A lot of talk here lately on sound deadening devices and techniques.
I'm a cheapskate at heart, and have some "elastomeric" housepaint that I used a few years ago to paint my house exterior (stucco surface). I still have almost 5 gallons left, and suddenly wondered if it might have similar properties to the various deadening paints out there. This stuff is basically very thick latex paint that has very high streatching capabilities without cracking or peeling. It readily sticks to metals and applies pretty thick.
Any thoughts from those who have experience with the brush on variety of the deadening materials?

Walt

 

i wouldn't use housepaint type stuff. But there is some stuff you can buy at Home Depot or similar stores thats carried in the roofing material aisle. Also on McMaster.com there's some stuff called hi-temp mastic which is the exact same stuff that dynamat is without the logo and when I bought rolls of it, it was $15 for 12 sq ft.

 

i also heard you can use spray on bed liner, but i think thats for heat and race cars

 

hmm.... it's up to you I guess

I'd say go with what's tried n true (e.g. eDead, Dynamat, etc.). It's a PITA to gut your car to sound dampen the panels, and it'd be a damn shame to do that over again if what you're proposing doesn't work. Screw the $$$, think of the time wasted!!!

But that's just me... I'm scared to screw things up the first time. I find that it's like 3x the work and $$$ to redo it right.

 

I stuffed my doors with balled up newspapers.... =D

 

I work for a company that manufactures this stuff, it's as you stated, a product to "Fluff" up stucco finishes. It's flexible to cover small cracks and not crack if a hairline crack occurs. It may work for sound reduction to a minor degree but I would guess not much. Once that stuff is on don't plan on getting it off, there is alot of glue and various polymer in it. Hopefully you have a good neutral color!

 

wow, that's gotta be the first sentence I've seen using the word 'crack' three times. but, I digress...

couldn't someone just use carpet padding or sound batting (insolation) in pocket areas like doors and wheel wells? I'm guessing that the majority of the people who actually care and will go thru the trouble of installing whatever sound deadening method they choose, would also be concerned about weight. weight is one good argument against carpet padding, but is there another?

both padding and insolation have got to win the cheapskate's heart

 

Here's for REAL cheapskates.

 

now we just have to work on getting everyone outside your car a pair.

 

I've also thought about some sort of padding but I think it would function more like insullation for temperture control as opposed to sound deadening.
BTW, I like the earplugs idea - especially when the wife is in the car ;-)

Walt

 

If you used something like that, it would function as a mass loading substance, which helps to stop resonance and vibration. It may or may not isolate and deaden outside noise. That's where a product like Dynamat Extreme or eDead comes into play. Those two items are specifically made for sound dampening.