I took the plunge! I have removed all the panels from the back half of the car with the front half going out tomorrow. Half of my sound dampening material has arrived and will be working through the cars in a few phases.

I have a decibel metre and will be taking measurements during the entire project to see what areas help the most when sound dampening.

Pre-work: Removing panels, seats, and doors
Remove rear panels: Done
Remove rear seats: Done
Remove rear doors panels: Done
Remove front door panels: Friday
Remove front seats: Friday
Remove centre console: Friday

Phase 1: Floor dampening
Dampening the inside floor from the wheel well up to the pedals with sound deadening material. This will be covered with a closed cell neoprene, hoping for 3/8" thick but for ease of fitting carpet, some spots will have to be 1/4".

Re-install front carpet and seats, so I can use the car for Monday.

Phase 2: Doors, rear and front
Dampening the doors with sound deadening material. This will be covered with a closed cell neoprene, hoping for 3/8" to cover each door in one piece.

Re-install rear carpet, seats, and door panels.

Phase 3: Pillow stuff
Perhaps the easiest phase, stuffing fire-resistant pillow stuffing many places.

Re-install all panels

Phase 4: Wheel wells
I have not decided how to do this yet as there are many different ways. Some say rubberized undercoat, or rhino-liner, but I have a week until I get to this stage.

Phase 5: (debating) Firewall
This would be sound deadening material with closed cell neoprene, but removing the dash seems too much work to me right now without consulting a Honda Fit service manual. The online service manual does not seem to work for me, so I am downloading one.

Once I am finished each stage, I will post pictures.

Thoughts?

 

Hmm what a coincidence, my car is currently apart and I just finished my sound deadening yesterday. Mine was geared towards improving sound quality and getting rid of rattles/flex. I did not do the floor as I didnt feel I needed to do it for what I wanted. I deadened both the outer and inner skin of my front doors along with covering all the holes in the inner skin. I only deadened the outer skin of my rear doors as I have no rear speakers. I also did both the the outer and inner skin of the hatch as my sub woofers port is in that direction. Lastly I deadened my roof because it moves way more than I would like when the music is louder and I have three dents as a result. I have used almost 50 square feet to do all of that but I think it was worth it.

Good luck with your project it should make a big difference. Cant wait for some pics to see what you are doing!

 

I have to do this too. I am so not looking forward to it. lol. My poor little rattlebox need to be fixed!

 

I doubt I am ever gonna get rid of all the rattles. Especially the dash, I have no idea how I would go around stopping that from vibrating/rattling.

 

Oh yeah. Tackling the dash will be quite the project. I hear that adding the sound dampening to the doors has a huge impact. That and the wheel wells. I will definitely post pictures along the way!

 

Well the doors make a huge difference. Knocking on them now is amazing. It sounds very solid unlike it did before. I wish I had some way of measuring the difference that it made with the road noise. All I can say is that I did notice a difference which is a good thing.

 

Heh, 'tis the season for sound deadening. I'm using Elemental Designs stuff - eDead80 & their TekLite closed cell foam, I bought 50 sq. feet of each. I've been slowly but surely installing it, but I only work on it for an hour or so after I get home (assuming it isn't raining) . . . which is about how much light is left in the day. I've got both rear doors done, and as of tonight I'm halfway through the passenger side front door.

Hatch will be next, then maybe something with the floors while I'm running wires, although I'm skeptical of the room for improvement there. As rigid and non-prone to vibration as it is, damping mat won't make much difference. And there's already a fair amount of sound absorption batting underneath most of the carpet. Wheel wells could make a big difference, though - and the firewall as well, although it's an incredible pain in the ass to get at.

YouTube - Sound deadening is fun . . .

 

lol yup, thats the difference. being able to tap my roof and it sounding like that makes me feel good inside. my system seems much louder now, though it could just be in my head

 

Phase 1 is done. The floors has been covered in 2 layers of B-quiet and 1/4" layer of closed cell neoprene. I did the back of the trunk all the way up to the firewall, and stuff pillow stuffing into the panels where there was a little bit of room left. The results are amazing. I have just done the floor and already I have lost about 8 db of low and mid frequency sound coming through the floors (an average sound loss through the whole car floor). Buying a decibal metre was the best thing for this project. Rear and front doors will be next. I have also decided to take the plunge and remove the dash one weekend and sound dampen the firewall.

This project is getting big!

 

Very cool, I'm impressed/surprised that the floor made that big of a difference. My doors have been done for a while, and it's quite nice. err, quiet nice. I drove a friend's of mine GD3 that hadn't had anything done to it, and the difference was very apparent.

 

This sounds like a great Idea I would like to do it. where did you get the materials from??

Thanks

 

damn no pic...i was hoping this would be a DIY !

 

I have some pictures of when I did mine. Ill throw them up in a bit.

 

So here are the pictures that I took while deadening my Fit

Stock doors look like this:



With the moisture barrier removed and deadening on the outer skin:



Closer picture:



Covered up the larger holes with aluminum flashing:



Finished door with speaker ring:



Deadening on the roof:




Those are all the pictures I have. I felt that it did make a large improvement along with the new components that went in at the same time.

 

This is awesome to see. I'm about to start this project on my own Fit. I just don't know if I should do it at work because that's where all my tools are, or bring them home and do it in my garage.

I'm going to ask a few questions and hope they get answered, since this is a recent thread.

First off, I've heard about deadening the wheel wells. How is this done? Inside or outside?

Second, should I be using expandable foam in places? If so, where? And any specific brand?

Also, how difficult was it to get the deadener on the inside of the door? How much of the surface were you able to cover?

I really like covering the large holes with aluminum, thats a good idea I'll be sure to steal!

 

I can guess the answer to your fist question, and that would be inside and it makes more sense that way. I have not deadened the wheel wells and dont really plan on doing so.

I will tell you why I didnt use expanding foam in places. I really wanted to, as it seems like a great idea. It takes some time and you have to be really carful with it. If you accidentally put too much in an area it can expand and make the metal in that area bend out of shape. Since my car is practically brand new I felt that the difference it made was not worth it.

Covering the "inside" of the door (the outer skin) was not easy but I managed. I would estimate that I was able to cover at least 95% of the skin. The places I didnt not cover is where the door support bars are and places near the edges that I could not reach.

By all means steal my idea for the aluminum. I found it on a site somewhere else. I feel that it is way better than just having the deadener over the giant holes that were there.

hopefully this helps you and answers some of those questions.

 

I wonder how to remove the roof lining.. and the center plastic cover pillar where the front seatbelt is

 

They are all just clips, the pannels pull off.

 

I just finished doing all 4 doors, seems to have helped quite a bit, the doors are silent now, no rattles, but they weren't the worst of my rattles, dash of course was the worst. I plan on doing the back hatch, rear wheel wells and the floor around the spare next because I think a lot of road noise comes from back there.

 

I have been doing my doors and I decided to use expanding foam at the end of the Bquiet material and neoprene install. I used a white foam that says "no warp" on it (less expanding power, that yellow stuff is scary strong) anyway, it worked great. ONLY spray it in the bottom crevices and around the speaker, and up the sides. Too dangerous to get in the way of the window path. The door with the foam taps way deader than the others (I have to pull the panels again now) and the speaker sounds better.