Best value car sound deadening

I want to deaden the sound of the boy racers who come roaring up the hill at two o'clock in the morning. In summer with the bedroom windows open it's not funny.

I'd be willing to try bitumen but I suspect a shotgun would be more effective.

Nick

From experience with felt in a camper van many years ago, the problem is that felt holds condensation.

Ours rusted out from the inside.

Maybe a VW would be better.

Caltrops

Well, my camper was Commer Van based, and we slept in it, 2 adults and 3 children. The OP was talking about a camper, and I would think condensation is something to consider in any of them.

I would think foam would be OK if thoroughly stuck on with nowhere for water to run and hide.

Bitumen paint is certainly cheap, only gives very limited effect though. Then it's down to foams of various sorts. Beware of condensation though. Chucked out rubber flooring offcuts would work well.

NT

I bought some stuff that was very sticky plastic on one side and lead on the other. Very heavy but also very effective.

Bill

Yeah that sounds like the stuff a chap used who did some welding for me, also called self adhesive bitumen flashing. Very heavy stuff, perfect.

Is that the air cooled old version? Yuck good luck if it is! Brian

You need a sound operated device that rasies spikes in the road. After multiple punctures they would soon get the idea of driving slower. Brian

In message snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com, Mr Sandman snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes

There is also the stuff made for boat engines. A layer of foam, then a layer of lead (the expensive stuff) or heavy plastic (a bit cheaper).

It works well for the original purpose and worked extremely well when a built a sort o sound proofing "chimney" to silence a computer for use in a studio.

The stuff you see on production cars - mainly to stop panels ringing - is self adhesive bitumen panels. Peel and stick. A decent car paint supplier should have them. You'll also see them inside quality loudspeaker cabinets.

I had a couple of the doors on the old Rover re-skinned. The originals had these panels, the new skins not. Made the doors clang when shut. Fitting the panels changed it to a more expensive sound. Not cheap, though.

Also, beware of strong side winds which can move an air-cooled VW camper/combi/van from the motorway slow lane into the fast lane before you can react.

Andrew

I was working on a vintage Jag recently. Upon removing the rear seats (which are the bench type and come out as one unit) there was some badly deteriorated rubbery foam layer for sound-reduction purposes. It had to be removed but was too fragile to survive. Rather than source a replacement, I thought I might just re-fit the bench seat, then spray a can of that expanding foam into the void where the rubber layer was. Sets pretty rigid and occupies every cubic CC of space it can find. Might even be better at noise-reduction than the original? Certainly quicker and cheaper than trying to replicate the original from sheets of rubber foam!

Self adhesive bitumen sounds like "Flashband", or is it thicker than that? Flashband is pretty cheap, were you being charged Russ Andrews prices?

It came from a decent local trade car paint supplier. How similar it is to flashband, I dunno. It does have small holes in it at regular intervals. It wasn't expensive as a percentage of the job - I merely thought it expensive for what it appeared to be. But not so expensive as to want me to experiment with an alternative.

How is this stuff supposed to deaden noise, exactly? It's intended for sealing roofs, n'est pas?

mass + damping.

samer as sand.

Ah, okay.

You just invented a highly controversial new word there, NP. ;)

Never been able to figure what the holes are for. Surely not as guides for cutting to shape?