New Fit owner, looking at how to make my car a little less sensitive to road noise. Been doing a lot of reading.

I didn't have my Fit undercoated, but given that I'm planning on keeping it a while, I'm considering having it done. I'm not real crazy about the tar formulas and wondered if the rubberized versions are better in terms of maintenance and sound proofing. Going rate for a shop to do the undercoat? I know what the dealer wanted was in the clouds, so I
laughed and said no thank you.

Also, what could I expect to pay a shop to do the interior. I don't have a garage so I'm likely to have to borrow one (which is not likely) or DIM in very small batches, and I have zero experience sound proofing, though I've learned a bit in the last couple of weeks.

Thoughts?

 

Undercoating won't really net you a large benefit in interior noise reduction unless you go with a fairly heavy spray on type like that available from Dynamat. Due to the effort involved and the fact that it will wear off over time, I personally wouldn't bother. I would instead invest in interior sound deadening in whatever form strikes your fancy. I like Brown-Bread from a place up in Canada called Sound Solutions because it is damn near the same stuff as Dynamat and quite a bit cheaper. There are a few threads on here about sound deadening that can tell you more than i can, but suffice to say it is well worth the effort! Good Luck and Welcome!

 

I'm thinking along the same lines. How would you prioritize the areas for treatment? I'm considering the following steps, in order of bang for the buck/effort:

1. Sound absorbing material (not Dynamat or similar sound deadening mat) on the underside of the cover for the spare wheel well. The Honda rubber protective tray for the area behind the passenger seats should provide another (minimal) layer of sound absorbing material, while helping further seal off the spare tire well.
2. Rubberized spray coating in the outer wheel wells (inexpensive, low effort, even if it has marginal effect and wears off).
3. Dynamat or similar sound deadener mat in spare wheel well (no plastic to remove)
4. Doors (1 square foot of sound deadener mat for each). Requires removing door panels, which can be a pain, and you have to make sure that you seal things up properly on re-assembly to avoid rain leaks.
5. Sound deadener mat under the carpet, at each wheel well. Lots of work to remove trim and pull up the carpet, which may be difficult to re-fit over the mat.

I'm leaving out sound deadener under the hood, firewall, and headliner -- the last strikes me as especially a bear because of the side airbags. Each of these changes could be handled incrementally. Keep in mind that sound deadening mat is heavy, and more pounds = less performance/gas mileage -- which is one of the reasons there is so little sound deadening material in the Fit in the first place.

Other options?

 

I would gut the interior and from the beltline down (those side curtain airbags scare me too) and Brown Bread that mutha! The doors and the cargo area would be the places I would spend the most time on. Also don't overlook the rear hatch itself, another source of resonance and carrier of road noise. The Fits interior actually comes apart relatively easy, you just have to take care with all the plastic fasteners. I would invest in replacements from Bernardi Honda before getting started just to be safe...

 

Sound deadening. Ugh. I'm only about 3/4 done with my Fit, and I'm too tired of it to continue! I've done the rear hatch, the rear panels, the rear floor/spare wheel well, the back two doors and the floor underneath the rear seats. All together I probably went a little overboard and have used around 100 square feet. It certainly makes a difference, rides a lot quieter, don't have to yell at other people to hear me, and my music sounds better for sure. For the doors I used at least 4 sq feet, just to give you an idea. I'm still planning on doing the roof, but I'll have to do that during vacation time.

I think the most important areas are the rear hatch, the spare wheel well, the rear panels, and the doors. Everything else is just to make you feel better. At my shop, if you wanted us to deaden the entire car, it'd probably run about $400 just in labor. And if you bought the Dynamat I used, that's probably be $800. Its not hard to do it yourself, and can save you a TON of money. Just do it a bit at a time.

I don't plan on doing the firewall or under the dash. I'm not comfortable enough to put everything back together and still have it work. I will be doing under the hood soon, but I'm debating on whether or not to do a CF hood, so I'm waiting till I know.

Dynamat works great, but it is one of the more expensive ones out there. There are plenty of other brands to choose from that work just as well deadening-wise, but the ones I've seen have lacked the heat properties to last for the years that Dynamat and eDead do.

As far as the undercoating, I'd agree with the above posters. It's not that cost effective and provides minimal, short term benefits. Deadening the roof would be much more effective, and last longer.

 

I actually had a lot of fun sound deadening my car this past week. I only did the front doors, spare tire well/sides, and the hatch door itself. At first glance it appears to be a very intimidating project, but once you start tearing into it you realize how easy this car is to take apart.

I went from zero experience to now being able to pull a door panel off in about 2 minutes. The back of the car is also quite easy to disassemble. The rear hatch door panel is kind of a pain though. Best thing to do is get a door panel removal tool, read the threads outlining how to remove the door panels, and be sure you have an appropriate amount of time allotted for the work.

Start with the basics:

Be sure you have more than enough sound deadening material. I thought I had wayyyy more than I would need, and it ended up being barely enough.

Be sure you have all extras on hand like rollers, cleaners, blades, rags, and other details like (again) appropriate amount of time to complete the project, plenty of light, etc.

You will be adding a decent amount of weight to the car depending on the extent you wish to deaden, so keep this in mind before you apply to every square inch of the car (in most cases your not going to be able to remove it once applied). Overall I'm sure you will be very glad with the results after sound deadening. Dynomat really makes my new speakers shine, and creates a more solid feel to the car. Have fun and good luck!

 

I cannot find Brown Bread on Sound Solutions site. Got a valid link to the product?

 

Double Drat! Its been quite some time since i last ordered the stuff from them, I hope it hasn't been discontinued! Maybe they have changed the name?

 

B-Quiet sound deadening materials - Brown Bread - Better than Dynamat!! brownbread

Looks like it has been discontinued. But they'd be happy to sell you their house product!

 

Many people claim as good as or better than Dynamat. One thing for sure, there is only one Dynamat. Many others are satisfactory thou.

Some other brands to check out are Stinger Roadkill, Hush Mat, Cascade and Second skin. Something with an aluminum type face to it is what I prefer. You can get the fastest results starting with the front doors, then the rear floor (just behind the front seats), and then the tire well floor area. Don't waste your efforts and time with spraying the outside of the car or undercoating.

I will try and post some pictures later tonight or this weekend.

 

I used Second Skin's Damplifier and would highly recommend it Sound Deadening Materials for Noise Reduction from Second Skin

here are some pics of what I did








I couldnt tell you what made the most difference but overall the car was much quieter. The doors now give a nice thud when they are shut. I used about 60 sq ft total

 

Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for -- an ordered list of what provides the best results for effort. How difficult was it to pull/re-attach the carpet on the floor behind the front seats?

 

nice job, how thick is your baffle and is that MDF? Does the door panel give enough clearance with that thing?

 

its about an inch thick and the door panel just clears it but I have removed some stuff from the door panels. I tried 3/4 inch mdf first but the speaker was still hitting the door

 

Look for my posts here starting about mid-page regarding dampening examples:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...adening-3.html

 

If you just ripped out the on/off switch out for all this "annoying other people shit" it would also quieten your car.

 

Sometimes I don't get Canadian humor. This is one of them.

 

Well listen closely. The thread is about sound deading. Well you have all that audio equipment which does look nice but it causes what some people would consider to be just noise not music. So to deaden the sound of the noise produced by your audio equipment take out the on/off switch or just leave it turned off. It would deaden the noise I would hear in my Fit were I pulled up next to you at a light.

I hope this helps.

 

Thanks that clarifying Black3sr. The way it was worded, I didn't get it.
Yes, it is hard to hear outside the car. But you would be surprised how many people want me to open the doors and judge it by how far they can hear it down the road. They just don't get it. With 78 lbs of Dynamat, it was made to listen to "closely" in the car.

 

Yeah I did both the inner and outer skin of the door