1st off, my car is a 1991 Dodge Stealth Base model. The bass components of my stereo include 2 - 12" Eclipse 8700 series subs, and they are driven by a DEI Directed 600D amp. Without any sound deadening material and with all the inside panels on the trunk.... it RATTLES A TON. After reading many, many posts in car audio forums around the web, I came to the decision of using RAAM Audio's: RAAMmat 60. It has about the same sound deadening properties as Dynamat and is like 4 times more affordable. Plus the owner of the company sells it direct from his website and is a joy to do business with(something rarely seen in companies today). I also like to deviate from the norm, and everyone else I know has Dynamat... so I wanted to be different.
I did a quick sound check to see exactly where my problems were. I found that the license plate wasn't rattling at all, but rather the spoiler and the top of the hatch were the culprits. The spoiler is all one piece, and it is fiberglass or plastic or something, so I can't get into it. It's stock, and I like it so I am gonna leave it on there and see if this stuff helps with the rattling. Closer inspection found that it's actually the light bar on the spoiler... most of the lights are broken out, so I'm gonna replace it later anyways. For now I applied a small strip of the RAAMmat60 to the top of it and put it back on. Now most of the rattling is coming from the metal hatch (which is ok because that's what the RAAMmat60 is for)!
This page is going to cover installing the RAAMmat60 on just the rear hatch section of my car. I was only going to do 1 layer at first, but I soon realized that I would have a lot left over if I only did 1 layer. So I decided to do it right the first time around, and I'm gonna do 2 layers all around the entire car. But first things first is the hatch where most of the rattling occurs now. The doors are next!
Here's a couple pics I took during install:
| These are the two 62.5 square foot rolls of RAAMmat60 that I got. Combined weight is 56lbs! Probably more than I'll use, a little extra never hurt. The rolls are 15" wide and the stuff is 60mil thick. |
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| This is one little spot in the hatch that I was able to fit 2 square feet into!!! Basically I just cut off about a square foot section off of the big roll and then cut that into sections that would fit into the different areas. I did one area at a time. I don't know if that's the best way to do it, but that's the only way I could get pieces to fit down in the nooks and crannies. The online installation instructions for the RAAMmat60 show them just basically covering entire panels with one big roll of it. But I would guess in places like this it's ok to do some patchwork with little squares to deaden it up. |
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| Oops I forgot to take a before shot! Here's a shot of the rest of the hatch waiting to be covered. Notice that little silver spot on the right. That's where the above close-up picture is. That wire hanging down goes to the brake light up behind the glass, but the red wire is run up in the middle of the two panels running up to the brake light in the spoiler. I am going to be replacing this light in a couple weeks so I made sure not to cover it up or block it in any way. I used the masking tape there to mark off a couple of the holes that correspond to the panel so as not to cover them up on accident. |
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| Now all of the inner panels have both layers on them and all cracks filled in. There is more there than you can see. On the inside of the panels that are now black, there is RAAMmat60 there too. Any places that I could not fit my hand, I used a paint stirrer to try and get it in as far as possible. Any left over cracks and tiny places will be filled in later with some other insulation as pictured below. BUT, I'm not done yet.... |
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| I probably should have taken a picture with just the RAAMmat60 when it was all done. But you can see the filler that I used as well in these pictures. It is a roll of insulation from Home Depot. Kinda looks like the RAAMmat60 on both sides w/o the adhesive side, and it has like air bubbles inbetween w/ some plastic filler in the middle. I cut it into small sections, rolled them up, and shoved them down into the holes as far as I could. This picture also shows the light bar on the spoiler that is broken and rattling. |
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| These are two close up pics of the extra filler. I think this is a key step that will help me out in the long run. Other people use materials such as: fiberglass insulation, carpet padding, fiber fill, or the very messy but effective - spray in expanding foam. I chose this material because I already had a roll of it that I bought before to use all by itself (that was before I knew about the stereo designed stuff with adhesive). |
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| Finished picture. I actually added like 4 more big pieces of RAAMmat60 to cover up where the padding was so it wouldn't fall out, and so it had a more finished look. |
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| This is the inside of the rear hatch cover panel. It says to cover these with one layer in the online installation guide. I did, and after putting it back on I realized something that I hadn't thought of before. WEIGHT. Yes I am stupid... I never thought that adding all this material would make the hatch heavier - thus not enabling it to stay up on it's own. With this piece off it just barely stays up. But when I put this on, it will not stay up on it's own. And the where the plastic parts touch the other plastic parts there is a little bit of rattling. So I left it off until I can get some rubber or something to put inbetween the plastic moldings. |
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| This is what was left... still a lot. The roll on the left is the one I was using. The roll standing up is the afforementioned filler. Hmmmmm I think I'm gonna have a lot left over, maybe enough to do my next car! |
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Conclusions: WOW what a difference. I had to put the brake light back, and that does rattle a little bit, but barely noticeable compared to before. With the brake light disconnected and the hatch closed I sat inside and cranked it up...... NO Rattling from the back what-so-ever. I was able to crank the power level of the subs up 2 notches and turn up the volume 5 points louder than I ever listen to it. See I thought it was my subs clipping before and I didn't want to blow them. But they are just fine... all the clipping noise from before was just all the damn rattling... Night & Day difference. I was thinking about selling my subs to a friend because I thought they were going out... but they are just fine, and now that it doesn't rattle in the back, I am gonna keep them.
Now it's not TOTALLY rattle free. I still have to do all the other parts of the trunk area, and then both of the doors. Finishing off all of the plastic molding with some rubber or something inbetween is going to be a large task as well.