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I have an Olds O99, 3 banger, sort of new to me. I'm a bone player, so no discernable valve skills. I find the valves can be a little loud. Do I just learn how to not mash the valves, or is there some felt or neoprene or urethane donuts I can put in there so I sound less like I have my own percussion section? Can you point me to a site, vendor, sizes, part number, etc? I'm just a bone player so you gotta make it easy.

- new soft felts of the correct thicknesses

- be certain that the caps and buttons are snugged down

- Often (with instruments this old) valve stem threads are loose and will not snug up. Check those.

- replace the metal valve guides with nylon (SAE 3-48 thread)
>>> Buy these https://www.ebay.com/itm/325556518135 (or cheaper, if you can find them cheaper somewhere else), and cut the heads down to the thin rectangular shape of a valve guide...or have someone else cut them down for you. Of course, you'll cut down the thread length short as well.

ROUGHLY 1/8" thick felts (both under-cap and under button) are CLOSE to correct, but not exactly.

Prices have gone up a bit since I bought something similar off Amazon a while back but still cheaper than the brass round ones, these help quiet noisy valves if they are not too worn overall.