Wind Noise

[wdills]

Hello all. I am new to your forum, but I have owned a 73 Mach1 for about 30 years. The car has been shuffled from one storage location to another for the last 25 years because I just couldn't bring myself to sell it. I have recently completed a frame off restoration of an old Studebaker Hawk and I am currently in the middle of a restoration of Dad's 50 Studebaker. I am starting to plan my next project which will be the Mustang.

I am considering building the mustang to be my daily driver. I have looked at all the available suspension, brake and power train mods and I think I can build a car that would be enjoyable to drive every day in modern traffic.

The one big question I have left is wind noise. The car would get all new rubber seals and dynamat and lots of sound insulation during the build. What I don't know is how quite these cars can be made in comparison to a modern car. Dad and I took a short road trip in my Studebaker this past weekend to a car show and it was so noisey that we could barely carry on a conversation. The Stude got all new rubber and lots of insulation during the build but the vent windows just don't seal very well.

Looking for any comparison between the noise in a properly restored 73 mustang and a modern car. I would hate to spend $30K on a restoration and then find the car is too noisey to enjoy driving.

 

[SVO2SCJ]

Simply don't try and compare to a "modern car" ! It is 50 years old, wasn't designed as air tight and no attempt to "sound deadened" will come to your MB standards.

Seems some like the "sound of the motor" (over the road noise) and other like the sound of a "sound system" if they don't enjoy the latter. I get it NO ONE wants to have wind noise in their ear. (Door seals are adjustable for fit, tightness and fit to window. (and REPRO are not OEM in both fit and quality of rubber)

Mark

 

[Hemikiller]

Window adjustment is key, and you may have to play around with shimming the rood rail seals to get the repops to seal properly.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

Compared to many older cars, I believe these cars are, at least as to wind and road noise, fairly quiet. With my factory exhaust and engine I was able to easily carry on conversations while driving without raising my voice at all.

Or I could be going deaf. . .

 

[mudbilly]

I'd consider my car about as sound proofed as possible. Subtracting out the exhaust (and I've done just about everything possible to reduce that). My ride is about as quiet as my HHR up to to 45-50 mph. 

In fact that is actually my sweet spot where the car is the quietest. The cam must be at the best RPM, because the exhaust is quiet, and the wind noise is still not bad.

After that the wind noise takes over and is louder than the exhaust up to 70 MPH.

The noise if pretty much all coming from where the windows seal with the roof, as compared to the soft top itself, so I can't say how you'll fair out with a hard top, but I assume the aerodynamics with a hard top / fast back will make it better than mine......

it is still not that bad. and I am working on some kinda baffle that I can install up front where the roof, window , and windshield meet, link a wing tip, that'll stop the turbulence or change the air flow characteristics.

 

[wdills]

As long as I can carry on a conversation in a normal tone of voice I will be satisfied. I am guessing the lack of a vent window is probably a big plus for these cars. Thanks for the feedback.

I will be posting my plans for the car in the next few weeks and will be looking for feedback regarding which products people have had the most success with.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Odd that the older car is so noisy. I have a 1950 Ford two door sedan. When I took my son for a ride in it he was amazed at how quiet it was compared to a new car. When we were stopped at a red light he said the engine had quit. I told him no it was running and he said no way. When the light changed I let clutch out and pulled away. The car has never had exhaust replaced the original still on and still on first set of tires.

For sure some of the newer cars with double door seals and foam in the rockers and padding everywhere are quiet. I never bought a car in my life because it was quiet. Not a selling point to me.

 

[OMS]

Compared to many older cars, I believe these cars are, at least as to wind and road noise, fairly quiet.  With my factory exhaust and engine I was able to easily carry on conversations while driving without raising my voice at all.

Or I could be going deaf. . .

Or you were talking to yourself :whistling:

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

Compared to many older cars, I believe these cars are, at least as to wind and road noise, fairly quiet.  With my factory exhaust and engine I was able to easily carry on conversations while driving without raising my voice at all.

Or I could be going deaf. . .

Or you were talking to yourself :whistling:

Yes, I have such a sexy voice lol

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Compared to many older cars, I believe these cars are, at least as to wind and road noise, fairly quiet.  With my factory exhaust and engine I was able to easily carry on conversations while driving without raising my voice at all.

Or I could be going deaf. . .

Or you were talking to yourself :whistling:

Yes, I have such a sexy voice lol

Hey I prefer to talk to myself not as many disagreements, lol.

 

[NOT A T5]

Or you were talking to yourself :whistling:

Yes, I have such a sexy voice lol

Hey I prefer to talk to myself not as many disagreements, lol.

David, were you in the woods again? LOL!

 

[Stocktrader]

I drove my car 15k miles in one year. Wind noise won't be a problem as you will be parked in front of a gas pump most of the time.

 

[kcmash]

Mine is still not in the road, so it has been a while.  I do look at this logic though:

1) Modern cars have no drip rails and have flush windows all around which contribute to reduced noise

2) Most new cars have a foam sound deadner around the windshield to cut the wind noise up front

3) New windshields are flush mount, so they don't have a bright trim leading edge

4) Modern cars have secondary weather seals around the door to body interfaces to close out wind noise from the body panel gaps.  You can buy this weatherstrip and add it to your car as it is adhesive attached.

5)  It's a classic Mustang!  Roll the windows down so you can hear all the cheers of approval as you drive by.

kcmash

 

[Stanglover]

My wife complains about wind noise quite often! Oh that  wind noise, Hemikiller is right. When I put my car back together after it's re-paint, there was an unacceptable amount of wind noise from the windows. Careful readjustment took care of most of it, but these cars are never going to be like new ones for sure.

To be honest, my windows, driver side especially, are seldom closed when driving. If I'm on the highway, I might roll them up just to cut out the other traffic noise.

Personally, I don't find my car that noisy that I can't talk to the wife and actually, she likes the sound of the Flowmaster 40's!

If you really want a quite Mustang, use stock mufflers and exhaust, the quietist tires you can find and seal the windows with duct tape. No, just kidding on the duct tape.

Geoff.

 

[Mister 4x4]

While I was putting mine back together, I went with the sticky thermal mat solution (RAAMat, just like Dynamat but WAY less expensive) for pretty much the whole floor, roof, inside door skins, inside quarter panels, and trunk area.  The carpet kit was MAS-backed as well, and when you tap on the front fenders, it sounds like a normal 'tinny' car, but on the doors, quarters, and roof, it sounds like a tank.  This helps with the vibrations/rattles, but I'm not entirely sure about wind noise and whatnot since I've never driven the car with the windows up (I'm still sorting out my aftermarket power window motors, after all).

I've heard of people also having good luck with some spray-on sound deadeners as well (Lizard Skin, bedliner material, et al).

It's not going to be perfect, like a modern luxury car, but I do know that it should be at least close to more modern 'non-luxury' cars, since they have similar materials applied to them as well.

Good points about the trim, drip-rails, and older exterior features - I hadn't really given than much thought.  Any like David mentioned, I also didn't buy my car for its noise characteristics... or fuel economy either, for that matter.

Hopefully, you'll get it to an acceptable level and be able to enjoy it going forward with your plans.