Best sound deadening for bus

[rogercelliott]

We have put Dynamat over the floors and doors of our 65 vw bus and although it's gotten a bit better noise -wise it's still hard to hear the other person talking unless we yell and that's even when we're in the front seats. We matted over the engine bay, the cargo floor, the walls and the doors as well as the front floor and the front of the bus. Like I said, it helped some but still seems really loud.

What are you using to kill sound?

[sgellis]

I used kilmat on the walls and ceiling and strips of a similar product over engine and rear fenders. That will get most of the vibration. I wanted to keep the weight down so didn't cover everything.

Before we installed the camper interior we put a quilt over the engine and that helped a lot. With a full interior we can talk normally while driving.

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[rogercelliott]

[quote="sgellis"]I used kilmat on the walls and ceiling and strips of a similar product over engine and rear fenders. That will get most of the vibration. I wanted to keep the weight down so didn't cover everything.

Before we installed the camper interior we put a quilt over the engine and that helped a lot. With a full interior we can talk normally while driving.


Hi Sgellis,
Thanks for showing what you did. We did pretty much the same thing except we didn't cover the ceiling. We used an iPhone decibel app and we think the most noise is in the front where we did put Dynamat but I think we need something thicker. Probably the ceiling could be a help too. We'll see....

[Joey]

I removed close to 20 lbs of Dynamat from my bus along with scraping brushed on tar-like-goop off the walls and it didn't make much if any difference in noise. In the rear I have a fold out westy bed and the original style rubber mat on the floor and I can hardly hear the engine. What got rid of a lot of noise up front for me was removing the safari windows.
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Joey

‘60 Kombi - '74 Bus - '79 Panel - '65 Beetle

[flemcadiddlehopper]

In my '67 Bus I have done extensive sound deadening. Not all of it was to quiet down the ride of the bus. Most of it was done to deal with the audio system going into the bus.
I did start with a Proform product that was paintable. The lower sides of the rear cargo area and the long panel section.

Then I carried on with Kilmat in the cargo doors, hatch and spare well. The front floor, seat pedestals and walk-thru floor were also taken care of with the Kilmat.

The roof was given a few pieces of Kilmat and then covered with a 3M thinsulate product that is hydrophobic, has a high amount of foil-like material in it and it should aid in keeping the heat down in a black roofed bus.The same material was applied to the backs of all the door panels.

The rear cargo area, wheel wells and under the rear seat were also given the same treatment.

But to add to that, a hood liner Dynomat was applied to the top of the engine bay to help calm the engine noise a bit.

To aid in the speaker placement areas Focal's Bam sound deadening was used. It has the butyl backing, weighted foil and a top layer of closed cell foam. This was used in the upper rear quarters and the front doors.

I can't attest to how this works on road noise, as my bus has not seen the road yet. But, the reverberated sound inside the bus, both reflected and conducted (hand clap, door closing, knocking on panels) sound has lowered in frequency to a dull thud. No tinny sound at all.

Gordo.
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Everybody Dies....Some Never Live.

Retrograde Garage. Vintage Aircooled, and others.

[rogercelliott]

[EmpiGT]

Hey Flem, what did you use in the side walls and the side panels by the spare tire mount that you painted over. It looks good that way even if they get covered.

[flemcadiddlehopper]

The product was Proform solid butyl backed aluminum sheets.

http://www.proformproducts.com/en/products/repair-...ng-sheets/

It might be a Canadian thing. Very good prices though.

Gordo.
_________________
Everybody Dies....Some Never Live.

Retrograde Garage. Vintage Aircooled, and others.

[mandraks]

[Busstom]

Keep in mind that the butyl and other similar thin, foil adhesive-backed sheets don't block sound, that's not what they're intended to do, and advertising and product descriptions suggesting as much are misleading, if not intentional. What they're designed to do is stop the vibration of sheet metal so that it doesn't resonate (because vibrating sheet metal makes noise!).

If you truly want to damp and reduce noise transmission through the body and into the cabin, you need a closed-cell foam product or similar to attenuate the noise signal, or a Westy bed at a minimum.

Do some homework on the Web and read up on this subject, there's a shit-ton of information out there outside of TheSamba.

[62DoKaGuy]

[Busstom]

[62DoKaGuy]

[rogercelliott]

[Clara]

[panel]

+1 for https://kilmat.com/
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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[busmania]

I just did my bus (71 bay) similar to how flem Did his above but not quite as extensive. I didn’t do any in the roof (headliner is installed) nor have I gotten around to anything in the front from the bulkhead forward. I used kilmat. Overall it made a worthwhile difference. It is still loud when going through the gears and higher rpms but overall the tin can effect that seems to create a lot of noise is gone. For the $120 I spent, well worth it. Could easily do another $120 worth in the areas I haven’t addressed yet. I will get around to doing more eventually but for now am happy with it. I’d also like to add some of that closed foam stuff in the engine bay and where the gas tank sits next time I have the engine out. Seems as though 75% of the noise I still have is from the engine.

[Clara]

Sound deadening in the engine bay where you can see it is ugly.

To reduce engine noise, use strips above engine bay, between ribs.
You can cover them after with a panel, carpet, rubber mat, cushion, etc.

This is from factory, you can use 1/4" sound deadening.
Then the carpet etc lays flat above the ribs.

I used fatmat in my 66 combi. It made no noticeable difference.
When I installed interior panels with the refectix insulation, it made a big difference.
I head that dynamat is better than fatmat, FWIW

[DubStyle]

[EverettB]