Sound deadening on the cheap!

Another area to consider for sound deadening is the back of the panels surrounding the side air intakes. I am not sure if it is different for the MGF, but on an MG TF if you tap on the panel surrounding the air intake grille it sounds hollow and terrible. There is basically one large thin metal cosmetic panel that runs from the rear of the car all the way to the front of the the sill area. The area around the vent opening has very little structural support and will rattle if you tap gently on it. Compare this panel with your recently sound deadened door panels and you will observe quite a difference!

If you remove the vent cover (easy to do - see other posts for this) and remove the black plastic air tube, you can access a fair amount of the back side of the metal panel (well not so much in the forward sill area unless you have very thin arms and small hands). Clean it first then apply sound deadening material as far as your arm can reach in all areas. The difference will be quite remarkable.  
Clean out your 4 sill drain holes while you are at it.  

You can also access the rear area of the panel via small openings in the boot area on the sides behind the carpet.
The front sill area cannot be accessed (for sound deadening). 

One thing occurs to me & that would be exterior fitting.
The sills are prone to stone chips. Obviously stones chip the paint & promote corrosion, painting the sill with stone chip is a recognisable method of overcoming this, why not run a strip of this glorious stuff down the sill & having made sure the sill is clean, use that as stone chip & a method of reducing panel resonance?
Properly prepared it could be sprayed body colour.
Just a thought.
M

Goodwood wrote:

Another area to consider for sound deadening is the back of the panels surrounding the side air intakes. I am not sure of it is different for the MGF, but on a MG TF if you tap on the panel surrounding the air intake grille is sounds hollow and terrible. There is basically one large thin metal cosmetic panel that runs from the rear of the car all the way to the front of the the sill area. The area around the vent opening has very little structural support and will rattle you tap gently on it. Compare this panel with your recently sound deadened door panels and you will observe quite a difference!

If you remove the vent cover (easy to do - see other posts for this) and remove the black plastic air tube, you can access a fair amount of the back side of the metal panel (well not so much in the forward sill area unless you have very thin arms and small hands). Clean it first then apply sound deadening material as far as your arm can reach is all areas. The difference will be quite remarkable.  
Clean out your 4 sill drain holes while you are at it.  

You can also access the rear area of the panel via small openings in the boot area on the sides behind the carpet.
The front sill area cannot be accessed (for sound deadening). 

Thank you for that help! 
I am so impressed with what has been done that I know I need to do the rear quarters and boot. I never considered behind the vents but you are quite right it does rattle around there.
so far I have added around 17lbs to the car which is nothing compared to what it has done for the ride!
Thanks.
 

Airportable wrote:

One thing occurs to me & that would be exterior fitting.
The sills are prone to stone chips. Obviously stones chip the paint & promote corrosion, painting the sill with stone chip is a recognisable method of overcoming this, why not run a strip of this glorious stuff down the sill & having made sure the sill is clean, use that as stone chip & a method of reducing panel resonance?
Properly prepared it could be sprayed body colour.
Just a thought.
M

Good idea!
That is very doable. It would need to be clean which is easy to do and the tape has a very good edge to it.
The black Bostik tape has a very good tape on top of the bitumen that doesn't crease when you fold it over seams or edges. It remains flat.
Something else I have to ponder..

You could even consider just painting the underneath portion of the sill (only). This would not be visible but it would still reduce noise. I find the sills make quite a bit of noise when dirt is kicked up from the font wheels and resonates when it hits the underside of the front sills. That said, I guess one could also opt for front mud flaps for the same effect. 
There are also internal frame sprays that might have the same effect from the inside. Not sure, never tried this. There are access holes for spraying into the front sills in the front wheel wells behind the plastic wheel guard. For example:
Eastwood Internal Frame Anti-Rust Coating, 14 oz. Spray
 

I am planning on treating the underside and inside the sill panels with Bilt Hamber spray as soon as I can. 
The underside is imaculate and I want it to stay that way. I need to lay it up in my garage to do a really good job but my closet Queen MX5 resides in there just now until it sells. I daren't put it outside and let it get dirty or wet! It is a problem I brought upon myself.
I will be doing the boot and the iner wings from the air vents with bitumen tape at the same time.

Just had a wonderful ride in my little car around my country roads circuit of about 15 miles with a lovely quiet and rattle free chassis.
That's all, nothing further to report..except..did I ever tell you I love this car?

Inspired by your comprehensive application of bituminous padding & having already done the more resonant panels, I went around the car tapping panels to see which “rang”.
I’ve done a bit more, easily subduing clangy bodywork & earmarking those to be treated.
Only when out of hibernation will it’s effectivity be noticed; it can’t make it worse.
M

Good on ya mate!
By the time you take her out you will have forgotten about what you did but may be pleasantly surprised at how refined she feels. 
It has genuinely transformed mine. 

So today i was removing my door cards in order to swap out the "technical" trim pieces for some i'd sprayed yellow (no not Sunspot but as its the interior i don't think it's as important with there being no direct comparison, i'm sure others will disagree and they're welcome to send me a few litres of Sunspot to solve the problem) while i was in there i thought "let's get this sound deadening done" so that's whta i did and i thought i'd show my work here so you can tell me if i did it right or not.
I wasn't able to go between the crash bars and the outer skin as the adhesive/foam used by the factory went all the way down the length of the bars but i did manage to get everything pretty much covered. Haven't taken the car out yet so can't say anything about any changes to driving rattles but i didn't notice a great deal of difference in terms of the noise of closing the door so not sure if i've done it wrong? i even listened for a difference between the two doors after finishing the first one. At the very least though i'd imagine its good for the general insulation of the car and hopefully i'll notice more of a difference on the road. Plenty left over so might do the bonnet and boot next.

TA22 has taken a simple idea & moved it to a level, never seriously considered. Inexpensive sound deadening is almost an oxymoron & I doubt you can go far wrong with this approach. You can’t have failed to suppress some, if not all the panel resonances, certainly the closing of my doors is a more subdued affair than previous.
I started messing about with this stuff quite a while ago, resulting in my being used to the amended sound. Sometimes I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, let alone the sound of my doors being shut several months ago.
TA22 comments carry much greater weight than mine, I’m certain he will be along shortly to add some meaningful additions.
M

Hiya Kid..
I got the idea from AP and ran with it.
What you have done looks fine and I couldn't get mine between the bar and the doorskin either so I just wrapped it.
There isn't a significant difference just closing the doors but on the road it stops a lot of resonance. The panels don't zing anymore.
You saw my post on it so you can see how far I took it. The floorpan and behind the seats make a difference. It's hard to believe there is nothing on the floorpan from factory.
I have yet to do the boot lid and the rear panels in the boot but I soon will.

We were coming back up the M6 from Keswick yesterday and my wifes car shed a pad which knackered the disc so today I went in to Aberdeen to ECP for discs and pads. I haven't been out in the TF for a few weeks so I decided to go in that and in all honesty I was surprised how quiet it now was. It really felt quite refined and "solid" on the road. I was smiling the whole way!
It is well worth the effort and keeping a roll handy in case you suddenly do a job that exposes a bare panel is a good idea.
Good luck.