# As promised, my sound-deadening project + lots of pics



## wisptt (Oct 20, 2006)

Hi,

As promised I documented my sound-deadening project as my madness of littles rattles got out of control ! So here it is.

First I want to thank Waks webpage for the treasure of information one can find over there and other TT owners for their input.

Secondly, excuse me for my english, I did the best I could, so excuse me for the grammar mistakes, etc

I never had the idea that my TT was noisy at all. However I experienced some rattles here and there and picky as I am they got me crazy.

I have used silicon spray here and there but the rattles kept showing up after a few days.

I did some research on sound deadening materials and it got a little out of hand I guess ?

I went for these products :

Secondskin Spectrum, Damplifier Pro, Rattle Pad and Overkill.

I ordered them from their UK supplier.

I've got no affiliation with this company, I compared several manufacturers and decided that these products would be the best price-qualty. I am sure that there are comparable ones around.

So, enough said, here are the installation pics, it's my first project I document on this page, hope you enjoy.

THE TRUNK AREA










I removed the spare wheel and decidecd to use Spectrum as it is easier to apply on a curvy surface. Application is very easy, I applied about 10 layers with a brush leaving 15 minutes between each layer, resulting in a 3mm thick layer, which is said to be ideal.










When wet it is kinda dark blue but will turn flat black once dry.



















Afterwards I removed the side panels of the trunk area as seen here. Removing panels is the job that I hated in the project as it is a real pain. Keep some good dual-component glue close ! Check Waks website for instructions.



















I checked for loose cables and secured them with some quality tape. Then I began to apply Damplifier Pro. It comes in sheets which measure about 20 by 30cm.

Application is again very easy. It is self-adhesive and very sticky. I used scissors and a roller. 
I also aplied them inside the holes where you can reach the wheels wells.

Tip : you can mould them first into shape before removing the protective sheet on the back side.




























I like a decent job so I continued to apply Spectrum but taped it first to have a nice straight finish as seen here :



















This is the result :



















I also applied Spectrum on the very rear side ( sorry dont know the correct name ) and glued Rattle Pad against it after everything dried up really well.










Next step : the trunk panels. I applied a layer of Overkill. I used glue in a spray bottle and some kind of silicon-glue for the edges. It is as making a puzzle !










all done,










I also applied Overkill on the very rear panel,










THE PASSENGER AREA

Next step was to remove to rear passenger seat. This one goes very easily out, a good pull is enough. Actually it is very handy to give it a good clean and a Liquid Leather treatment.










I applied Damplifier Pro and the rear , as seen here,



















It turned out like this :










Then came the part I was not looking forward to. Removing the passengers side panels. Patience is all I can advice you !

Once removed, it looks like this










I applied Damplifier an the sides the same way I did in the trunk area and secured all loose cables. I also tightened to speakers, some of the screws were loose ! At least one rattle solved !

Note : you can use Damplifier inside the holes as you can feel the wheel wells very good.

Sorry forgot to take a pic !

The trouble with the panels is that you have to work in a tiny area. Sound-deadening the panels is hardly impossible inside the car so I moved them out of the car without removing the sear belts.

A little clamp helps to hold to seat belt fixed.










This is how a side board looks like,










I removed the OEM sound deadening material ....










Applied Damplifier as shown here ...










Note : I also applied Damplifier on the plastic boxes. It makes them sound less hollow and more solid.

Applied Overkill ...










And re-installed the OEM sound deadening.










Re-installing the side panels is not that easy due to the lack of free space. 
Allign the clips well and give it a good slam. I put a tiny bit of grease on every clip so it flipped more easely in.

Tip : mark the clips with some tape so you can remember where exactly to push them in :










Another rattle tip .... the seatbelt clamp kept on ticking against the sides .... here is how you can deal with it :










THE DOORS

Remove to side panels of the doors. Goes pretty easy, have a look on Waks webpage. Again, thanks WAK !

This is how the inside of a door looks like :










I applied Damplifier as seen here ...










and secured all cables.

Next are the doorboards. I planned to do it decently and seperated the OEM kinda foamy thing from the board. A sharp Stanley knive does the job easily.



















I removed the speakers, installed some Overkill on the area where the speaker touches the side panel and tightened them back on,

secured all cables and installed as best as possible Damplifier around the speaker area. Sorry no pic.

Afterwards I re-glued to foamy cover back on with silicons and apllied Overkill on it.










Ready to re-install the door ....










JOB DONE !

Apart from this I siliconed the rear parcel shelf and took care of a rattle in one of the rear lights with a tiny amount of silicon. I still need to take care of the little noise behind the climate control, explained here :

http://www.********.co.uk:80/ttforumbbs ... h&start=10

And if necesarry take care of this :

http://www.tt-owners-club.net/component ... temId=9676

CONCLUSION

Now, what you surely want to know : is it worth it ?

YES, yes and yes.

I always found the TT well put togheter but the car feels soooo much more solid. Cabin noise has improved amazingly. No hollow sounds whatsoever, no more rattles, really a joy to drive around. 
Every bump on the road seems as if it is absorbed by the body of the car. No vibrations, no nothing. One big chunk of solid steel.

Music and bass is impressively better even with the OEM speakers. Knocking on the panels is quiet a difference, it is rock solid.

It was not always a pleasant job, especially removing and installing the panels but I am very happy I did it.

How much time did it take ? 
I would say 2 full days if you have all the material and tools at hand.

Did my TT gained any weight due to the Damplifier ? 
Yes, I would estimate about 8 to 9 kg.

Thank you all for reading this, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free for questions.
Once the weather is nice I am gonna take some pics of my TT.

Mods I did sofar are : Osir Orbit, Ipod Dension Kit, V6 front Bumper, V6 rear valence, BBS CH 19" wheels, spacers, Telson spoiler.

My TT is a 2005 Avus Grey S-line, 14.000 miles on the counter.

Remap is for very soon , thinking about a Cupra splitter or a DTM-like splitter.

Cheers


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## coTTsie (Jan 30, 2007)

very good and clear explanation.............i did the same to my cabrio and yes can be a chore but worth it.............may look into this myself.

may have miss read but how much were the sound deadening materials all together.

i've never heard of them as the main contender when i did mine was dynamat.......this was very expensive so i opted for the bitumen coated rolls from b&q, applys just as your foil stuff does but cheap and effective :wink:

little tip there but will never come off :?


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## Hark (Aug 23, 2007)

Very thorough. Dont know if I would have the patience for this despite how much rattles annoy me. You could set up shop doing this for other ppls TTs if you had the patience.


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## Hark (Aug 23, 2007)

Hark said:


> Very thorough. Dont know if I would have the patience for this despite how much rattles annoy me. You could set up shop doing this for other ppls TTs if you had the patience.


Sorry just noticed your from Belgium. Might be a bit of a trek to Birmingham


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## wisptt (Oct 20, 2006)

Hi,

I ordered :
1 Rattlepad, used 3/4 of it
1 Gallon Spectrum, used only 1/3 of it
2 Overkill mats, used both
2 x a pack of Damplifier Pro kit 20 sq. ft. , used 3/4 of it

total cost was 285 gbp, expensive ? Yes. Worth ? A big Yes to me. 
Of course everybody his thing.

I am thinking of isolating the boot lid too as this was done as OEM on some 3.2's if I am correct.
However I wonder if it would change anything concerning cabin noise.


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## Scotty225 (Feb 7, 2008)

Fantastic write up  I have a few :roll: okay, a lot of rattles which I would like to sort out. I would love to strip the car as you have.

How much did it cost and were the materials locally sourced or bought off the internet?

Thank you,

Scotty.

PS: Just seen the cost as you posted as I was typing, thank you


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## J55TTC (Apr 25, 2005)

Excellent write up and very well constructed well done!

Excuse your english? Its better than most


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## wisptt (Oct 20, 2006)

True, it does take patience, however you can plan it in steps.

The satisfaction however is tremendous.

friendly regards,


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## wisptt (Oct 20, 2006)

FYI, this is the supplier : http://www.secondskinaudio.co.uk/

or

http://www.secondskinaudio.com

Again, no affiliation, I am sure there are other manufacters of the same materials.

friendly regards


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## Icemanfr (Jan 10, 2006)

i'd like to do that too
but that is so much work 

congrats for having done it :wink:


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## was (Mar 24, 2003)

very nice work !

I bet your stereo sounds excellent now !


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## sean.ui (Nov 18, 2006)

Brilliant write up - I'll definitely consider doing this - problem I guess is finding 2 days to get it all done together.


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## Dolfan (Nov 25, 2007)

A very good read

And a job well done.

Yan


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## ROP (Mar 25, 2008)

Hark said:


> Very thorough. Dont know if I would have the patience for this despite how much rattles annoy me. You could set up shop doing this for other ppls TTs if you had the patience.


Perhaps we could help each other to do each others cars Hark?


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## Hark (Aug 23, 2007)

Dunno mate, alot of money and time would like to sit in someone that had done it to see if all the effort was worthwhile tbh.


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## sean.ui (Nov 18, 2006)

Old thread but I just ordered a bunch of secondskin products to hopefully cure all my rattles....


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## mark_hogan (Jan 8, 2009)

you have the patients of a saint. Would like to do this myself but not sure if I would be patient enough.. Great job


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## Apaddler (Nov 19, 2008)

Great project and very useful info! Rattles bug the hell out of me too so I'll be looking into this i due course, although may go for the cheap bitumen option from the hardware store. Questions though - does the sound-deadening stuff actually damp out the vibrations, of does it absorb the sound caused by them? Does it eliminate road noise as well as rattles?


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## boosted (Jun 3, 2007)

How much extra weight have you added? A lot a would imagine.


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## LuTTon (Jul 18, 2008)

I'd love to give this a go... My rear speaker enclosures rattle like hell with volume up... which is most of the time [smiley=dude.gif]

I've also been looking at reducing weight too so as long as I can end with a loss still I'm happy!

Great write-up by the way!


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## cyberface (Apr 1, 2007)

Hark said:


> Hark said:
> 
> 
> > Very thorough. Dont know if I would have the patience for this despite how much rattles annoy me. You could set up shop doing this for other ppls TTs if you had the patience.
> ...


its not that bad, we did it for VAGfest last year, and will be over again this year, its only 400 miles from us, so prolly just iver 300 from brum


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## S10TYG (Mar 7, 2007)

Excellent post thankyou


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## sean.ui (Nov 18, 2006)

boosted said:


> How much extra weight have you added? A lot a would imagine.


9kg is what's reckoned as the extra weight.

Personally I'd rather a little extra weight if all the rattles and squeaks are removed.


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## elrao (Apr 19, 2005)

sean.ui said:


> boosted said:
> 
> 
> > How much extra weight have you added? A lot a would imagine.
> ...


A lot of people probably carry a few kgs of dead weight in their cars anyway if you add up crap in boots, glove boxes, behind the seats!

Else I am sure we could all lose a few kgs and help our cars go faster! LOL


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## boosted (Jun 3, 2007)

elrao said:


> sean.ui said:
> 
> 
> > boosted said:
> ...


Zero extra crap in mine. Personally i'd rather go a little bit faster.


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## rodlodm (Jan 12, 2006)

very smart [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


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## sean.ui (Nov 18, 2006)

I took delivery of the necessary yesterday so I'm hoping to follow suit and pad out the boot, rear quarter panels and door panels this weekend... weather permitting. :wink:


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## robokn (Feb 21, 2006)

A very worthwhile exercise BUT if your taking your car apart why not replace all the speakers at
the same time, better speakers+ better cables + a lot of sound deadening = MUCH better sound.

I was a symposium the other week with one of the head guys from JL Audio and his thing is not to bother 
with rear speakers as you never sit there, just get a decent amp, front speakers and a decent subs and it will
be exactly what you need, he really knew his speakers as well done three examples and a few bits were from 
competitors, as he said we dont do budget speakers but these are the best out there and this price point


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## Eddy (Feb 26, 2009)

Thank goodness I found this thread, all my rattles, and I have loads of them, have been annoying the hell outta me, especially as all the roads in cambridge are rubbish and it has been ruining my love of my car big time. I have been thinking of spending quite a bit on the same sort of products as you have but just couldn't be bothered to take all the bits apart etc.

Now that I have seen it done I am even more determined to get this done and have a rattle free car even if it does add a few kilo's of weight.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Eddy


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## sean.ui (Nov 18, 2006)

I started adding some sound deadening to my TTC at the weekend - I only had time to do the boot floot and the drivers door. On the boot floor I put 4 coats of Spectrum Sludge and covered it in Damplifier. On the drivers door I added some Overkill to the inside of the interior panel. I also added some Damplifier to the door itself. Also added copeous amounts of WD40 on the window guides and brackets.

End result? I kid you not, already I can notice a difference - there is definitely less road noise from the rear and the car feels a little more solid. It's not "slap in the face with a wet fish" noticeable but I definitely noticed and I'm full sure when I get time to do the boot panels, under rear seat, interior rear panels and passenger door the difference will be very noticeable.

Well worth it if you want to cure some rattling on an older TT or if you're planning an audio upgrade.


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## BIGmog (Mar 15, 2015)

Would like to see this how-to revived with the images restored. All I'm seeing is a filler image saying that the real image was moved or deleted. Thanks.


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## GARAGE HERMIT (Mar 7, 2015)

BIGmog said:


> Would like to see this how-to revived with the images restored. All I'm seeing is a filler image saying that the real image was moved or deleted. Thanks.


same here, but look's like his photobucket account is closed, so no pic's,,


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## SBL (May 9, 2014)

Have a word with Hoggy. Seem to remember in the past he had access to pictures that had disappeared and could reinstate them.


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## Dkloosterhuis (Sep 15, 2015)

Same here, would very much like to see them installation pics!


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## jamiemcc (Jan 30, 2014)

could do with seein some photos for this myself, since iv took my rear seats out i have a lot of road noise. Hopefully Hoggy has em 8)


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