Sound Lining Strategy Test (Rear Panel)
My sound lining strategy is almost certainly overkill for most builders. My rationale for going so heavy on the sound lining is that I will be adding the hard top and would like a quiet(er) cabin.
So, nearly the entire cockpit panel set will have three layers of sound lining.
On one side of the panel will be Damplifier Pro (2mm) CLD sound liner. This is similar to some other CLD products like Kilmat and even an amazon basics version. This will generally be on the cabin side of the panels, with some exceptions in the footboxes, where the CLD layer will be on the engine-bay side.
On the other side of each panel will be a stack of Luxury Liner Pro, which is 3/8" deep decoupler and MLV layer in one product. Then on top of that will be 1/2" or 1" (depending on the available depth, generally 1/2") "Mega Zorbe", a light weight sound absorbing foam. All of these products are from Second Skin, but I am not sponsored. I will be using Kilmat for a cheaper CLD layer in the trunk.
The fat stack side (Lux Liner + Zorbe) is intended to go between the frame bars, and will generally potentially be road-facing and subject to debris and water, etc.
To protect these layers from the elements, I will often be covering the exterior frame triangles with carbon fiber veneers. These are scrap carbon fiber (sold by the pound, relatively cheaply), which are thin (< 1mm) and reasonably strong. They also look okay, though a bit mismatched in gloss and pattern.
First I prepare templates for the gap(s) and test-fit them on the panel rear.
Then I cut out zorbe and luxury liner using the templates (I will be adding the damplifier layer on the cabin-side of the panel much later in the build).
Next I glued in (I will add some rivets to support the glue long-term) the carbon fiber back plate. I ran some silicone along the edge of the carbon fiber (from the back side) to seal off most of the inner triangle (though I generally left small draining hole at the bottom and some air gap at the top of the panels, just in case any water does get inside (zorbe is also water safe, so it can handle some exposure, I just don't want any long-term water residence).
After that, I glued the Luxury Liner to the back of the panel, and the Zorbe to the top of the lux liner.
Then I siliconed the panel into its final position, sandwiching the fat stack of sound liner between the aluminum panel and the carbon fiber panel, with a small air gap on the carbon fiber side.
05_Week8_CarbonCover.jpg
In the case of the rear test panel, I didn't bother carbon fiber protecting > 12" up the rear wall, because it would be extremely hard to get water or debris up into there, and also the welds made gluing a panel to the top of that frame bar prohibitively tricky.
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Week 8 Update - Sound Lining, Panel Installs and Build School!
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