has anyone used dynamat, or anything of the sort? did it work very well? is it worth the money?

 

A few of us have used products like dynamat but few of us would actually use dynamat purely for cost reasons. There are a few guys that work at BB/CC and get major discounts on the stuff but I can't justify the price when there are better alternatives out there for a fraction of the price.


Sound Deadener Showdown
is a good site to gather some info and find out what's out there. Since that site was last updated Elemental Design's V1se really is only butyl now. That's about the only thing I know that's inaccurate. I'm personally using Raam Mat. It makes quite a difference but none of these products are designed specifically to stop rattles.

The idea behind mat based deadeners is to add mass to things, much like what happens you put your hand against something that's vibrating. Sure, you can put it between two things that are rattling against each other to use it as an isolator but you’re better off finding the cause of the rattling and fixing it.

In terms of how much it helps: it helps a LOT. My roof sounds like a fiberglass roof when it rains (I drove a Fiero for a little while). There’s 0 reverberation that comes off it. It also helped cut down on exhaust noise a lot in the car. It was a pretty extreme difference and I’m just barely getting started on my deadening project.

Mat takes a lot of time to apply though thanks to the time it takes to cut pieces and then apply them (corners, all the parts in the floor, etc that aren’t flat – took me 4 hours to do my roof in mat). IMO you’re better off going with a liquid deadener (this is the route I’m taking with the rest of the car). Elemental Designs and Second Skin both make liquid deadeners. They’re a lot easier to apply but have the drawback of drying time.