you need to reduce this to about 55 - 60 MPH unless you have either a cowl vent on top or side OR consider a Vintage Air unit & keep windows closed.

Hopefully new door rubber will help or solve the problem. The idea of blue taping the door will tell you if this is the big problem or not.

Good luck, Jimmie

 

I have all new rubber and seals, inside and out. I also have heat and air so the windows are usually closed.
The reason I asked about the drip rail and vent windows is because that seems to be where all the turbulence is. It's not the sound of air coming into the car, it's the sound of the wind buffeting like crazy OUTSIDE the glass. I thought those two mods might "smoothen" things out a bit?

Usually I just take back roads and keep it down to 60-65 mph, but my ears and/or brain really go nuts when I have to take the highway, which is every day when I drive it to work. I'm thinking ahead about what I could do different on my '51 coupe.

I'm positive this bothers me more than a lot of people because of my earlier life - it's quite a combo when it's hard to hear people speak but droning noises seem louder to me than other people.

 

A friend of mine complained of your same issue, couldn't hear conversations but the background noise was terrible on him. He got hearing aids that filtered that out.

(don't shoot the messenger...LOL)

 

i got a dB (sound pressure) meter for this purpose. you at least have a way of measuring the sound and seeing if it's really that loud or what. i also measure my noisy equipment to make sure i stay within safe limits so i don't get any hearing damage.

one time my truck had a terrible droning noise i could never place and it was a driveshaft issue.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

 

May want to try laying some thin cardboard or plastic from the windsheild to the door glass. Tape it up good to make the air flow better mabey, before you cut the drip rails and take a drive. If you cut the drip rails you better have good seals. If you don't you'll know it every time you hit some rain or wash it. I've got a 50 Olds and have no problems with wind noise till I turn the 4-55 A/C on.

 

I know what you mean 8flat, I need a set too!

 

I have a 54 and experience the same thing. My 55 Chevy car, same thing, my 57 Chevy pick up, same thing. If you will notice, all the new cars have the side window glass flush with the body panels, no vent wings and every thing is smooth. As long as the windows are not flush with the body and you have vent wings, the problem will stay with you I suspect. This is a problem you will have to live with. I really don't think the vent windows are a part of the problem though.
Later,
Dick

 

Sometimes I think I'm not far behind ya! LOL

 

Do you have a full interior in it now?

 

I recommend using Dynamat style insulation inside all the body skins before you go cutting things off the outside of your car. Also, just because your door and window seals are new, doesn't mean they are GOOD. See if they may be leaking a little. A squirt from a water hose can simulate where the air might come in.

 

Reminds me, one time I had a girlfriend that made a terrible droning noise.....

 

Agreed 100%.

Another thing we used to do in the body shop was shut the door on a piece of notebook paper, then slowly pull the paper out. It shows you how much pressure the weatherstrip rubber is putting on the jamb, you'll quickly see where there is a slight gap, or not enough pressure to seal out noise, you can adjust from there.

 

Another point about door weatherstripping: My new cars have two rows of foam rubber to seal out air on each door. How many are on your Chevy?

Does your car have those big crotch cooler vents too? Have you replaced the seals on those?

Does your carpet have a thick pad underneath it, like new cars do?

Is your window track a soft fuzzy, or is it a firm wiping strip that covers 100% of the gap?

 

Suggestion: Get a roll of duct tape and tape up the rain gutter and drive the car. This will help show you the effect of removing the gutters. Next, tape the door seams to see what effect that has. You can isolate the noise cause so you can work on the cause instead of the suspected cause. Another source of noise is the mirror deflecting air into the window glass. You can play Bonneville and tape that up to see the effect.

 

Now that is good advice, and so freaking simple it never occurred to me!
I still think the noise is external, but I can tape things one at a time until I find out for sure.

To answer a few earlier questions: Yes, I have a full interior now with pretty heavy insulation, no I don't have the original vents anymore although I often wish I'd left them when it's warm but nice weather. And no radio at all so turning up the music won't help.

Like I said in my original post, I don't ever expect it to be as whisper-quiet as a new luxury car, but a little better would be nice. And since I am basically reconstructing my '51 from the ground up I'm willing to make any mods (other than flush glass!) that would help.

As for the hearing aids, I keep meaning to go get tested and just forget. I will not be surprised at all if that is part of my problem. I seem to hear some frequencies better than most people and others...not so much. Any constant noise just blocks out all else. Oh well, at least my teens and twenties were fun!

 

In general, that's the basic problem IMHO. My little truck, even with the angle chop, is very noisy at interstate speeds. The CD of a brick. So I have to wear foam ear plugs on long interstate drives. I've fiddled with holding my hand at the upper corners of the A pillars while driving, and while that can moderate the buffeting quite a bit, it isn't rocket science.

One time or another, I've considered a new visor with no holes and a sealed lower panel, or a much smaller visor, or no visor at all. Regardless, anything else out in the wind, from the tires to fenders, axle ends, shocks, etc. all contribute to the problem.

The descriptive notion that your fender-less highboy goes tearing down the road with all it's hopped-up power isn't far of base, eh? Like the sound of tearing 1000 sheets of paper in half at a time! Gary

 

you need louder pipes.

 

Ear plugs work in my roadster.

 

That's old school for sure... Johnnie never had a problem with wind noise! Gary