In loud airplanes, pilots...
In loud airplanes, pilots use noise cancelling headsets for a quiet ride. You can get the same quiet ride in your old Mopar with the right insulation and sound dampening material. We'll show you how.
While there are a few die-hards left in the Mopar world, most of us by now have a newer Mopar car or truck we use as a daily driver, saving our classic Mopar for the weekend car shows, cruising, or occasional track duty. Though we'd all like to drive our classic cars more often, they just don't seem to be as comfortable or quiet riding as our newer vehicles, and they are simply more tiring to drive, so they often remain parked. There are several reasons our old cars wear us out quicker when we go driving, including stiffer suspensions and fewer creature comforts, but a major cause of driver fatigue has been shown to be cabin noise. That's right--the constant drone of road and wind noise simply wears out the driver and passengers in the vehicle, making them irritable and cranky. And we don't have to tell most of you how unpleasant a car ride can be with an irritated family. Another reason these cars can get uncomfortable is because the heat of the engine, exhaust, and drivetrain is transferred through the floor and firewall, making for a sticky ride. Fortunately, these problems can be alleviated by insulating your Mopar properly and using modern noise, thermal, and vibration dampening materials.
Back in the '60s and '70s when most of our classic Mopars were built, noise and vibration dampening weren't on the top of the list when it came to automobile manufacturing. Thankfully, the Chrysler engineers were busy designing powerful engines and bulletproof drivetrains, making our cars some of the most desirable muscle cars of the era, but very little attention was paid to making these cars quiet to ride in. Mopars were as good as other cars at the time, with rubber door and window seals and a little insulation behind the firewall and under the carpet to keep heat out of the passenger compartment, but by today's standards the insulation and vibration and sound dampening in these old cars is woefully inadequate, making for a noisy, and often sweltering ride.
Actually, there are more ways for noise and heat to get into the cabin of your Mopar than you've likely considered. While door and window seals are some of the items we often replace, remember that sound and sometimes heat can also sneak around the trunk seal, the cowl seal at the rear of the hood, and even through the floor and carpet, especially if the car is missing body plugs or has worn window whiskers. Fortunately, companies like YearOne are reproducing most of the original seals and insulation found in our old Mopars, and the aftermarket parts are made from modern materials often making them better than the ones installed when our cars were new. So the first step in getting our old Mopar riding quietly is to install, restore, or replace all of the factory seals, body plugs, and insulation in our cars, ensuring the car is at least as quiet and insulated as when it left the factory. But to really reduce the noise and vibrations in our old cars, additional, modern dampening material can be used as well.
 The first step to reducing...  The first step to reducing noise, heat, and vibration is to replace your car's original insulation and seals. In our case, the underhood insulation was completely missing, so we ordered a new pad from YearOne. |  The hood insulation is held...  The hood insulation is held in place by these press-in clips, also available new from YearOne. |  Another area where noise can...  Another area where noise can find its way into your car is through worn "cat-whiskers" that seal the side windows. Luckily, YearOne has these as well available for most Mopars. |
 The cat-whisker seals are...  The cat-whisker seals are easy to replace, and simply snap in place... |  ...requiring only the inner...  ...requiring only the inner door panels to be removed in certain models. |  Some Mopars came with a jute...  Some Mopars came with a jute insulation pad behind the rear seat, but our '67 convertible didn't. We simply ordered extra jute padding from YearOne and cut it to fit in our back seat. This will help keep noise from the trunk and exhaust out of our car's passenger compartment. |
 If your car doesn't have factory...  If your car doesn't have factory undercoating, or if you've replaced floor pans like we did, a good coat of undercoating on the bottom of the floors will help as well. |  Year One also had a kit with...  Year One also had a kit with all the convertible top window seals. We replaced these when we had the top installed. These kits are available for most popular hardtop and coupe models as well. |  Original door seals compress...  Original door seals compress and harden over time, losing their tight seal. We got new door seals, made from modern materials, from YearOne and replaced them in just a few minutes. |