I got most of the pictures up on photobucket now. I spent about 4 days doing the G8 with 290 sq. ft. of Second Skin Damplifier Pro and also used their Overkill Pro in the doors. If you'd like to check out there products the website is www.secondskinaudio.com Anthony, the owner of the company, really knows his stuff and is very helpful! I've used his products in both of my vehicles now and been extremely happy with the results.

The car is extremely quiet now. I've since added some Focal 165K2P's in the front, 165CVX's in the back(going in tonight) and a Kicker ZX850.4 in the spair tire well. The car sounds amazing. Here is the link to the pictures.

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/

I'll try to answer any questions you may have and will eventually write up a short how-to on removing certain things from the car.

Below are a few teaser pics. You'll have to look at the album on photobucket to see the rest!

The goods from SecondSkin Audio, www.secondskinaudio.com :

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02872.jpg

Me talking to my girlfriend on my cell while working on covering my trunk in damplifier Pro:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02920.jpg

Interior Gutted:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02955.jpg

Trunk and fender wells:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02949.jpg
Trunk and tire well:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02951.jpg
Outer door skin covered in 2 layers of Damplifier Pro:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02888.jpg
Outer door skin covered in Overkill Pro foam:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02896.jpg
Inner door skin with 165K2P mounted and covered in Second Skin Damplifier Pro:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02990.jpg
Temporary Mounting location for Kicker ZX850.4 amplifier, this will be made much nicer once I get the subs and the other amp in so that I can begin the enclosure for the spair tire well:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC03010.jpg
PAC SNI15's and RCA's running from factory radio The SNI's were tucked up behind the radio out of the way and RCA's routed down the middle of the car away from any other power wiring. I am one of the few who do not have engine noise with the G8's:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/DSC02958-1.jpg

WOW! Looks like alot of work. BTW, how much weight did you add to the car? LOL

I got most of the pictures up on photobucket now. I spent about 4 days doing the G8 with 290 sq. ft. of Second Skin Damplifier Pro and also used their Overkill Pro in the doors. The car is extremely quiet now. I've since added some Focal 165K2P's in the front, 165CVX's in the back and a Kicker ZX850.4 in the spair tire well. The car sounds amazing. Here is the link to the pictures.

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/

I'll try to answer any questions you may have and will eventually write up a short how-to on removing certain things from the car.

The G8 is not QUIET enough for you? Ever consider buying a Buick?:wink2:

Nice work! What are you pointing at in the one picture ;)

AI have been competing in car audio since I was 16. Sound is high on my list of priorities. The sound deadener was done mostly to make the car sound better. You would be surprised at the bass response from the K2P's in the door. The road noise is cut down a lot in the G8 as well. The biggest benefit other than the sound quality due to the Second Skin Damplifier is the reduction in heat. I used to always drive with the AC on 63-64 to be comfortable. Now it freezes you out at 71 :) The sound barrier and the aluminum backing greatly reduce the heat! Second skin makes a great product!!! I will attempt to label and sort through pictures tonight and write a few DIY's on door panel removal etc.


I am the one sitting in the trunk of the two pictures. The other people in pictures were helpers/coworkers that gave me a hand with the car. It was nice to have help after working on the thing for 3 days by myself! Special thanks to Greg Biven and Eric Anderson for their help with finishing the install. If anyone needs work done on a G8 around Louisiana, bring it to David's car stereo. This is where I used to work and where Greg and Eric work. They know how to take the car apart and take care of your audio needs!

Also, this damplifier pro is 0.5lb/sq.ft and I added about 290 sq. ft. so roughly 145 lbs to the car. Racing is not a top priority, luxury car silence with jazz hall sound is what I'm going for. Wait until you see the enclosure I'm going to be doing for the spair tire well :)

Wait until you see the enclosure I'm going to be doing for the spair tire well :)

Are you interested in making some for members??? If the price was decent I bet a bunch of us (me included) would be interested.

Looks like a lot of work but I'm sure it's worth it.:)

I have [4] 6.5 focal speakers sitting around the house. Shouldn't these bolt right into the doors and sound decent with the stock HU ???

Would this work ????

http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4332

Are you interested in making some for members??? If the price was decent I bet a bunch of us (me included) would be interested.



:iagree:

The only issue I foresee with me making the enclosures for other members is that I've added 2 layers of second skin damplifier to my tire well. I would have fitment issues with other cars unless someone wanted to bring me a car with no deadening on the spare tire well.

In case you guys didn't know, the spare tire well is made of plastic, there is no metal between it and the bottom of the car, its exposed. Deadening it not only helps the heat but cuts down exhaust and road noise in the car significantly.

Fitting the Focal 165K2P's in the front required me to make some mounting plates out of MDF. It was rather difficult to make them as they consisted of 3 different pieces so that it fit the door properly. I didnt have my camera with me when I was making them so I dont have pics and they mounting adapters I made are now covered in dynamat so a picture would do little good. The rear door speakers are actually the only thing I haven't finished installing yet. It took much longer than expected to make the components fit the factory location. I will tackle the rear speaker install tonight and dampen the plastic door panels with the little bit of remaining damplifier I have left. I did this in the front doors as well(deadened the factory plastic door panels in all accesible places to reduce rattle). There are also a couple other tricks I'm working on to improve my imaging even more. I will update with pics when these take place.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e220/hotshot2003/G8%20damplifier%20install/mountingbracket.jpg

That should give a good explanation of how I recommend installing the K2P's or other higher end components in the car. Remember, the more stiff the panel is that its mounted to the better it will sound. The midbass out of these things is absolutely insane!

Cool. I was wondering if something like this would reduce the AFM drone. Any thoughts?

It reduced a lot of noise. It wasn't as if the car was that loud before but now its silent. The only part of the car I didnt do is the roof. I have the sunroof and didn't feel like messing with it yet because I dont have enough second skin left over to do two layers up there. I will likely tackle the roof later on though. Everywhere else in my car has a minimum of two layers of the Damplifier Pro. Some spots, such as the doors, have two layers on the outer skin, 1-2 on the inner door(metal where speaker mounts), and 1 layer on the plastic door panel. If you dont want to change the speakers out in the car but want a much better sound, deaden your doors like I did in the pictures. The factory speakers sounded 10x better, the Focal's sound 1000x better :)

I got busy last night and didnt get to work on the car. Tonight I plan to play with the angle of the tweeters up front and put the rear speakers in. I will add more pics since I remembered to bring the camera today :) Right now the sound stage has good width and depth but the imaging isn't quite right. If someone will hurry with the VIM I'll be adding a carPC and using the optical out to the Alpine PXA-H701 31 band eq which should help this problem.

I must say I'm surprised at the quality of the factory radio though. It sounds much better than other factory radio's we've put nice systems on before. Just turn off basically all functions of the radio and dont put bass or treble above 0 and its not half bad.

Just turn off basically all functions of the radio and dont put bass or treble above 0 and its not half bad.

That's the hardest thing to get through to people. True audiophiles listen to music with the EQ's off and bass and treble at 0 or what I call flat.

Glad to hear you think it's decent as I plan on maybe a sub since it's leased I can't see doing much more to it.:)

The first mistake 95% of our customers make is boosting things on EQ's. They come in and say it doesn't sound as good as it did when I left after you guys set it. I got to the point where I sit down with customers for 5-10 minutes and give a short rundown on why its set the way it is when it leaves and how equalization is meant to work. You dont want to "add" anything to the signal, but you do occasionally need to reduce certain frequencies due to the cabin response of the car. A completely flat RTA reading doesn't sound good though. You want a smooth RTA curve for the best sound, not necessarily a flat one. Everyone's ears are slightly different, and every vehicle had a different frequency response. I developed a method and plotted my vehicle frequency response in every car I ever used to compete in SPL. You could use cabin gain to your advantage. With sound quality you would want to do the exact opposite :)

when u was in the trunk did u see any wires for a x/m box

My God....why?? Why go through the trouble?? Buy a jaguar or BMW or Mercedes...if you want a quiet, smooth running machine. This is a Chevy for the love of.....she's good for 5 years (debatable).....before it's time to replace her

Not saying your work is unnoticed or delapatating in anyway, just seems a bit extreme...labor intensive....not to mention time comsuming.

Should have bought a V-6 and done that to it...most guys buy a v-8 and start tossing all that stuff out to lighten the load, better et's and all that mombo jumbo

Should have bought a V-6 and done that to it...most guys buy a v-8 and start tossing all that stuff out to lighten the load, better et's and all that mombo jumbo


Makes no sense to me. Need the power for the extra weight planned to be installed. :)

Thats at least 100 lbs added already. And Im sure he has plans for for at least 100 more.

My God....why?? Why go through the trouble?? Buy a jaguar or BMW or Mercedes...if you want a quiet, smooth running machine. This is a Chevy for the love of.....she's good for 5 years (debatable).....before it's time to replace her

Not saying your work is unnoticed or delapatating in anyway, just seems a bit extreme...labor intensive....not to mention time comsuming.

To each his own. This forum (this forum does not carry exclusivity in this respect, unfortunately) has it's fair share of those who jump all over others for tastes which are different than theirs.

As far as the 5-year comment, that may have been true from 1975-late 90's. GM (and the rest of the "Big Three") has improved greatly and are typically on-par with competitors quality/reliability. I have had my fair share of "reliable" japanese cars which I've had major issues with.

Back to taste. I'm no audiophile. Conversely, I probably fall on the other side of the street. Of the last three vehicles I've owned, my current C5 falls 340 rwhp and 700 rwhp short, respectively, of my previous two vehicles. Bottom line...everything does not have to be vanilla or chocolate.

Hats off to you....Not clamping on your style my friend. I was just curious. Me personally, my flavor is ripping the engine apart, tossing in new heads, cam, exhaust...etc....to gain that 1 extra hp and be king kong of the road. Wife always says "why you doing that to the poor car". Why? because it's a chevy...and chevy is good for tearing apart and rebuilding. Naturally you can do the same for the Ford mustang, dodge challenger...parts are fairly cheap and everybody and his kid sister has one. America was raised in a chevy/ford or dodge....and everybody tinkers with them. Everybody. Including folks who don't have a lick of knowledge about engines.

If I want luxury and quiet while driving, i climb into my e350 Mercedes. Would i dare touch the engine for any "upgrades" I highly doubt it, and try looking for upgrades...none out there. Fine piece of machinery just sitting there. v6 is strong enough and purrs like a little kitty cat.

all good my friend, and once again, hats off to you for doing a great job and posting good info.

Hey... nice work... how much would you charge to relicate your sound deadening in my car... I mean labor materials and everything... how long did it take?

That reminds me....I have leftovers in the fridge! :) Nice work man!

First of all I'm not into racing. Do I like a big enough motor that can get me going quickly when I want to, YES!!! Speed isn't really on my top priority list but I would have NEVER bought the V6 model of this car.

I am really big into car audio. I like car audio as much as you like tearing into the motor and modding it. I like attempting to reproduce a live performance of the audio as closely as possible. In this car I chose to use the factory locations(at least for now) and keep everything hidden. It sounds awesome for factory locations and no processing. I've been super busy with work this week and haven't had time to go through and label all of the pictures but I'll try to share more info for you guys whenever I finally get the time.

As far as cost goes on doing something like this to the G8 I believe Anthony sells the Damlifier Pro for 160 a bulk pack on his website plus shipping. I used 8 packs so far and have not done the roof, I'll probably be ordering another two or three to tackle that project in the near future. Lets say 11 bulk packs to do the entire car like I've done and shop labor roughly 6-7 days. I'd estimate between 1900-2000 for the 11 bulk packs with shipping and approximately 2800-3000 shop labor(7 days at 400). This would include doing the roof. I no longer work for David's car Stereo though since I started my engineering job with Air Liquide so you would want to give them a call for an exact quote, you would order the second skin direct from their website or by calling Anthony though. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info bro...

Hey love the work, I would love to do this to my G8 when I get it, but will probably only add one layer to save some weight, but whats another 100 lbs anyway, the car is already a pig :) I'm the same way though, a quick car is fun but I don't race anyways, so you might as well enjoy the music while you're cruising!

I would recommend two layers on larger panels that are not very solid. One layer has 1x the effect, two layers have 3-4 times the effect. There is a huge benefit to a second layer in both vibration reduction and heat reduction. I haven't had time to do anymore this week so more pics will have to wait til saturday when I do a little work with aiming the tweeters and consider making a few changes with the mids...more to come soon!

Did you experience any new squeaks and rattles after reassembly? That would be a concern of mine when tearing apart the interior of a car.

Nope, no squeeks or rattles here. There is literally sound damping material on anything and everything that could possibly move. The only part left to do is the roof but for now its good enough. I'm about to add more pictures to photobucket and post some here in a few mins.

I added more pics to the photobucket album of the speaker and tweeter installation and also wrote a few DIY articles on the forum to explain how to do certain things. Hope these pics and threads are helpful to the community!

Those speakers look great, I am a B&W fan and the speakers you installed have a similar appearance to B&W. To save money, what areas of the car would you say are the ones most in need of sound deading? What would you sound proof with a 500.00 budget?

great job, not too many people go all out.

It would depend on your goals if you only had a 500$ budget. Is your goal sound quality or just attempting to make the car quieter? If sound is your main concern and you are planning to use the factory locations, I would recommend going all out on your doors first then consider doing the floor and back seat area second, then the trunk if you were to add subs. I did the car pretty much all at once so it was hard to tell. I know the doors alone made a decent difference on road noise but a HUGE difference on the sound quality of the factory speakers. The difference was even greater when I installed the Focal speakers.

Oh yea, since we're talking about it, anyone got the service manual? Does it mention removing the headliner from the car, or possibly some of the sunroof mechanism? I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to take the headliner out of the car or if it was put in prior to installation of the windshield...

hotshot:

Are you mating this system to the stock radio, or going aftermarket?

Keeping the stock system in there so that it looks all oem. I'm about to make another thread about some goodies I have coming in tomorrow though :)

Link to buy Damlifier Pro at best price?

www.secondskinaudio.com I recommend calling them and talking to Anthony if you plan to purchase a larger quantity he may be able to help you out. If you call and they are not in the office it will redirect to Ant's mobile phone, leave a voice mail. He's good at getting back with people and is very helpful if you have questions about what may work best for your car etc.

Thank you for the link and help.

No problem, did you purchase any yet? If so, how do you like it?

wow .. that looks like a lot of work!

Hey I have a question. I soundproofed my trunk a couple weeks ago mostly because of the upgraded exhaust and the drone issue. The drone is better but it's not as good as I would hope. I did the spare tire well, the rest of the bottom of the trunk, the wheel wells, and the top of the trunk by the speakers. I want to do more because I really am hating that drone. Should I do another layer on the bottom? I also thought about putting some in the well where the mufflers are on the underside of the car. I did NOT put it on the seat backs but maybe I should? What do you think being the resident expert of soundproofing? Any opinions you have I would appreciate

2 layers are nearly 4 times as effective as one layer. So adding another layer on the bottom of the trunk might help significantly. Doing the rear deck and the back of the back seats should create a barrier between the listening environment and the exhaust drone. It would say that would help as well.

You could also check out the Luxury Liner Pro at www.secondskinaudio.com Its a thick mat that you put on top of the deadener on the floor of your trunk or the floor of the cabin of your car that cuts out a lot of road noise. I didn't use it but have heard good things from others that have.

Thanks for the advice. I put the second layer down on the tire well and also did the rear seats and it helped. I probably should do a second layer for the top of the trunk. I don't necessarily have road noise that I'm worried about so I'm not sure about the mat. It's more the exhaust noise. I need to do another layer on the top of the trunk and i'm debating between doing the underside of the stock mat in the trunk. I'm not sure if that would help but it is between the noise and me...so maybe?

Thanks for the advice. I put the second layer down on the tire well and also did the rear seats and it helped. I probably should do a second layer for the top of the trunk. I don't necessarily have road noise that I'm worried about so I'm not sure about the mat. It's more the exhaust noise. I need to do another layer on the top of the trunk and i'm debating between doing the underside of the stock mat in the trunk. I'm not sure if that would help but it is between the noise and me...so maybe?

Do a layer of a product called Ensolite sold by RAAMaudio (http://www.raamaudio.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi)...also visit the site...it will learn ya alot about deadening noise.....