Has anyone done the dynamat type stuff in a crew cab? I want to order some but have no Idea of the square footage of the roof, doors, back, firewall and floor. Anyone?

 

I have it here for my 68 and the Heat wave pro. Have not installed it yet, still a week off for the interior to be painted. I think I ordered enough to do the firewall/floor/top/back& doors with both. It is one heavy mat for the size.

The 36sq is enough to cover the top (6x6). The FW and floor is larger than that. + the back would take a 3x6 piece.

So in your case doing it complete, go for the 80sqft pack.

 

ya cool. i was gonna order the 100 sqft set of b-quiet ultimate. it is a local company for me.

 

Lucky you, that must be convenient.

I have my cab stripped down, so I can cover the firewall completely. The only insulation was a roofing felt on the floor and FW, nothing else. Anything I do will be huge improvement. When it rains it was so loud you could not talk to anyone in the cab. Hearing the radio was out of the question.

So yes adding insulation to the roof would make a good improvement.

 

Consider using QuietCar, instead of or in addition to the dynamat. I was converting to diesel, so knew I better be serious about sound. This product allegedly converts sound into heat - instead of damping the sound waves, it transforms them. I had my crew apart completely, inside and out, and coated everything: inside doors, under headliner, floorboard, inside firewall, back behind the seat, under hood, under fenders. You get it. Everywhere. Brushed on thick, several coats. I used one sheet of Dynamat on the back wall, and some on the firewall. Early drives showed this worked very well, quieter by far than whent he 460 was in it, and now running a cummins. I heard air, and tire noise, before the engine noise at 65mph down the highway. With new tires, I could hear the engine a bit, but the air noise is a touch louder - that with new door/window/windhsheild gaskets. What made an enormous change was swapping carpet and seats . The carpet is just good looking short-pile commercial deep gray/black. The available molded kits had terrible look and color, imho. That stuff was heavy and once fitted, worked great. And only $70. The seats I changed -to the cloth factory stuff from a 1999 F350. Hard to put in, but the difference was amazing. Wonder if the seat rails on the old benches were transferring sound waves. Another enomorous difference was Line-X on the bed.

If I was to do anything different, sound-wise, it would be to spend more time on the inside of the firewall with Dynamat, and to spend more time with Quietcar on the metal backside of the dash panel itself. Probably next inline would be a mat of sorts in the door shells and under the headliner - though they are remarkably quiet with the coating I already put there. Oh, and I would get a decible meter so I could have the readings to post the changes as I tried different stuff!

jon.

 

good info jnordby!
I am going to do a cummins swap in my 74 4wd crew and am pretty sure I will be Line-Xing the cab (floor, about 1/2 way up doors/firewall/rear and possibly roof) as well as the bed. I would hope that this would work as well as quietcar or dynomat - what do you think?

Also, on a side note - it seems odd that the bench aded that much to the noise in the cab, but I'm glad you said something. I was about to get my bench re-covered, but I may look for a swap instead now. You say the 99 bench was "hard to put in". Why is that? Did you have some custom fabrication to make it fit, and did you replace both front and rear benches?

Thanks.

Steve

 

Mine had insulation in the roof, but I cut it out (the roof and insulation) and put this in.

 

Being in construction we have a VERY similar product called Blueskin, made by the Henry Company as well as MANY others. I comes in rolls of 6, 9 & 12 inches and in thicknesses of 25 & 40 mil. Rolls are 75 feet long. I would guess that is is less expensive that Dynamat. A roll of 9" x 75 feet of 25 mil is $26.00 local. This is made by Fortifibre who makes tar paper/ 60 min paper. Any roofing supplier/ lumber yard, or building paper company would have it. I have used it in my truck with great results!!

 

Another product that I wanted to try is "Body Schutz" by 3M. It is used on the rocker panels of cars as chip guard. It sprays on thick and should deaden sound.

 

Steve - I like the idea and look of Line-X where you are suggesting. If I had to guess, I don't think it will help with sound near as much as if you use something specifically designed to dampen, absorb, or convert sound. No doubt Line-X will help - but ya might do better by using something else under or instead of the Line-X. It'd be cool to get some decible readings and see.

Bareaneye a few back mentioned construction specific stuff - maybe look into what he suggested - those products might specifically address the sound patterns of diesels, and might be cheaper. Quietcar really doesn't say much about the difference between the different ranges and noises it deals with - I bet something diesel frequency specific makes even more of a difference.

As for the seats - I did use front and back. The 1999 F350 Crew seats fit well in the old truck. I did the seats and carpet at the same time (not the Line-X bed though, it was later). Some of the change could be the carpet. Some of the change could be how I mounted the seat frame. It truly made an enormous difference, plus the seats are way more comfortable. They were difficult to put in because the 1999 F350 pan is different the 1978 pan - in the 1978, the floor falls away from the center. In the 1999, the pan is flat. So, had to graft the rail from the old rear seat to the outside mount points of the front seat, cut the front seat outside front mount off, and mounted the rail. The inside mounts (toward the tunnel) and console went pretty well. Doing this has the seat a bit high in the cab, it would have been better to lower the inside of the front seats than raise the outside, but then you get in the way of the front/back adjuster and the can-of-worms to keep that functioning.

The new rear seat just requires some heating and bending of the outside front mounts and works well with min fabricating. Also some pan reinforcing work to anchor them well - I was sure to use the factory belt anchors, but still need to reinforce the seat anchors I think.

Doable, and I would do it again, but they don't just fall into place unfortunately!

jon.

 

Thanks for the info again Jon. I am kind of surprised to hear you don't think Line-X will dampen as much sound as the other stuff. I was thinking you were going to answer the other way seeing as it is REALLY dense. I'll have to try it and see though as I'm 99% set on doing it. Carpet just gets beat up and collects dirt with what I use the truck for, so Line-X is a good solution to that. Sounde deadening is more of an extra benefit.

Your answer on the seat is pretty much what I expected, so that's kind of good. I figured whatever seat I end up with will need some custom fab to make it work. Shouldn't be too big of a deal.

 

I'm not sure I would use any construction material petro based unless it was approved for the inside. It may have odor to deal with The Damplifier Pro is 80 mil thick, much thicker than all the others. Used with the Heat Wave Pro, it should take care of all the noise and heat. SecondSkin has a lot to choose from, even a cermic material you brush on. I've been around a lot of construction material it's ok for outside, I would not use it for inside. It would be like formalyde in carpet and some foam. I have heard The line-x works good for road noise. Back in the 70's I use to have the sides of my Vans Sprayed with foam. It was approved for inside building and had no odor once it was fully cured in 72 hrs. It really reduce the sound and heat transfer alot.

There is a lot of material out there. The Damplifier Pro is considered one of the best by may audio installers. As with any sound deading the more layers you add the quiter it gets, as every layer make it quiter. And every vehicle is different.

My PU orig had no insulation, so anything I do will be an improvment.

 

Steve, there is no doubt that the Line-X will quiet your cab down - any kind of thick coating on metal will help. The only reason I am thinking that Line-X won't dampen sound as well as coatings made for the job is that Line-X is designed for exactly what you are using it for - durability, ease of washing, etc. Give me trucks with leather seats and rubber floormats every time - carpet is annoying as heck! Any sound dampening is secondary/by accident (heck, they should formulate it for sound too, if it doesn't take away from the looks and durability). It is even possible a coating could amplify sound by accident, and obviously something could be designed to do just that.

Also, Line-X is a single coat I believe, and like blue68 and others are mentioning, these sound products are typically 2-3 coats, ending up 3+ mil thick, and specifically engineered to dampen, absorb, or convert sound. Something with the coats and thickness helps, though I don't know what. Wonder if you could sound coat your cab, then Line-X it provided it would adhere to the sound layer. Best of both worlds, but not cheap.

Post photos of your Line-X interior when you can, that has to look pretty nice and be as functional as it gets!

jon.

 

I'll have to ask the Line-X guy about capatability with sound deadening stuff - as that might be a cool idea. I also thought you can ask the guy to spray the Line-X on a little thicker for more protection. I'm not sure on that yet though as I haven't talked to the guy. I am very tempted to coat the cab now, but with how many changes the truck will see soon I want to make sure I won't have to drill anymore holes, etc. later - so I think it's a much better idea to wait. I will definitely post up some pics when it's done though.

Same goes for you other guys though - post pics of your progress on sound deadening stuff.

 

Some other companies that make some quality stuff for a much better price than Dynamat.


http://www.raamaudio.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/index.php?cPath=24

http://www.cascadeaudio.com/damper.html