You're not my type.

I was about to say you couldn't possibly be further from being my type, but then I remembered, umm, a few other individuals...



Yesterday, I'd have said "Yep!". It's starting to look a bit less likely, unfortunately, so I'll say "Umm, I hope so."

With a trip to the Peak District planned at the weekend, I thought I'd get Belinda up on the ramp last night for a bit of a check up after her winter rest. It's a good job I did because the nearside rear damper mounting bolt had been slowly undoing itself. That tightened up and with the engine running I tried to investigate the mysterious rattling sound that happens at certain revs and has plagued the car since the rebuild.

I initially thought it might be the flap on one of the heat exchangers because it was a bit loose and the rattling seems to manifest itself more readily inside the vehicle (through the heater tube maybe)? I pop rivetted the flap hinge tight again, but the rattling was still there. After a while I convinced myself that the rattling is coming from towards the bottom of the engine so with the car in the air again I looked underneath and found one of the crossbox mounting lugs had cracked. I'd previously welded the other one during the rebuild but not this one so maybe making the other one stronger highlighted this one's weakness. Anyway I welded that up and the initial rattling seems to have gone but I'm not holding my breath!! I kind of suspect that with one rattle cured, it'll reveal other, quieter ones

Whilst I was in the mood for making things quieter I decided to get some veggy oil into my suspension cans. As I'd had the cans open during the rebuild and welded them up again the oil I'd previously used seemed to have leaked from the end of the can somewhere. I'd spent Tuesday evening sealing the welded seams up with some of the PRC fuel tank sealant that I've previously mentioned elsewhere so hopefuly the oil will stay in this time.

Not content with quieter suspension I decided to start fitting some soundproofing to see if that would make a difference to the cabin. I'd previously fitted some carpet which did make the cabin quieter but because of its excellent moisture retention I decided to bin this idea. Because of the internal frame construction of the Bedouin I was able to cut some pieces of 1/2" high density foam and wedge them in to the areas between the square metal tubes. I seem to remember that there was also some foam fixed to the toe-board of the original cars (can someone confirm or deny this please?) so I've glued some 1/4" HD foam to this area as well. On the short drive back from the garage it certainly seems to have made a bit of a difference so I'll carry on fitting more HD foam. I think the biggest difference will be if I fit some suitable soundprofing to the underside of the bonnet so I'll look into that next maybe.

To 2cvs & Dyanes? Yes - not foam, but a tar-like deadener.



I've had umpteen 2cvs with and without the deadener on the inside of the bonnet, and removed it from plenty. No difference. I've never seen a Dyane or Ami with it - despite them being "more luxurious"...

Yes, I should've said standard cars from manufacture. Do you reckon it was glued as a sheet or poured on? What do people do after a toe-board change - not bother? I reckon it must make a difference, do you mate?



Do you reckon it makes a difference when fitted to the bulkhead then?

I drove Old Goat's car a while back and couldn't believe how quiet it seemed and he put it down to the soundproofing. I know noise is part of owning an A series, but there has been quite a lot of discussion about this subject lately and it got me wondering...

Sheet. It's closest to the "dynamat" kind of stuff, but without the spaceblanket outer layer.



Usually, yes.



I dunno. That's one of the few double-skinned areas on the car, so one of the less transmissive. The upper bulkhead is single-skin, and a far bigger source - usually trimmed, but if that's missing or all warped and pulling away... Then there's the heater tubes - OK, the foam acts as a silencer, but they're basically a duct straight from engine to cabin.

Then there's road noise.

[quote=",toomany2cvs Then there's the heater tubes - OK, the foam acts as a silencer, but they're basically a duct straight from engine to cabin.

[/quote]
couple of tennis balls strategically kicked up the lower ones from the cab side soon puts paid to any unwanted heat leakage or noise in summer

That'd be great Ben, but the Shed's only got 2 tubes - one to the lower cabin and one to the windscreen!!

I've just been thinking - there's not a lot I'm going to do about that, is there? Like I mentioned, I did have carpet but a) someone at the National remarked that it was a bit sissy (could've been you!!) and b) I hate the idea of a built in moisture trap.

All my standard cars just had rubber mats on metal floors from memory so I assume that was standard? I used foam between the chassis & floor panels during the rebuild, so apart from that I should think I'm on a hiding to nowhere as far as the floor is concerned.

BTW (from your advice about the upper bulkhead) - I forgot to mention that I started fitting a small amount of HD foam to the upper bulkhead last night (there's a front parcel shelf running the width of the car that I wedged it between) and that already made a difference.

Does that sound likely? Of course not!



Dyane & 2cv, yes.
Amis were posher - the Super had a c.1" thick horsehair-style mat, then a vinyl-faced, felt-backed (kinda) floormat. Not carpet, but not quite as pikey-spec as rubber.

I take it the Ami stuff was just laid in and not fitted then? Did it help? Should I just live with it?