Interior creaking

[jezze]

Anyone have luck stopping the plastic interior panels from creaking? I'm not really into placing torn match book wedges all over the place. Can I take the panels off and use some sort of rubber lining or spray to quite down the creaking? Helping mom out to quite down the 280z.

[EScanlon]

Closed Cell Foam tape at the junctions of the panels as well as rubber washers glued to the back side of the rivet holes.

The foam tape can be obtained at Lowe's, Home Depot and other Building Supply outlets, you can typically get it in various widths and thicknesses. I used both a 1/2" and a 5/8" wide tape and in both 1/8" and 3/16" thicknesses. It just depended on which panels I was putting together and the gap that I needed to fill.

FWIW

E

[Oiluj]

I glued strips of felt, (cheap solution), to the contact points behind and between panels. No mre squeaks and creaks.

[Arne]

I think the factory used felt, there were remains of it on most of my panels. (Well crushed, of course.) I've tried replacement felt, but I don't think the self-adhesive felt you can buy these days is thick enough to cushion it. The closed-cell foam is a better solution.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Arne
typo

[cygnusx1]

I took a comprehensive approach. Take the panels off and lay them face down. Give the backs a light coat of rubberized undercoat from Car Quest. That undercoat goes on thin and dry, and feels velvety with no residual smell. It stops creaks and some sound from coming through.

Install ALL the rivets with some good quality synthetic grease. Dielectric compound works well too.

Edited May 9, 2011 by cygnusx1

[EScanlon]

Felt huh? All the panels I've ever worked with, both removing for the first time in a car and salvaging from bone yards had a real thin open cell foam strip that had mostly disintegrated. Not saying that it isn't possible, but didn't run into any with felt.

The biggest advantage is that if necessary you can double layer the tape to fill in larger gaps.

The rubber washers helped the squeaking from the rivets.

The rubberized undercoating on the back sounds good too. I used some left over pieces of tar mat and they helped quiet down the interior by a good amount.

FWIW

E

[tlorber]

I spray glued carpet padding to the back side of the interior panels. This dampens the sound greatly.

[pbarcher]

I used a tip that I found on the forum last year. Get a roll of Velcro at the home store and use the "loop" portion between panels. It's adhesive and works great.

I also put Dynamat on the back of all the plastic panels, which stiffens them considerably and reduces heat and noise. I also put a small scrap of Dynamat on the mounting tabs, then used an awl to make a hole where the plastic rivet is inserted. This makes the hole slightly smaller and the fit tighter. Some of the aftermarket rivets are slightly smaller in diameter than the originals.

[Arne]

Felt huh? All the panels I've ever worked with, both removing for the first time in a car and salvaging from bone yards had a real thin open cell foam strip that had mostly disintegrated. Not saying that it isn't possible, but didn't run into any with felt.

Well, now that you say that and I think about it more, I'm no longer certain. It's been several years now since I've had any of mine out of the car. Maybe it wasn't felt. Could have been foam.

So in short, please don't anyone take what I said above as being the gospel truth - I might be wrong.

[Oiluj]

I didn't use self-adhesive felt. Tried that on my first Z and found it didn't stick. I bought felt at the local fabric store and cut into 1/2" wide strips. I wiped the plastic with isopropyl to clean the surface and used black silicone adhesive to mount the felt. Works great!

My original factory panels on my 1972 had thin, dk grey open celled foam along some edges of the panels.

[Reverend]

I dynamatted my panels all around, no more creaking.