SailingTom wrote:

Great work Mr B
looks a really nice job, on my next one I'll have to follow your example with the sound proofing.
Those light guards look nice to take it you had them done custom?
Cheers Tom

MrB wrote:

Hi Guys!

Thanks loads for all the feedback. As requested by a few of you, I’ve outlined the costs of the sound deadening below, as it will give you a good idea of the level of investment it incurs. Plus I also elaborated a little on things further as I hope this will be a guide for others in the future.

4x Dynamat Xtreme Bulk Packs @ £119.90 each.
This is the silver tin foiled back material that aids heat management, removes panel resonance, removes road noise and effectively eliminates a great many rattles throughout. I still have some left, so my advice is buy two packs initially and see how you fair.

1x Dynamat Tape @ £9.99
This is a roll of silver adhesive foil that you double over the Dynamat Extreme panel seams with, creating a singular sealed cell, so that no sound can encroach.

6x Dynamat Dynaliner 1/8” Dampening Sheet @ £39.95
The Dynamat Dynaliner is the dark, thin foam base you will see in some of the pictures. It is designed to be added over the top of the Xtreme layer as it provides acoustic isolation and improved thermal insulation for the vehicle. Although only a foam based product its extremely durable, being crush and tear resistant and most importantly for a Defender owner it isn’t affected by oil or absorbs water! Finally as Dynamat proudly state, it has the highest heat blocking properties available in a single layer synthetic foam-type material.

1mx5m roll of 600gsm 10mm thick Adhesive Backed Accoustic Felt @ £19.79
Now I bought this on special offer and it is effectively known as acoustic cotton. Most of you will of seen this as the grey intertwined material modern cars have under their carpets and panelling. This effectively works as a cavity filler and allows you to remove the drumming sound plastic and moulded interior panelling can create. As an example if you sit in the rear of a Defender and lightly tap on the roof panel you get a drumming sound. When you drive along the road this creates a large sound source that human ears cannot pin point directly, but it all adds to the drone often associated to utilitarian biased vehicles.

1.5M x 1M 3M Accoustic Insulation £11.95
This product is a new one from 3M and I have not mentioned it yet as we have not mentioned the audio side of the car… which I will add is very basic as I love great sound but despise loads and loads of speakers, amps and subs. This product can be best described as small foam pillow blanket that you place behind speaker areas. Various research showed that large percentages of a speakers audible sound could be lost from the rear of the actual speaker unit, if placed inside a badly sound deadened car. So the concept of this product is you roll it up and place it behind the speakers to give them maximum sound projection into the car vs. losing any of it into the dead space behind the speaker. Again, in isolation, I don’t know if this would be noticeable, but I do know I run a quality audio system that is not powered by any amps in the car, aside from the inbuilt head unit and it sounds superb – I’ll detail more on this though when we come to it.

1 x 50mm 3M HL Automotive Grade Double Sided Tape £17.89
Self explanatory but quality tapes are a must as you never want to be redoing this… and the best advice is if in doubt, put more tape on!

2 x Carpet Spray @ £10.00 approx
Again this just helps tack larger vertical areas life roof, side pillars and so forth.

Aside from the specific sound deadening materials outlined above, we also fitted the following products which also aid at removing the mechanical drone of a Defender’s drive train. However improvements from the above were very noticeable without these items being fitted as well, just incase you’re opting for carpers and such like. Like I have said previously, it’s a case of each addition removes a sound level, so when combined you see greater benefits.
1 x Wright Offroad Front Mat system @ £350.00
1x Land Rover load matt @ £128.00 approx

So how good is it… well naturally its very subjective. However I can tell you I have two niggly squeaks in the Defender currently emitting from the drivers seat (courtesy of the poor workmanship we incurred in the valley!) and the drivers side interior trim window surround that I need to address for my own sanity. Which just shows you how quiet it is. When I first bought it, everything rattled, boomed, droned and so forth… you had no reference or could even pin point anything and bear in mind our truck was a highly specced CSW.

One final example of the new refinement was the comparison of the first drive home after purchasing the car to now. Just as I shook hands, took keys and walked across James French’s car park, Mum called shotgun and jumped (well awkwardly clambered up) into the passenger seat. She was all enthused and excited until we covered about a mile. I looked over, smiled and she shouted “Is it supposed to be this noisy!??!” Now bear in mind we were only doing 55mph on an A road. I explained this is what they were like and the rest of the drive back was frequented with shocked looks from her at my new acquisition.

Now jump forward in time to literally the other night and I asked my brother to try the truck out as I noted how well it had been running using a new fuel. After it had warmed up fully, we went to a private test track (ahem) that we like to use as it has extensive sight lines, and he was nipping along in excess of 85mph with the pair of us just talking at normal volume. Now externally the truck is louder than when purchased courtesy of a much freer breathing system that exits in a somewhat loud single box stainless exhaust. And anyone knows that the TD5 warble is quite something sound wise at a fair speed… however internally it is very, very refined indeed. Best of all worlds in my opinion.

My best answer to the age old question of 'Is it worth it?' is, there are many things in hindsight I would never of done to the vehicle. At times I think we all let others experiences influence us and we put aside that their expectations may be polar opposites to our own. However if and when another Defender enters the household, this process will always be top of the list. In my mind it makes the Defender (at least in County spec) what it should of been from the factory.

I hope this is of use to you all!

Nath