Over the winter, I plan to eliminate as much plastic rattle as I possibly can. So far, my attempts have been weak at best.

I have put 4 sq feet of Dynamat on the two rear plastic panels that go over the wheel wells. I'm still getting a lot of hatch rattle, and I want to eliminate this.

I was thinking of adding a 3rd gen style hatch clasp, which is electronic and pulls the hatch down for a better seal. Has anyone tried this yet?

I also want to know where I should apply sound deadening material so as to completely eliminate rattle (Or at least as much as possible).

Thanks!

 

You can put the dynamat anywhere and it will help the rattle, the more you cover the more rattlng you will prevent. You cna also double the thickness in the truck to prevent the vibrations even more. But don't stop there, you can do the doors, the floor to the front of the car and on the panels if you wish.

What's this hatch clasp thing you are talking about?

 

On third gen F-Bodies, when you close the hatch, the hatch mates with the hatch clasp. There's also an electronic trigger, and the clasp itself is on a motorized assembly. So when the trigger is tripped, it pulls the hatch down even tighter. I always thought this would be a better way to seal the hatch tightly.

So what other help can I get? Any pictoral guides?

And I really want to squash this hatch squeek!

 

Well, something that I did that helped a lot, not totally but a lot was weatherstripping. I put a bunch where the tail lights meet the car, and between the pastic piece and the hatch. That cut down almost all of my rattles. I've still got one or two still there, I think they're comming from the 2 side plastic panels.

Sounds deading will do a lot of good, but you also need to put something between the panels and whatever they're rubbing against to vibrate. I've got Dynamat and spray-on underbody coating all over the inside of my car, it helps with road noise, but does nothing for plastic rattle.