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Photos of car interior taken apart for sound deadening

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As photos of the interior disassembled are useful for a number of purposes for we modders, I thought it would be useful to post Don Sambrook and Bert Miller's work on sound deadening my Model S. I found these photos incredibly helpful. I've divided these in sections: trunk, floor, doors, front roof, and frunk. The shots are pretty obvious but I've added commentary where appropriate.

Trunk

This is what the factory installs. The blue felt is the sound insulation. It's decent but not effective in wide frequency bands.

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These next photos show the driver's side rear wheel well. Notice both the vents to equalize pressure when the doors are closed and the presence of one dinky factory installed sound dampening squares.

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Note the dampening panel installed by the factory over the wheel well. Good for Tesla!

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Here more dampening squares have been added by Don and Bet before additional sound deadening materials are added.

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Here mass loaded vinyl is being installed to line the entire trunk. The photos the follow show different part of the trunk being lined.

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Liftgate

Here's the ubiquitous blue felt material on the back side of the large plastic lift gate panel. Don and Bert added some dampening squares, closed cell foam, and mass loaded vinyl to further sound proof this piece.

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Doors

Now we're looking at a front door panel with the interior liner removed.

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Here's the back side of the interior liner. The factory has installed some of the felt material for sound deadening. It doesn't show in the photos, but Tesla has also added some dampening panels to the outside door panels. That's good. But Don and Bert added more as they felt it was still too resonant. Note the speaker surround.

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Here closed cell foam has been cut to fit over the door panel.

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Then a layer of mass loaded vinyl has been added for further sound deadening.

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Floor

Here's a shot of the naked floor after the seats and carpeting has been removed. Don and Bert have already added a number of damping panels to the footwell area (Tesla install none there).

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A view of the floor with the air conditioning ducts for the rear vents. Don felt these were too resonant so some dampening panels were added.

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A dampening panel was added by Don and Bert to the passenger side kick panel.

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Mass loaded vinyl was added under the rear seat.

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More mass loaded vinyl lining the driver's footwell.

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A view of the entire floor covered with mass load vinyl.

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Frunk

Closed call foam and mass loaded vinyl were added to the entire floor of the frunk. As Don felt it was too resonant, dampening squares were also added to the interior frunk space.

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Front roof

As my car has a pano roof, little could be done. But some dampening panels were added to the front area near the windshield, along with closed cell foam.

rf-01.jpg


The B pillar was fit with 3M Thinsulate.

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I have a very hard time believing that all of this was done for $1,900. But it was, and my hat is off to Don and Bert. Bert did a phenomenal job of reassembling everything. One would never know that almost the entire interior was taken apart. Don told me that Bert works completely from memory regarding all of the parts he disassembles when he puts it all back together. That is a special skill in and of itself.

This last photo shows several cameoing panels added to the door skins by Don and Bert.
 

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Wow, thanks for sharing the pics. Any chance you tested decibel level pre and post work on the same road? Overall how do you feel the noise level has been reduced? I noticed in another thread you mentions the stereo sounded much better.
 
Wow, thanks for sharing the pics. Any chance you tested decibel level pre and post work on the same road? Overall how do you feel the noise level has been reduced? I noticed in another thread you mentions the stereo sounded much better.

I have pre-install sound readings but have not been able to take post-install readings, as I want to do them over the same route in the same conditions. I'm on vacation now in North Carolina so I won't be able to take the new readings until I return home in two weeks.

Here's what I reported in my earlier post:

Tire noise and resonances generated by road bumps are much lower. The car just seems to even more smooth over the road. In general the background lower-end resonances seems to be the biggest reduction. The car is noticeably quieter in almost every circumstance. My first 30 miles were on unfamiliar roads, but when I got on roads I drive every day the difference seemed even more dramatic. Better yet the Reus sound system sounds even better, with even deeper bass and greater clarity in the mid tones (the mass loaded vinyl and CLD tiles in the doors helps a great deal here).

After the 400 mile drive to NC I can say without question that the biggest issue now is wind noise over the pano roof and windshield. The wind noise is noticeable over 50 mph. Below that speed the car is as quiet as I think it can get. Of course, it's not perfect but I think it's as good as reasonably possible. I have a few ideas about fine tuning the work, which are largely focused on the frunk and front wheel wells, but at this stage I think any further gains will be marginal. It's a damned quiet car! Of course it comes that way out of the box:) Don told me that starting with a car as quiet as the Model S makes his work all the more challenging. I think he met the challenge.
 
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Rick, Great pixs. I will be interested to hear about the sound measurements when you get back from NC. I have to ask one question: Is it Don or Bert that has the red fingernail polish that shows up in one of the photos? :wink: (not that is anything wrong with that!)
 
This is probably a dumb question, but did you allow for proper air circulation around the charger beneath the rear seats? I saw that you draped some black vinyl over at least one of the chargers and I'm sure they get quite warm - especially when charging at 80A. Assuming the vinyl is heat resistant? Also, have you clarified with Tesla about how this impacts your warranty, if at all? I apologize if you've already answered these questions, they just occurred to me as I was viewing your photos.

Looks awesome and glad it made a difference!
 
Are you weighing all the added material that is going into your car so you will know the total added weight?

100 pounds.

- - - Updated - - -

This is probably a dumb question, but did you allow for proper air circulation around the charger beneath the rear seats? I saw that you draped some black vinyl over at least one of the chargers and I'm sure they get quite warm - especially when charging at 80A. Assuming the vinyl is heat resistant? Also, have you clarified with Tesla about how this impacts your warranty, if at all? I apologize if you've already answered these questions, they just occurred to me as I was viewing your photos.

Looks awesome and glad it made a difference!

That photo was a shot of work in progress. The charger was not covered.

I didn't ask Tesla about the warranty as nothing interferes with operation of the car or its components.
 
This is probably a dumb question, but did you allow for proper air circulation around the charger beneath the rear seats? I saw that you draped some black vinyl over at least one of the chargers and I'm sure they get quite warm - especially when charging at 80A.

I don't think it would make much difference as the chargers are liquid cooled anyway.

- - - Updated - - -

I would actually like to see some DB meter readings before and after on the same road, same speed, same conditions etc to see if it makes a measurable difference.
 
I have pre-install sound readings but have not been able to take post-install readings, as I want to do them over the same route in the same conditions. I'm on vacation now in North Carolina so I won't be able to take the new readings until I return home in two weeks.

Here's what I reported in my earlier post:

Tire noise and resonances generated by road bumps are much lower. The car just seems to even more smooth over the road. In general the background lower-end resonances seems to be the biggest reduction. The car is noticeably quieter in almost every circumstance. My first 30 miles were on unfamiliar roads, but when I got on roads I drive every day the difference seemed even more dramatic. Better yet the Reus sound system sounds even better, with even deeper bass and greater clarity in the mid tones (the mass loaded vinyl and CLD tiles in the doors helps a great deal here).

After the 400 mile drive to NC I can say without question that the biggest issue now is wind noise over the pano roof and windshield. The wind noise is noticeable over 50 mph. Below that speed the car is as quiet as I think it can get. Of course, it's not perfect but I think it's as good as reasonably possible. I have a few ideas about fine tuning the work, which are largely focused on the frunk and front wheel wells, but at this stage I think any further gains will be marginal. It's a damned quiet car! Of course it comes that way out of the box:) Don told me that starting with a car as quiet as the Model S makes his work all the more challenging. I think he met the challenge.

Impressive job on the sound dampening Artsci. Mark of a true afficionado! By any chance are you at the OBX? If so, I was wondering where you charge on the way down? I'm wanting to make the run from NNJ down the Maryland shore across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel. I guess I could Supercharge in Delaware but I think that's cutting it close. Thanks.