Should I install sound deadener on the outside or inside of doors?

I just installed some noico 80 topped with 2 layers of noico 170 CCF on my roof, back of the cab and floor panels to help with heat and also noise. I have 8 extra sheets of the noico 80 damper left and I figured I would do my doors. I have a stock stereo and I'm not too concerned with audio at this point.

Should I put the panels on the inside of the doors (backside of the outer most panel) or do the inner panel? I don't have enough to completely seal the inner panel so it would just be pieces of the deadener on large surfaces.

 

The large outer panels are much more prone to resonance - treat those if you can only treat one part. The inside is stamped for the most part which helps.

 

I would put it on the outer skin because that's the panel that starts vibrating first. It's exposed to the environment so it's the first panel to transfer energy from outside to inside & vice versa. I did the outer skin on my door a few weeks before I did the inner skin and I did notice a little difference in road noise from just the outer skin. When I came back and finished the inner panel it made a huge difference I suspect because the inside of the door became a decoupling air gap. I used soundskins which is deadener plus closed cell foam; I used about 70 square feet in the doors alone which is about 40 lbs of material.

 

Thank you. I was leaning towards this idea because it seemed easier to lay mat on the outer panel since it has more flat spots and probably will reaonate more.

 

Thanks! Did you have to remove anything to get to the inner panel? I have only taken my door panel off once before and I don't remember if it was easy to access the outer panel.

 

There's a sheet of plastic over the whole door under the door panel that you'll remove and then put back on before you put the panel on to keep water etc out of the interior.

It's pretty easy to get access to the door for deadener; just make sure you clean with alcohol very well. My truck had two OEM deadening materials in the front doors and nothing in the back doors. A small 3 inch square of butyl around the door handle that I peeled off and trashed. They also had a large foam thing that was bolted to the crossbar in the door and they had double sided sticky tape bonding the foam to the outer door panel in two places. I attached a photo of the OEM foam deadener which I removed and tossed in the trash. If you do a good job with your deadener, you'll be happy you threw away the OEM deadeners.

The doors are actually the hardest thing to deaden in my opinion. The inside of the doors are dirty, greasy, and have small holes for maintenance access. This makes it hard to get the material into the doors and the task of pressing them to the metal slow, prone to mistake, and difficult to measure. I would try to get the materials into the door before you expose the adhesive. I did two big cuts/sheets the each outer door as it's split by a support bar thing that is glued/foam-sprayed to the door and there's also a cross beam, but if you're clever you can get the deadener behind the cross beam at the bottom of the door.

 

It really depends what your goal is! If your doing it primarily for rattles and road noise do inner outer layer if your go is making your car as quite as possible then do both layers plus some on the door panel it itslef! I’m building a sq sound system and I did my entire truck two layers of the thickest ballistic on the outer layers, one layer of ballistic on the inner and another layer of soundskins pro on top of that! I did the floor board with ballistic followed by a 3/4” closed cell foam layer then factory matting and carpet I did the entire headliner with soundskins pro and two layers on tbd back walll one ballistic and one soundskins pro. And my truck is quite as F*** and it sounds like a tank when you close the doors!

 

What kind of material do you have on top of the butyl mat in the second picture? Is that a closed cell foam? How thick are all your layers and how do floor mats etc fit when you stuff the floors with all the materials?

 

Yes it is closed cell foam. It’s 1/2 inch thick the butyl layer is 2.2mm which is about 86mil thick. I also put the factory padding on top of the ccf and then the carpet it was a pain to get the carpet on but it fit just a little struggle. But my entire truck has has later if butyl and closed cell foam and it is sooooooo worth it all my cars get the same treatment!

 

Thank you, that helps me plan out the install. I wasn't sure if the outer panel had a flat surface or was even accessible. I was concerned about the window motor and rails. Sounds like I can do it but I should spend most of the time on prepping.

 

Seeing this makes me a bit jealous. I don't have the time or resources for this type of job and I'm willing to bet the results are amazing. When I can, I will add more CCF and MLV.