The Practical Bit
OK, that’s a bit of an explanation of some of the relevant background, so let’s get to the practicalities of how to apply this to a Defender.
This is a combination of what I have done to my 2014 Puma Defender 110, what I would do differently if I were to do it again, great ideas I have shamelessly nicked off other people, and stuff that would work in theory, but I haven’t tried.
STEP 1 - SEALING
Before even starting to look at any sort of noise insulation, the most important thing is to ensure that as many holes, gaps, cracks, grommets, seals etc. as possible are either filled in, covered up or seated properly. Doesn’t matter how much insulation you fit, if there’s holes you will get noise!
Park the Defender in the darkest place you can find (I put mine in the garage. At night.) and then arm yourself with the brightest light you can get and put it inside. I started with the light in the back and, lying underneath looking up, anywhere I could see light shining through I set to with the Sikaflex covering up the panel gaps, seams etc. as I went.
From memory, particular areas to pay attention to are:
Rear door seal;
Around the fuel filler neck;
The panels under the rear seat/rear passenger footwell (in a 110);
The base of the B-pillars (and the seal of the wiring harness that goes through here);
The panel seam behind the front seats;
The driver and passenger seat box (take the seat base out and lid off and shine the light down here);
Seals/grommets through the engine bulkhead.
The age/condition of your Defender will potentially determine how long this takes and how much attention is needed. It took me a good few hours over 2 nights to do mine and it was brand new!
The one thing I couldn’t get sealing right was the rear door and I eventually resorted to applying a thin strip of adhesive foam around the inside edge of the door to take up the gap to the rubber seal on the body.
Talking of door seals, the later Defender seals seem pretty good, particularly the additional ones on the lower edges of the doors and are worth fitting if yours doesn’t have them.
The added bonus of doing this sealing is that it’ll help your AC, if you’ve got it, run more efficiently and it’ll help prevent dust ingress.
Dan
'14 Def 110
'75 Lightweight
'98 300Tdi Disco (gone)
'80 2Dr Rangie Classic (gone)
Bookmarks