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Okay, there are a lot of different schools of thought on how much Dynamat you should use. They say the best bang for buck option is about 25 – 30% coverage and just putting it in the place where resonance and rattles may occur. However, after the 30% the law of diminishing returns applies, which means that the more you put on, the less extra benefit you get. 30% might give you 90% effectiveness, and 100% might give you 100% effectiveness so for the 70% extra spending, you only get about 10% better…
But, I come from the school of overkill and can’t be bothered spending the time to find the exact spots where I should be applying Dynamat, so I just covered as much as I can. On the outer shell of the door, I have covered it at around 100% (there may be slight areas where the mat doesn’t join, but it will still give it full coverage) and on the inner shell of the door, I have sealed up all the service holes and applied to resonant prone areas.
Previously, I have just Dynamatted around the speaker and behind it. This is quite often enough. But, I have to be honest and say that I have found a noticable difference in the way the speaker plays and for that I’m happy to have gone the extra mile.
So, here’s a couple of pictures of the outer skin at 100%…
And a close up….
Then, because I like overkill, I have applied a new product that Dynamat puts out called a Dynazorb. It’s designed to specifically absorb the stray frequencies that bounce out of the back of the speaker. I don’t know if it’s really worth the money (around $40 each), but I have had reports from professional installers who have tested it and they say the difference is noticable. I believe them.
Next I made sure I’d finished with all the wires and tested that the speaker and spacer fit in with the door trim and all that, then Icovered up the service holes. Now, if you don’t use Dynamat, but something similiar, beware that you can still remove it if needed. Dynamat is pretty easy to remove even after a long time, so covering the service holes that hardly are needed is not such a bad thing. However, it does wonders as far as creating a kind of enclosure for your speaker. And sounds awesome.
Firstly, take a sharpie to the door and mark all of the holes that you need to keep open. This included the door handle holes, but mostly where the door trim plugs go in. Anything that screws in need to still be able to, and will be sealed anyway once filled, so you don’t need to cover those.
I’ve marked mine with little x symbols. You won’t see them once the door trim is on, so it’s okay. The next step is pretty easy in that you just go through and cover each of the holes, cutting a larger piece than you need and sticking it over the hole. Then go through and tap on the bare areas and work out which ones are hollow sounding and whack some dynamat on there. Just cutting up small strips seems to do the trick.
The only problem areas is where the door lock rods come through. You DON’T want the Dynamat to stick to these rods and make it impossible to open/close/lock your door. So, this is how I got around it and still had as much sealing as I could.
Above is the hole with the rod sticking out of it. I’m going to make a kind of flap to seal it as much as possible.
Firstly, cut a strip that goes just past where the rod goes into the door.
Next we want to have the rest covered from the outside, but we don’t want the dynamat to stick to the rod. Work out where the rod moves and cut a second piece of Dynamat to be pressed against the back of the first, thereby creating a smooth area for the rod to move along.
Then stick that pad onto the serivce hole and try to close up the sticky ends as much as possible while leaving a free channel for the rod to move along.
Here’s a side shot…
And then here’s the finished product.
And finally, mount the speaker and you’re all done. If you want MORE overkill, you can cover the door 100%, but the key thing is the service holes on this side.
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