Dynamat Alternative. What's Out There...

[KrazyKong]

I'd love nothing more than to have a boot pack of Dynamat, and do my doors and boot. But the price of it is steep and out of my budget at present.

So what else is out there that can do the job in place of Dynamat? I saw some foam deadening stuff at Repco for a big roll for $80, but after looking at it, it seemed overpriced and average at best.

Went to Bunnings and had a good look there. Apart from the rolls of lead lol, there was something I think called Polyflash (?). It looked like aluminium coated with some rubber/plasticy type stuff on both sides. But it didn't look suitable either. The closest I found at Bunnings was some wood flooring underlay. Which was just some light foam or bubble wrap, in between very thin foil or other materials. As hard as I looked in Bunnings, I couldn't find anything that made me feel confident it would do the job well.

So onto the trusty SAU to ask what others know. What's good, what's cheap, and what have others used.

[Carbon 34]

jaycar has some , think its bout 24 bucks

stinger has some

second skin is another one

steer clear of bunnings for that stuff

spray foam works in certain spots but can corrode metal, rot out, trap water fron getting out of the car, BEND/Buckle panels

concrete but not good unless your towing the car to SPL comps.lol

spray sound deadener from the autoparts paint supply, comes in a brush can as well, or truck bedliner works,,,, but they must dry and be able to be touched, or the mess is huge. the tar ends up everwhere

some normal type foam core work but expensive to get

duck tape can seal doors crudely, but you need decent brand tape, in black to look ok and spray glue to make it stay on properly

[Menos]

Think the stuff we use at work to seal window frames would work well. I intended to use it in my next audio install.

Its called Flashtac, and it is a bitumen based rubber adhesive on a thin layer of what I think is just a plastic with a metallic finish.

[KrazyKong]

Thanks for that list Troy.

I've since seen the Jaycar stuff in person and you don't get much for the price. However they have a few different kinds of deadening. There's a foam kind of one, as well as their tar/bitumen type one too. I didn't look too hard into it as for the price it seemed cheap, but seeing how much you got it didn't seem like much. Also found the Stinger stuff by accident in JB Hi-Fi and it too looks like you'd hardly get one door done with it.

I was in Autobarn this afternoon and noticed they had some sound deadener there too. It was by a brand called DNA Designer Audio. They had a pack for about $40 that had 6 sheets of this stuff. It's 300 x 300mm per sheet, 2mm thick and total coverage is 600 x 900mm. That's only 2 feet by 3 feet squared. Again not much for $40. But it did seem relatively ok stuff. It was packaged though so I couldn't handle it. If I'm ever back at Jaycar and JB Hi-Fi, I'll try and make note of what the coverage is and the price.

Though I didn't see it at Autobarn, they also have an Aluminium backed version as well.

Menos, this Flashtac stuff sounds interesting. I did a Google of it and read a few things about it. The main complaint was that it didn't stick well over time and had inferior glue to Dynamat.

Still on the subject of sound deadening, I have a huge roll of this stuff at home. The pictures didn't come out so good.

I plan on putting alot of this stuff under the rear seat to reduce the fuel pump, road and muffler noises. As well as in the lining of the boot. But I wondered if it was possible to put some of this on a door as well. I've noticed people line the outer layer of a door, and the inner layer. I don't think I'll be able to use it on the inner layer as the door trim I'm sure won't attach properly. But on the outer layer, with some spray on glue, or even good old duct tape, it would have to be better than nothing right?

Is a foam/pad type deadening any better on the inner or outer layer?

I was thinking hmmm, I could put this stuff I have on the outer, and then pickup some cheap Dynamat knockoff stuff from whoever and do the inner layer especially the cut out parts of the metal frame that let you see to the outer layer. For those confused, I'm calling the inner layer the one your door trim attaches to, and the outer layer the one that's behind your window glass.

Edited May 10, 2010 by KrazyKong

[Carbon 34]

DNA stuff is fine, they're is about 100 brands of deadener, some re branded

beware of some underlays/foams etc, they hold water and rust soon follows, , also some rot in UV ,not fire safe either.

the jaycar tar backed stuff does fall off if you do not prep the car first, not as forgiving as the name brand stuff. make sure you clean the area with wax and grease remover before hand with any brand deadener and roll it on during a warm day or with a light dose of heat gun or hairdryer to make it flat and stick really good.

remember heat and flamables /fumes don't mix so do it with good ventilation to prevent flash fires

[KrazyKong]

DNA stuff is fine, they're is about 100 brands of deadener, some re branded

beware of some underlays/foams etc, they hold water and rust soon follows, , also some rot in UV ,not fire safe either.

the jaycar tar backed stuff does fall off if you do not prep the car first, not as forgiving as the name brand stuff. make sure you clean the area with wax and grease remover before hand with any brand deadener and roll it on during a warm day or with a light dose of heat gun or hairdryer to make it flat and stick really good.

remember heat and flamables /fumes don't mix so do it with good ventilation to prevent flash fires

Ok will remember that about the foam/underlay stuff. Don't want any rust or fires that's for sure. Maybe it might still be good in the boot under the proper boot lining stuff. And instead of being on the outer layer of the doors, the inner layer providing the door trim will still attach. That way it won't get wet nor should it create rust or be a fire hazard. But what I don't know is what it will do for keeping out road noise and making the speakers sound better. It seems like decent stuff and I have tons of it, so am hoping to use it somehow

[r33skylinegtst]

I get your point about Dynamat being expensive but it's darn good stuff and you can buy it in smaller 'kits' depending what you want to do, so you can do it in stages. I got mine pretty cheap online from Ryda car audio. One of the door kits is plenty to do both doors on an R33, while the boot kit was enough to do the whole boot (but not the boot lid).

Food for thought perhaps? I've noticed a big difference since installing it, highly recommended. Do it right the first time and you don't have to worry about it later.

[PM-R33]

We used to do a lot of decent audio installs in my earlier years when I used to work at Autobarn.

As others have said, there are a tonne of brands, nearly every major audio accessory manufacturer makes their own form of sound deadener. Pretty much what Sapphiregraphics listed.

The main two we used to use was Focal Plain Chant for smaller installs or the Dynamat. Both were expensive but you get what you pay for. Honestly from every one that I used to talk to that was into car audio (personally I wasn't that much) nothing came close to Dynamat.

Just get the smaller kit (ebay pricing isn't that bad) or go halves with some one in the bigger kit depending on what you want to do with it.

[some_cs_student]

Its on Car Audio Australia / Mobile Electronics but I recommend you read the Will this be the last deadener thread?

Its an interesting discussion depending on what alternatives your looking at