Insulation for sound and/or warmth inside my car...

[bobstad]

I have a '91 Festiva L 5-speed and a bunch of closed cell foam ground pads for using under sleeping bags; which are left over from gluing inside a '75 Chevy panel van to control condensation from the metal walls and ceiling as well as give additional warmth.

In the Chevy van these didn't seem to add much to diminishing either exterior or road noise, and I've seen various products on the internet both inexpensive or pretty pricey said to be good for that.

Since I've already got the insulation ground pads, which are high quality mountaineering type; I'm thinking of gluing them to as much of the inner sheet metal in my Festiva as I can, since here in Washington state the normal winter temperatures are enough lower than in California this would seem an advantage.

I'm wondering if anyone else has attempted such a thing and what sorts of experiences they've had; how to get stuff into weird and inaccessible places and that sort of thing?

I'd also be curious about effective sound-proofing, especially if not too expensive; since road noise in the car defeats listening to the radio or stereo unless I'd be willing to install a loud enough system.(I'd guess driving in a quieter car would be more relaxing, especially in heavy traffic where I seem to hear lots of road noise from vehicles around me as well as my own)

I'd think I could greatly reduce the sound of the road underneath the car and/or road noise beside me, without significantly reducing the ability to hear warning sirens or other things necessary to safe driving. Just all that ambient noise from the tires and reflected from underneath the car bouncing back from the road surface and similar from outside the car in other directions.

I tried to use contact cement gluing the foam pads into the Chevy van, but was unable to keep the thing out of the direct sun for 72 hours so everything de-laminated and I had a horrible messy job cleaning all the old glue off of both the foam pads and the metal interior of the van; and then got some spray adhesive which worked more quickly and was fine if more expensive I've still got a couple of cans of.

I guess my best bet to do a really effective job might be to pull out all the seats and the dash, to glue the closed cell insulating foam pads into as many places as I could; and I wonder how difficult the dash might be to get out then reinstall?(I've already had the seats out many times, which is pretty easy)

Gluing into the doors and elsewhere seems as if more of a challenge; though all the interior plastic and paneling is already gone since I really don't like that stuff which is supposed to be carcinogenic anyway.(some Asian cars even come with warnings about their interiors, though the older the plastic gets the less of a problem like that)

[spiko]

Although I don't really understand half of your posts, you bring up an interesting topic. I also have been thinking about ways for sound reduction in our somewhat noisy cars. There are products such as dynamat that car audio enthusiasts use to insulate sound and reduce sound vibrations. Also, I have heard of spray insulations, but I haven't done much research on those. Hopefully, other people can share their knowledge and recommendations.

[MONSOON]

I believe 1 or 2 here have actually used the spray foam in places on their Festivas.

[deathegg]

Here is the link to my post about how I did sound-proofing in the DeathEgg.
I think it worked pretty well; it's quieter inside and with fewer rattles, and the stereo sounds better too. Hope this helps you.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16051

[econoaddict]

Wow, I thought I was the only one to think of this.

I did use the pads for an insulator/deadener.
I used the ones from a military surplus store, I had an econoline pickup that was about as quiet as the inside of a 55 gallon drum rolling down a gravel road, I used the 3m spray adhesive and put it everywhere I could possibly stuff it.
It made a huge difference in the econoline, mainly due to the large flat areas of metal that were exposed inside. Can't really say as to how much it helped heat wise as the heaters in these rigs are crappy to begin with.

[mechanicaldj]

may i suggest a wood/coal/4:20 burning stove without a chimney?



inhale deeply

[bobstad]

That society has been inescapable; if on rare occasion cloyingly so!

may i suggest a wood/coal/4:20 burning stove without a chimney?



inhale deeply

Wish I could've afforded to've smoked as much reefer as sometimes seems the impression of me here @ FF.com.

My association "stems" from musical roots; initially my father's who'd been a chief petty officer in the navy during the second world war, who mentioned in my youth having gotten into smoking reefer a little then.

Dad had a set of tailored in Hong Kong wool dress blues with a 26" waist @ 6' 2"; who'd ran the 440 & 880 and high-jumped in track, was sixth man on his great class of '42 high-school basketball team in Aberdeen, WA, and a fantastic end on the football team.

Whose IQ was 175 still able to high-jump 5' 6" at 42; who drank himself into oblivion the last thirty years of his life; until ultimately discouraged with the parade at 79 about five years ago, "finally out of the closet" my youngest of four sisters quipped-spreading his ashes a year or so later.

Also an alto saxophonist in his high school band who'd performed the stripper's classic "Harlem Nocturne;" long prior to his G. I. bill provided for career as a pharmacist.

I got my musical start on his old gold-plated H. N. White King saxophone as a ten year old, he'd gotten used from an alcoholic in his own youth; he'd quit playing on in school after his sophomore year to pursue athletics exclusively.

Which was a clunky old relic in our attic with nearly all the gold plate worn through to the silver below I'd had to struggle with until in high school the band bought a new Selmer Mark VI tenor saxphone for me to use.

The only time my Dad ever played his alto for me was with my four sisters listening too-all of us grade school age, a pretty turgid if hearty rendition of "Home On the Range" with a reed likely decades old.



Who'd liberally encouraged my early drug experimentation; figuring intelligently that sound quality education would trump prohibition.



While alcoholic beverages* since "street legal" and for other reasons, have dented this budget if modestly; a nearly religiously "stay at home" rather than nightclub pursuit, with discount supermarket and similar prices.(coffee, tea or even water; when "out on the town")

According to macrobiotic practice some amount of alcohol use can be efficacious in difficulties with both compulsive overeating and similar sugar addiction, which I'd endorse as true.



Though I credit an abscessed tooth as my best friend in dealing with hypoglycemia once threatening to make me diabetic; with enough pain whenever I'm remiss in watching my sugar intake like a hawk, I'll likely never get the thing pulled.

That dentists are always amazed at for the long and healthy dormancy effected I guess is rarely seen; which an M. D. friend from non-medical pursuits Lawrence Badgley,(a shared passion for yurts) coached me at long ago now.



As far as alcohol though, a local Eureka, CA DollarTree store now 675 miles distant a particularly beloved "enabler" with decent "buck" 1.5 liter bottles of a couple of nice Monterey, CA white wines; picked up Friday 4/13/07 on my way home from the wrecking yard getting parts off of a '97 Aspire for an as yet to be completed brake swap.(front half awaits)

To get on my computer for some good FF.com advice, which led to an impromptu solo wake in behalf of DJ over that same weekend.



*A great many of my "substantial" pursuits have an analgesic character, ramifications of congenital and juvenile spinal disease; so that now a local physician's assistant at a clinic here I go to rations me thirty Vicodin and thirty Tramadol a month.(actually a Vicodin similar product with less Tylenol)

Nothing is perfect, and drugs and/or alcohol really are second place to what an extensive physical therapy regimen might provide;(for atrophied musculature) though not as easily embarked upon, especially with all the huge pressuring of the multi-national pharmaceutical industry and lobby, pushing their products at any feasible juncture with a solvency seemingly greater than water's.($$$)



p. s. Hope "mechanicaldj" wasn't thinking of the effects of carbon monoxide upon this Fesitvite; in his we'd presume humorous aside?(hey moderator, if you like we can let this post ride here; but I'm also going to put it up in the "off-topic" forum as worthy; since "djmechanical" sort of stimulated this discussion...)



The old man once told of an experience on Saipan with some battle-hardened marines, who himself had been on a converted tuna clipper most of the war that was an admiral's and general's refrigerated mess.

The marines mopping up after Saipan was secured, after a captain he hadn't liked dumped him there off of a destroyer-escort he'd been sonar man on, after the tuna clipper; for failing to raise the sonar gear since receiving no direct order, which got sheared off the bottom of the boat, going to the bottom of that harbor.

Watching the marines prod with sticks the disemboweled intestines of a Japanese officer they'd come upon after he'd committed hari-kari though still very much alive, sitting on his heels contemplating his life's passing.

About twenty years ago my father while drinking, related the most recent of his war stories to me, about him and a buddy(an "imaginary friend"?) purposely flunking the final test in naval aviator fighter pilot training; imaging the 50% mortality rate then as too severe a risk considering his ultimate human worth.(quite involved in my youth in various civic interests, also dedicated as a union representative when employed after owning his own drug stores previously, as a chain-store pharmacist)

Who'd raised me with an especially pacifist mentality.(his own father had joined the marines late in the first world war, whose war experience included chancing to land in an already occupied fox hole atop the occupant, his own brother had been in; both unaware of their proximity on that front until then)

[bobstad]

Yeah; could a moderator please move my post above this; in toto in the "off-topic" forum also?(and/or just move there without duplication here, and leave this forum to a more technical discussion...I'll leave that to the moderator's discretion)

TANX(note to self; need to make another donation to FF.com)

[mechanicaldj]

think we may need an "out in space" forum soon

[bobstad]

Thanks for the excellent thread "deathegg"

Here is the link to my post about how I did sound-proofing in the DeathEgg.
I think it worked pretty well; it's quieter inside and with fewer rattles, and the stereo sounds better too. Hope this helps you.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=16051

Wow. Took a look at the thread which is inspiring. Thank you very much "deathegg."(maybe in the summer I'll have a chance to try something similar...the apartment here I think may let people work on their cars in the "visitor's parking" at the very rear of the complex; since I've seen a pair of jack stands sitting back there, and someone told me this happens)

Some years ago I'd had a friend with a '70s Econoline panel van who'd had the whole thing sprayed inside with a cheap thick liquid stuff which hardened into a sort of porous off-white foam; that was a by-product of the wood products industry.

I've driven by the place where this was done myself, a few times over decades going up and down the three western states; and thought I'd lost track of them, though moving here to Bellingham from Eureka I noticed them again. If I'm not mistaken somewhere in Oregon along I-5 though not exactly along the freeway.

That could be an alternative for some of the difficult places?(my notion is that the fiberglass insulation might not provide much sound deadening?)

[ketchup]

you can use ice and snow shield instead of dynomat. it is for roofing under the shingles in case of an ice dam or not having a steep enough pitch on your roof it is the same stuff as dynomat at a third of the price. it is basically a thin sheet of tar with a plastic outer liner..