Let the upgrades begin

Further updates

Hello again, as mentioned in my first post this upgrade was an on going project. Now I have committed to applying some well needed damping material.

I ended up spreading the work over 2 days as my first was rained off towards the end of the completing 1 door. I used a single pack of Silent Coat (8 sheet door pack) to act as sound proofing and deadening. I've used it in a previous build and found that the most efficient method was to tap at the panels whilst pressing lightly against the areas where you're about to apply the stuff to check its effectiveness. This method also means anyone can have a decent crack at it without knowledge of vibration mechanics and also allows minimal usage to save at least some weight in the process .

It is often mentioned that the area behind the speaker is the key place to apply the deadening material. Whilst there is a lot of truth to it, don't go wasting an entire pack there, use additional products there instead (shown soon). Besides, sound waves travel quite widely from mid-bass so think about other panels.

I ensured to cover most of the panelling around the rear of the speaker then applied a 2nd and 3rd layer roughly equal in size to the speaker aperture.

Just a cheeky look in at my tools used... trusty Stanley knife and an old computer desk drawer.

I've read into quite a few installs on good ol' civinfo and have seen many people complain about the apparent stickiness of the goo Honda use to attach the weather guard on the inner door skin therefore I decided to leave it alone (after lifting a bit and confirming others annoyance). Instead I took a brave decision to cut into said weather protector to get at some of the larger regions back there.

I was quite surprised at how little space there was to get at the outer skin. The holes aren't very large and the door braces are quite sizeable preventing my reach into the centre of the door.

To finish off day 1 (around an hour of hurried work keeping an eye on the clouds) I taped up the weather seal and applied some left overs of sheet 4/8 around the inner region where the speaker mounts are.

Day 2

As day 1 was rained off I decided that I would go further than I had done in previous builds and bought a pair of Skinz Wave Diffuser pads. These are designed to remove wave reflections from behind the speakers preventing major peaks and troughs in the frequency range.

Day 2 began with application of the diffuser pad in the door I had completed then do everything again on the right side! [smilie=upyeah.gif]

The diffuser pads were pretty much foam egg crates that were made to be water repellent and hence not smell/rot/destroy the car in weeks to come. As the doors do not give much manoeuvring room I had to cut them into two halves to push them through and apply them on top of the silent coat, directly behind the speakers.

I attempted to picture the silent coat looking down from the top of the window opening... not all too clear, never mind. What you can see though is that I actually applied some deadening to the impact braces as I noticed that there was a lot of resonance in them. They pretty much got the leftovers applied so not a lot changed, but at least it stopped them humming away after tapping.

Well, that's it so far. I must admit I am impressed with the difference it all has made. I have done the deadening approach before feeling a bit 'meh' about the result so I was expecting the same here. But I think the wave diffuser pads have gone beyond what I expected. The lows these speakers can produce is without a doubt very surprising! The detail in the bass has improved drastically and the dip in bass that was present before has been eliminated almost entirely. Now I will be honest and mention that when on the move all is lost as the head unit just can't keep up when the volume is pushed, but for now I am very happy. The car also sounds more solid when driving around potholed Sheffield.

I have filmed a bit of in car music with my phone (surprising decent mic - obviously quiet though) to give a bit of a demonstration that I shall link to (youtube) soon. So if you have a pair of headphones or decent speakers on your pc feel free to take a listen.

Cheers

Update!

Good evening all,

I have started another step in my venture to increase the quality of the audio in the car.

I've always wanted to have a go at sealing the car doors, and by sealing I mean isolating the inside volume of the cabin from the inside of the door and hence outside. I didn't want to seal the door from the outside since it leaves the question of where will the water go! Besides, isolating the front of the speaker from the rear is the key objective to drive pressure waves more effectively. Without further ado, here is what I've done:

I decided that I wanted to remove the flappy plastic weather sheet and apply a stiffer material such as aluminium sheet over the resulting holes. So I did just that.

My weather sheet was looking wounded from my previous chop, but that doesn't matter any more.

I purchased some aluminium sheet from eBay for around £12. Just one sheet of 1000 x 500 x 0.5 is what foresaw to be adequate...

I got to work removing the weather shield and got to play with that wonderful black goo that Honda like to use. Thankfully I have plenty of nitrile gloves to prevent it sticking to me. I also found that using a plastic mixing spoon (from the kitchen ) to scrape some of it off was ok.

I used some cardboard to attempt to profile the holes I was about to cover as a template for cutting the aluminium. At only 0.5 mm thick a pair of hardy scissors or tin snips worked a treat cutting through it. I had the wiring and handle/lock cabling to consider so decided to leave a strip gap where necessary; to be covered by damping material to finish the seal. After a tiresome attempt at directly screwing in a self-tapping screw I also decided that I would make some pilot holes with the drill to save time and effort. I found that I didn't need to go crazy with these since the damping material would act as both gluing and sealing around the edges.

The second hole with the window motor was a little more challenging since said motor isn't flush with the inner panel, it comes inwards so the aluminium sheet didn't quite sit flush all round. But not to worry as plenty of silent coat covered that up.

I only just remembered to unscrew the inside door mount screws prior to applying damping material... These were useful for maintaining the sheet without further self-tapping screws though.

I started this door after tea on Tuesday, so around 6. This meant that I did not have much daylight left so I left it as is, around 8. A bit more damping material could be used, covering smaller holes around the door and on the aluminium sheet, but that can wait until I crack on with the other door - giving myself a bit longer too.

An issue I did run into at the end was misalignment of the inside door handle. I need to push the mount onto the damping material a bit more to offer up the screw hole to the door card, but a couple of days without it wont harm me

Verdict on the sound so far: Definite improvement! I suppose it helps that I've only done one side for a comparison's sake as I can play with the balance on the head unit to check. The sealed side has a noticeable increase in mid-bass and bass output, to the point that I've had to decrease my head unit down to +3 from +5 to level off the sound. There is still a crappy head unit driving the speakers but I'm getting better sound each time I play so I must be doing something right! :worms:

Thanks for reading! I'll post an update when I've completed both sides.

Update! Part 2

Just a nod to say that I got the other door done, all in daylight this time. As always the second door was much quicker as knew exactly what I wanted to do and I wasn't soiling myself at the prospect of doing it wrong

Again, quick shot of the mutilated weather seal from my previous tinkering.

I was much more selective with my sound deadening placement this time around. Working my way around each aluminium sheet, sealing up the edges then playing some music to deduce where else it was needed.

I ran into the same issue with the handle mount. The scratches show where I've tried dragging it into position with the door card back on. I can't figure out how they've both dropped back. On this door I even layered up sound deadening sheet to space it out but this didn't affect it much. If I can be bothered at a later date I may have a closer look at any possible cavities I've filled that the door card used to occupy.

The difference this had made to the audio quality in the car is outstanding. The bass is really crisp, to the point that I am further delayed purchasing a new headunit! Obviously I'm still missing out on connectivity options but the increase in sound quality is arguably a bigger bang per buck so to speak.

All in all, this update has cost me in the region of £40. All in so far, including the speakers that I already owned: ~£150. I'm extremely happy with the results and I think it has me set up nicely for the time I get a new headunit

Dan