Sound Deadening

[8v-of-fury]

I currently have all the carpet out of my 84 Jetta, due to a fairly good leak with the rain we've been having.. So now I am liking it without carpets! Lot easier to keep clean, little more foot room up front near the pedals.. And no worries if she leaks again bout having a soaked carpet.

However I was figuring on reinstalling the carpets.. But I am going to need a new sound deadner as the old stuff was so full of water it fell apart in my hands!

I don't really care for name brand aka dynamat, as it will likely cost what the car is worth.. Lol

What else?? 1/4" of rubber layed down??

[guy plain]

 a good thick layer of spray in box liner or rock gaurd  is supizing how it deadens sound... we used to get old convayer belting from the mill and use it in our trucks... that works to.... but if it gets really cold there you,ll want carpets ... for the winter at least....just cut up a couple welcome mats from a dollar store .... lol

[8v-of-fury]

I still have my original carpets. Never been outta the car before it seems.. Pretty awesome, I'm the first one to molest this car in almost every way! Lol.

I don't feel like the carpets really help with keeping the car warm.. I mean they're pretty thin.. It was probably the poor excuse for rubber underlay doing most of the work.. So what I was actually thinking was I could add some spray insulation inside the doors.. Like on the outer shell.. And it would help keep it a little warmer? But I guess the vapour barrier also does that job too.. Hmm

[guy plain]

i know that spray foam will suck up water and rot your car....i seen a place once where they where taking old pieces of carpet and part cans of left over pain .... painting the caret to make welcome mats....water proof ones...lmao but it would hold your old carpet together and you get to choose the tint  lol pluse you old carpet will fit...no cutting and fitting needed .....

[JessaBug]

We used dynamat on the firewall, but there are generic brands of the stuff as well. We then got some foam camping mat to use under the carpets. We had to rip all of the original foam crap out because of the leaks in the car and it was moldy and nasty. The camping mat is nice because it thick enough and will also do some sound deadening, but it also won't hold water so you don't have to worry about it molding. Its easy to cut so you can put it all over under the carpet. Get some 3M spray and keep the stuff stuck down under the carpet.  And its super cheap. I think we bought 3 rolls, used 2. Cost was around $5 a roll. That was our solution and its working pretty darn well I think. We did this a year ago now. Our carpets are a bit sad, but we have cleaned the crap out of them. If Newton were to make carpet for our car, I think we would probably buy it up. But for OG carpet, what we have isn't too bad.

[maxfax]

I got some scraps of the thin indoor outdoor carpet and put under my regular carpet as well as some roll on bedliner on the floor pan.... I thought it quieted down nicely, and since I also have water leaks all over the place this stuff doesn't retain the moisture like the original stuff did..  The bed liner (I hope) will help keep the rust down under there too..  I suppose the thing to do would be to just fix the damned leaks.. 

[guy plain]

i used the camping/yoga mats in my 81 toyota 4x4 /// hit -35 in edmonton when i was there .. those mats where enough to keep that lil pickup nice and warm.... quite to.... forgot about that till you mentioned it lol

[ORCoaster]

You can get rolled rubber from Home Depot or Lowes but it isn't going to be 1/4 thick.  I had to special order mine and it is not cheap.  I have it all over in my car now.  My OEM sound deadening is still pretty good shape on the floor so I just laid the rubber mat on top and ran it up under the dash a bit to the firewall.  I pulled the door cards off and put a strip in there all the way across the door but not quite to the very bottom  I wanted the drain holes to work.  To keep it on the doors or any of the body panels I used the rest of my super duty headliner glue.  Sprays on nice on the doors then a coat on the rubber.  Wait till tacky and ease the rubber in the door and press into place.

I did this with the panels all the way in back, and for the very back over the lights I used what was left of the 1/2 inch camping pads I put on the ceiling before I covered it with a headliner kit. 

I think if I had a problem with rust or the OEM sound stuff I would have gone the bed liner route.  So, get to it.  This stuff all needs a fairly warm day do make it easy to do.  Oh crap you say, those days went away last month? 

Well Rabbits do heat up pretty quick after you start them.

Just what I did.  Sounds like most of us are of the same mindset.  Oh and yes it is a lot quieter and warmer. 

[maxfax]

I had considered rubber mat, but I was worried about the moisture being trapped under it.. I've seen a lot of old pickups that came with just a rubber mat on the floor and the floors are long gone..  But again I guess fixing the leaks would be the thing to do, instead of just drilling drain holes in the floor.. 

[ORCoaster]

Correcto mundo.  All the rubber mats in the world are not going to do any good if the water is still coming in.  fix that first, let the vehicle dry out and then and only then sound deaden the floor. 

[maxfax]

Even with the leaks fixed (which will probably never happen on my current car) I'd still be hesitant on using rubber pending on what part of the map you're on..  With the 10" of wet sloppy snow we got the other day (In figgen October!) and now the 10" of wet sloppy mud I have, I'm kinda glad I used the indoor outdoor carpet..  Since all you're getting is rain (And I'll gladly take your rain back now!!) you wouldn't have near the issues...

[8v-of-fury]

I'm for sure gonna use roll on bed liner. After thinking about trapping moisture under the rubber mat... I am frightful! LoL. So yes I will bed line then stock carpets back in.. Probably do a few coats of bedliner to make it extra awesome!

To keep it warm in the car I'd prob just run a heater inside it on for a few hours..

[JessaBug]

You will likely want something else for padding under the carpets. Even with the foam camping mat, our carpets are still not quite where they need to be and keep coming out from the edge of the doors. Pain in the butt. We had the carpets in the car for a bit without any padding and they really didn't fit well. They fit much better with the mat now but still probably need a bit more if we want them looking good all the time.

[vanbcguy]

I'm kinda wondering the same thing myself (what to use) - once I have my carpets out I can't see NOT putting something in there.  Ideally I'd like to do something like dynomat across the entire floorpan, but that gets in to the big money $$ space.  I hate paying for a brand name for no reason.

[8v-of-fury]

You will likely want something else for padding under the carpets. Even with the foam camping mat, our carpets are still not quite where they need to be and keep coming out from the edge of the doors. Pain in the butt. We had the carpets in the car for a bit without any padding and they really didn't fit well. They fit much better with the mat now but still probably need a bit more if we want them looking good all the time.

Looking good is not a priority at all for me I am actually loving the bare floors! I think Ičll just leave it at bedliner, and that will do well!