Topic: Bigdark's 2008 Subaru Forester Sports 2.5 XT - Sound Dampening Part 2

[bigdark]

B-quiet is an Alberta brand, based out of Lethbridge IIRC. CanehdianJ used a bunch on his Lotus, and I used some of his leftover stuff on my s2k.

Oooh ok. 50 Sq feet roll of the extreme dampener stuff should be plenty right?

[SubieRoo]

Should definitely be enough, depending on how much you intend on doing. Be curious to do this myself - would love a quieter interior.

[bigdark]

Welcome/happy spring everyone.
Winter was good and there wasn't anything in particular to post about. Pretty nice to have a vehicle that can trek through all the snow we had in Edmonton this year. Seems like there was a bit more than last year but there was no issues driving through it.



Now that the weather is nice out, that means switching off the winter tires. Officially made the switch yesterday (April 24) afternoon, which is about 5 days earlier than when I switch out of it last year (April 30, 2017.)





Everything still looks the same. Not sure if that's a bad or good thing. But, sadly I might be getting bored of it. I'll let the summer decide haha.


I had one of the hella 500 fog lights go out on me. Ordered a new set of H3 bulbs from powerbulbs.com. Unfortunately it took about 6 weeks to get to my door, but I still got it. I was planning to switch it anyway since the original yellow LAMIN-X I purchased from prolightz got pretty dirty from all the dirt/snow and all. So might as well apply a new layer of LAMIN-X and change the bulb at the same time.





If anyone is wondering how to switch hella 500 bulbs, it's really easy. Basically just take off the Phillips screw on the bottom that clamps the black (plastic) housing to the front, and pull the housing out. All there is, is a pin that clamps down the bulb, just remove and switch bulb. Once you're done just put everything back together.





Still might think of doing some sound deadening in the car this summer. Not much of a priority for it right now so I might delay it all. But for now, status quo, and keep daily driving the vehicle. Odometer just rolled over 112,xxx km and slowly climbing.

[jellynuts]

Don't get bored of that look. It's perfect.

[bigdark]

A long while ago I thought about getting back wheels but I couldn't really find something I liked. I then realized it wasn't worth it to spend around $1000 or so for a new set so I decided to create my own black wheels via Plasti Dip. $40-50 was a lot easier to do than $1000. I had my OEM set of winters so I decided to make those matte black and try them out this winter. I ended up spraying these wheels a few weekends ago with some friends as they did their wheels too.

I went into this thinking that these are my winter wheels already so I don't really care for them as much, and if I didn't like the look or how they turn out, I can always take off the Plasti Dip and go back to silver. Additionally, there was one wheel which had some rash and I thought it'd be good to cover that up. (Third photo below.)








The process took about 2-3 hours for my set of 17" wheels. Each coat was applied after a 15-20 minute wait time and I was able to get about 5 coats in for each wheel on a total of 2 full cans used.

Coat #1 - light spray all around


Coat #2


Coat #3


Coat #4


Coat #5


Center Caps had about 5 coats as well. Sprayed the caps each time after I completed a coat on the wheels.


Waiting to dry...



I think the result came out really good as I wasn't expecting too much out of it. I will note that during the spraying process, I was not "generous" enough on the wheels to give it a nice, thick, wet coat. I realized after that the results would be better if each coat on the wheel was more "wet" so when it dries it would be "smooth." During the spraying process I ended up doing "light" sprays which gave it a textured look, and I thought this looked neat, but after thinking about it, it might become a magnet for dirt/dust as most particles will get caught in the "textured" finish than the "smooth" finish.




and of course, here is the rashed wheel with the plasti dip on top. Mostly covered up and would have to look for it to notice it there.


Curious to see how long the plasti dip will last on these wheels. I wouldn't be surprised it starts peeling or chipping or even coming off over winter. Which isn't a big deal if it does, as I do have some extra cans left over and I could potentially do a touch up spray if there are any chips/peels.

[bigdark]

Winter setup on.

Before:


After:





Really like the look of the black with blue. Looks like a completely different car right now and something about it just blends in well. Not sure if it's because of my black tail lights or tinted rear windows... but something about it... Or maybe it's just me.

Can still see the silver lug nuts right now. I ordered a set of black silicone lug nut caps on amazon for cheap. Hopefully they come in over the next little while and I can put those over the silver lug nuts.

Thoughts on the black and blue?

[diamondedge]

Black and blue? Hell yes. Call me biased.


fat kat-18 by Jonny W, on Flickr

[Asstuna]

I enjoyed myself when I went black. Way too much.

I think these wheels might still be with the current owner of the car.

[whintersan]

Western black winter wheel club.

This plastidip has been on my winters for 4 years. Covered in salty crap, but not chipped or peeling whatsoever. I don't baby them.. at all.

[Canuckrz]

I generally dont care for pure black wheels on any color car, it makes it difficult to see the design of the wheels which defeats the point of having nice wheels.

Western black winter tire club.

My winter tires are also black.

[whintersan]

Your keen eye for derps never fails us.

[diamondedge]

Your keen eye for derps never fails us.

black lug gang too


*looks @ whintersan

[jellynuts]

That one nut must've been loose.

[bigdark]

Dang, everyone's combinations looks so good haha.

I did consider getting a set of silver 05-07 BBS with 5x114 to 5x100 adapters and spraying those to black, but after seeing @whintersan's photo that looks quite good hahaha...

@whintersan 4 years is quite good on that... do you remember how many coats you applied on yours?

[Claw]

I have a set of 04 STI BBS'sses'ss that were powder coated by the previous owner black.  It's starting to chip but it's my winter set so I really don't care.

[whintersan]

@whintersan 4 years is quite good on that... do you remember how many coats you applied on yours?

I don't remember the exact number, but less than 5 I think cause I'm an impatient pleb. Yours should be better than mine.

[bigdark]

Soo finally got around to put on those black lug nut covers I purchased on Amazon.
Now the full blacked out wheel look is complete.



Also picked up some new LED's as my front park lights burnt out. They were originally from prolights which I got a few years ago but I'm pretty happy they lasted me this long. In the order I also decided to get some LED reverse lights as well. The stock bulb is pretty mellow and it's a bit hard to see reversing out of a dark parking lot.



I also needed to change out the side markers as the passenger bulb went out on me as well. Luckily the front side marker bulb and the parking light bulb is the same 168 bulb size so I got a 10 pack of those. The back up reverse light up is a size 921 and it came in a pack of 4. Pretty nice to have some spare ones if one or the other goes out later on.

Stock bulb:




LED bulb




Side by side:


Pretty happy with how bright they are so far. But also didn't expect for them to be THAT bright. Either way, I like it a lot!

[bigdark]

Once again, it has been a long while since this has been updated, and it's definitely due for a check in.

I got the chance to change out my winter tires back on April 21 and after inspecting the OEM winters with Plasti dip on them, I've been pretty impressed on how they held up this past winter. All four wheels are in very good condition and there are a few spots that either chipped, cracked or peeled off a bit. But for the most part, the plasti dip is still on. Common issue spots are right where the lug nuts go on the edge so it may have been my fault where I was not careful enough on putting the nut on the stud. Other than that, looking to find some time over the next few weeks to wash the winter set up and do another top up/touch up coat of plasti dip to fix the spots that were peeled and to also add another few layers to the face of the wheels. Think it might be better to do it now in the warmer weather so it'll set and cure better over the summer months.








Car is now back on the gold BBS' for summer and will definitely need a new detail and shine. It's been a great daily so the paint has been getting abused from all the road time it has been getting over the winter and will be seeing more road time now and into summer.






One of the minor additions to the car was a new dash cam. I picked up a Blackvue DR750S-2CH dash cam with the Power Magic Pro as my Mini 0806 was getting a little dated. I also wanted something with parking mode as well as a legitimate 2 channel dash cam as I wanted my front and rear footage to be in sync.





Having two different cameras (Mini 0806 front and Mobious rear) was not huge issue but it's nice having both cameras synced and the footage the same. A shutout to @kijho and his video on how to do the hardware install properly. Video can be found here:


I won't go into each step on installing the dash cam as there are plenty of videos and posts out there on how this was done. There wasn't any challenging parts on my end on my Forester, specifically for the rear hatch camera as I used my previous wire from my Mobious camera to "fish" through the wire which connects to the rear camera of the DR750S.







]






Another change that might be coming is sound deadening. I briefly explored this back in 2017 but I've been circling back to it as I've been spending a lot of driving time in the car. Some days it is a bit annoying hearing all the road noise and the car rattle, just simply because of how the Forester is designed with plastic door cards and a pretty light/hollow door you can hear noises. I feel like adding some sound deadening to all 4 passenger doors, the hatch, and possibly the rear seats and spare tire area would help a lot. I've also been driving a lot on the highway lately so maybe having the sound deadening will help for those long drives.
There were a few products/brands that were discussed back in 2017 but I think I'm leaning towards this Noico stuff on amazon. Another shoutout to @kijho as he and many others have used this product in their vehicles and it seems to be pretty good. Video can be found here:


For the price and amount you get ($90 for 80 mil 36 sqft of sound deadening) seems like it is more than enough for me to use on what parts of the car I want covered.

[10secdream]

I get excited every time I see these updates. Love how this looks with the gold BBS wheels.

[bigdark]

So... I'm gonna try this stuff out.



Ordered late last week and arrive shortly after. For $90 I thought it was worth a try as I'm planning to use this on all 4 doors, in hopes for an improvement on both interior and exterior sound. I was debating between this Noico 80 mil 36 sqft or Kilmat 50 mil 50 sqft, both were the same price on amazon, but went with the Noico 80 mil as I thought maybe the extra 30 mil would make that much more of a difference.



Planning on installing this stuff over the next few days since it's nice and warm outside so I plan on taking advantage of the nice weather we have this week.
Has anyone had any experience with putting sound deadening on their doors before? Any tips/tricks? Suggestions or pointers in making the process easier/more efficient?
Additionally, I plan on reusing the moisture barrier that is on the doors but I've seen some people online just get rid of the plastic moisture barrier after installing the deadening. I'm assuming the proper way is to put the barrier back on top of the deadening? Thanks in advance!

[diamondedge]

Do you have a roller? I would also put back the moisture barrier. Canuckrz gave the Foz B-Quiet treatment on the doors and it makes them close with a noticeable
Camry like quality.

[Baumer]

I did the doors in my wagon way back when.  I would have a hair dryer or heat gun available to help mold the sound deadening in tight spaces.  Even with the warmer weather the stuff is pretty stiff.  Also wear gloves as the foil backing (at least on the stuff I used) can be pretty sharp. 

For the moisture barrier, I took mine off and replaced it with 1/4" Closed Cell Foam as part of the sound deadening process.  Since it's closed cell it acts as a moisture barrier itself and helps with sound isolation.

[SlowLGT]

I used pieces and strips of similar sound deadening materials inside the doors, then full coverage with thick carpet underlays.

Because... Physics.

[bigdark]

Do you have a roller? I would also put back the moisture barrier. Canuckrz gave the Foz B-Quiet treatment on the doors and it makes them close with a noticeable
Camry like quality.

I did the doors in my wagon way back when.  I would have a hair dryer or heat gun available to help mold the sound deadening in tight spaces.  Even with the warmer weather the stuff is pretty stiff.  Also wear gloves as the foil backing (at least on the stuff I used) can be pretty sharp. 

For the moisture barrier, I took mine off and replaced it with 1/4" Closed Cell Foam as part of the sound deadening process.  Since it's closed cell it acts as a moisture barrier itself and helps with sound isolation.

I used pieces and strips of similar sound deadening materials inside the doors, then full coverage with thick carpet underlays.

Because... Physics.

Don't have a designated "roller" but I am using a baseboard application roller tool which basically does the job. Also wearing mechanics gloves in the whole application process.
I was able to work on the front doors these past few days and will be reusing the moisture barrier.

[bigdark]

Quick update on the progress from the past few days. I was able to complete the front doors and the process took a bit longer than expected. Maybe it was because it's my first time doing something like this or I was trying to get the "perfect" pieces cut out to stick onto the car door. I also did take my time in cleaning and prepping the doors to ensure a clean surface for the material to adhere to so I did use quite a bit of degreaser and rubbing alcohol to clean the doors.



I was excited to see the makeshift foam bracket/mount I made for the front Polk speakers are still holding up quite well when I removed the front door panels. No cracks, rips or anything so pretty good for $1.25 at the dollarstore.



Aside from cleaning the front doors, the most time consuming item was getting the templates cut out in cardboard. The front door had a lot more bracing than I thought with 3 brace bars running horizontally through the door. So making cardboard cutouts and tracing them onto the Noico material did take a while as I wanted to get as much coverage as I could but I came to the conclusion and accepted that I won't be able to get 100% coverage but having 90-95% coverage is adequate enough. Don't mind the measurements and notes on the cardboard but it was more of a reference on what would fit in the door. Applying the material was easy and with the roller, it does help a lot as just the extra leverage in pushing down on the material. There wasn't much room to stick your arm up through the hole and to push down on the material so the roller with the handle did help a lot.









I ended up doing the door in thirds and decided to cut the Noico dampening material in rectangular shapes to apply in the door from top to bottom.

I also decided to do the "middle layer" of the door and instead of tracing over the area with a clear garbage bag and transferring that template to cardboard and then the stencil to the Noico material, I decided to focus and tackle thin areas on the door as well as areas which I thought/felt/sounded quite hollow. As the doors are basically mirrors of each other, whatever areas I did on one side I mimicked on the other side. I could have used more Noico material and covered more blue spots, but I felt this was adequate enough and I addressed most of the areas of the door which could be trouble spots for noise, including putting materials on the back of clips for wires, behind wires which touch bare metal, the clips of the door handle, as well as the speakers on the bottom corner. Sure, it may not look pretty, but I'm not going for looks and it's definitely not a show car so patches of materials is the way to go as it made it easier for me to work with.



I also took some material and applied it on the back of the door panel as well. Basically this whole piece is plastic so it does rattle and what not. Once again, I tried to focus on large hollow spots putting a few strips of large rectangular Noico material on the back helped cut down the vibrations quite a bit.
 


The front doors do definitely have some weight to them now and does not sound as hollow when you knock on the panels from the outside. There is a definite difference in closing the doors with just the sound of it closing. 

Will be tackling the rear doors and can't wait to see how it is when all 4 doors are completed.