Soundproofing my 84 300td - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

b2948kevin · #16 09-06-2009, 08:59 PM

Thanks Panzer! I' hope it's super silent in there. I appreciate the support too! I've sure put the hours and dollars into it thus far...

Seems that there are not a lot of people following this thread, I was starting to wonder if anyone other than Diego were reading it. Show your support!

PanzerSD · #17 09-06-2009, 09:15 PM

haha i just noticed that I voted for noise then commented in favor of deadening...lol I love the noise of a diesel engine, but at the same time love the solid feeling of sound deadening. But since I'm now driving a gas 116 in place of my now defunked SD, I'm all for sound abatement.

b2948kevin · #18 09-07-2009, 02:14 AM

I made a little progress on the MLV on Friday. I've had family in town this weekend and have not been able to work on the project. Tomorrow is fully dedicated to this project, so I should have some more progress then.

I laid 2 layers of MLV in the driver's footwell and floor boards. I honestly thought that the MLV would be a little more forgiving around corners, but it's pretty stiff. I even tried heating it up and it didn't make that much difference. The only way I am able to get it onto tight corners (See pics) is to make a shallow cut along where I want to bend it. This will weaken it, but it sure lays nicer. It's about as much work as I thought it would be, and I find myself taking a step back fairly often to remind myself that this is something that I want to do, and gain perspective.

One thing I'm worried about is laying the carpet over this. You can see that it doesn't hug the curves in a lot of areas, so when I put carpet on top, it's going to look the same way. I don't think this will be a big issue, but it's not going to look factory good when I'm done. This is something that I'm putting thought into, but I think it's just a necessary evil. Worst case, the carpet was cheap and I'll find a way to redo it. This car sure has a lot of curves on the floor, and I sure have a long way to go still.

b2948kevin · #19 09-08-2009, 03:07 AM

This project is coming along! I got the MLV laid on the passenger floorboards and underneath the rear seats. It was pretty difficult, but if you put your head down, it moves along fairly well. The trick to laying this is to do everything right. You must spray the MLV and the location where it will be applied, especially if there's a curve nearby, otherwise it will not adhere properly. Also, make sure to wait enough time for the adhesive to get tacky. When I got in a hurry, it came out like crap and taught me a lesson. Many lessons later, I was ready for carpet.

When I bought carpet, I made sure to tell the upholstery company that I would be dealing with a lot of curves. They recommended an unbacked carpet and I settled on a thin carpet with a light latex backing on it. The benefit was that it was easily stretched around curves.

I'm really glad that I listened to the recommendations because the carpet looks phenomenal. My neighbor came over and thought that it was a carpet kit that I installed. I've never done auto carpet before and really didn't think that it would come out very well. I took the OEM carpet, laid it on top of the carpet I bought, traced the patterns with a sharpie pen and cut the pieces out with scissors. It looks great!

For anyone who's wondering if it's possible to just cut your own carpet instead of ordering a $900 carpet kit, this is definitely a project that you can do. I'm a carpet noob and it's coming out well. Anyone with any type of skill will kill this.

b2948kevin · #20 09-08-2009, 03:15 AM

Here's another pic of the MLV and carpet on the passenger side. It's coming together!

ps2cho · #21 09-08-2009, 03:19 AM

I can't wait to...."hear"....what it's like while driving

PanzerSD · #22 09-08-2009, 03:44 AM

i'll be interested to see what you did for floor mats...looks great! and easy!

Dee8go · #23 09-08-2009, 08:53 AM

I just happened to think how cool it would have been to take a sound level reading before and after this project. Has anybody ever done that here?

b2948kevin · #24 09-08-2009, 10:26 AM

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Panzer, good call on the floor mats. I have been kicking around a few ideas, one is to just glue the carpet right to the floor and make them permanent. The other is to glue the new carpet over the top of the original mats. Anybody have thoughts on which would be better?

Dee8go, I totally regret not having taken a reading before this. I don't know how I would have done it, but it would have been stellar to get some quantitative date to show the improvement. I was thinking that I might ask someone with a wagon similar to mine to take a reading and post it, and then compare to a reading that I take after. Won't be a 100% comparison, but it would be pretty good.

Dee8go · #25 09-08-2009, 10:59 AM

I know there are things that measure SPL (Sound Pressure Level). I guess that is what you would use to gather such data. It would be interesting to see the comparison. I just appreciate your taking the ime to post pictures and the narrative of what you're doing.

b2948kevin · #26 09-08-2009, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee8go

I just appreciate your taking the ime to post pictures and the narrative of what you're doing.

Glad that I can finally contribute something to the forum. I've been using it for a while now.

Couple tips that I thought of:

Don't saturate the carpet with adhesive. I made this mistake on the first piece that I put in. the carpet feels stiff now. On the rest, I was more liberal on the piece that I was sticking it to, and just put a light layer on the carpet backing. It sticks really well without too much hassle, unlike the foam, and especially the MLV.

Also, I didn't replace some of the clips that I broke when taking out the plastic wire covers on the outside edges of the floorboards in the front seat area. I just used some adhesive and covered them with foam. They didn't move around at all, and with the MLV on the top, I'm not worried about them.

b2948kevin · #27 09-09-2009, 02:30 AM

I finally got the seats in today!I started with working on the getting the carpet siding clipped to the console, which is a pain. Pay special attention during this step as there are some tabs that you have to get right on the inside. Be sure to have the console in place but loose before you put the panels on because you can't take it out, attach them, and then install the whole piece. Trust me

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After this was done, I worked on getting the carpet mats cut. I cut them out and just laid them in for now. Later tests showed me that I will probably have to put some contact cement under them so that the don't slip around later.

I got the radio installed back in with the fancy cover that makes it look nice, and installed the window switches. I have a question on the top switches though. There's a prong on the switch connector that protrudes out further than the rest. Anybody know what purpose this serves? A couple of them got pulled out and they may be mixed up. I am wondering if this will cause issues

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Finally got around to putting the seats back in after I did a little rehab on them. I used the pool noodles to give some extra firming power in the driver's and passenger's seats. This works really well! Well done! As for my own homebrewed hack, I took and tightened up the sagging netting (Magazine holders?) on the back of the front seats. I pulled one side of the plastic border off, pulled the elastic (not so elastic anymore) out, tied a figure eight knot about 3 inches in from the end, cut off the slack and reinstalled using the knot to hold the elastic in the plastic connector. It won't allow a user to pull a lot of slack on the netting, but it will work great for some maps or something thin in there. It really spruced up the look back there. I couldn't stand the sagging look. Anybody done this before?

Alright, so one issue that you will see in the pictures is that with the addition of the material under the console, it sits about a quarter inch higher than before. This causes the seal around the shifter to not sit right. This is a little disappointing, but it's not going to ruin my day. Just be aware of this and plan accordingly.

b2948kevin · #28 09-09-2009, 02:37 AM

Here are a few more pictures. Just note that I'm getting close to finished in the front, but I'm slacking a little in the rear. After I get it driveable, I'll continue to work on the rear.

Dee8go · #29 09-09-2009, 09:08 AM

Looks pretty good to me. Want another one to work on?

PanzerSD · #30 09-09-2009, 09:46 AM

place shims underneath the shifter bezel, it'll bring it up to meet the gasket. you may then also have to thread the shifter out a little...

View Poll Results: Does road or engine noise bother you on the highway in your diesel Mercedes?
Heck yeah, it's annoying	12	28.57%
Sort of, but I got over it	12	28.57%
No, I like the noise	15	35.71%
I just want a Mtn. Dew	3	7.14%
Voters: 42. You may not vote on this poll