to sound dampen it? in the next couple of weeks i'm going to do the doors then the headliner will be next. i have an '07 f150 scab. i know screws need the back window taken out. i've read but am in disbelief that the seats need to be taken out to take down the headliner. is this true or false? i've looked at my setup several times and i just don't see why or how. any advice?

 

bumpity bump bump

 

Take out the seats....that may be to get the seatbelts off (I am assuming you have rear seats). That would let you remove the side molding. I could see that. I know in my X I would have to take out the seats to access the side moldings and to have better access to my seatbelts.

 

Maybe too late for you now or not practical on the f150, but in my '06 superduty CC, I had the same situation (the headliner won't come out without taking the rear window out)

I actually found it pretty reasonable to add sound dampening with the headliner still in the truck. There is enough room to move it to the side, almost vertically. So, I'd move it to the passenger side and add dynamat on the drivers side, then flip it to drivers side to do the passenger side. Having two people probably helps and you need to be careful to not bend/break/smash up the thick cardboard too much.

I also added a layer of foam. For the layer of foam, I went side to side, so I lowered the headliner as much as possible and put up a layer of plastic painter dropcloths before spraying the glue.


I did remove the front seats, but on the superduty the front seats are pretty easy to remove. (just 2 bolts and 2 nuts and an electrical connection). I probably should have removed the back seats too, but they can be more of a problem.

Anyway, you should see if you can do something similar on the f150.

 

bumpity bump. i'm taking on this project tomorrow. i may do the floor board too, but was hoping somebody knew anything about foam, acoustical or something equivalent to really knock out the sound coming from below.

 

I'm not sure how much the foam helped, at least compared to the dynamat pro...

I added a layer of overkill pro foam from second skin audio on the floor (in addition to 2 layers of dynamat pro). I did one layer of dynamat pro and one layer of overkill foam on the roof and rear panel.

I never listened with just the dynamat so its hard to say how much the foam helps.

The truck is pretty quiet now. The major noise that's left is tire road noise at higher speeds (ie, 75mph). I have stock exhaust with a 5.4 and don't really hear the engine below ~3k RPM. It is amazing how much noise I hear when I open a window.

Good luck on your F150. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

hmmm... i just bought some dynamat. i would've gone with secondskin but i've been getting 12 square feet at fry's for 60 bucks. damn you. now that you brought secondskin up now i have to contemplate whether i should order some overkill or luxury liner and/or go ahead and do this project and take down the headliner AAAGAAAAIN when it comes in. decisions decisions.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to ruin your day I've had the interior of my truck gutted 4 or 5 times now. I've memorized all the bolt/nut sizes now, but it's still a pain in the rear (usually literally as well. stupid seat studs......)

I liked the dynamat pro over the second skin damplifier pro. The sounddeadenershowdown ranked them both quite high but I could get reasonably good deals on the dynamat pro (something like $100+shipping for 32 square feet bulk packs. I ended up using ~7)

I didn't really like the dynamat options for foam though so I went with overkill and overkill pro. I haven't considered anything like luxury liner yet. I need to finish my wiring and speaker installs and stuff first. I really hope to get that finally done today.

I'd definately recommend the second skin audio spray glue though. That stuff is a million times better than super77 or super90.

 

what's up isub. i just did my floorboard today. man, what a lot of work. so how is the overkill pro? i am up in the air between that and luxury liner. i did one layer of dynamt on the roof, back of the cab and the floor board. i only have one layer but it did not seem to do much, so i am eager to do something about it. my truck is pretty quiet for a truck, but i just want to make it like a lexus or equivalent. did the overkill really help?

 

oh and for anybody interested. the dynamat overall has quited my truck some. not significantly, as most persons are led to believe that's what dynamat and the equivalent does. actually, these butyl and aluminum based sheets are sound dampeners. what they do is add mass to sheet metal and the like to reduce vibration and rattle. the most significant improvement was the roof. having a black vehicle, my truck heats up pretty bad in a parking lot. the aluminum from the dynamat has reduced the heat significantly. and i mean significantly. also, i got to listen to what rain would sound like on my tin roof, and i was impressed. the only rain i could hear was on the glass. and the dynamat in my doors increased the sound and reduced the vibrations so i don't have to turn up my radio anymore at cruising speeds. i've spent 340 bucks total to put a single layer all the way around. next up is actually sound proofing it with some sort of acoustical foam from second skin. i might get a hood liner but that is down the road when i have 100 bucks to blow.

 

Yeah, removing the back seat in my truck really sucks. Front seats are far easier. But it is still a huge pain... I really wish I had a garage the truck would fit in. Then I would have just gutted it once and gotten everything done. So far I think I've had it down to "bare metal" 4 or 5 times.

Unfortunately, it is hard to say how much the overkill helped since I did the dynamat and overkill at the same time. When we were installing it, I do think it made a difference while sitting in the cab talking so I assume it helps some on the road. I never ran with a single layer of dynamat on the floor either so not sure if two layers were necessary. The carpet had enough play for 2 layers+foam, so I figured it couldn't hurt.

At one point, I did drove around with just the drivers seat in. It is amazing how loud the cab vents in the back seat are. I'm thinking about replacing my under-the-seat sub box with a behind-the-seat sub box and taking the vents out and filling the holes in. That might help with some of my last bits of road noise.

Right now I really only notice a faint constant road noise. Sort of generic white noise, nothing particular high or low frequency. Pretty much all of the squeaks and rattles are gone as is most engine noise. I'm not sure what the next step would be to lower that road noise. It doesn't take much from the stereo to cover it up, so I don't know how much I need to do.....

Of course luxury liner and overkill pro are the same price to make it more challenging to decide which one to use From secondskin's website it sounds like you should really use luxury liner to target specific noisey areas and coat everything you dynamat with overkill/pro. That was pretty much my strategy too. You might want to post a question over in their forums and see what they say.

Have you use sludge or any of their spray products? If I were more ambitious I'd consider that next in the doors.


-Brian

 

I definately agree with the roof and rain. Wow, what a difference. I think doing the roof also helps with noise from strong winds as well.

And while I have a silver truck, I've also noticed the temperature difference. It really helps to maintain a given temperature. (ie, less heat required in the winter, less A/C required in the summer).

It's definately worth the equipment and labor to add sound deadener to as many areas as you can.