Please do take a moment to read this topic and not just look at the pictures, as some of the photos will not make sense if you skip over what I try to say. I am few days behind on getting this pictures posted up, but life and all that goes with it has been in the way. Anyway, a MASSIVE thank you goes out to Don at http://www.Sounddeadenershowdown.com. I had initially hoped to use the SDS product line on the little Mazda with Don's guidance, but he went far and away above the call of duty and took 3, yes 3, very long work days out of his schedule to help me along the way. This was an excellent learning experience for me in terms of the physics of how the acoustics effect the car around me. Don was ever patient with my endless questions and wanted to go the extra mile and spend the extra time to make sure we got it right. Not to mention Don's supply of room temperature orange Gatorade that kept us from dehydrating in the process. I will not get into the demise of the sled (Mercedes Brabus 300ce) at this time.

I have 10+ years of college behind me, and I have always learned faster when using practical applications of the concepts being discussed instead of just extensive reading. In this case, physically having Don there explaining and showing me, step by step, section by section of the car, how and why and where to apply the SDS system was priceless! As you will see in the many following pictures, this is much more of a system, and the full effects were staggering. I say system because the CLD, CCF, Butyl Rope and MLV all have a purpose and work together to vastly change the vibrations in the metal and interior parts, along with sound transmission both into and out of the car. Don has figured out a number of very nifty tricks for installing, one most importantly is the fact that every inch of CCF and MLV can be pulled right out of the car, which you will see below in the pictures. We started in the rear hatch floor area, then worked our way forward on the floor up through the firewall, lastly working on the doors and vertical surfaces.

I have dampened a handful of cars in the past, heck, I nearly covered every inch of the wifey's old Civic with butyl tiles, many sections with multiple layers, but the performance was not like this. Once we were done, I was grinning like a fool, and opening and closing the door in disbelief as to the difference. The level of silence inside the vehicle is really something, almost cocoon like in nature as your ears take a moment to adjust to the change in noise level. In this rare case, I am not the man behind the curtain, I let Don (former large format pro-photographer) photograph the process, so all these photos are credit of the SDS camera.

As for the audio in the car, disregard that at the moment as it is still a 7 year old fully stock Pioneer system as I have had the Mazda only a few weeks and I am spending much of my non-daddy time on the road or away from somewhere appropriate to install audio. The funny thing is, how much better the stock audio system preforms. We were both taken back for a moment once we had finished up, I joked that I might just leave it stock. (Though I did lay down power, speaker wire, and RCA's under the carpet for the impending install which is another topic). This was a great deal of work, more then I had anticipated, but so worth it. I keep telling Don on the phone the additional benefits I keep finding out, the latest being that my 4 year old son goes to sleep much easier now due to greatly reduced road noise levels.

Again, and huge Thank You to Don for all the time, answers, assistance and effort that went into this install.

Details of the install log:

Vehicle:

2003 Mazda Protege5 5-speed

Materials used:

SDS Closed Cell Foam

SDS Mass Loaded Vinyl

SDS Constrained Layer Dampener

HH-66 Vinyl Adhesive

Velcro with dual pressure sensitive adhesive

Tools:

Silver Sharpie

Painters Tape

Large Shears

Scissors

At least a gallon of Mineral Spirits

Denatured Alcohol

Utility Knife

Scalpel

Razor Blades

Panel Poppers

Heat Gun

Scraper

Stop watch

Photos:

1,2: Hatch Floor before start of install:

3,4: Begin of tear down:

5,6,7: Removal of some asphalt on hatch floor:

8: Application of CLD tiles on hatch floor:

9,10,11: Forming, shaping, cutting, planning of MLV on hatch floor:

12: Formed and removable hatch floor MLV:

13: CCF underneath MLV layer:

14,15: Me cutting MLV moving forward on the floor:

16,17,18,19,20,21: Completed hatch floor (this was the single most time consuming part of the install:

22,23: Start of front floor area (as you can see, much less CLD then expected):

24: Test fitting spare tire in well:

25: Continuation of front floor area:

26: Bad-ass spare tire sub woofer enclosure:

27: More up front, showing some of the obstacles we were dealing with:

28: Front passenger door pre-tear down:

29: Torn down inner door:

30: Side impact beam before the Extruded Butyl Rope (EBR):

31: Side impact beam after little pieces of Extruded Butyl Rope pushed down between the beam and the outer door skin (this little amount made a very noticeable change in the door resonance, very smart application):

32: Small strips of plastic to cover the EBR as it stays sticky forever and will pick up dirt and grime:

33,34,35: Making templates of MLV for the door's:

36: Little blue Mazda inside the SDS Headquarters install bay:

37: Cut door skin MLV templates:

38: Interior of rear doors:

39,40: Test fitting MLV panel to door skin:

41: Test fitting MLV panel to door:

42: Test fitting door skin over MLV:

43: Cut and trimmed MLV panel on door showing nearly complete coverage:

44,45: Finishing rear doors into the wee-hours of the night (showing CCF on inside of MLV):

46: Rear hatch panel turned over to show the cut and trimmed CCF with the Velcro and their respective windows:

47: Completed rear hatch inner skin with cut and trimmed CCF and MLV:

Thank you for looking at the install log, I hope it is informative and eye opening to you as it was to me. I learned a great deal about my new little car, surprising as to all the engineering features and touches that you do not expect in a sporty little econo-box. As linked above, you can get these products from http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com. Lastly, a thank you again to Don!

Any questions I cannot field, Don will be able to pop in and help.

Damn nice job Aaron.

I am VERY surprised at how little deadener you used. To think of how much I have used on my Yukon, what a HUGE wast of money.

Thank you for taking time to put this up. Hopefully this will help others do this the correct way and not the old brainwashed multiple layers ways of the past.

Damn nice job Aaron.

I am VERY surprised at how little deadener you used. To think of how much I have used on my Yukon, what a HUGE wast of money.

Thank you for taking time to put this up. Hopefully this will help others do this the correct way and not the old brainwashed multiple layers ways of the past.

We did not get any shots of the doors or the floor with just deadener on it, so it might be a little misleading. But over all, yes, we used a great deal less then I have in the past.

Titties!

I will not get into the demise of the sled (Mercedes Brabus 300ce) at this time.

Looks great. Glad you are getting back into hands on audio.

The Protege5 Sounds very good with a 12" DCON in it

Installation looks great Aaron and Don

Thank you. I own an 03 Mazda Protege ES and when I get ready to do some serious deadening (and not the single layer of fatmat I have in my doors now, lol) I now have a reference guid to work with. Thanks.

I love these cars, always wanted a hatch to play with. Car looks great, can't wait to see the audio install.

for great info & pics of a correct install of sound deadener!

The Protege5 Sounds very good with a 12" DCON in it

Installation looks great Aaron and Don

I went back to your topic to gauge space from the enclosure. I don't know if I am going to sacrifice that much space or not.

Nice! I can't wait to do something like this. The noise floor in my car is already pretty low, but it would be awesome to have a dead quiet ride. Thanks for posting this, it will be a great reference for when I do this with my next car.

:drink40:

Great thread here Aaron and Don!

WOW !!! Awesome work on your ride !!! Very impressed !!! Can't wait to see the system build !!!

Wish we could hear a before/after clip over the internet. But it looks good, im sure Don worked his magic and made another customer very happy! I'm looking forward for the rest of this car's build.

Wish we could hear a before/after clip over the internet. But it looks good, im sure Don worked his magic and made another customer very happy! I'm looking forward for the rest of this car's build.

The front quarter panels are untreated, but for the interior, you really have to get into the car with the engine off to get the full, as I call it, cocoon effect.

reminds me, I gotta use the rope lol.

hmmm i have door , mlv, then ccf

crap i guess i did it wrong

hmmm i have door , mlv, then ccf

crap i guess i did it wrong

Not sure what you mean - this was door / mlv / ccf too. The ideal would be a sandwich with CCF on ether sine and MLV in the middle since the sheet metal inner skin and trim panel are both hard surface from which the MLV should be decoupled. Anything other than that is a compromise and doors almost always require them. If you get a layer of CCF and MLV between the inner skin and trim panel, no matter which order, you'll get a good result. I seriously doubt that it is possible to detect a difference based on order.

Are the layers of MLV and CCF glued together? Or are they always separate and floating? Also pic 27 shows a majority of the floor covered with the factory deadener. Can the CCF and the MLV be put over the factory deadener and just fill any exposed sheet metal with CLD tiles? Were any CLD tiles used on the doors? Any areas of the door one should pay attention to? Thanks.

Are the layers of MLV and CCF glued together? Or are they always separate and floating? Also pic 27 shows a majority of the floor covered with the factory deadener. Can the CCF and the MLV be put over the factory deadener and just fill any exposed sheet metal with CLD tiles? Were any CLD tiles used on the doors? Any areas of the door one should pay attention to? Thanks.

The CCF and MLV are just laid on the floor - gravity, seats, trim and carpet hold them in place. On vertical surfaces or horizontal surfaces where they might move around they are anchored with Velcro strips.

We would have liked to remove the factory deadener on the floor. It's a very thick layer of asphalt. Cleaning it out would have added another day to the project and we didn't have another day to add. Sometimes you can remove asphalt pretty quickly with dry ice, but it usually takes a heat gun and a lot of scraping then cleanup with mineral spirits. If at all possible, remove asphalt. If you can't, adding CLD Tiles to any resonant areas of bare sheet metal is the next best thing. If the factory material is something other than asphalt it will be almost impossible to remove and there really isn't any reason to do. Again, supplement with CLD.

The doors had 5 CLD Tiles added to the outer skin and 1 or 2 added to the inner skin. Packing the space behind the side impact beam with EBR turns the outer skin into two distinct panels. We centered half the tiles above and half below the beam.