Open Car door sound deadening

[JTW]

The thread on sound deadening reminded me of a question. The 28/29 doors that I have seen, had a thick fiber (straw,wood??)mat between the outer and inner panels. Has anyone identified what they were made of, and for restoration purposes come up with a modern facsimile?

 

[Steve Plucker]

I have seen this on one other roadster about 10 years ago.

Not sure of the composition. I wonder if it would be somewhere in the Ford Archives?

There is no mention of this material in the FORD Body Parts List for November 15, 1929.

Did not see it in my 1929 Standard Coupe or Tudor doors.

What was in them was some type of tar material that was used to deaden the sound.

Pluck

 

[wrndln]

I started a thread on this subject sometime back. I didn't get much in the way of responses. The thread link is below. The door inserts had to be installed before the door inner and outer sections were put together. The material is a wood product like very thin strips (we used to call them wood excelsior - shredded wood) glued together to form a fairly rigid thick mat. The only way to install the inserts now is to make them about the size of the large holes in the inner panel and try to glue them in place. Dudley Moordigian thought that a swamp cooler water mat would maybe work. They look similar to what was originally inside the doors and since the swamp cooler mats would need to be water resistent, they would probably work well. However, they are fairly costly and much larger than would be needed. I found a swamp cooler mat on eBay that might work. See second link below.
Rusty Nelson

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141940

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PORTABLE-MO...373?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a9313dfb5

 

[FL&WVMIKE]

I "painted" the insides of my roadster doors with roof repairing black tar like material, about fifty years ago. It has held up and my doors sound like a Cadillac.
MIKE (mikeburch)

 

[d.j. moordigian]

I started a thread on this subject sometime back. I didn't get much in the way of responses. The thread link is below. The door inserts had to be installed before the door inner and outer sections were put together. The material is a wood product like very thin strips (we used to call them wood selzer - shredded wood) glued together to form a fairly rigid thick mat. The only way to install the inserts now is to make them about the size of the large holes in the inner panel and try to glue them in place. Dudley Moordigian thought that a swamp cooler water mat would maybe work. They look similar to what was originally inside the doors and since the swamp cooler mats would need to be water resistent, they would probably work well. However, they are fairly costly and much larger than would be needed. I found a swamp cooler mat on eBay that might work. See second link below.
Rusty Nelson

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141940

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PORTABLE-MO...373?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a9313dfb5

Rusty...that sure is cheaper than the others we had looked at
earlier this year. There should be enough for a bunch of cars.

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

I'm pretty sure the packets only came in the open cars and pickups, which had sealed door tops, except for the small side curtain rod pocket. I have a few good pictures of the original packets of excelsior somewhere, and I'll see if I can find them. I'd guess the stuffing might be made from shreaded wood or bark from Henry's sawmills. At least that's what the stuff looks like to me. The packets are about 12" square and as Rusty said, they had to be in place before the outer door skin was folded into place.

As far as a replacement, I'd think if you had some waterproof thick paper to form the packet, you could install that, then stuff it with excelsior or expanding foam, as long as it didn't expand enough to push the door skin outward.

 

[Arlen]

My 30 phaeton has that stuff in the doors. Horse hair? Knowing Henry Ford, wouldn't be surprised if it was a recycled item like protection for parts out of a wood crate. I just stuck small sheets of dyno-mat inside my doors. Hard to get very much in it but every bit helps. Dyno-mat is a bit pricy but to me, it makes a huge difference when the whole car is filled with it.

 

[tbirdtbird]

ya, Tom hit it on the head, looks like excelsior to me too. An old old product; made from shredding wood. In a sense "wood wool" as opposed to "steel wool".

I haven't seen it in years

Arlen, we are on the road tomorrow!

 

[wrndln]

tbirdtbird,
I agree that the material Ford put between the inner and outer panel of open car doors sure looks like excelsior. Many years ,when I worked in my dad's store, china and other fragile items were packed in a excelsior. It wasn't glued together like the material between the doors Ford used, but a little looser. That was long before bubble wrap and air balloons were thought of for packing material.
Rusty

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

In the '50's we cut sections from War Surplus, wool blankets, adhered them with goopy "brush on" undercoating from Pep-Boys & then coated them over with more undercoating. It was a very good QUIETENER! We even used it in the cowls & the 1/4 panels!
Bill W.

 

[Purdy Swoft]

My 30-31 roadster had material that looked like it may have been made from recycled news paper. This was only used between the recessed center section of the metal inner panel and the outer door skin. This is a close area where vibration will happen. I used expanding foam in this area. If expanding foam is used care must be used to only use a very small amount because when expanding foam expands it can distort the outer panel if too much is used . This doesn't show and has worked good for me. No other sound deadening material was used inside my roadster doors except in the center section as I mentioned above. I've seen a hard tar material used inside the doors of closed cars such as 30-31 tudor and pickups .

 

[Randy in ca]

Here's a couple of pictures of some doors I have which have the sound deadening material (whatever it is) in place. Somewhere in their past someone must have decided that this wasn't adequate, so undercoating or roofing tar type material has also been generously applied. Also note that each has a couple of inserts of some kind that I'm guessing were meant to keep the square pad of material in place - I don't recall ever seeing holes for these on other doors, so likely not factory done(?). The doors seem a lot heavier than bare ones.

 

[TerryNJ]

There was an old story around South Jersey years ago that Henry Ford was buying sphagnum moss for a similar use. South Jersey was a pretty poor place and anything that you could take out of the woods and sell was very welcome. Cranberries, charcoal, deer (Jersey pork) and sphagnum moss were about the only way to make a living. I believe he was using it for some kind of padding or insulation. You can't light the stuff with a torch. Anyhow, That's the story! Like so many other stories about Henry Ford, Who knows? But the old tale came to mind.
Terry

 

[d.]

I did the same thing to my roadster doors in 1973...still close with a "thunk", no problems. I used tar like undercoating applied with a stiff old paint brush.