Tsingtao
Well-Known Member
More encouraging progress on the road noise front. After completing the same procedure on the front passenger side wheel well as I performed last week on the driver's side, I have achieved a significant reduction in tire noise. 
For sure my dB meter is a crude $50 device from Amazon, but it indicates a relative 2.5 -- 3.0 dB reduction after application of CLD and 3M Thinsulate to my front wheel wells. Even without the dB meter, the difference is noticeable -- most interesting to me is that I now clearly hear the little low frequency thuds when running over expansion joints whereas before they were masked by the tire noise.
Also encouraging is that after correcting some of my rookie mistakes, installation of the sound deadeners and sound absorbers went much quicker and much more smoothly.
Above is a pic showing how I left a large void, this time, in the areas surrounding holes in which bolts/fasteners would need to protrude during re-installation. Last time around I just poked a little hole through the Thinsulate with an X-acto knife -- which did not make life much easier for me during re-assembly.
Above is a pic of the liner cover construction in progress. Last time around I applied the Thinsulate like a blanket around the liner and cut-out wedges in order to get the Thinsulate to lay flush against the liner without any wrinkles. This time, I constructed my sound absorbing layer from several smaller pieces and taped them together with my trusty Gorilla tape. This proved to be much easier than the former process. And I suspect that having several small pieces of sound absorber vs. one large piece makes no difference in terms of efficacy.
Total time spent on this morning's install was about 2.5-3.0 hours in total (including coffee breaks, washing the liner, cleaning all the gunk under the liner, etc.). The most time consuming part was fabricating the liner cover from the Thinsulate.
Next steps: Tackle the rear wheels on my own, then bring in the Porsche tech freelancer to help get the doors apart/put back together. I'll be vacationing for the next couple weeks, then toward the end of June I'll get back to work and report on my progress.
For sure my dB meter is a crude $50 device from Amazon, but it indicates a relative 2.5 -- 3.0 dB reduction after application of CLD and 3M Thinsulate to my front wheel wells. Even without the dB meter, the difference is noticeable -- most interesting to me is that I now clearly hear the little low frequency thuds when running over expansion joints whereas before they were masked by the tire noise.
Also encouraging is that after correcting some of my rookie mistakes, installation of the sound deadeners and sound absorbers went much quicker and much more smoothly.
Above is a pic showing how I left a large void, this time, in the areas surrounding holes in which bolts/fasteners would need to protrude during re-installation. Last time around I just poked a little hole through the Thinsulate with an X-acto knife -- which did not make life much easier for me during re-assembly.
Above is a pic of the liner cover construction in progress. Last time around I applied the Thinsulate like a blanket around the liner and cut-out wedges in order to get the Thinsulate to lay flush against the liner without any wrinkles. This time, I constructed my sound absorbing layer from several smaller pieces and taped them together with my trusty Gorilla tape. This proved to be much easier than the former process. And I suspect that having several small pieces of sound absorber vs. one large piece makes no difference in terms of efficacy.
Total time spent on this morning's install was about 2.5-3.0 hours in total (including coffee breaks, washing the liner, cleaning all the gunk under the liner, etc.). The most time consuming part was fabricating the liner cover from the Thinsulate.
Next steps: Tackle the rear wheels on my own, then bring in the Porsche tech freelancer to help get the doors apart/put back together. I'll be vacationing for the next couple weeks, then toward the end of June I'll get back to work and report on my progress.
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