First, this is my first post and I just wanted to thank everyone on the forum for giving me some great info over the past couple of years. Everything from info on sound deadening to how to tighten my ebrake. This forum rocks!

Now i'm posting this cuz after looking everywhere online, i haven't found anyone who tried to sound deaden their car w/o using any of the rubber/asphalt/vinyl type dampener. Everyone either used dynamat alone or dynamat along with some type of foam like b quiet. I was concerned much more w/ road/wind noise than i was w/ my panels resonating. So, i decided not to go thru the tremendous hassle of using dynamat. Also, there really isn't any agreement as to whether or not that type of stuff smells. I've seen adamant statements that it doesn't smell at all, that it smells for a few weeks, and that it smells forever. I didn't want to risk my car smelling like absolute sh*t forever so i decided to forgo the expensive dynamat (or equivalent).

So I spent a few days researching the best ways to CHEAPLY cut down on road/wind noise. The noise is a small hassle and i'm not an audiophile so i didn't think it was worth spending hundreds of dollars on this project. I ended spending a total of $43. I used jute-- the gray, fibrous carpet padding that you can find at home depot. I know that i risk it getting wet and getting mildew but i didn't see how that would happen to where i was putting it. And worst case, i have to remove the panels and take it out if it mildews. I used the 3m adhesive spray (regular strength--you'll want the ability to remove it easily if need be).

I ended up spending about 2 hours gutting the car using Mandos's post (THANKS MANDOS!!
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...ght=gut++edead


Taking apart the spare tire area, removing the door panels, rear quarter panels, trunk side panels. and removing the rear seats took a total of about 2 hours. I spent about 5 hours to put the carpet padding down, and another 2 hours to reassemble. I don't know why it took so long but it did. Here is what i did:

Trunk side panels - double layer
trunk underneath spare tire - double layer
backside of rear wheelwells - double layered
frontside of rear wheelwells - triple layered (this is where most of the noise is coming in from when it's raining and kicking water up into the wheelwell)
rear quarter panels - double layered
underneath rear seats - single layered (i figure the seats are the ultimate sound dampeners anyway)
Front doors - single layered (no more would fit. I put the carpet padding on the inside of the platic door panel)

I didn't do the floor--maybe in the future. For the front doors, I didn't want to cover up all the wires and whatnot on the door itself since it would make access a b*tch later on. Also, i wanted to keep the plastic moisture barrier there since i figured the doors would be the most vulnerable areas to get wet. Putting it on the inside of the plastic door panel worked nicely. You can pretty much put it everywhere except over the clips, the bolt holes, and below the speaker opening. The bottom of the door won't clip on if there is any padding there since the door panel needs to like flush on the door there. I learned the hard way.

End result--MUCH quieter. I haven't had the chance to ride in the rain yet (it's so loud in the rain that people always ask if my rear hatch is open). I'll let you guys know how it sounds when it rains around here. If the tc was an 8 (out of 10) on the loudness scale, i'd say it's down to a 5. the rear of my car is nearly silent now. Also, the front doors close w/ an authoritative THUMP. I didn't expect that at all. I figured you'd need dynamat to get the thump sound but carpet padding helped big time. Road noise in the front of the car didn't improve much since i didn't deaden anything except the doors. I'd like to see how it'd sound if i padded the floors but here in MA, i'll be dragging snow into the car and it'll melt and get my carpet padding wet and will inevitably get mildew. I'd also like to find a way to deaded the front wheelwells but that's a project for another day. So to sum, it was time well spent. I'd say it met my reasonably high expectations. And for less than $50, you can't go wrong.