Is it worthwhile to DynaMat a MK1

[ventureforth]

Wondering if it will really make that much of a difference to DynaMat my '82 Rabbit 1.6NA?  And I'm not referring only to DynaMat, but any of the similar products out there, so I'm not asking which brand is best or most cost-effective or whatever.  I can do the research on that one and not waste your time.  But after the work and expenses are weighed, even if the labor is my own, will I really be making my Rabbit more civilized at 75mph or tooling around town, or is it more like going to a construction site and having one out of a dozen workers stop using their jackhammer?

Thanks.

FYI, it's currently stock, but I will be doing a 2" straight through exhaust, Giles pump, and 3" intake in short order.

[pyro7890]

if you do it right it can make a tremendous differance my brother in law did his 86 jetta and it helped alot
especially if you do multiple layers and the fire wall and the underbody
secondskinaudio.com is a good place to get stuff to to it right would cost 500+ but that is if you want it to be "silent"
secondskin will show you the step you need to take to do it right

[theman53]

I can get this stuff through work called Peel n seal. it is for roofing, but it is pretty much identical to dynamat. I can get it for around 100.00 though and that is for a 3 foot by 33.5 foot roll

[Baron VonZeppelin]

ANYTHING you can do to insulate and sound deaden an mk1 is going to be better than whats in there - or lack thereof.

I could use a whole roll of peel-n-seal doing my Truck the way i'd like to. Roof, inside the doors, double on floor and firewall ....

[maxfax]

When I replaced my head liner I installed something along the lines of the peel and seal stuff just to the roof..  Simply doing that to the roof made a noticeable difference in noise on the highway..  Even if minimal sound deading material were to be installed on the floors and fire wall the results shoud be much nicer than stock...

[pyro7890]

you would really get much better info from a car audio fourm where the work with this stuff every day

[GEE-BEE]

Iam bring in a new newton carpet set for my caddy with a pre-cut insulation for mk1"s

I hate my stockinteriours set , bad fit , no kickpanel's, bad cutout's for seat rails etc.

Even thou it's brand new and does have the heavy ply backing.

newtoncarpet.com ( U.K.)

[rabbitman]

I've always wondered if adding sound deadener to the floor would help it rust faster considering that it would never dry once wet.?

[VW_Commuter]

If the sound deadening material is of the 'peel and stick' variety and is 'glued' to the floor then there won't be any way for the water to get under it if it is installed properly.   If you follow the directions for installation it should be fine.  You could also take some seam sealer and seal along the edge of each sheet to the floor to prevent the water from even touching the dynamat to floor junction.  There are many original VW Beetles out there that have the original tar boards as sound deadening on their floors and many of them never had any floor rust issues.

As to whether or not it is 'worthwhile to DynaMat a MKI I know over on the VWType3.org forum there was a discussion a while back about using DynaMat type material to reduce road noise and it was reported by a few members that it did reduce the interior noise level by a significant amount.  There were several methods tried such as using the pads on every available interior surface, which adds a tremendous amount of weight if you're not careful, or the strategically placed material to reduce the resonance of the body panels.  As in everything in life it's a trade-off, the more material used the quieter the interior will be but you will get a weight penalty since the material is quite dense and heavy.  Those that did install the sound deadening material also reported that their vehicles were warmer in the winter due to increased insulation of the pads.  My plan is to invest in a significant amount of DynaMat material for my Jetta later and also for my Notchback when I start that project since I enjoy not hearing the road when I have the windows up.

The biggest thing you notice from riding in a 'high-end' luxury car is how quiet the interior is and that includes the absence of squeaks and other vehicle related noises.  Remember that a 3dB drop in sound level is a reduction by 1/2 of the sound level.  Anything you do to reduce the noise level in your vehicle will be beneficial, especially to your peace of mind while driving.  When the tires on my '06 Golf TDI needed replacement (they were Goodyear Eagle STs iirc) I selected a set of Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires and they easily reduced the road noise level in the car by 1/2 over the original tires and they also performed very well in snow, ice, and rain.

[GEE-BEE]

Funny thing about my 08 turbo Porsche is the is nothing under the seat's, bare painted metal

When i asked the P dealer, i was informed so you could hear the car...

They have almost removed all of the soundproofing on the new GTRS to get the car below 3k lbs
I wish they would remove the power window', the door pull is now justa piece of leather on the RS line...

GB

[intendwithin]

Don't plaster your car with dynamat!  you only need to cover 25% to deaden sound resonance from metal parts.  The main sound barrier comes from padding and it works wonders but there is a weight penalty like a previous post said.  The key is to pin point where most of the sound is coming from and pad there for weight saving options...

[ToddA1]

I can get this stuff through work called Peel n seal. it is for roofing, but it is pretty much identical to dynamat. I can get it for around 100.00 though and that is for a 3 foot by 33.5 foot roll

That's really cheap...  I looked into that as an alternative to Dynamat Extreme, but the Dynamat actually priced out the cheapest (for me).  Curious how it compares in weight per square ft.  Basicaly, if it's asphalt based, don't use it....  it'll smell and fall off.  I used Dynamat Original when it came out and fell off after a while.  You want Butyl rubber and aluminum.

This guy sells his own product, but has a lot of good information and demonstration vids.  www.sounddeadenershowdown.com   

Before the above mentioned guy started his own company, he did a comparison of many different brands.  Here's his archived page that compares a lot of them.  http://web.archive.org/web/20060110053432/http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/

You don't need to do the entire car as many people do.  I ended up Using Dynamat Extreme on the floors and inner quarter panel skins, and Dynamat Hoodliner on the firewall (on the inside).  All of this was covered with 0.125" thick neoprene rubber.  All of the rubber seams were sealed with Permatex weatherstrip sealant.  This took a lot of time.

I did it because the p/o stripped 95% of the sound deadening out of the car.  I didn't do the hatch area, but I can tell you that this diesel Rabbit (car) is a lot more quiet than my diesel Rabbit truck.  I can only assume the truck has the factory stuff.

-Todd