Zilla Mat sound deadener installation in #50's cab.

[robroy]

Good evening,

After reading about how Terry used Zilla Mat as the foundation for the super successful sound deadening solution in his truck, I decided to give it a whirl. Here's Terry's great thread: Starting my 72 camper special project update 4.10.

Since I plan on using a different cab some day, I'm not trying to implement a solution as comprehensive as Terry's. My plan's to lay this Zilla Mat down on the cab floor, then install the OEM-style rubber mat over that. I'm hoping that this improvement will make #50 more fun to drive over ~40 MPH, since with the completely bare-metal cab it has now, it roars like an African lion imitating a dial tone.

I ordered the 50 square foot roll from ZillaMat.com, and they charged $86.99 on my card. The goods arrived just a few days later, in a heavy box! Here's how it looked.



Those papers in the box were an ad, and instructions. I'm not sure whether that ad's describing the same stuff (possibly with a different marketing name). Here it is, with the front on the left and the back on the right (click on the images for a much larger and clearer view):



And here are the instructions:



I found this roller in the box. I was impressed that it was USA-made, since so many places buy this kind of product from China.




Here's the roll. It's the biggest and heaviest piece of liquorice I've met in my entire life!!!




I'll keep you guys updated with how this goes, although I can't promise to do as nice of a job as Terry did on his!!!

Robroy

[BobbyFord]

I'm looking forward to the pics

[mlheppl]

I'm hoping that this improvement will make #50 more fun to drive over ~40 MPH, since with the completely bare-metal cab it has now, it roars like an African lion imitating a dial tone.

That's a good one. Looking forward to reading more about your install of the zilla mat. I will be utilizing some sort of sound deadening when I get that far along on my truck. Zilla mat was one of the products I was considering. So

[fireguywtc]

subscribed also! I need to do something like this with my 67.

[hazelnut]

Going to be doing my truck soon, looking foward to seeing how you like it.

[Mancar1]

The finale results will come out very well I am sure. Look forward to seeing pics.

[terry1167]

Hey Robroy,

Good luck with the Zillamat. Just a head's up....the little roller that comes with the Zillamat kit will most likely break at some point. I was pretty hard on it so when it broke, towards the end of the project, I just "borrowed" a similar hardwood roller that my wife uses for baking....and no, I didn't tell her.

I also found that the stuff is easier to work with if it's a least room temperature or you let the roll sit out in the sun for a little while.

Here is the link to my video regarding my sound deadening project.
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... lit=+sound

[cwii]

I used a similar product from Eastwood, I am happy with the result but Zilla appears to be better priced and maybe thicker material. Guess I should have done a little more research..
I had enough to also do the inside of the doors and that made a tremendous differance in sound . My Bump is now in paint for the next 2 months pictures to follow.
Best of luck

Chuck

[Doug F]

This guy did a lot of testing on sound deadening and explains it pretty well.

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

[terry1167]

Hello Robroy! Looks like an awesome job you are doing. The tran hump and donut look like a work of art! Keep up the great work and love the pics.

[ezernut9mm]

i'll bet the cab is already quieter. by a lot. good work mr.

[robroy]

Good evening Terry and Ezernut9mm, thanks for your excellent replies!

Hello Robroy! Looks like an awesome job you are doing. The tran hump and donut look like a work of art!

That's very kind of you to say Terry, yet it's not exactly the shrink-wrapped appearance that I'd hoped to achieve! It seems like laying this stuff down without copious wrinkles takes some practice.

I think that the #1 reason why it turned out as well as it did though, is that I followed your advice on warming the material up before trying to use it. After resting the big rectangle of sticky material over the cover's top, it was easy to smash down over the cover's contours; it kind of melted in to place.

Keep up the great work and love the pics.

Thank you!!!

i'll bet the cab is already quieter. by a lot. good work mr.

Thanks Ezernut9mm!!! I did take it for a short drive after fixing up the cover like that, and it was a little quieter! But I think the vast majority of the cab noise is probably coming through the remaining firewall holes. I haven't put the heater box back in, so there are a number of holes open straight to the engine compartment still.

Terry and Ezernut9mm, thank you both for the kind replies.
Robroy

[terry1167]

Hey Robroy,

Just checking to see what the progress is? Is the cab to your liking now?

[robroy]

Good morning Terry!

I actually haven't touched it since that one day. Sometimes #50 progress slows to a snail's pace, mostly due to weak activity management skills. I've never been very good at taking advantage of the half-hour or one-hour time windows I have during the evenings when I could be working on #50. It seems like once the time window begins, I think, "Hmmm, what could I do?," then the time window's up!

I think this ZillaMat material is really cool though, and I'm looking forward to getting back in to it.

One truth that has slowly penetrated my skull is that this is very long-lasting stuff, and is basically installed on a permanent basis. It doesn't look like it would be easy to remove later on! This is OK with me, since my body plan for #50 is to restore a different cab separately, and swap it on. The current cab has too much rust around the drip-rail area to be a great choice, considering that I live nearby to areas with virtually rust-free cabs, like Ryan's neighborhood. I probably won't do that for several more years though, so I'm happy to invest a little time and cash in to making this cab quieter. As far as Bumpside upgrades go, this ZillaMat seems like a great ratio of expense to payoff.

Terry, thanks for checking up on it!
Robroy

[robroy]

Good evening!

Yesterday I made a little more progress on the Zilla Mat. The result's not exactly museum-quality but I think it will be OK. For a hobbyist like myself, it seems that by the time I get good at installing this stuff, the job will be done!



Here's what I'll be laying over the top. I dragged it out to see how much of the floor to cover with the Zilla Mat, since my plan's to make the Zilla Mat completely hidden.



Thanks for all the excellent advice!!!
Robroy