# Sealing up door panels (how to seal the big holes)



## Taylor (May 18, 2014)

I am getting ready to dynamat my front doors. I have been reading and find people use several methods...

1. They don't cover the holes, just place 6X10 strips in areas.
2. They just cover the whole panel with dynomat and don't reinforce the holes
3. People take MDF/Metal/Plastic and cover each hole, then dynamat over it. 
4. They use Aluminum tape, then Dynamat over it. 

Any suggestions?


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## Mike Bober (Apr 11, 2013)

Taylor said:


> I am getting ready to dynamat my front doors. I have been reading and find people use several methods...
> 
> 1. They don't cover the holes, just place 6X10 strips in areas.
> 2. They just cover the whole panel with dynomat and don't reinforce the holes
> ...


All depends on what you wanna do i guess labor wise and money wise. I made fiberglass covers for my 2 large holes and siliconed them to the door and the holes 3" or under i used 1 layer on the inside of the door and 2 on the outside and its pretty stiff and solid. And if your using very expensive speakers you may wanna spend the money and time to do it well.


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

Just curious, have you already purchased your vibration damper?


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## notoriousroc1 (Jan 22, 2011)

I covered large holes with aluminum flashing from HD with a layer of deadening. Small holes with several layers of deadening.


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## Taylor (May 18, 2014)

TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL said:


> Just curious, have you already purchased your vibration damper?


Yes. I planned to do all 4 door and the rear area. Stinger RKX36B Roadkill Expert Series Sound Damping Material Bulk



notoriousroc1 said:


> I covered large holes with aluminum flashing from HD with a layer of deadening. Small holes with several layers of deadening.


What did you use to fasten it? I've seen rivets, self taping and silicone. Did you cut it into the exact pieces, or just lay a big flat piece over it?


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## ZMan2k2 (Mar 11, 2014)

I used a corrugated plastic sign, like a "Garage Sale" sign, cut it into the right shape, and put deadener over that. Now I'm wondering if that is the culprit in my loss of midbass with my new Hertz drivers. Not to threadjack, but if anyone has insight, that would be helpful.


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## tdgesq (Apr 16, 2006)

In my previous install I used the combination of aluminum tape plus mat with good results. Fitment issues prevented anything better. Covering the holes with something makes a significant difference.


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## Taylor (May 18, 2014)

tdgesq said:


> In my previous install I used the combination of aluminum tape plus mat with good results. Fitment issues prevented anything better. Covering the holes with something makes a significant difference.


I was curious about this setup. I was thinking about doing one layer on the inside cavity and another layer on the outside - so they adhered to each other and there are two layers. 

Did you get to listen to the speaker before and after sealing the holes?


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

Sealing the holes is extremely important. However, vibration dampers in general are not very good at this, and stinger is definitely no exception to that. You want something stiff covering the holes, so it doesnt flex. 

As far as coverage goes, with the stinger your going to need more than 25% coverage to match the performance of some of the other products out there.


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## ZMan2k2 (Mar 11, 2014)

TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL said:


> Sealing the holes is extremely important. However, vibration dampers in general are not very good at this, and stinger is definitely no exception to that. You want something stiff covering the holes, so it doesnt flex.
> 
> As far as coverage goes, with the stinger your going to need more than 25% coverage to match the performance of some of the other products out there.


So, is something like my corrugated plastic sign good enough, or should I look for some tin or something to cover the holes?


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## TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL (Jan 31, 2011)

Its not that the corrugated plays wont work. Its more of the stiffer, the better. Every day is different, and the bigger the holes, the stronger the material needs to be. Even cover in the whole panel in just vibration damper helps, its just that going further than that helps even more.


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## bobduch (Jul 22, 2005)

Cardboard won't work as well as something stiffer. MDF if your doors are dry. Cutting board (as in the wife's plastic in the kitchen) material otherwise is a good option. I got lucky. I was able to cover the bottom 80% of my Honda Odyssey doors (from front to back) with a one piece 3/4" waterproofed MDF board. The bottom foot is 2 layers so the driver is mounted on 1.5" baffle. With 8" Dyn's I almost don't need a sub.
The board is screwed to the door and then silicone glued all the way around. The luck is that the door panel fits over it all with very minor modification.
Put deadener on the door skin, on flimsy parts "in" the door and also on the door panel to keep the panel from vibrating.


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## Militarymisfit (Feb 8, 2014)

I've made exact fit covers from cardboard then soaked it in fiberglass resin. It worked pretty good.


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## garysummers (Oct 25, 2010)

All the above suggestions are great and I did 90% of them and more to my doors and never was able to get them deadened enough until I had sealed enclosures built.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...llery/139236-mercedes-midbass-enclosures.html

I know a lot of people will say it is too much work or expense but I spent a year and a half chasing each vibration and rattle and nothing worked like this. Plus the SQ of the mid bass improved substantially.


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## Mcbeer (Nov 15, 2012)

Sealing the doors was the only proper thing i did in my current car, stereo wise.

I made some fibreglass plates (i guess you could call them), used some M3 threaded rivets in the door panel, and bolted the fibreglass to the doorpanel with some silicon inbetween to seal it up.

But it was a ton of work, and thats prob why the rest of my install is, well, it's ****


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## tdgesq (Apr 16, 2006)

Taylor said:


> I was curious about this setup. I was thinking about doing one layer on the inside cavity and another layer on the outside - so they adhered to each other and there are two layers.
> 
> Did you get to listen to the speaker before and after sealing the holes?


With the aluminum tape you can place as many layers as will fit. I used several layers on both sides of the outside door skin. As a general rule, the stiffer the material the better. I didn't have a lot of options because the big hole I had was a recess for the door panel pocket, and I needed something flexible enough to mold to its shape.

The before and after were with different drivers, so not really a fair comparison. I've listened to many installs with no door treatment (including my own), and every one of them lacked midbass presence. Some of these had very expensive drivers. I think you will find a number of people here who've experienced the same thing.


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## ZMan2k2 (Mar 11, 2014)

*sigh* Sounds like I have another project to do. How hard is peeling Ensolite and deadener off a door?:bigcry:o:


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## FUKAZ28 (Jan 9, 2014)

Good thread.


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## el_bob-o (Nov 8, 2008)

I have had good luck buying sheets or rolls of aluminum from home depot and covering both sides with sound deadning mat. It comes out pretty rigid but is still plyable enough to shape to a contoured door panel and I just use self tapping screws to hold it in place.


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## HiloDB1 (Feb 25, 2011)

I used a decent gauge metal like 20/22 ga and put a couple of beads on the bead roller to stiffen them up more. With a layer on both side of deadener. Also used aluminum foil duct tape to seal any gaps between deadener.


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## percy072 (Feb 13, 2014)

I went to a local sheet metal fabrication shop and bought a 4' x 4' sheet of aluminum (won't corrode). Cut it approx the same shape as the large openings, only 1" bigger, used 1/2" sheet metal screws to hold in place and sealed in the rest with Aluminum silicone, then dampener over that. Can't get it 100% sealed...but it's about 90-95% minus the area behind my mid. The aluminum was thin enough to tap into place to form a little better to the bends of the door so I didn't need 6lbs of silicone to seal it...but plenty stiff enough to hold shape. I think it may have been 22 guage (I think)

A little tedious, but def helps get the most out of any driver...especially pricey ones.


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## jpf150 (May 22, 2013)

I used sheet metal to cover mine. To adhere it to the door I used butyl rope. Then I deadened over the sheet metal and also where the sheet metal meets the door. It worked pretty well and was cheap since I had some butyl rope left over from a headlight build I did.


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