2022 Black Diamond 2-Door 7MT

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You’re missing the best mod of all on a 2 Dr BD, a BestTop Trektop. It will transform your Bronco experience!

I might get it eventually, but it will have to wait until spring at least because snow season just started where I'm at currently and I don't have a garage.

I'm also not sure if I want to do a soft top because I do a lot of interstate travel and I heard it is noticeably louder than the hard top at highway speeds. Maybe I'll comprise and get the sunrider, not sure though

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Mod: Ford Black Platinum Door Sill Plates

Driver's Side:

Passenger's Side:

Just got around to taking pictures of these. Gave my thoughts on them earlier here.

 

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Mod: Viofo A119 V3 Dash Cam + Hardwire Kit + Fuse Taps

Used the following bronco6g tutorial and this Viofo specific install guide. Hardwired the dashcam to Fuses 29 and 35 for battery and accessory power, respectively, as others had suggested. Set the low voltage protector to 12 Volts to prevent the battery from getting drained.

When installing, I used zip ties to clean up the extra wiring. I then took off the side grab handle and fished the wire up through, along the dash, and up the A pillar.

Once the wire was completely hidden behind the A pillar trim, I fed the rest of it into the headliner. Some of the wire would fall out/hang from the headliner, so I wrapped electrical tape at fixed intervals around the wire to make it thicker.

To deal with the extra remaining wire and attach the dashcam, I took off the rearview mirror. I fed the extra wire into the housing that is located above the mirror as that seemed to be empty and unused.

The install is relatively clean. But, I'm not entirely satisfied with how I fed the wire up and behind the A pillar trim because now there is a gap between the dash and the A pillar where you can see the wire.

I believe the wire in Viofo's kit is a little thick, maybe pushing against a metal strut and that causes the gap. So, when I upgrade my speakers, I plan on going back and fixing that by feeding the wire directly up into the A pillar.

 

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Mod: Oracle LED Reverse Lights

Used both the install guide on the product webpage and this tutorial on the Budget Bronco YouTube channel. Big improvement in light and clarity of the reverse camera at night.

Comparison of OEM vs Oracle:

Comparison of Light Output of OEM vs Oracle:
It's not very clear since these were taken during the daytime, but there is a noticeable difference in light output when you look at the glare in each photo.

vs.

Reverse Camera view:
Forgot to take a "before" picture of the reverse camera view with the OEM halogen bulbs. Instead, the first image is the reverse camera without the taillights on and the second with it on.

vs.

 

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Mod: XPEL Full Frontal PPF + Ceramic Tint

Got full frontal ppf (full hood, full front fenders, A pillars, eyebrow, front bumper valence, headlights, and door edge guards) and tin on the door windows to match the factory tint. They also threw in ProSeal black trim, wheel, and tire treatment for a total of $3,195 after tax.

The first photo is the day I got the bronco back and the second one was taken a few days later.

I also had them remove the fender badges/sticker while I wait for Bronco Nation to offer fender badges where the trim logo is color matched. I put one badge onto the tool bag. Will probably put the other on a water bottle or something.

 

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Mods: Black Lug Nuts + Wheel Locks

Wanted to get rid of the two-piece Ford lug nuts. Since the wheel cap on the steelies is floating, had to find solid one-piece lug nuts that had the same design as the Ford OEM. Found this post and bought them. Also bought the McGuard wheel locks.

Discount Tires installed both of them for free. A few weeks earlier when I went in for a tire rotation and balance, they gave me some black spline lugs for my spare wheel for 6 dollars (cost of the key) since they didn't have any "true" wheel locks in stock. I kept those on the spare, as well.

 

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Mod: Curt Hitch

Out of the box:

Installed:

 

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Mod: Sound deadening for the Doors

Before:

After:

Added about 7.6 lbs of Kilmat 80 mil and 1 lb of Siless liner 157 mil total between the two doors (so about 4 lbs total in each door). Sounds a lot less "tinny" now, I think, but that could be confirmation bias.

Going to do the floor and wheel arches over the next few months in effort to make the car sound more solid and (maybe) decrease road noise.

 

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Mod: Hood Insulation

Bought this for several reasons: 1) cleans up the hood a bit aesthetically, 2) (hopefully) decreases the noise outside the Bronco especially while it warms up, and 3) since I park outside, will hopefully help the engine warm up a bit faster when it's cold.

 

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Mod: Sound deadening for the Rear Seats and Cargo Area

Before:

After:

Did this actually back in June but have been too busy/lazy to update this. Followed a lot of different tutorials and resources out there, namely this Bronco6g how-to (this response to my question was very helpful) and this general sound deadening guide. Generally, there was 1 layer of Kilmat (or 2 layers for the wheel arches) followed by a layer of siless foam. The list of materials is on the first page.

There are a few finishing touches I still need to do (such as playing around with the weather stripping around the tailgate latch) in addition to finishing the entire front of the car, but that will have to wait as the weather is starting to get cold and I've run into some problems with the fuel line/sensors and a vapor leak.

 

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Mod: Door Sill and Tailgate Guards

Tailgate:
First fixed (pretty shabbily) a scratch that had formed on the tailgate, likely from not opening the tailgate wide enough before opening the rear window.

Then cut the XPEL Guard to the width and length I wanted.

The paint fix and the PPF cuts on the edges of the tailgate are pretty rough but its not noticeable in my opinion. I did this back in July and it's held up since then. The squeaky noise that I was trying to fix by applying the PPF to the tailgate is still there (I'm beginning to think it's the hard top just flexing), but at least the paint is protected now. I think Stickerfab now makes a pre-cut PPF for this exact purpose, so might worth it if anyone else wants to do it.

I'll eventually get to the door sill guards and will edit this post with pictures when I'm done.

 

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Mod: Sound deadening for the Front Seats

Before:

After:

Finished up the sound deadening on the floor, mainly the front seat area, following the same process in my previous post.

A few notes:

• Did I go overboard and do way too much? Probably.
  • As others have said on the forum, you get the most bang for your buck by covering 40-ish% of the floor with just Kilmat. I also definitely spent way too much (but that's what credit card reward points are for).
  • But, I think it was a good learning experience and the Bronco feels a lot more solid now so I don't regret it.
• Has it made a difference? I still need to take sound/noise-level readings to compare against but, yes, I've noticed a few (anecdotal) differences.
  • First, the speakers (stock non-B&O system) sound much more clear. Now, I'm not an audiophile so I have pretty low standards. But, it's enough of a difference that I'm not planning on doing as intense of a speaker upgrade anymore.
  • Second, the engine noise is definitely more muted now, especially on cold-start and under acceleration.
  • Third, the Bronco retains heat a lot better likely due to the Siless foam on top of the Kilmat. I don't need to turn the heat up nearly as much as I used to and my feet no longer feel cold even though the foot vents are weak.
• Some other interesting things I found that other's may not know.
  • When removing the vinyl flooring, it is a one piece fit that loops around behind a support structure in the center console. So, you have to cut it around that loop in order to remove the floor. This doesn't end up making a difference when you put it back as the floor is so rigid, it just stays in place.
  • When you take out the center console, you end up unplugging a PATS antenna that, I think, is necessary in starting the Bronco. I say I think because I also had ended up unplugging the two antennas in the rear when removing the trim, so I'm not sure if having those plugged in would have made a difference. But, by unplugging those antennas, my Bronco kept giving "No Key Detected" warnings and could not be started until the center console was plugged back in.
  • The sound deadening in the rear and in the doors has held up nicely over the last 8 to 9 months since I completed that part of the project. No issues there.

I still need to finish up some small things, such as a few finishing touches in the interior (e.g., behind all the speakers), weather stripping in the door jam (and experimenting with other areas), and the hard top. I couldn't get to those as it got cold again, but I'll try to get to those over the next month.

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