As all of you know the inside of the XB is much like driving inside a soda can. So I started do my homework on sound deadning. Of course if you have been around car audio at all the first name that comes to mind is Dynomat. First drawback is PRICE! My god that stuff is expensive, but it is available almost anywhere including the big box stores. The second draw back is weight. But it does perform as promised. So the goal then became performance at a great price. There is a list of other companies as well. I spoke with some friends of mine to get there take on products they have used as well. I was introduced to
Second Skin Audio and the following is my install and thoughts on thier product.
First I started with the removal of the headliner. Simple task really but it does help to have an extra set of hands to remove it from the car without messing it up. You will need to remove your sun visors, the rear view mirror, the four grab handles, the door rubbers, the dome light and the 4 body clips in the rear as well as the pillars and rear plastics around the quarter windows.
Here is the headliner safely removed and stored in the garage.
Next you will need to remove the "factory deadner" which is just a wool type material. This is it removed!
Then its time to map out and install. I chose to start in the center and work my way back then do the 2 sides.
Here is a pick from the back with most of the roof dampning installed.
The picture above shows some of the work in progress as well. I cleaned off as much of the factory glue and wool as I could and then just layed over top of it. I used a roller to push the air out of the damplifier. The roller can be purchased from
Second skin as well.
Next we did the doors. Again, its a Scion so not very difficult to remove the door panel. For the front doors, you remove the triangle peice first.
Then the phillips screw in the pull handle.
Then the other phillips in the opener handle.
Then just pull gently around the door till the body clips pop lose and then gently lift away. You can now reach the back of the door and unplug the wire harness to the switches.
Here is a few more pics.
A view inside your door and the obvious absense of any sound deadning material.
I then took and cut down the sheets to half there size and put them into the doors. This again, thanks to the second skin product was easy to do. I will post pics of the doors finished later.
The rear doors are the same.
Then I did the rear hatch. Again I will post pics of the rear hatch finished a bit later.
I then decided to remove the rear seat, spare tire, cubby and plastics and tackle the rear quarter panels. This is an area that really needs attention if you have a sub enclosure.
Before:
After:
I did the complete inside of the quarter panel area which included taking out the speaker and seatbelt assembly. I also made sure to cover everthing I could possibly reach and again then rolled all the air bubbles out. I then did the inner skin around the speaker and the entire shock tower. Something I wanted to point out too, Sound deadner works by removing the ability of a sound wave to travel through the sheet metal. Therefore you do not need to cover absolutly every square inch of your car. Cover as much of the flat areas as you can since the wave can travel across it but corners it cannot, so you can save some time and product by focusing more on your flat areas.
I will post more pictures of doors later today. Here is the box that I started with too. 80 sqaure feet and its shipping weight was only 40 lbs. Very impressive and a bitchen product.
Thanks guys!
Shawn
