Carpet, Sound-deadening, and undercoating
 

Hi,

I need to start thinking about undercoating and the interior of my car.

It has very, very custome floorboards... due to installing C5 'vette suspension under it, and wanting to slam the car as low as possible while maintaining a reasonable ground clearance.

What I'm curious about is how to finish the interior of the car. Obviously a molded carpet kit won't work. Has anyone formed their own? Am I going to have to make a series of pieces to fit around the geometry? If so, what does it take to bind the edges of the carpet to look reasonable? Where can I get carpet?

To a certain point, I can use jute or carpet insulation to bridge over and even out some of the geometry here, of course.

The other option is to use Rhinoliner or something to do the interior. (I intend to coat the underside of the car with it.) But, I can't imagine that will deaden sound very well. I intend to make this a drivable car, one my wife won't absolutely hate riding in.

Thoughs? Experiences?

Thanks
-Nick

I plan to use raptor-liner underneath my car, but just recently I used it on the interior also.

I wouldn't think it would do much for sound suppression, but it does prevent steel reverberation and helps to seal the cabin up even better. I plan to insulate on top of it and finish with carpet, but my car is a whole lot closer to stock than yours.

https://i.imgur.com/36QrhDbl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nVyLYBdl.jpg

There is so much going on in your interior I think foam shaping will be your friend to simplify some of the panels to make carpeting a whole lot easier.

I would suggest using Dynamat Extreme and then installing a layer of 1/4" thick Dynaliner. I did this to mine and it was worth every penny. In my opinion, installing the Dynaliner on to of the Dynamat made a bigger difference then installing the Dynamat on the metal. My car has zero rattles, no road noise and is quite pleasant inside, especially with the windows up.

Once you've got the sound deadener down, I'd suggest making some panels to fill in the "voids" in the floor and level things out a bit...that'll make your life easier with regards to the carpet. I made some filler pieces to go around my subframe connectors to flatten things out and I'm glad I did, has a much tidier look. Just my $.02!

Shane, that carpet kit looks great, what brand/type did you get and did you need to trim it?

I like to use the dyna mat type stuff first and then the two sided foil with the insulation in between. I just buy it bulk and cut to fit.

As said above fill in the voids so the floors will be flat.

I haven't done it but I think the custom interior guys make the carpet in sections. So the tunnel and floor pieces separate pieces. Then they add ribbing? to the edge to make it look finished. I know locally the carpet shop can add ribbing to custom cut carpet pieces.

Hey Tony, thank you! It's actually not a kit. I initially took it to an upholstery shop on a recommendation, however, the guy did the biggest half-azz job I've ever laid eyes on. When I got it home where I could examine it closer, it only looked worse. He used some cheap carpet and laid it down in one piece which would've been fine had he done it correctly. I messed around with it to see if I could salvage it enough to get by. It turned out better than I'd hoped so I kept it for the sake of moving forward. Once the seats, etc were in you can't really see too much of the carpeting anyway. You can get some more details from my build thread.

Not to hi jack, but I had to comment at least the guy tried, lol.... I had bought a dyna mat kit years ago and took it to my upholstery guy (at the time) to get my seat redone, he said sure no problem, he would lay down the dyna mat while the seat was out and reupholster the seat and fix it all up and put it back in...... so a few years later a spring broke in the seat, I take my car to a different upholstery shop and I was telling him that there was dyna mat laid down and everything when I had it fixed last time, he fixed the spring and out of curiosity looked under the carpets, guess what no dyna mat!
So I got totally jammed from the first shop saying they laid it down, he apparently sold or used the dyna mat on another project...... it was weird for the longest time I thought man that dyna mat sure isnt what everyone else claims it is :headscratch: now I know why, it wasnt there! I got totally screwed lol!

Well from the pic it looks good...thanks for sharing!

I have a 1979 Z-28 RS Camaro with a supercharged small block chevy. I live in the Greater Seattle area So I have scrapped and undercoated the car .Then used bedliner the whole inside of the floor and trunk. Then used Dynomat in both as well .Then a good carpet,It keeps away the rust,the heat and the noise as well.

I'm about to use chassis saver on the underside of my first gen followed by monstaliner - both magnet paints. I've used both in the past with great results as far as durability goes. For sound suppression I have a bunch of the Bquiet mat in the basement, which had great reviews.

For our 68Camaro which also has extensive floor modifications:

1. We used three bulk packs of Dynamat Extreme
2. Then we installed 1/4" dynaliner everywhere
3. Then we used dense foam filler sparingly
4. Then, and this is important, we used high end custom carpet that comes "delaminated". The carpet literally is installed by laying down backing, then top surface of carpet is spray glued and molded into necessary odd shapes.

I learned about this carpet from my interior guy who "cut his teeth" on custom airplane and custom boat floorboards.., and I could not be more pleased.
On the down side, when you use this material, you have to vacuum fine threads of leftovers from the top layer.

And now for a little brag..,
Carpeting is good enough for:
1. Nine Good-Guys awards out of ten attempts
2. Two FIRST place awards at Detroit Autorama, 2019
3. Cover of Sherwin Williams 2019 calendar plus December month
4. Two feature articles (Chevy High Perf 2018, Full Throttle Mag Sept 2019)

Enough brag.

My point here is carpeting is tricky.
And I got mine from SEANAE interiors located in central Missouri.

Please let me know if I can help!

So you buy the carpet in bulk? Is it a cut/pile type or are there options? I'd love to know more about this! Thanks

I just called my interior guy and learned the following:

1. The "delaminated" carpet comes in bulk
2. It is only offered in cut pile because closed loop would simply fall apart
3. It is available from AutoCustomCarpets. ACCMATS.COM
4. The trick is you have to CALL them because accmats do not offer this carpet online.
5. My interior guy indicated if you attempt to use this product, he would be happy to chat with you and offer any guidance over the phone.
You can reach him at SEANAE Interiors or simply send me a pm where I have his permission to provide his contact info.

Hope this helps!

Pretty sure that is Essex carpet.

Don

Any recent thoughts on Lizardskin?