This plastic rattling in the back of my 89 GTA is driving me crazy and it sounds like $hit. What can I do to make it stop?

 

Dynomat. Line your whole trunk with it if its an enourmous rattling from subs. Depends on whats rattling too. I took my plastic of out out the trunk.

 

I'm positive that it's the Pannels that make up the rear Interior. And yes the Ratteling is from the Subwoofers. So I have to line all of the Plastic with Dynomat???? That's going to be F*@king Expensive! Any Cheaper Ways? Also If I decide to use Dynomat do I line the Pannels with it on the inside or the Outside???

 

I've heard some people say they've used rubberized undercoating sprayed on the underside of the panels and it has eliminated the rattling. I'm not sure where to get it, though. Probably at Home Depot or something. Costs less and weighs less than Dynomat.

If you try this, please post results!

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89' Firebird Formula
Black/grey cloth
305 TPI/5 speed/3.45 rear
dual cats/PW,PL/T-tops
K&N, SLP TB booster,
SLP exhaust, Jet chip

 

high quality costs money buddy...

 

I never knew keeping things from rattling was considered "HIGH QUALITY" Sounds like simple Physics to me.

 

in my toyota corolla we stuffed old shirts and rags inside anything that could rattle that didnt show, it sounds much better now. i still have the trunk rattle, but thats why i bought a 3rd gen

 

Hey,

On the underbody rubberizing undercoating . That comes in a huge spray can thats like 4 bucks at kmart (unless you go for the roll on kind which is really expensive. It should help on the outside and underbody of your car. I wouldnt wanna put that inside your car though. Its gooey and very very hard to clean up. I geuss if you wanted to go cheap you could go for sound dampening insulation.

 

Go to Staples or Office Max and get some 3M heavy duty double sided adhesive strips. Stick a piece wherever two plastic panels overlap. It's cheap, you won't see it, and it helps out a lot. I had some terrible rattles going on where the rear seat belts retract, and the double sided tape took care of it.

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1989 Formula WS6 M5
2001 Trans Am WS6 A4

More info at website:
http://www.fbody.com/members/stevenmh

 

About the undercoating thing, I know Schucks carries a type of paintable undercoating for about $4 a can. I've used the stuff in door panels and wide body panels before to quiet the ride a little, and it worked pretty good. Don't use regular undercoating though, because like someone else said, it's gooey, and even after it "Dries" it still runs a little, especially when it gets hot out.

 

The post about the 3M adhesive strips got me thinking that maybe if you used 3M VELCRO strips instead you'd still be able to get the panels apart without distroying the adhesive tape and still get them to stop rattling... I think I'm going to do this. I have the same problem. I'm gonna line the metal with B-quiet and stick all the plastic panels together with velcro.

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~Luke
'91 Firebird :: 305/TBI/700R4 ::
Mods: Catco cat - Flowmaster 80 series - B&M Shift kit - TA tail lights - GTA rims - K&N - MacEwen guages
Stereo: Pioneer DEH-P8200R - Cadence 4x6's - Pioneer 6x9's - Kicker amps - Kicker 10" CompVR
::R.I.P.::'87 Firebird - Firebird parts - Selling an '80 Firebird for a friend
Moderator of tranny board over at TransAmGTA.com

 

I have had good luck with using cut up pieces of sponge. I put some next to the screw holes to help keep things tight, also behind license plate quieted that right up, using small strips between overlapping panels stops the noise to. I had a problem of the sheet metal cutout that you mount your 6x9's to in your sail panel rattling, so I took off the rectangle piece with the cutout in it and put some behind that also, Stereo sounded great until someone broke into the car stole stereo, amp and box.

 

 

The reason you have rattles is because stuff is loose. Part of it may be that you're missing some of the bolts/screws for the plastic panels. Once those are all in, you can use some sort of an insulator (I use an adhesive backed foam. It's only sticky on one side) and place it between the panels so they fit tightly. I used to have rattles too but after about an hour of tightening and adding little pieces of foam I'm rattle free, and it cost me about the same as one square foot of dynomat. Not to knock dynomat, because it serves other purposes, like reducing road noise, but it's not a wonder cure for rattles. Your car has had 10-20 years to work stuff loose, and some of the panels didn't fit tight even from the factory.

As far as the spray on sound deadener, I've seen two types. One is tar based, and will melt/run when it gets hot. The other is rubber based. I've used the rubberized one inside sub boxes without any problems. But then again I've never opened up one of the boxes on a 100 degree day.

As far as the velcro, I've tried it without much success. It seemed like the parts always worked their way apart again. But maybe I was doing something wrong