[rjstyles69]

This was my 3rd DIY damping a car and a swift for the 1st time. I had damped an alto and a santro earlier on and this was my 1st shot at the swift. Car is owned by a close friend and a colleague at office.

We had a Saturday at our disposal , free from household chores and decided that we fix up the Swift and ensure that it gave us a rattle free ride.

Earlier with the Alto and the Santro we had made use of a rubber sheet which was close to 6 mm thick and would bend easily without any fuss.I knew where I could source this in mysore,finding this same sheet in Bangalore turned out to be a herculean task. A few trips here and there to those market areas never yielded anything positive.

Checked out a few stores and the rubber sheets stocked were all close to 8mm-10mm thick.These would never bend easily and the thickness was also a matter of concern.
The yoga mat was always on the back of my mind, though I still was optimistic and continued by search for the right material.1 week of searching and no luck, my friend also ran out of patience and we decided to start off with the yoga mats itself.

Here's the list of raw materials used

- 2 Yogamats used and the size was 5.25 feet x 2.50 feet.(299/- per mat)
- Fevicol SR 998 (1/2 ltr)
- Putty blade which was about 1.5 inches wide.
- Scissors and a good blade.
- Cotton waste about 6kgs(50Rs per kg)
- Sand paper (Number -100)

Total costs involved : Approximately 1200 bucks for 2 doors and the rear boot lid. We still have enough mat to damp one rear door.


The ICE on this car was pretty straight forward with a Pio Headunit, JBL compos in the front and eFX 6x9's at the rear.He has plans to upgrade the ICE with a sub and an amp in the near future.The rear boot lid also needed damping and we had this in mind too.
Our priority was more than simple and straight forward. Stop the rattle irrespective of playing music or be it on bad roads. Am sure fellow owners could agree.

Our 1st targets were the rear boot lid and the front door (since the components were fitted here). No rocket science knowledge needed here, since the quality of plastics used were substandard. I was surprised to see that though the plastic pieces were riveted with plastic rivets it still made an irritating rattle.

We opened up the boot lid's panel and filled up every nook and cranny that we could reach with the cotton waste. 2 hrs and voila we had a boot lid which was heavier and no rattles from the back now.
The darn thingy ate up close to 6 kgs easily.


Time to pull the front door panels and start our work. Am attaching pics of the door panel and removing this is straight forward. Only 2 screws and the rest held on by a few plastic clips.

Have marked the location of the screws on the door.

Left door panel



Right Door panel

Cut the Yoga mat in the required shapes and sandwiched 2 pieces in the exact same dimension. Ideally instead of having only one layer, we had 2 layers stuck to each other.Used sand paper on the door pads to make it a little rough so that the adhesive would work better.
Attaching a few pics to illustrate the process.

Mat being cut and the adhesive being applied.

PS : Using one single layer doesn't really make much of a difference. Am sure atleast 6mm is needed to make the door close with that rattle free thud.

Eventually we did both the front doors and this is how it looked after the process.

Left it to dry for about an hour or so and then fitted it back. My friend took it for a drive and came back happy. Confirmed that music sounded much better and even the door rattle had reduced by a large extent. He says there is no rattles from the front now.
However am looking at doing the A and B pillars and the rear doors next week.

Meanwhile we had company too. My friends doggy who thought what are 2 fellas doing with the yoga mats and the door panels. They cud have actually lent me the mats for my daily use.

More to come next week with the rear doors and the A,B pillars....

[pramodkumar]

Hey RJ, i was thinking of doing something like this in my lancer, I just happened to read thet u shoved a lot of cotton waiste in the boot lid, i am sure this would clearly damp the bootlid but dont you think this would absorb a lot of water during rain a wash and will eventually lead to rust, Please correct me if i am wrong as i might not have understood the exact usage. BTW How much would any profesional damping material cost? I know DIY is a fun activity and hence priceless, however a comparison fo $$ saved and final results would addup to the pleasure.


Pramod

[contactme27]

Thats is looking so simple

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by pramodkumar

Hey RJ, i was thinking of doing something like this in my lancer, I just happened to read thet u shoved a lot of cotton waiste in the boot lid, i am sure this would clearly damp the bootlid but dont you think this would absorb a lot of water during rain a wash and will eventually lead to rust, Please correct me if i am wrong as i might not have understood the exact usage. BTW How much would any profesional damping material cost? I know DIY is a fun activity and hence priceless, however a comparison fo $$ saved and final results would addup to the pleasure.
Pramod

Pramod nice question there, well I never found any crevices or holes from where water could get into the boot. If you open up the panel from the boot-lid you prolly could get an idea of what I am talking about.
Ideally what you think isn't the case. I had done up my baleno about 3 years back the same ways (bootlid) and haven't had any problems with regards to rusting.

Originally Posted by contactme27

Thats is looking so simple

Yeah its pretty simple, all you need is some patience and time at your disposal.

[monty9991]

this is nice and simple dampening.
do you have pics of an ALTO on which you did the dampening.

[jkdas]

Pix makes it look like a very simple DIY.

rj; why not the metal part too?

[srishiva]

Nice work. Does it retain the thud even when the window glass in lowered?

[sabsubs]

The doggy looks too cute.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by monty9991

this is nice and simple dampening.
do you have pics of an ALTO on which you did the dampening.

Alto, nopes pal was done sometime back. My parents alto is next in line, will try and post pics when am doing it.

Originally Posted by jkdas

Pix makes it look like a very simple DIY.
rj; why not the metal part too?

jk it is pretty simply man, like I said you need patience. With around 6mm thickness of yoga mat on the door panel it was perfect fit. Methinks if I were to add some on the outer door panel it would have been difficult to accommodate the panel.

Another reason was that I wasn't keen on touching the area around the glass the power window assembly.

Originally Posted by srishiva

Nice work. Does it retain the thud even when the window glass in lowered?

Something I did check and was even expecting to be asked. Not as evident as it is with the windows closed.

[Technocrat]

Congrats Riju

Thats the 2nd DIY Damping with Yoga Mats after This One

[hellstar]

hey riju thats a smart one there ! bothe the DIY and the dog !

[gigy]

This is another good inspiration for me to go ahead the same way. i bought the grey coloured mat 6 months back but didnt get time/mood to do it.

[yzfrj]

We opened up the boot lid's panel and filled up every nook and cranny that we could reach with the cotton waste. 2 hrs and voila we had a boot lid which was heavier and no rattles from the back now.
The darn thingy ate up close to 6 kgs easily.

Any pics of this ?
Fevicol + cotton waste ? OR
Fevicol + cotton waste + mat ?

Instead of the mat, does sponge sheets or that thick plastic sheet yield better results ?

Anyways, Nice idea man.

[jithudigitised]

Cool.Thats a nice and economic DIY.

How do you open the boot lid.Is it just pulling it out or are there any screws for that.Any pics.

[theMAG]

Tell me time and place to get my car for this work.