Printer Friendly Forum Posts - Dynamat: whole door or just a square?

I was given two options for applying Dynamat to the four doors of my Prius:

1. Just the area behind the speakers

2. Whole door.

Would like to hear back from those who've done it either way re: how much of a benefit I can expect and also how long it took.

I already have two rolls so it's just a matter of the extra labor. Should I expect to pay the normal per hour charge for installing car audio?

Thanks.

You already have the mat?

Do it yourself. It is VERY VERY easy. We can coach you through it. It is actually fun and satisfying to finish a project like that yourself. All you need is a roller, heat gun, and sharp edge. They don't need to be nice. I bought a generic brand heat gun on ebay for $11.00 shipped. Worked great for mat install.

In my experience it is well worth it mat the front doors as much as possible.

Double layer the front doors before spending ANY time and/or money on the rear doors. Some folks disagree, but I'm in the crowd that thinks front stage carries 90% of the importance in car audio (or home audio, for that matter). You want to deaden and seal those front door panels as much as possible. The more solid you get the baffle the tighter and cleaner your midbass and lower midrange will be.

-------------
New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

So double matting the front doors and just single squaring the areas behind the rear is a good way to go? Is it easier to apply the 2nd layer than the 1st? How many install hours should I be willing to pay for on that?

Was going to have it done the same time I have the speakers done and wasn't planning on doing that myself though I suppose I could. Mostly because I'm not that anxious to take apart the doors on my new Prius. Thanks!

I'm not sure about the install hours.

I would go with what you suggested though, double matting the front and a single square behind the rear speakers.

In a correctly balanced system your rears will be well attenuated with respect to your fronts, so they won't need the same type of stiff baffle.

-------------
New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

so what do you do if you can't get hold of Dynamat?
i live in south africa and we don't get all the products most countries have to offer. we are steadly moving towards
improving our car audio market but we are still a bit behind in that aspect. iv'e tried in vain for many months to get hold of dynamat all over sa but no-one seems to have any. one guy thought i was talking about the cloth we use to cover th sub enclosures! ;)

Here in the states you can go to the home improvement store and pick up some roof underlayment. It comes in rolls that are 6 inches (15 cm) wide.

-------------
My ex once told me I have a perfect face for radio.

Yeah, basically anything you can find to stick to the panels and add mass will do the trick. Cloth won't do it. It needs to add some mass.

-------------
New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

What's the point of Dynamat? Is it to improve sound quality, stop rattles, or both?

Mike

-------------
2000 F150 Supercab Lariat, Alpine CDA-9831, Polk MMC570 in Doors, One Polk MM2104 Sub, One Polk Carbon C400.4 Amp.

John 3:16

Both. Resonance will color the sound whether it is from rattles or backwave.

-------------
New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

I have a 1990 Prelude that has a very noisey interior, i dynamated the floorboard and the doors. I did two layers on the floor board, and i did one layer on the inside of the door, another layer on the inside of the panel of the door, and put a third layer just around the speaker. What i found was a HUGE diffrence in mid bass sound in the front of the veichle. It stopped the rattling in the doors, It improved clarity of the sound and kept extra road noise out. I personal really liked the diffrence and was suprised at it.

by adding a sound dampening/deadening materital to your doors you will gain several things

1) a reduction in ambient road noise, increasing your actual S/N ration of your vehicle

2) an increase in mid bass response

3) a complete separation of the front and rear wave coming from the speaker in question resulting in more response by reducing cancelation.

do the whole door. I recommend one layer on the outer skin(the closest panel to outside) and two layers on the inner skin)the door closest to the passenger compartment)

you'll love the increase in mid bass and even when the stereo is off, you'll appriciate the reduction in road noise

How does one apply dynamat to the inside shell of the door? I can hardly get my hands in there. Is then intent to pull off that factory "cover" on the panel closest to the inside of the cab and replace it with dynamat?

Any links or pictures of how to do this?

Mike

-------------
2000 F150 Supercab Lariat, Alpine CDA-9831, Polk MMC570 in Doors, One Polk MM2104 Sub, One Polk Carbon C400.4 Amp.

John 3:16

crutchfieldadvisor.com has a picture tutorial.

Most people that mat the entire door do replace the plastic factory cover with mat.

-------------
New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

yes, you do have a little bit of a challenge in getting to the outer skin of the door, I'd recommend removing the speaker, as that is often the largest opening on the inner skin and doing what you can from there. I forgot to mention, it is extremely important, particularly for the outer skin, that you clean the surface first, wipe with cloth, then use alcohol or some mild solvent, makes the mat stick MUCH better, good luck