This weekend, (actually thursday, friday, and part of today) I ripped all of the interior besides the dash out of my 02 wrx sedan. I removed everything from the seats, side panels, door cards and carpet. There wasnt anything left in the car besides the dash board.
Anyways I've always been a little dissapointed with the amount of noise inside the cabin of my wrx. I realize that a minimal amount of sound and vibration deading was applied to save wieght but I was willing to sacrafice alttle of that for a little more comfort.
Hopefully I wont get in trouble for this but I used FatMat (tm) for my sound deadening. It is essentially the same material as dynamat and a fraction of the price. Chgeck out the site-great stuff! http://www.fatmat.com/? I went with the 100 sq ft fat pak and used everything but maybe 2 sq. ft.
So I'll just post all the pictures I took during the process. Their pretty self explanitory but I'll give a little explanation on what youn will be seeing.
First I covered the inner portion of the outer body panels of the doors, then covered the inside portion that surrounds the speakers and put strips at random places to absorb vibrations. Let me tell you my stereo has nver sounded this good. I actually removed 2 6 x 9's that I mounted on the rear shelf and with the 4 remaining speakers, it sounds better. The sound is clear and crisp, no vibrations. I can crank the volume up as loud as my system will let me with zero negative feedback. Its quite amazing.
Secondly I completely covered the inside of the trunk included the back side of the rear wheel fenders, spare tire compartment, inside panels of trunk lid, strut surroundings. Next I covered under the rear seat all the way to the floor up to the dash board. I also completely covered the raised section where the center console is-- this dramatically lessesned drivetrain noise/vibration. It is basically non-existent now. All I hear whuile driving now is the whine of the enigine, the turbo spooling and the intake sucking. I could hear all of those before but now they have taken on completely new characteristics. The sound is more filtered now, making everything sound cleaner.
The total weight I added with all of this was 29 lbs spread relatively even throughout the car. I consider that a reasonable amount of extra weight for what I got in return. Driving in my WRx now reminds me of an Audi or BMW, its quiet, smooth and adds an overall solid feel by way of the material absorbing road/strut/drivetrain/engine vibrations.
Overall I am quite impressed with Fatmat. The installation was long and timeconsuming because of the process of removing the interior, cutting the Fatmat to fit and reinstalling the interior. Aside from that I feel this is a worthwile investment for anyone looking to improve the ride and sound quality of their scooby or any car for that matter.

Here are some pics.

 

few more shots

 

more...

 

some more...

I will have the final shots soon. In the rear of the car, I went back over and covered evry bit of area that wasnt covered. I decided to just use the whole 100 sq. ft.

 

whats next? hmmmmm....... seems to change from day to day

Now I need to root out all of the dash rattles that I can now hear.


Oh, just a little self promotion. I'd like to say that after finishing this job I didnt have one single nut, clip, bolt or anything of the sort left over nor was I short any of the afore mentioned ...... and that makes me very happy!!

 

Sorry bout that. I wasnt entirely certain where to put it. It is an ongoing project for me along with all the other mods, but i suppose the point is to show the complete transformation of ones car. So you think just the interior section?

 

no prob!

 

thanks!

If anyone local is interested I can help you with this or I can do it for you.