In September, I took a trip to St. George, Utah in the Need That Car Scion xB.  It is about a 300 mile drive.  While I was there, a 16 year old girl turned left and narrowly missed my xB, but squarely hit the small trailer I was towing.  The damage was extensive enough that I had to leave the trailer behind for a week while I rounded up a new axle back home in SLC.  Two trips in a week to St. George and back made me realize something: At 80 MPH, the xB was very noisy inside.  So, I ordered up two boxes of Dynamat and got to work.

There are varying degrees to which you can install Dynamat.  You can cover the floor, the doors, the roof, the firewall, the underside of the hood and trunk, etc…  I purchased two bulk packs from Amazon.com.  That’s enough to cover the entire floorboard, the inside of all the doors, the inside of the quarter panels, and the inside of the rear hatch on an xB.  (With a few sheets to spare.)

The first step is to remove all of the interior parts – no small task.

Once all the interior parts were removed, I began sticking Dynamat to everything.  I quickly discovered that trying to use full sheets (about 18″x36″) was very difficult.  My recommendation is to cut them into smaller bits that fit the dimensions of the area you are trying to cover.  This is especially true inside the doors.  To do the doors, I carefully peeled back the plastic covers, cleaned the inner surface, and reached, trimmed, and squeezed the Dynamat until they were fully covered.  Then I covered the entire floorboard.

I did not take down the headliner, nor did I remove the dash to cover the firewall.  Once all the doors, quarters, and floor were covered, it was time to reassemble.  The whole project took about 16 labor hours, most of which was done alone.

A few notes:

1. The sticky side of Dynamat is like a black tar, don’t wear your good jeans.
2. The shiny side is thick, stiff foil, which has extremely sharp edges when trimmed.  Many tight spaces require you do press the Dynamat down with your hands, so be ready for some nicks and cuts on your fingers.
3. The adhesive is very sticky but will come back off if you don’t set the piece perfectly right at first.
4. I happened to have a roller, and I would definitely recommend buying the Dynamat roller if you don’t have one.
5. I had zero problems with clearance when I reassembled.  The product is thin enough that fitment of interior parts was a non-issue.
6. You will go through several utility knife blades.

Dynamat Roller

I have now had the Dynamat installed for several months.  My rating is about an 8 of 10.  It would be higher, but after watching Chip Foose extoll the virtues of the product during all these years of “Overhaulin'”, I guess my expectations were really high.  The product doesn’t deaden sound as much as it prevents sound.  It also makes the whole car feel much, much more solid.  The xB was like a tin can inside before, now it feels more refined.  Of course, the noise level is much lower.  I now notice engine noise instead of road noise.  I also hear details in my music that I couldn’t hear before.

So, all in all, I really like the product.  I would recommend it for any car, especially if you like your music clean and crisp.  It is expensive at $135 (at the time of this post) per box, but for a car I am planning on driving fairly long-term, it has been well worth it.