boy&hisdogs
I'm Awesome
The Problem
The speaker in my driver door stopped working, so I replaced it. The new one didn't work either, and I was able to trace the issue to the short stretch of wire that connects it to the amp under the back seat. The problem is, it's inside the wall behind all the trim. I have to take out a bunch of trim to get at it, so I might as well strip the entire interior and finally sound deaden the truck... right?
I have been considering doing some kind of sound treatment to this truck for almost as long as I have owned it. It's nowhere near as bad as some other 4x4 vehicles I have been in, but a flying brick on 37" mud tires is still much louder than the average passenger car. I'm currently working from home as I recover from an injury so now is my chance to do big multi-day projects to the truck without having to worry about driving it to work in the morning.
A while ago I did a little bit of sound deadening in the doors of my dad's Cherokee, not much, just the two front doors to help the speakers a little. I was pleasantly surprised with the night and day difference in the sound when you knocked on the treated front doors vs the untreated back doors. I used no-name 80 mil butyl sheets, the typical stuff you see when you shop on Amazon. I remember back 10+ years ago when I first started researching sound deadening a lot of people were using asphalt-based stuff, and pure butyl sheets were some mysterious thing hidden behind brand names, big price tags and outrageous marketing. Now there's a million knockoff brands and it's all the same. Untill...
The Solution?
I saw a new thing on Amazon the other day. A 3-in-1 product by Siless (one of the bigger off-brands) that has a layer of butyl, a layer of foam, and another layer of what appears to be butyl. It says "mass loaded layer" in the ad but after handling it in person it just appears to be another layer of butyl. It is definitely NOT the mass loaded vinyl that the real serious car audio guys are talking about insulating their rigs with.
It seems a little too good to be true, especially since there's hardly any information or reviews of it out there. I decided to chance it, because I'm just as concerned with heat as I am with sound. I live in the desert and drive a dark colored truck, and we all know the A/C in these things is nothing to write home about. I figured that the foam layer might help a little, and if nothing else it still has 50 mil of butyl on the bottom, which can't be any worse than the countless other 50 mil butyl-only sheets for sale out there. I don't have high hopes for this stuff, I'm not expecting miracles. I just think it's worth a try.
For reference, most 80 mil butyl sheets weigh about 0.7 pounds per square inch, according to the specs online. I weighed this stuff and it came out to about 0.6 lb/in so it's not that far off normal sound deadener. The down side is that it is only sold by one brand, one seller on Amazon, and only comes it one quantity. It's 25 sq ft per box for $75, and you are going to need 2-3 boxes for a pickup cab.
The Install
As I waited for the mailman to show up, I began to remove the interior of my truck. It's a pain, but I have had the doors apart countless times and removed most of it to run my audio stuff. I only broke a few things, not bad for 30 year old plastic.
That evening after the package arrived I went back out and gave the whole interior a good cleaning. It wasn't too bad, just some stray dust and debris that you definitely don't want under your sound deadener. I started on the back wall and gave it full coverage, then I used the rest of that first box on the floor in strategic areas until I ran out. This is how it looked by the end of Day 1. I know it still looks dirty and it kind of is, but I scrubbed the heck out of all the places I stuck the deadener. A lot of the specs you see are imperfections in the paint.
The next day I was back at it again with the second box of deadener. This time I did the doors and the roof, and put the leftovers on the floor. All in all, I have nearly full coverage on the back wall and roof, have the lower half of all the doors (including the half door and false door in the back, it was hard to reach!) and decent coverage on the floor. All the experts say you don't need full coverage, and that is true, but every vehicle, and every panel is different. I went full coverage on the large, flat and unsupported panels - the back wall and the roof. I also was generous in the areas that would get the most tire noise - the footwells, back corners, and lower doors. The floor was a lower priority because it has a lot of support, a lot of heavy things bolted to it, and the carpet and carpet pad. It's the most naturally insulated part of the stock interior already. Here's where we are at the end of Day 2. This is what 50sq ft of deadener looks like in an extended cab.
Initial Impressions
While knocking on the panels is not as night-and-day of a difference as it was on my dad's Cherokee with regular 80 mil deadener, there was still a noticeable improvement. The biggest area of improvement was the roof. Knocking on the roof made it ring like a bell. Now that it's covered in sound deadener, it is still not a completely dead thunk, but it is a much deeper sound with much less reverb than before. On some of the smaller pannels you could hardly tell a difference but we'll see how it goes once I get the truck back out on the road. I can always add more if I need to.
Stay tuned for more!
The speaker in my driver door stopped working, so I replaced it. The new one didn't work either, and I was able to trace the issue to the short stretch of wire that connects it to the amp under the back seat. The problem is, it's inside the wall behind all the trim. I have to take out a bunch of trim to get at it, so I might as well strip the entire interior and finally sound deaden the truck... right?
I have been considering doing some kind of sound treatment to this truck for almost as long as I have owned it. It's nowhere near as bad as some other 4x4 vehicles I have been in, but a flying brick on 37" mud tires is still much louder than the average passenger car. I'm currently working from home as I recover from an injury so now is my chance to do big multi-day projects to the truck without having to worry about driving it to work in the morning.
A while ago I did a little bit of sound deadening in the doors of my dad's Cherokee, not much, just the two front doors to help the speakers a little. I was pleasantly surprised with the night and day difference in the sound when you knocked on the treated front doors vs the untreated back doors. I used no-name 80 mil butyl sheets, the typical stuff you see when you shop on Amazon. I remember back 10+ years ago when I first started researching sound deadening a lot of people were using asphalt-based stuff, and pure butyl sheets were some mysterious thing hidden behind brand names, big price tags and outrageous marketing. Now there's a million knockoff brands and it's all the same. Untill...
The Solution?
I saw a new thing on Amazon the other day. A 3-in-1 product by Siless (one of the bigger off-brands) that has a layer of butyl, a layer of foam, and another layer of what appears to be butyl. It says "mass loaded layer" in the ad but after handling it in person it just appears to be another layer of butyl. It is definitely NOT the mass loaded vinyl that the real serious car audio guys are talking about insulating their rigs with.
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It seems a little too good to be true, especially since there's hardly any information or reviews of it out there. I decided to chance it, because I'm just as concerned with heat as I am with sound. I live in the desert and drive a dark colored truck, and we all know the A/C in these things is nothing to write home about. I figured that the foam layer might help a little, and if nothing else it still has 50 mil of butyl on the bottom, which can't be any worse than the countless other 50 mil butyl-only sheets for sale out there. I don't have high hopes for this stuff, I'm not expecting miracles. I just think it's worth a try.
For reference, most 80 mil butyl sheets weigh about 0.7 pounds per square inch, according to the specs online. I weighed this stuff and it came out to about 0.6 lb/in so it's not that far off normal sound deadener. The down side is that it is only sold by one brand, one seller on Amazon, and only comes it one quantity. It's 25 sq ft per box for $75, and you are going to need 2-3 boxes for a pickup cab.
The Install
As I waited for the mailman to show up, I began to remove the interior of my truck. It's a pain, but I have had the doors apart countless times and removed most of it to run my audio stuff. I only broke a few things, not bad for 30 year old plastic.
That evening after the package arrived I went back out and gave the whole interior a good cleaning. It wasn't too bad, just some stray dust and debris that you definitely don't want under your sound deadener. I started on the back wall and gave it full coverage, then I used the rest of that first box on the floor in strategic areas until I ran out. This is how it looked by the end of Day 1. I know it still looks dirty and it kind of is, but I scrubbed the heck out of all the places I stuck the deadener. A lot of the specs you see are imperfections in the paint.
You must be registered for see images attach
The next day I was back at it again with the second box of deadener. This time I did the doors and the roof, and put the leftovers on the floor. All in all, I have nearly full coverage on the back wall and roof, have the lower half of all the doors (including the half door and false door in the back, it was hard to reach!) and decent coverage on the floor. All the experts say you don't need full coverage, and that is true, but every vehicle, and every panel is different. I went full coverage on the large, flat and unsupported panels - the back wall and the roof. I also was generous in the areas that would get the most tire noise - the footwells, back corners, and lower doors. The floor was a lower priority because it has a lot of support, a lot of heavy things bolted to it, and the carpet and carpet pad. It's the most naturally insulated part of the stock interior already. Here's where we are at the end of Day 2. This is what 50sq ft of deadener looks like in an extended cab.
You must be registered for see images attach
Initial Impressions
While knocking on the panels is not as night-and-day of a difference as it was on my dad's Cherokee with regular 80 mil deadener, there was still a noticeable improvement. The biggest area of improvement was the roof. Knocking on the roof made it ring like a bell. Now that it's covered in sound deadener, it is still not a completely dead thunk, but it is a much deeper sound with much less reverb than before. On some of the smaller pannels you could hardly tell a difference but we'll see how it goes once I get the truck back out on the road. I can always add more if I need to.
Stay tuned for more!
