Standartplast Values. Value 2: Protection from corrosion
If you’ve heard somewhere that car body corrodes underneath sound insulating materials - don’t believe it. On the contrary, the properly mounted sound insulation can protect the car from rusting and prolong its life. Snow, mud, huge puddles, the absence of a garage - these are the reasons to go to the installation center and do good for yourself by removing noise from the passenger compartment, and for the car - by protecting it from corrosion.
Imagine that you’re planning a vacation and are going to visit another country. Usually, one of the most important tasks is choosing a perfect hotel, and you can spend days on searching. You study all the available information, pros and cons of each hotel, and, of course, recommendations and reviews. However, if you are a rational person, you’d run this algorithm before making any important decision, be it buying white goods, a car, a house, clothes, or even vegetables for lunch. You need to know as much as possible about the issue to make a well-thought decision.
And now you’re setting sights on soundproofing your car. You start googling the information. You visit forums of car owners, websites of auto magazines, watch videos on YouTube. And for sure, after a few minutes of web surfing, you face warnings: “Don’t soundproof your car! It will rust in two years!”and right there, you’ll find daunting videos showing a dismantled car with sound deadening materials taken off, with sheer hell underneath, and it’s strange that the driver wasn’t scraping the pavement with his shoes while driving - so severely corroded everything is.
And now you’re having second thoughts: “I’d better forget about this sound insulation, to be on the safe side.'' But you’re a rational person, remember? So you ask yourself, why the hell then thousands of car owners still soundproof their vehicles and drive well-preserved comfortable cars for decades?.. Well, it is because they don’t follow stereotypes, but instead they listen to reason and rely on experimentally proven facts.
Over the years, the specialists of Standartplast have plumbed the depths of any existing or potential problems of sound and vibration insulating materials. We have the right to say so, since all our materials are tested in the accredited laboratory, and the professionals working in installation centers know everything about vehicles and sound insulating materials.
And here is what we can say about a popular myth about rust beneath sound insulation.
As any myth, it is based on some experience. Corrosion can really appear beneath a vibration-damping material (which is usually mounted before the sound-insulating one). But it can happen upon the sole condition: if the material is mounted improperly. That is, if two golden rules (or even just one of them) of sound insulation haven’t been observed: 1. The mounting surface should be clean, dry and degreased. 2. The material should be pressed properly to the surface with a roller.
It’s simple: metal corrodes under the influence of water and oxygen. If sound insulation is installed properly, without moisture beneath the material and with no cavities between the material and the surface, it will prevent the contact of the sheet metal with air and water. That’s why even in winter time, when urban services sprinkle roads with tons of salt, your vehicle will be protected from rusting.
And last but not least: any experienced mounter will tell you that very often, while dismantling cars for installing sound insulation (even the expensive, new, luxury ones), they detect moisture in such areas where it simply can’t be, for example, on the roof. They detect it, dry it out and cover the area with a water-repellent material, thus saving the car body from seemingly unavoidable corroding.
So, don’t believe the myths, verify information, and care for your comfort with proper sound insulation!