I removed the rubber carpets and not only found moist burlap, but a 1987 Swedish newspaper under the driver's side mat! I'm preparing to install a set of NOS carpets, but wanted to replace the original/improvised material with something that would help kill the road noise. I know that Eastwood's sell professional grade self-adhesive products, but seem to recall a less expensive product being discussed on this forum, available from Home Depot. I tried to search using all permutations, but came up blank. Can anyone recommend a decent alternative and possibly give me the proper search arguments? I plan to remove the surface rust, etch, then POR-15 the interior floor pans first. Many thanks.
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM

I just received a response from the company noted below that makes and sells these insulation kits.

Apparently, they will make a kit for any car that seems to have enough of a following as to ensure they'll sell a few kits after going to the trouble to design all the pieces. It looks like the Volvo PV544 qualifies, since they have invited me up to their shop (about 400 miles) to use my car as their pattern.

It will be several weeks before I can go up, and I need to squirrel away some extra money to pay for my 1/2 price discount.

I'm beginning a new thread above to gather some information that will be useful to them. Wheter you're personally interested in buying a kit, please drop by and give me some input.

Thanks!

Steve

Are these the materials used in those underhood soound/heat deadening kits ipd sells?

I'd like to get material in bulk and custom fit it into several cars.

But I don't know what it is.

I have a Sunbeam Tiger that can really roast your feet in the summer. When I did that car over in 88 I applied a 3M material that was black, flexible and had an adhesive back. I put 2 layers on for heat management and I never had a problem. later they had a foil-backed version that was even better for radiant heat.

I just did some checking and now they offer a Thinsulate line, but I am not sure where you can buy it as it appears to be a trade product only. This makes and interesting read in any case: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Automotive/OEM/Products/Interior/Thinsulate/

bob

3M makes the best stuff. Too bad we can't buy thinsulate. :(

Does anyone see any problems with using wool blankets (temporarily)? I'm thinking as long as they don't catch on fire, I'd like to use this under my rubber mats to prevent the cured pokey fiberglass resin that is covering my floorboards (it's also sealing all the holes in the rusty areas) from poking through my nice new rubber mats.

Eventually I want to get Dynamat or something comparable, but right now I'm still researching and don't want to spend the money just yet.

My hunch was correct, it's not a bad choice of materials. Also, I figured people used it in the early days of cars, so how bad could it be?

http://www.costumegallery.com/Textiles/wool.htm

WOW, this seems to be a very topical subject, or should I have said tropical?

I'd guess the wool could be a possible material, considering that Volvo used a burlap type of material attached to the underside of the rubber mats. They also used an asphalt impregnated material on the painted floorboards, so I guess the Peel 'n Stick approximates this material. At least this was their way to reduce heat and noise 53 years ago!

The only downside to using any absorbant material is it's property of retaining moisture, hence the floorboard rust and eventual rot of the burlap. I did find another product called B-QUIET who also sell Dynamat. Decisions, decisons.......

What industry uses the 3-M product? Maybe a helpful contractor could arrange to get some and send it my way?
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM

What about http://www.quietcar.net/ ?

Bill

Hi Cam!
Check out http://www.quietride.com This is the stuff I'll be using when i do mine.

Rob

Hi Rob:

Nice stuff, but they do not seem to have the PV patterns yet. If someone is close to Stockton, California, they can get their kit done for 50% off if they are willing to leave their car there for 6-8 days. I guess it is conceivable to buy the same materials and do the job yourself.

I got my seats recovered with NOS cloth material, so I figured it was the proper time to take a peek under the mats! Do you know if anyone in Ottawa sells Dynamat? If you read the QuietRide FAQ, you can pretty well deduce which materials and techniques they use. Their Quality Heat Shield seems to compliment the sound deadening Dynamat and help insulate the cars, which is something we don't often have to deal with, eh?
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM

Although I'm not exactly 'close' to Stockton, it's not all THAT far away, either. I could combine a vacation trip to Lake Tahoe with having my car done.

I sent those folks a note about cutting a kit for the Volvo PV.

We'll see what happens.

Steve

Thanks for the very informative composite on various options. I guess it was the Peel-n-Seal that I recalled hearing about. Now, with a thorough comparison, the possibility of an asphalt smell, mess and who knows what other chemicals, convinces me not to go with the least expensive solution. Availability and best overall solution will be my criteria. Thanks again and I'll post what I decided to go with after the job is done.
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Cam a.k.a. CVOLVO.COM

Check out Dave Shannon's page:

that was weird, I wonder why the link didn't show up...

http://www.homestead.com/volvo2/Soundproofing.html

Something on my to do list also. I believe there is some rubber roofing membrane type of stuff available at the Home Depot stores or a roofing supply house. From what I recall it has a peel-off paper on it (Peel & Seal tm?)that once removed exposes a tacky surface that will keep the stuff in place. It's available in wide rolls, but also in narrow ones too, like around 16". I think the idea is to dampen out the drum effect on large flat areas-not too shure how it is at absorbing sound.

Also there is a sound proofing insulation that JC Whitney sells that loks pretty good. I bought some stuff off ebay that is like 1/4" closed cell foam with aluminum foil on both sides. I'm planning on using this in the roof above the head liner, the under side of the hood, in the trunk, in the doors behind the upholstry, and on the floors (especially on the fire wall). It's not supposed to absorb moisture.

Hope this helps,

Joe in St Louis
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Joe in St Louis

You might be thinking of Peel-n-Seal? It's an asphalt layer with self adhesive on one side and an aluminum covering layer on the other. It's essentially the same material/construction as the majority of sound deadening products like Dynamat and Brown Bread.

I recently did some research on it for my 444, and found a pretty nice page where a guy tested and compared a bunch of the different available options. He suggests to avoid using the asphalt based materials for a handful of reasons. His recommendation for "best value" was the RaammatBXT from Raamaudio.

However, if your car isn't in an climate zone where it is likely to see extreme hot/cold temperatures, and since you are laying the stuff flat on the floor panel, you might not have any problems with the asphalt stuff. He makes this suggestion:

"If you really need to do this in the absolutely least expensive way and are not convinced or concerned by the demonstrated inferiority of asphalt based sound deadeners, go to Home Depot or Lowes and get a roll or two of Peel & Seal. This is the least expensive option and you won't have to worry about shipping costs. I can see no difference in Peel & Seal and the asphalt based aluminum skinned products in this review. If you are going to live dangerously, do it right." - Sound Deadener Showdown

How would carpet padding work?

There are several types of carpet padding available, so You'd want to decide which to use. The kind normally used in cars is a jute product, made up of loosely woven fibers. I can't say that I've ever noticed that it did an especially good job of either adding padding or stopping noise.

The other kind is commonly se in home carpet installations. It's made from recycled foam bits that are pressed together to form a foam sheet. Although I haven't tried it, I would think it might at least help deaden some of the noise.

Both of these two types have the same drawback, from my point of view. They absorb and hold water against the body panels. Used in a veritcal application, such as inside walls or doors, where the water would drain off, they would probably be OK. If you put either kind on the floors, you're looking at trapping water there and getting the dreaded 'rusties.'

You may want to use some of both kinds: one for vertical surfaces, the foil-backed tarpaper or other non-absorbing material for the floors.

The majority of the noise you hear comes through the floors and firewall. Lots of mechanical noise from the engine and drive train plus road noise from the tires. Start by dampening these two areas, them move on to the less noticeable sources: Door panels and vertical sheet metal, then door seals and window seals.

I have no padding or insulation other than what came with the car, and since I began working on the wind noise from the windows, the interior noise level has dropped dramatically. A good set of full window seals, then door seals, then padding as discussed above would be my plan.

When I drove the car home from San Francisco where I bought it, you couldn't hear the radio at all. It was like riding inside a washing machine.

Adjusting the rockers, fixing a few places where things were just plain loose and rattling, then working on the wind noise has helped a bunch, as has the much more powerful radio I installed!

Steve