Where is the best point to leave a drain hole? forward of the crossmember or under the seats?
Never had a problem with the rain really, so I haven't bothered with a drain hole. I tend to keep a good rate of speed up in the rain when and where possible. I also don't really get that much coming in through gap between the screens, I think the bonnet strap which is positioned further up the bonnet than most other 3W's helps.
I have now sound proofed behind & under my seats in the hope of reducing noise from the bevel box & reducing dust & water ingress. There has been a useful reduction in noise, its still there but lesser. I now do not notice many of the rattles. Bevel box whine is reduced. Not done enough miles to say how much reduction in dust & water. First off I used silicone sealer on the floor between panel & frame under the seats & the section just in front of the seats. I bought one roll of 1 ½ inch (38mm) Dynamat tape & 4 sheets of Dynamat Extreme 18 x 32 inch (460 x 815 mm) & a wooden roller to press the mat down. If you only want to sound proof behind the seats 2 sheets is enough. I removed the boot tray for access to the 4 off 10mm hex head bolts holding the seat back. Pulling very firmly on the lower edge of the bottom half of the backrest & pushing down it can be removed. Pushing down on the upper backrest to clear the lip & pulling it was removed. I removed the seatbelt buckles & two side panels & rear of transmission tunnel. Removing the tunnel proved to be unnecessary. Using the tape I sealed between the side of the car & the panels behind the seats but did not tape over the joint at half height as the lower part of the panel is for access to the bevel box. I suspect that simply taping the gaps will have a significant effect on noise reduction. As it was cold in my garage 2 deg C I kept the Dynamat in the house, measured & cut it there to keep it flexible. A craft knife is perfect or heavy kitchen scissors. Its best not to make your sections too large to get a decent fit. The backing paper can be used as paper template for awkward parts. The roller was used to ensure good contact across the entire surface. To tape gaps & sound proof behind the seats & put everything back took 4 ½ hours. I have dynamated under the seats & floor panel immediately in front but not the pedal well & same on passenger side. This took another hour but I have not road tested it yet.
ok, now i'm guilted in to finally showing pics of my work. can't spend much time explaining other than the fact i bought a giant box of dynamat, a roller, a pair of gloves (after a day without them beating up my fingers on the edges of the dynamat), and about a weekend of just going apeshit putting it on every square inch i could find.
for context, this weekend was done early on during my ownership prior to me going through 3 bevel boxes, a compensator, driveshaft spline, rear pulley, rear belt, 7 belt adjustments, missing rubber spacers on the air filter causing it to rattle, lose exhaust bolts, and the rear brake drum rubbing up against itself causing quite a ruckus, 3 roll bar adjustments and replaced rubber boots around roll bars as the bars had chewed through them and were rubbing against the body...long story short my trike has from day one suffered from a massive amount of clanks, rattles, chirps, whines, etc so I was passionate and a bit naive thinking it was just a function of dynamiting the car and all would be well.
that being said it definitely helps but as others have pointed out it can actually make it easier to hear other kinds of noises/issues. I guess this is just part of the felting process that people familiar with owning a morgan talk about in the first year or two of a car.
still love my car but that's not to say it doesn't have it's moments.
ok, on with the pics. I've circled areas that i added dynamat to but forgot to take pics. some stuff like the seat backs and bottom of the seats probably weren't necessary but there's just something satisfying about tapping/knocking on a piece of the car pre dynamat, listening to the sound and then putting dynamat on it and tapping/knocking on it and hearing it incredibly muffled which of course makes you dream of getting rid of all the unwanted noises so that what you're focusing on is the sound of the engine and exhaust vs lose bits.
Blake You have been extremely thorough. I never even thought about doing the underside of the boot liner. Most of the noise seems to come from the rear so I can see this helping with bevel box din. I don't think treating inside the headlamps would do much. Did you try the car at each stage to see which areas treated had most effect? Did you have a week off work to do all that?
the best comparison i can give is the difference when you close the door of a bmw or other german car and hear that really solid sound when it closes vs the really tinny and empty sound you hear when you close the door of say a honda civic of the 90's (i qualify that statement because i feel like in general car manufactures have really stepped up their game, hell, who thought hyundai would ever make a decent car).
that's kind of what it feels like for the underside of the boot tray. now when you knock on it it sounds really solid vs if you were to go do it right now to your car it would feel like a cheap piece of plastic. again, not sure what actual difference it makes when driving but in the back of my head i do get some satisfaction on all the work i did.
as for the headlights i felt it was a good move as if you were to tap on yours right now you'd hear and incredibly shitty and clanky kind of sound and it gets worse with the ring that holds the headlight in that you can hear it vibrate a bit. with the headlights being so close the engine i just felt it was ripe for unwanted noise and when i did my LED headlight install (link to thread LED headlight upgrade how to ) i decided i'd throw the dynamat in there to make them a bit more substantial which i can report has turned out quite nicely.
