Sound Deadening and New Upholstery

June 26, 2011 - It's been three weeks since the maiden road test and I've incurred a minor setback. In the push for the maiden voyage, I sprained/strained my left wrist which I broke previously 4 years ago. The doc said to cool it for a while and so I really haven't accomplished much since then. However, yesterday I did start back up.

I ordered some sound deadening material called Fatmat. After researching sound deadening material, I decided on Fatmat (36sq ft for $67) as it was fairly inexpensive compared to it's major competitor Dynamat (36 sq ft for $300). Both are almost identical in their composition and I'm not sure why Dynamat demands so much for their product.

I realized that with only a thin sheet of metal between me and the road, road noise would be fairly amplified especially with the car being virtually silent. So I decided some sound deadening would be the right way to go.

I received nine pieces of 18"x32" and used four of them on the car. Here's what was left:



It was really easy to install but time consuming. As the instructions suggested, I cut cardboard templates and fit them before cutting the Fatmat. I just hope all of the work installing it pays off.

Here's a few pics after installed.






I've had the seats and the back padding reupholstered and boy do they look great. It wasn't cheap but I guess anything worth doing is worth doing well. I had the back padding upholstered first. The backing material itself needed some repair and the upholster did a fantastic job. Instead of using vinyl where the seat backs fit in, he used carpet which was his idea. Cost for the back padding re-upholstery: $550.



The seats were upholstered last with the same vinyl that was used on the back padding. Again, the upholsterer did a fantastic job. When he showed them to me I couldn't believe it. They looked as though they had just come from the factory. Cost for the two seats: $600.