Hi All,
I recently stripped the inside of my car (99' SH/60K Miles) to install about 60 sq.ft of Brownbread (similar to Dynamat). I wanted to share my opinion on it since when I was considering buying it I could not find anything useful and Prelude specific. The motivation for installing the product were:
1- Car was getting noisy due to rattles and exhaust/road noise (Lowered, Exhaust and Intake all contribute to noise)
2- Wanted to enhance the sound quality of the sound system I installed.
3- Great reviews on Brown Bread all over the net and at a fraction of the cost of Dynamat. (Some tests show that BB is just as good if not better than Dynamat).
Anyhow, feel free to ask questions.
Product:
Brown Bread (
www.brownbreadusa.com) or (
http://www.b-quiet.com)
70 sq. ft. off ebay for $100US + shipping (about $20)
Comes in two 1' X 35' rolls
Weight is around 0.35 lb/sq. ft.
Installation:
By far the hardest part of doing the install is figuring out how to remove the inside trim of your car without breaking anything. The material was applied in one layer to the doors, below and behind backseat, inside quarter panels, trunk from backseat to taillights (including spare tire area but not trunk cover).
In total I would say installation of the 60 sq. ft. took about 30 hours, I still have about 10 sq. ft left over.
One of the key selling points of BB is the ease of installation compared to some of the other products out there. One side of each layer is coated in aluminum while the other has some wax paper type of material. With some of the other products the use of a heat gun is mandatory in order to stick the sound deadening (tar like) material to the metal panels, however with BB (and Dynamat EXTREME) the material is viscous enough to stick right away without heating. I did however take a blow drier to heat the material a little for better adhesion. A couple of things to consider when working with this material;
1- Get some latex gloves, you will get very dirty and this stuff does not come off easily.
2- Be sure you measure correctly (doest have to be terribly accurate) before applying, once it's on, it aint coming off without a fight.
The way I installed pieces was to use the leftover wax paper to decide on the shape of the piece I did need, and then cut it out from the roll. Test fit the piece you cut out before heating, and only then heat and apply. I received a free wooden roller with my purchase, but you can get by with just applying with your hands if you heated the pieces before applying.
If you do choose to apply it with your hands be careful as the edges of the aluminum backing are sharp. I had a lot of paper (or aluminum) cuts on my fingers after the first day, I also didn't notice any blood while working because without gloves the tar like material closes wounds quite well.
Impressions:
It's been about 150 miles of driving around with the BB installed, and I have to say that I am very impressed! The car is noticeably quieter while driving (you'll hear less road noise and can carry on conversations on the highway using an indoor voice). My wife who thought this would be some kind of scam even acknowledged that it does work. Also one thing you will notice, is that you can listen to your music at much lower levels. My Panasonic head unit volume goes from 1 to 40, I used to listen to the music at 27, now I listen to music at 21.
When you close the doors you will also notice that they are slightly heavier and close with a more "airtight" sound. Overall definitely worth the time and expense (which was very minimal if you do it yourself). I recall seeing a thread about modifications that improve the car's quality feel, this should definitely make it onto that list.
Final Note:
I purchased my rolls from b-quiet.com (great service and fast delivery!), they however no longer sell BB and are selling their own brand of material that is supposed to be just as good as BB. I read that the quality is quite similar and the cost is slightly less.
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