Blocking out sound in your car doors is a way to level-up any ride. By soundproofing your vehicle, you immediately increase the quality of your car. Not only will it guarantee a better music and vocal quality inside your car, it will also block out any noise from the road and traffic.

Even though car doors are tricky to apply sound deadening materials to, if you go through the effort you will get rid of a wide variety of unwanted noises. Car doors have loads of different parts that rattles and moves. By using a variety of sound blocking techniques and materials, you will be able to block out these unwanted noises.

There’s a list of materials you need and then you can DIY soundproof your own car. To help you soundproof your car doors we’ve created The Ultimate Guide to Sound Deadening Car Doors | Step-by-Step.

WHAT MATERIALS DO I NEED?

First, you need to figure out how you are going to pull your car doors apart without using a crowbar. Go through the manual or do some research online about your specific car model. Then acquire the tools you need to remove the doors from the body, and remove the panels from the car.

There’s a variety of soundproof materials for cars available on the market. Here are a few that we recommend:

• Tools such as utility knife, a roller, gloves, small pick, screwdrivers, and drills, that will help you that the door apart
• Cloth or washing cloth
• Rust remover and an alcohol cleaner
• A thick sound deadening mat with insulation
• Insulation tape
• Glue
• Other sound deadening materials like a liquid coat, rubber insulation, or vibration blocking foams

Make sure you buy high-quality materials. Materials that are cheaper, usually don’t have a high-quality. Cheaper, means thinner and the results won’t be as effective.

Buying cheap will cost you more in the future. If you are deciding to take the doors of your vehicle apart, then you might as well invest in higher quality and more expensive sound deadening materials.

STEP-BY-STEP

1. Remove Car Door Parts

When you have all your materials and tools ready, you can start. Don’t be too rushed during this process. Be calm and take your time. Focus on not damaging door parts. You might have to wear old clothes and other protective gear like gloves and eye goggles.

Use a flat screwdriver or a small picker to remove parts from the door. You don’t have to take the whole door off of the body of the car, if your car model doesn’t allow it. Only remove the parts that aren’t screwed to the body. Most car model doors don’t need any brute force to be removed. So, if you read the manual, you’ll be able to do this part quite easily.

Continue on to remove screws. Don’t forget where you take each screw from, to make the re-application process easier. Also, be aware of screws falling back into the panel of the door. 

After you’ve removed all the screws you will be able to pry open the top panel of the door. Use a flat screw or a pick to help you with this process. Also remove speaker wires and speakers that might get in the way.

Underneath the panel, you will find another protective layer, usually made from fiber or foam. Typically, this layer is glued on, so make sure that you remove it carefully in order not to rip or tear it. You want to attach this back later.

For a visual guideline on how to remove car panels, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X9WXBAUx8I

2. Clean It Up

Use rubbing alcohol the clean the inside of the car door. It’s important that this area gets a proper rub down, before you start applying anything else. Dust and dirt will prevent sound blocking materials to stay in place.

Use smaller cleaning tools, even a toothbrush or bottle cleaner, to clean hard-to-reach areas.

3. Measure

Use a utility knife to cut foam and insulation mats to fit inside the frame. You will notice that insulation foam and mats usually have a double-sided self-adhesive glue. This glue is very sticky, wear gloves to avoid the strong layer to get onto your fingers.

Rather cut smaller pieces from the mat, than cutting it too small and having to glue them back together. Measuring is an important part of the process. Your pieces can be in different shaped cuts, no need to cut out perfect rectangles.

4. Applying the Pieces

After measuring and cutting your foam and areas that you’d like to cover. It’s time to apply the pieces. Start with the most accessible part in the frame. Peel the sticky layer off of the mats and stick it onto the surface.

Use a roller or your hand to apply pressure onto the mat, to make sure it sticks in place. Try to cover most open areas. Add extra layers of foam, vinyl, and insulation tape. Remove air bubbles from underneath the mats.

For more tips on how to sound deafen your car doors – cheap, click here.

5. Re-attach the Doors

Sit inside your car and ask someone to knock on the door from the outside. When you are happy with the effect the sound deadening materials are having, then it’s time to put everything back.

Make sure to use the right screws and do everything backwards, step-by-step. Apply the panels and all other unscrew-able bits.

After repeating this process on all four your doors, you’ll have a sound proof and higher quality ride for life.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 23rd, 2019 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Car. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.