I have been working on sound deadening my SSM fit the last couple of weeks...off and on on the weekend and after work during the week. I got the hatch, truck and q/p's, and all the doors. also did the hood; all with Damplifier and Neoprene foam where it would fit(cause i got the 1/4 inch stuff and it was too think for some places)... all that has been done and i thought this weekend i would do the floor, but man that will be alot of work...i took all the panels and moisture sheet off and on the doors and got it all back pretty good, only one broken clip, got all the paneling off the q/p's and that was all fine, it was all smaller stuff, when it comes to the floor though, its a different story. I have to take out the kickpanels and trim and sills and the front seats and when i was out there it seemed like so much work for diminished return.

I am 1000% happy with the difference doing the hatch, truck and doors have made, but it seems like the floor has a bit of foam under the carpet and that the firewall has some rubber padding and i would say that the amount of EXTRA sound deadening would not be worth the amount of work to take all those components out and doing the floor?

anyboby with experience think im just trying to justify my chickening out? i might just be exhausted from what have already done, my hands are still so cut and bruised from trying to get into those damn door panels through the shells..anyways.

just a rant...

 

i've been considering the same too cuz taking out the seats / carpeting and putting it all back is a bit too much work. Is there a noticeable difference in terms road / wind noise from doing the doors / trunk / hatch area?

what material did you use?

i just received a roll of 50 sq ft of b-quiet ultimate in the mail. will be putting it in on friday on my dayoff. I'm not sure if I'll do the hood though cuz i see no real benefits in doing the hood.

 

I am feeling the exact same way about the flooring. It just seems like too much work to take everything apart, and I'm scared that when I put it back together it won't fit like OEM. I plan on doing the doors and the trunk for sure. Is the hatch worth it?

How much are you guys paying for the material and where are you buying it from?

 

http://www.b-quiet.com/ultimate.htmlv

thats the stuff i got 50 sq ft. should be enough to do the doors / hatch / trunk

 

well, at first i bought 60 sq ft of Edead from Elemental designs, then i started reading posts and people dogging it and then i made the mistake if going to that Sound deadening showdown link that's been floating around and the edead(granted it was first generation) did not do very well. all that coupled with people saying that it failed at like 200 degrees and me living in Oklahoma with hot summers(over 105) made me question my choice. by that time i had already done the hatch, hood and trunk.

so i spent a weekend taking the edead stuff off and it was a b*tch! i literally had blisters on my fingers from taking the edead off the front trunk, and the shell of the hood, the edead that i put on the inside of othe outer panel on the hood is impossible to take off. so i redid the hood on the shell with Damplifier and left Edead on the inside of the Outer panel. On the hatch, i left all the edead because i went through the shell onto the inside of the outer panel and then on the inside of the shell, so that edead is impossible to take off.

So....after that i bought the 80 sq ft pack of Damplifier from Second Skin and did the trunk, the qp sides and all the doors. I also bough 1/4 inch neoprene foam from the Foamfactory.com(or something to that effect). i placed a sheet of that where i could, on the door it was too thick to put neoprene all over so i only have like the botton half covered with neoprene. If i tried to put the a big panel of neoprene, the neoprene would get pushed back against the opening lever rods and make opening and locking the doors hard...(i hope i explained that well...basically the rods were squished by the neoprene and the added friction made the handle and the unlocking knob hard to pull/push)

I think its definitely worth doing the doors, truck, quarter panels and hatch...i really do, the hatch is so flimsy, and with the sound deadening it basically closes itself if you let it drop from about 3- 4 inches up...its nice...it has made a big difference and that's why i think the floor may not add that much to it for the amount of work...

basically, for me, the 'return' in Additional satisfaction from doing the floor is not worth the amount of work it will take to do it...so i've chosen not to do it for now. I have a good 36 sp ft of the Damplifier left over since i am not doing the floor...dont know what i'll do with it...and the wife wont let me get into her Mazda5

 

Thanks for the info!! How does the car sound now? Any difference from doing those areas? I hope the decibel levels are noticeably lower.

 

oh, there's definitely a difference, all doors close with a solid 'thump' now, and the hatch closes itself. the road noise is greatly diminished, and if i'm under...say 35 miles...its pretty much a low humm. i have really rough roads here in OKC and you usually hear those rough patches, and when you go over railroads...but after i did the sound deadening you hardly hear the texture differences on the road and when i go over railroads it doesn't come across as a different register or pitch( god i bet im not using those words right). I really notice it when i go over small patches of cobblestone roads, instead of a bumpy harsh sound, my car now has an almost uniform low tone going over them. so it's really nice. Once i start getting on the highway the windnoise takes over, but that's a different issue. but i am 100% happy at the difference this has made and would do it again.

ONE THING I HAD TO GET USED TO: this may be psychosomatic but i swear i cant hear the engine as well anymore and so i've had to be more careful when engaging the clutch and i'm also taking each gear into a higher rmp because the gears dont sound as strained anymore. You know when you take a gear up and you hear that high pitch sound that makes you subconsciously change to the next gear? well, im having trouble hearing that now...and so again, im taking each gear higher and it just felt really weird the first week...i had to readjust a little.

someone has said it before, dont expect it to be tomb-like quiet, but there is a definite, definite difference, much nicer all around and more luxurious-like...

my friends that have been in the car since i've done it have commented that its quieter.

I would recommend doing it...

and on a side note....i hate that all the people driving Fits in my area are old men and old women...

 

Hi.

I've thought about doing this too with the damplifier product which is rated the best in that shootout article.

You may be right about the floor being a lot of work for a diminishing return since it already has some type of foam and the carpet.

Another thing to think about is tire noise. It is a major component of the Fit's noise problem. When you replace the tires with new ones, think about something like the Michelin Pilot Exalto's.

When I had my GD3 Fit, replacing the tires with a quiet-riding tire (Michelin MXV4) made it seem like a different car! And I didn't do any additional sound-deadening on the car.

If you had a sound meter, you could have measured before and after readings on residential streets and the highway. It would have given a more scientific comparison.

I do have a digital sound dB meter. If I decide to do this project, I will provide measurements for before and after.

I plan to replace the tires with quiet ones later this year.

 

 

just in case the photos don't sho(its happened before) here is the direct link:
Picasa Web Albums - Oscar - Sound Deadening

i finished my sound deadening by putting foil tape over the seams in order to avoid the black seams and make it a smooth foil layer. you can see some of the batting i used before i put the damplifier. I took the rear seats out just to make it easier to take out the quarter panel trims.

 

You've done a really thorough job. You're a perfectionist.

+1 rep!

I see an oil heater in your garage. It must have been really cold when you were doing it?

 

Ha! the things people notice...

it was a bit on the cold side, maybe 40 or so and i was wanting to make sure that I gave the adhesive the best conditions to make a good initial bond, so I had two space heaters in there. at one time i had an electric blower heater inside the car blowing heat onto the quarter panes in order to heat them up so that when i put down the damplifier it would really adhere.


anyways, Thanks! i appreciate the compliment...the only part that shows finished on the photos is the trunk, i put more down on the quarter panel after i took those pics. you can see on one of those pics that i had started taking the panels off the rear doors, that sticky stuff on the moisture barrier is HORRIBLE...

Thanks again and good luck if you decide to do it.

 

I was thinking about doing this. It sounds cool. Probably keep my car warmer in the winter and it might eliminate some of the fumes i'm getting from my cat delete

 

The floor makes a HUGE difference. On my accord, I didn't even have to do the side panels in the rear or the doors to see a major difference. I did 4 layers of sound deadener on the floor under the carpet and in the trunk/spare tire area. The sound quality difference was huge from the floor install, as it is where much of the noise of the tires vibrates through.

The fit is much easier to take apart than most other cars, and not difficult to put back together. I will probably do the sound deadening on the fit during the summer, as you wanna put it on in HOT weather so it bonds better to the metal, and you can spot any areas that look like they will peel from the heat.

 

Really? you come in here and bring this tread from the dead after i had resigned myself to leave sound-deadening alone....now i've moved on to paint correction and polishing....and you come in here and bring this up????

really?

so now i going to start thinking about it and have to add it to my list of things to do....
1. paint correction/polish
2.
3.
...
34534. Finish Sound Deadening

thanks....thanks

 

I plan on ordering 80 sq ft of Damplifier today. Its good to know that you had 36 sq ft left over because I am also doing my roof.

Its good to hear that the Fit comes apart and goes back together easily. I dont think I have to worry about the warm weather issue due to the fact its usually 70+ here during the day.


Ill try to take pictures of everything when I go to install it. I usually forget to but Im going to try to remember this time.