Sound deadening my Bronco

[Zero Signal]

This is long so I highlighted the key stuff in red so you don't have to read it all

Ok so I finally got fed up with how horrible and rattly my 94 Bronco is. It has the commercial package which means no carpet, just rubber floor mat, cardboard side panels, cheap plastic trim and door panels. When I drive it on the highway, I have to yell to talk over the noise and on dirt roads, the rattles are deafening It's like I'm driving around a tin can full of rocks

So I started my current big project of sound deadening the truck. I did it in the Mustang but it didn't need a whole lot more than dynamat (I used Lowes Peel-N-Seal for the cheap). Here's the plan. Think it would be worth the trouble? I'm not expecting the sound levels to be of Lexus quality, but it would be nice to be able to talk to people in a normal voice and not have to blast my weak stereo past it's limits to hear it on trips.

The shell roof: It's pure fiberglass. I'm not sure if I want to line it with deadener and try to cover it in carpet with contact cement or just throw a few adhesive foam sound strips on it to absorb some. I would like to carpet the shell, but does anyone else here thing that would be a pain in the butt too?

The side panels: From the front door to the tailgate on both sides, I built new plywood side panels and carpeted them to match. I also stuffed the void with fiberglass insulation. I screwed them to the panels and they look good and seal the inside from the outside sound. They make for very good speaker baffles too. It made the rear speakers sound so much warmer having a proper mount and real baffling.

Door Panels: I'm planning to yank the Toys-R-Us plastic panels and build some very very simple plywood door panels and carpet them. I'm going to use some old door handles I took from the rear to put on them. The interior side panels turned out 10x better than I hoped and it was super super easy so I think the doors will be cake. The outer door skins will be lines with Peel-N-Seel too.

Fenders: I'm just going to build some minimalist boxes around the fenders and carpet them to match. I'll fill the voids with insulation.

Headliner: This is fine, I'm not going to mess with it.

Dash: The dash is a biotch. I think the mount on the passenger side is broken or loose. So bumps make the whole right side of the dash bounce up and down banging and cracking like you wouldn't imagine, thus also shaking everything in the glove box which makes more of a racket. Anyone out there with Broncos know how to fix this?




Floor Boards: This is where I'm stumped and I could probably use the most help. I still USE the truck. The interior gets beaten up plenty. The current rubber floor liner is fine, but the padding is moldy and falling apart and traps water. I need a solution that will be durable on the entire floor front/rear that will help with sound attenuation. What do you guys think on that?

 

[reddy351]

For the floor, a lot of Jeep guys are taking out the carpet/liner and using the same material that you use for truck bed liners. From front to back. It's waterproof and has some sound deadening ability plus, you can use it on the insides of the doors and such. You can buy it by the can at WalMart and kits at just about any auto parts store.

Good luck!

Let us know how that works out.

 

[blksn955.o]

I dont know if you have found/been to FullSizeBronco.com yet but it is the fullsize bronco version of this place and hardcore all in one.

I would stop by there and search.

Under the carpet and behind the door/inside body panels would be a good starting place for either dynomat type products or even something like a rust bullit/herc-u-liner type thing will prob. help a little.

 

[donkey_punch]

i'm also going to recomend like the spray on bed liners. i know there are some brands that you can buy it in spray cans, but be warned the surface you want to apply it on needs to be sanded. so there's a lot of elbow grease than just spraying it on.

i would also look at the under carriage spray lizard skin.

 

[one_bad_5.0]

I know this isn't a Bronco but on my dads chevy work truck, he just pulled up the rubber mat and laid down carpet backing( the soft squishy stuff...I can't think of the real name) and put the rubber mat back over it. It was cheep and works great. Good luck with what ever you end up doing!