1982 Pontiac Trans Am Interior Noise

[sjgrimsley]

Hello all. This is my first post.

I have a 1982 Trans Am and have been driving it for about 4 years. It has had lots of work done to it by me and my father: mildly built 406 sbc, EFI, full free-flowing exhaust (loud), 4L60e, paint, interior like new, etc. I've never really been happy with how "open" it feels to outside noise, meaning it's not very quiet inside at all. It's never bothered me too much though because that's all I've known a car to be like. Dad's '03 and '66 Corvettes are loud inside, Mom's '95 Explorer is loud inside.

Well, back in 2010 we bought a new Camaro RS/SS. Wow, it's extremely quiet inside, unlike anything I have ever been in. Still has some tire noise but nothing like I'm used to. Fast forward to about 4 months ago when I started working at the Mercedes, Jaguar, Land Rover dealership around here. I now know what luxury car silence is. After having this constant exposure to nice quiet cars, I almost cant stand to drive my own because of all the noise. My goal is to make it at least as quiet as the Mercedes are, if that's possible with a 30 year old car.

From what I have gathered, be it lurking on this forum or studying the Second Skin website, the CLD tiles only require about 25% coverage to be fully effective. Then you add the MLV and you want full coverage. Please, please correct me if I'm wrong. I wont be offended, I'm here to learn and do it correctly the first/only time with all Second Skin products.

I guess my first question is, how many square feet of what do I need for my '82 Trans Am? I have yet to find information where this has been done on a third generation f-body car. I'm not too worried at all about trying to have the quietest vehicle on the road because I live in the real world where cost effectiveness is what I live by. I just want a nice quiet ride without spending $600+ for sound insulation. Hell, a cheap little Honda Civic is luxury quiet when compared to my car.

I don't have any "tunes" or loud bass I'm trying to keep in. No subs or amps, just a replacement head unit from when the stock one gave out and some "slightly better than stock" speakers. I'm a simple is best kind of guy. I just want a simple, "minimal steps required" solution.

Thanks to anyone in advance for any help and thanks to all for this very helpful forum!

[TRTC360]

Id also like to get others opinions on this as I drive a 93 firebird formula and the road noise is terrible and the exhaust heat around my legs gets pretty intense after 30+ min of driving.

[emperorjj1]

for the OP looks like your on the right track and if your just looking to quiet a stock car 25% is good (just remember when installing placement makes a huge difference as well)

for post 2 if your concerned with heat id look into the heatwave pro vs LLP. LLP does a better job with the sound but if i was in your shoes then heat would be my number 1 concern. Plus HWP does do a pretty good job with sound just not quite as well as LLP and its cheaper too

[sjgrimsley]

So if I used standard damplifier ans luxury liner, not pro, think that would make the car plenty quiet for what I want?

[2loud4uboyz]

Do like you said in your first post. Do it right the first time. Buy some second skin. If you have to , do alittle at at time. It will make a differance in the end. Read around on sound deading threads you will get alot of tips and ideas on things to do. You can make a big differance in you ride, just got to get on it and do it. Good luck to you sir . Make a video of before and after. We love video sir. And welcome to SMD. Lot of helpful and super smart people here and smarts a@@'s to.

[emperorjj1]

So if I used standard damplifier ans luxury liner, not pro, think that would make the car plenty quiet for what I want?

I cant really answer that because you goal in itself was contradicting. You said you've got used to luxury quiet and want to make your car as quiet as a Mercedes but then later stated you wanted to get a quiet car without spending more then $600

The main question you have to ask yourself being a minimalist is will you be satisfied with good or do you want great? a 30 year old car is a horrible platform to work with BUT 25% coverage of damp or damp pro and 100% floor coverage LLP (with as much vertical coverage as you can get as well) would be a huge improvement.... but it wont be perfect and it wont be a mercades (yes i know im sure you aren't expecting that in all actuality)

now LLP vs LL. im sure just LL works fine but how the barrier works or at least how i understand it to work is the foam decoupler is a pretty big component in the product. The LL vinyl is thicker then LLP so combined with overkill pro it would be a better preforming product but LL shouldnt be used alone unless thats the only option (thickness)

[sjgrimsley]

Not really contradicting myself but things don't usually come across clear over the Internet.

I'd love for the car to be luxury car quiet, but realistically it could be closer to a grand for that. So I'm going for as quiet as possible for under $600.

ATM it looks like 40 square feet of damplifier and 90 square feet of LLP. Add a wooden roller in with that and I'm at $530.

That should get me 25%+ coverage of damplifier and I think close to, of not 100% coverage, of LLP.

[emperorjj1]

sounds good. only other thing i would recommend other then rags is going to be a bottle of acetone. cleaning the metal with a wet rag first then acetone then a second round with the water is one of the best ways to get the metal ready for good adhesion. Its a little tedious but worth it... just uses alot of rags

[sjgrimsley]

Yeah I was gonna go over everything with some dish soap and water first then some rubbing alcohol. Think it would need the acetone? Probably should do that too just to play it safe.

[emperorjj1]

mmm that should be fine as well. just remember the 3rd step (water only) especially if your using dish soap at first