I'm just finishing up a long rework of the car over the winter, including the sound system. I'd covered pretty much the entire interior of the car with Second Skin Damplifier except for the seemingly hardest part - the inside of the front doors. Up to this point, the results were "nice". Finishing the doors over the weekend and the result is "wow"! Dampening the outer door skins and crash bars really made the sound from the 9" Bose door speakers pop; even now competing with my add-on sub for bass and giving a much cleaner midrange. So, if cash is a concern, rather than spend hundreds on this or that, start by skinning the front doors. For first class sound, it's something you'll want to eventually do anyway, but may as well enjoy some results while saving for the big-ticket items.

http://www.secondskinaudio.com/vibra...damplifier.php

I used ~ 10 sq ft for the front doors. (72 sq ft, 25 lbs, covered virtually the entire inside of the car except for the areas already covered with factory intalled dampening, which I didn't cover over.) Getting to the inside door skins is tedious, because besides the visible door panels, the inner plastic panel has to come out and it's festooned with wiring. To get to the back side of one of the clips holding wiring, the mirrors have to come off. The window glass has to come out too, but it's a good opportunity to put fresh grease on the window actuator. (Also a good idea to spray grease the bottom edge of the door as added rust protection while it's all open). The needed tasks are described around page 145 of the body section of the factor service manual. A set of plastic panel removal tools like this one is highly recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/No-Scratch-Too...3835328&sr=1-4

The Damplifier is only effective when stuck to the metal, so don't "drape" it over the crash bars, cut thin strips and coat the whole thing especially behind where the speaker goes.

Anyway, remarkable results for a weekend's careful work and not much money.

 

Nice write up! Thanks.

 

Thanks. Made a mistake though, was 10 sq ft for the front doors and another 5 for the back. OP corrected.

 

I've been wanting to do this for a while.. thanks for the write up.. any other tips?

 

Wow, just wow. Your attention to detail is impressive. I'm always telling my wife...Stop!! Focus!! Stay paying attention to one thing!!

BTW, what do you do for a living lol?

 

Let's call the panel one sees the "door panel", and the panel you don't, the "middle panel". Removal of the door panel as well as the tweeter sail panel, is well-covered in the FSM and numerous FYI's. Before starting, adjust the windows so the rearmost top edge of the window is 5.5" above the door sill. Then disconnect the negative battery cable for safety since you're messing with the stereo and the HU is never otherwise completely powered down.

After removing the door panel, remove the 9" speaker. On my 06 anyway, 3 screws are the same, but the top on is slightly different. Pull the speaker straight out so as to not damage the foam water shield on the back side of the speaker. It's not strictly necessary to remove the speaker, but best put it aside in a safe place while doing the other work.

Next, find two rubber plugs about 1"x2" and pull them out. The two bolts holding the glass in the regulator cradle should be right behind. Remove them, lift the glass, tilt it down toward the front, slide the piece a bit forward, and remove the glass. It's a good chance to clean it and remove or add tint if you want.

The next goal is, with the door fully open, to be able to peel the middle panel out at the back and to place it out of the way on the scuff plate. Completely removing it would mean completely disconnecting the wiring harness which is a lot more work and unnecessary. On the front part of the door, there are a couple plastic wire guides which will prevent this. One can be popped loose from the front, the other needs access from the back which can be had by removing the 3 screws holding the mirror on. There is a plastic hook tab involved as well, so try not to break that when removing. Take out the screws around the perimeter of the middle panel and loosen it from the seal. You'll see that one of the two nuts holding the regulator in place will also need to come off (I think it's the top one).

Then cover what you can of the exposed metal on the metal door skin. Only material that actually sticks to the metal will do any good. Try to avoid getting air bubbles under the matting by working generally from one side of the piece to the other. Use a 1" wide roller where you can. Any remaining bubbles should be "popped" with a knife through the foil, and pushed flat. While big pieces are better than small, there are so many convolutions in there, the biggest you can use will be about 3"x12" so there'll be a lot of trimming. Cut your piece then test fit it with the paper backing still on. You'll have to find a path that gets it in place without touching the sticky stuff to the metal prematurely. The edges of the panels aren't so important so don't run the Damplifier so close that it will trap water or make it really hard to get in place accurately. (Pics 2 and 4 below show the skinning job 1/2 done. Unlike Dynamat, the Second Skin products are finished black.) When reassembling, make sure the speaker is turned so the opening in the water guard is facing down.

Not a hard job, but tedious and time-consuming. It took 3/4 day per door for old, slow me.

Post up what ya'll think of the results regarding better sound from the stereo. The doors were the last step for me in skinning the whole interior - it should have been the first I think. Next steps rated in terms of stereo perfomance would probably be the roof, trunk (if you add a sub), rear doors, under the rear seats, bare places under the carpeting, and transmission tunnel.

 

Physics, with the emphasis on developing, running, and modding heavy-ion sources and high-energy accelerators. Why do you ask?

 

^ ..just checking, and as I thought... you fit the **** obsessive profile like all of us techies . We just can't do a half assed job, but rather don't stop until the last bolt is undone and the last piece disassembled, just because, if for no other reason than to see what's there....

 

Nice write up - thanks for documenting for us! Do you find that the Second Skin also dampens road noise from bumps?

My wife commented last night that the ride is pretty firm over imperfect roads. I think a lot of that perception comes from the sound of the car going over bumps. It’s really a pretty comfortable ride with the GT’s OE suspension, but going over a bump is quite noisy – especially compared to our Mazda6 or something plush like a Lexus. I’m hoping that adding dampening like the Second Skin would quiet things down a bit inside.

It may sound silly, but I’d also be interested to hear if the skin makes the door close sound a bit firmer. To me, the stock door closing sounds a bit loose, and I’ve always been a fan of a door that sounds firm when it closes.

 

Found this from HiFlite on the vendor's website. Good review - thanks again!

"I am very happy after installing Deamplifier inside my RX-8. Being an all-out sports car, there is little factory sound dampening, and panels are as thin as possible to save weight. Compounding that are the naturally-sharp exhaust pulses coming from a rotary engine. The stock exhast system does a decent job of taming this, but is very heavy and saps power in the upper rpms. Aftermarket exhausts, like what I now have, generally result in a ~4000 rpm drone which is very tiring on longer trips. Keeping weight in mind, I chose Damplifer and went to work, using 72 sq ft to line virtually the entire interior (within reason, and not covering the factory intalled dampening material). Love the results! It`s now a real GT car with modest interior noise, a "free" improvement to the sound system (particularly after lining the front door skins where the speakers now no longer visibly vibrate the skin and outside mirrors), and nice thunks and clunks when closing doors. The 1`x2` size is perfect to work with, it`s easy to cut with shears, and adhesion is goldilocks (just right). Cost is very reasonable considering the magnitude of the upgrade. The biggest bang/buck is in covering the skins on doors where speakers mount, if one wants to try things out before going `whole hog`. Great product!"

 

As you found in the other post, the Damplifier makes a huge improvement in the quality of the closing door sound. Even doing the entire interior and trunk though, won't give it a Lexus-luxury car overall sound level. Doing that would require an added barrier layer which is quite heavy (~100 lbs). I didn't want that much weight, but YMMV. While the level of road noise isn't hugely lower, I find that the "quality" of it is improved ... less "tinny". The doors are a weekend-level project, and the trunk similar. The interior is kindof a big deal to disassemble though. Unfortunately, behind the doors, the next most effective place to cover is probably the underside of the roof, which requires removing the entire headliner and is quite the time consumer. Be sure to disconnect the battery to avoid getting an airbag in the face!