Hello out there, so for the past few weeks I have been trying to quiet my car down and upgrade the sound. 2016 FiST Magnetic sparkle grey. Overall I like the car a lot but two things really really annoyed me: the intense road noise from the tires (we have pretty bad roads out here in the boonies) and pathetic tweeter location (besides the obvious, I drive with my arm resting on the door...so on the speaker).
I did this at the same as my wife's car, which consumed most of the KnoKnoise Kolossus I had bought. I started by taking the trunk apart and pulling the rear seat, placing CLD tiles to fill 25%-50% of the area. Then laid down CCF and MLV on the floor, extending as far to the sides as possible and forwards underneath the rear seat up under the first few inches of the carpet. I didn't have time to go up the sides or properly cover the wheel wells. But overall this cut out quiet a bit of road noise. (Sorry no pics of this)
Next weekend I pulled the wheels and wheel well liners and applied CLD tiles to the outside surface. Then masked off and sprayed 3M 08881 sound deadening undercarriage treatment in each wheel well. On top of that I applied a good amount of CCF and MLV (didn't really do a great job as far as surface area, but can always come back later). The rears I wasn't able to apply much MLV at all because of the angles. The front though...theres a 5" wide gap between the outer sheet metal and the inner that exposes the entire door to the wheel well. There is a small amount of factory sound proofing there, but very flimsy. Well I sealed that up on both sides with CCF and MLV. All said this made a noticable difference. From about 35-90 the road noise is basically the same now, its there but nothing like stock.
This past weekend I replaced the front speakers. I had an old (but brand new) set of Polk DB6501s so I used them. Getting the door panel off takes maybe 2 minutes tops. I cut the old speaker out of its surround and installed the Polk in it, then soldered the polk up so it would just plug right back in. Also popped out the two connectors that ran off that connector to the tweeter, leaving it in place because I was too lazy to remove it. I had run out of CLD tiles at this point, and the door desperately needs them (later this summer). Even though the factory installed a CLD tile in the middle of the outer door skin, its too thin and doesn't do enough. Anyways, had a set of Second Skin Speaker Tweakers so I cut them in half to fit around the bar in the door and surrounded that with a 14" square of CCF. The midrange in the door now sounds very good, but the amount of vibration coming through tells me theres more to be had.
The tweeters I mounted on the A pillars. I pulled them off and really theres only one spot to put them if you're concerned about depth. Fortunately, Ford marked this out with a handy casting mark in identical locations on both sides, so I just used it as a centering mark for the hole saw. Took about 20 minutes on each side to round out the hole enough to push the mounting ring through then gorilla glued it in place. Then wrapped both pillars in leftover suede headliner. I could have done a much, much better job of this. Not least of which I should have made the hole saw hole bigger and tucked the head liner in rather than leave it on top. But I have some leftover plastic trim rings I will put on later to hide it. In the pics it looks dirty, I just haven't had a chance to clean it off yet.
The speaker wire though...I spent a good two hours on both the internet and in the kick panels looking for the speaker wires. Theres MANY white and white/orange wires! Not only that the harnesses are wrapped so tight you'll never find them. Eventually I gave up and pulled the head unit. Which took me about 45 minutes to find instructions for. (The trick is to not be scared of breaking plastic like I was and just PULL lol). I put the drivers side crossover just left of the steering column and the passenger side tucked up above the little pull out piece of sound proofing.
So...all that being said the results: the harshness is gone, radio and sirius sound 100% better. But MP3s off of the thumb drive I have plugged in sound soft almost mushy now. I really really need to install my amp next (and then a DSP bla bla, I need $$ first). The sound stage is wider and clearer though. Overall I'm happy with the results thus far. I wouldn't change what I've done, just use the experience to maybe do a better job of it next time.
Next up 4 channel amp and sub.
I did this at the same as my wife's car, which consumed most of the KnoKnoise Kolossus I had bought. I started by taking the trunk apart and pulling the rear seat, placing CLD tiles to fill 25%-50% of the area. Then laid down CCF and MLV on the floor, extending as far to the sides as possible and forwards underneath the rear seat up under the first few inches of the carpet. I didn't have time to go up the sides or properly cover the wheel wells. But overall this cut out quiet a bit of road noise. (Sorry no pics of this)
Next weekend I pulled the wheels and wheel well liners and applied CLD tiles to the outside surface. Then masked off and sprayed 3M 08881 sound deadening undercarriage treatment in each wheel well. On top of that I applied a good amount of CCF and MLV (didn't really do a great job as far as surface area, but can always come back later). The rears I wasn't able to apply much MLV at all because of the angles. The front though...theres a 5" wide gap between the outer sheet metal and the inner that exposes the entire door to the wheel well. There is a small amount of factory sound proofing there, but very flimsy. Well I sealed that up on both sides with CCF and MLV. All said this made a noticable difference. From about 35-90 the road noise is basically the same now, its there but nothing like stock.
This past weekend I replaced the front speakers. I had an old (but brand new) set of Polk DB6501s so I used them. Getting the door panel off takes maybe 2 minutes tops. I cut the old speaker out of its surround and installed the Polk in it, then soldered the polk up so it would just plug right back in. Also popped out the two connectors that ran off that connector to the tweeter, leaving it in place because I was too lazy to remove it. I had run out of CLD tiles at this point, and the door desperately needs them (later this summer). Even though the factory installed a CLD tile in the middle of the outer door skin, its too thin and doesn't do enough. Anyways, had a set of Second Skin Speaker Tweakers so I cut them in half to fit around the bar in the door and surrounded that with a 14" square of CCF. The midrange in the door now sounds very good, but the amount of vibration coming through tells me theres more to be had.
The tweeters I mounted on the A pillars. I pulled them off and really theres only one spot to put them if you're concerned about depth. Fortunately, Ford marked this out with a handy casting mark in identical locations on both sides, so I just used it as a centering mark for the hole saw. Took about 20 minutes on each side to round out the hole enough to push the mounting ring through then gorilla glued it in place. Then wrapped both pillars in leftover suede headliner. I could have done a much, much better job of this. Not least of which I should have made the hole saw hole bigger and tucked the head liner in rather than leave it on top. But I have some leftover plastic trim rings I will put on later to hide it. In the pics it looks dirty, I just haven't had a chance to clean it off yet.
The speaker wire though...I spent a good two hours on both the internet and in the kick panels looking for the speaker wires. Theres MANY white and white/orange wires! Not only that the harnesses are wrapped so tight you'll never find them. Eventually I gave up and pulled the head unit. Which took me about 45 minutes to find instructions for. (The trick is to not be scared of breaking plastic like I was and just PULL lol). I put the drivers side crossover just left of the steering column and the passenger side tucked up above the little pull out piece of sound proofing.
So...all that being said the results: the harshness is gone, radio and sirius sound 100% better. But MP3s off of the thumb drive I have plugged in sound soft almost mushy now. I really really need to install my amp next (and then a DSP bla bla, I need $$ first). The sound stage is wider and clearer though. Overall I'm happy with the results thus far. I wouldn't change what I've done, just use the experience to maybe do a better job of it next time.
Next up 4 channel amp and sub.
