Dynamat/insulation question
 

I'm preparing my build of ERA 797 and have some questions on insulation. The car will have an undercar exhaust exiting ahead of the rear wheels. So my questions are:

- Where should I insulate, and where should I not?
- How much insulation will I need?
- What is the best brand/type? Has anyone tried the Eastwood insulation (http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-the...aterial.html)? They sell it as equal to Dynamat but much cheaper.
- Any other tips on what to do and what to avoid, what tools work best, any other considerations?

Thanks!
-Lippy

I just did the whole interior with GTMat Ultra 80 mil. I used poster board for patterns, scissors, and the roller that comes with the mat. Very easy to install. I bought 100 sq/ft (2-50sf rolls) and I have a partial roll plus a whole 50 sq/ft roll left over. I'll make someone a good deal on the 50' roll...

I used LizardSkin on the underside of the aluminum floor and transmission panels and B-Quiet dampner (similar to Dynamat but much cheaper) on the inside covered with a blanket of EZ Cool double aluminum faced insulation. I don't think B-Quiet and Dynamat type products actually offer a lot of insulation value - there main purpose seems to be to dampen vibration and tinniness to make everything quieter and more solid. I used a 40 mil version of B-Quiet so as to not add quite as much weight. It's pretty heavy material. The EZ Cool is feather light compared to the mastic pads. The LizardSkin ceramic coating and EZ Cool are the real insulation items.

The aluminum skin/closed foam insulation ERA recommends for use that can be picked up at Home Depot (can't recall the name) works very well too and is inexpensive. I used some to extend the ERA insulation around the foot boxes, to cover the undersides of the boxes due to the undercar exhaust.

B-Cool was the least expensive material of it's type I could find that was not an asphalt based product.

Thanks Dan. How much of these products did you use?

That would be Frost King FV516 Foam/Foil self-adhesive duct installation...

I'll be making all these decisions myself soon (hopefully).

Regards,

Kevin

That's it. Pretty good stuff actually. I wanted to experiment with some of the other stuff just to see.

Lippy

I bought a gallon of lizard skin which was plenty to coat the floor boards, transmission tunnel, master cylinder cover, and panels in front of the differential. I rolled my layers on with small foam rollers. They advise spraying it but I didn't have a spray gun that I thought could handle it. The rolling actually left a fairly uniform stippled pattern that looks fine - kind of like undercoating.

I can't locate my receipt on the B-Quiet but I bought 2 rolls that I believe have 50 sf each. One roll easily did the interior including under the carpet on the doors. I'm planning to apply it to the floor of the trunk before carpet to deaden any vibration and tinniness from the large aluminum panels and I think I will have to open the 2nd roll to complete that.

I ordered 2 rolls of the EZ cool which are 4' x 10' each. It took about a fourth of the second roll to finish the interior. That included the upper inside surface of the foot boxes and the entire interior side of the firewall. I will use what's left to line the trunk under the carpet. If it wasn't so lightweight I might skip it in the trunk but on the sides the tailpipes will be laying close to the vertical trunk panels so a little insulation can't hurt.

I taped the joints with aluminum tape and I especially recommend that if you use the B-Quiet. The mastic is very sticky and would get alll over my hands everytime I placed a hand on a joint. It's one vibration pad material that sticks like mad to anything - you don't have to work about it coming loose. The EZ Cool is foil lined on both surfaces. I used brushed on contact cement to install it.

I probably went overboard a little but I think the car will feel and sound nice and solid and I shouldn't get a lot of heat into the interior. I may end up with one of the heavier ERAs around.

Dan

I'll add that I choose not to apply the B-Quiet material in the footboxes since they already had the ERA Frost King insulation on their outside.

Anyone try the 3M sound deadener product? I think it's relatively new, and they generally make excellent products.

3M do make good products, but I haven't tried their sound deadener.

Truth be told, 50 gallons of sound deadening tar in the cockpit, isn't going to mute the sound of an exhaust that exits 3 feet from your left ear. ;)

I used Dynamat for my cobra. Why? Cos it's renown and was on sale... :3DSMILE:

Laying the Dynamat was actually a simple and enjoyable task... and no where near as messy as I thought it might be.
I does stick horribly to latex and plastic gloves, so I just used some old knit cotton gloves. I also used a tennis ball to roll it down in the tight or curved areas that were difficult to access. It was a piece of cake.

I wish when building my Cobra, that I had used some type of heat barrier.
Question- Does the thickness of the material & carpet below the throttle pedal and next to the tranny tunnel get in the way of your foot ?
I realize that the heat barrier isn't very thick, but with our Cobra's, the footwell is tight anyway.

Based on the original post I believe his main goal is insulation from heat from undercar exhaust. Some of these products blur the lines between sound/vibration suppression and heat insulation.

Hi Lippy,

In an earlier post, I identified the heat insulation that ERA uses on the foot boxes as Frost King. That's what is still listed in the manual, but Doug made a comment that they switched to a better product called Cool Mat. I Googled it and there are a few variations - Kool mat, Coolmat and Cool-It. Not sure which it is specifically but wanted to let you know that your car will likely have this updated product.

Regards,

Kevin

I have heard extraordinary things about this product

KoolMat Hi-Tech Heat Insulation

I visited in person and I was impressed with the product and the people. I have not tried it because I chose to leave my sidepipes bare.

Edit: Overlapped on timing of post. Similar to post above.

Man - $13.80 sq ft. I couldn't afford to install much of that stuff. It should be good.