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WCS67

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I did all the mods except the z shape which is completely useless since you have 4 layers of rubber behind, plus it won’t stick over time.

I did decibel testing and got after mods 68db at 70mph and 70db at 80mph.
One review online and one video measured in a First edition both 72db at 70mph in theirs, so it looks like it’s a good improvement.

The one thing I don’t like is that all the top panels are not very flush anymore, they stick out a bit and everything was very tight to close. I did place everything correctly unlike the other guy above so that’s not the issue.
I am worried for water intrusion due to this, and for wear on the latches over time.
I initially tried the seals on the front and middle panels. I had them placed correctly but the panels were much harder to reinstall and didn’t seem to fit right. I think there’s probably a certain amount of flex built into the design. After driving back and forth to work I didn’t notice any difference in sound, so to be safe I removed the seals.
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The_Axeman

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So, we know these are Built Wild... but my wife didn't appreciate it sounding like a hurricane everyday. Who wouldn't want to hear the subtle guitar, bass, drums and notes of your favorite music on the sound system for which you paid? After reading 4+ threads and looking at various modifications people made, I decided to create a single guide here of everything I did to reduce the interior noise. The ideas are not all my own, and credit is due to those individuals whose brilliance came first. Shoutouts to some of those brilliant individuals- jlatigo, mountainbronco, Geo2 and more that I can't put my finger on.

My family says it's significantly quieter now, and I tend to do whatever they say. Hope this helps enhance your ride!

Total cost is about $75. Total install time is ~1 hour if your hard top is already off. If it's not off, what are you waiting for?

Specs
  • 4 Door- most of the below applies to both 2 and 4 door models
  • Wildtrak, Sasquatch
  • MIC Hard Top

Grocery List
(These are not affiliate links. I don't receive anything from you clicking on them!)
  1. KX Automotive Universal New Weather Stripping EPDM Rubber Seal Strip D-Shape (20')
  2. Duck Brand Self Adhesive Foam Weatherstrip Seal for Extra Large Gaps, 3/4-In x 1/2-In (1 roll)
  3. KX Automotive Universal D-Shape Door Seal 0.47" Height X 0.55" Width Weather Stripping (10')
  4. Automotive Weather Stripping Door Window Rubber Seal Strip Z Shape (Buy the "Z" Shape- you only need about 3' of this, so you'll have a lot left over)
  5. Armacell 3/4 in. x 6 ft. Rubber Self-Seal Pipe Wrap Insulation (You need 2 of these)

General Install Notes
  • Clean all surfaces before attempting to stick the adhesive
  • Let the adhesive bond- i.e. flex your muscles and secure firmly!
  • Use a regular scissors to cut things to length- most are approximate, and size doesn't matter as much (right?). The Z Shape strip is more visible, and you probably want to measure (hint, 15.5").
  • Some seals are hidden, and some are visible... take your time. If you screw up, cut a new strip. ;)

From the front of the vehicle working to the back...

Windshield
  • In the front channel, adhere #1 in the Grocery List inside the full length of the channel.
  • Cut 4 short strips of #2 and stick them 2 each, side by side, vertically in the ends of the channel.
  • All of this is hidden with the top on. With the top off, it will either look factory installed or like a small kid used the scissors if you don't cut straight. I have both results.
Windshield.jpg



Front Panels
  • Use the #1 stripping for all of these.
  • Primary guidance is to adhere the middle strip that goes on the Driver’s Front Panel to the slightly raised portion of the roof. Don’t adhere it to the top/roof section as it won’t allow the panel to close enough. It also makes for a cleaner look if you install on the raised portion.
  • The two strips that face the windshield are not visible. The strip that runs between the two panels is minimally visible.
Front Panels.jpg



Mid Panel
  • Secure #3 along the length of the mid panel. This is the curved side of the panel that faces towards the back.
  • Snuggle the stripping right along the edge and you'll look like a pro. This is visible from the inside once installed.
  • Super easy, right?
Mid Panel.jpg



Rear Panel
  • This is the fun one and makes a big sound impact!
  • The picture is probably the best explanation of what goes where.
  • I'm not sure if the top most #3 install is needed- and I forgot to take another picture of it properly adhered. It basically curves along a small section on top. I had some extra stripping, so I used it.
  • The small square of #2 goes on top of a similar, but thinner material that Ford already has in that same place.
  • The Z Shape #4 is great stuff, and I think makes the exterior even look a little sleek (no one ever described a Bronco as sleek, right?). I'd measure this one and cut accordingly- I did 15.5". Adhere it right along the edge of the panel. This helps with wind noise by sealing the gap between the frame of the Bronco and the rear panel.
  • This is not visible except for #4 (Z Shape stripping).
Interior View:
Rear Panel.jpg


Exterior View:
Rear Panel Exterior.jpg


To Pool Noodle or to Wrap Your Pipe
  • I saw various opinions on which material worked best, which ones disintegrated in the elements, how to secure, etc.
  • I decided to use the rubber Armacell pipe wrap - #5 on the Grocery List. It comes in a 6’ length, and I left it as-is.
  • I peeled off the self-adhering tape and stuck it to itself.
  • Rather than figure out how to secure it with the top off and/or how to not make it look bad… I decided I’d simply lay it in the roof gutter when I put the hard top on. Otherwise, it will sit in storage in my garage if the top is off.
  • We’ll see if it lasts- easy and inexpensive to replace.
Armacell Rubber.jpg



So that's about it. I suggest ordering everything and installing all at once when you have the roof off vs string betting the process.

Happy Sound Dampening!
Thank you so much for this write-up! Can’t wait to do it! 🙏🏻👍🏻
 

Cygnusx1

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2 door BadSquatch, Lux. Took delivery in March. Love it. Upgraded the Banger stereo front three dash speakers and rear 2 pod speakers, per one of the threads on 6G. Was experiencing quite a lot of wind noise over the B pillars at anything north of 50MPH. At 60-80 mph, stereo was pretty much worthless, even with the upgraded speakers; forget about trying to talk to someone on CarPlay.

So, finally got around to doing the following from the above recommendations: 1. added the weather stripping into the B pillar areas of the hardtop; and 2: added rubberized pipe sealer (not the pool noodle type) into the top channel between the A and B pillar.

Result: marked improvement. Using CarPlay (Note: my experience is that, at the same volume setting, the CarPlay volume is quite a bit lower than HD radio) I can now comfortably listen to music at level 10-11 going up to 80 mph. Whereas before I had to turn it to 16 or more and it still sounded like garbage. Can also comfortably make phone calls using the car speakers at speeds up to 80 mph.

Highly recommend the 2 foregoing mods. Headed to Moab on Friday (18 hour drive from here) and this will make the drive much more enjoyable.
 

negativezero

Big Bend
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So people have been hilariously quick to ask everyone else to collect noise data without actually doing it themselves.
I'm attempting to rectify that.

I've got an actual decibel meter. I've made a few drives with the meter on and clamped about 8" behind the driver-side ear. And I'm logging data using a tripod-mounted phone. The setup is built to get the dB-meter and speedometer in the same frame, recording video, and being able to pair pure speed with pure loudness readings.

Photo of the setup:
FVdVIuv.jpg


About the vehicle:
- Full-size Bronco, 2 door BB model, non-sasquatch.
- 2.7L engine.
- MIC top with headliner installed.
- Wheels/tires switched out with Badlands OEM KO2s.
- Back seats removed (not sure if that's relevant or not).

About the data collection:
- This is a baseline data set; I've done nothing to reduce cabin noise at all.
- I drove these in ECO mode and was gentle on acceleration.
- Each trip was about 40+ mins of driving across my daily commute, including a range of speeds from 0 to 70/75 mph.
- Radio off 100% of the time. Driver silent.
- I didn't just log data blindly, I tried to only include responsible noise readings.
- Only logged static or near-static speeds (ie excluding engine acceleration noise).
- Didn't use data under bridges or tunnels (amplification of environmental noise).
- Didn't use data where extremely loud neighboring vehicles are present.
- Data includes both asphalt and concrete pavements (yes, there's a difference).

So the data itself:
I've transcribed the data from 3 separate drives. Each one happens to have occurred during different volumes of traffic. There's about 1,500 readings across all of the trips.

q1EgvQW.png


Each of those trendlines are 4th-order polynomials. That just seemed to fit best.
Here's ALL of the data, with each of those loudness trendlines overlaid.

CKMtaoo.png


Initial impressions
I think the numbers match my qualitative opinion on how loud or quiet the Bronco is.
I've noticed 3 distinct sources of wind noise in the top - one at 36 mph, one at 54ish mph, and another at 63ish mph, and I'm thrilled to see those appear as peaks in the aggregate loudness profile.

Future work
I had ambitions of making incremental changes, and looking at the piece-by-piece contribution to noise reduction.
HOWEVER - the process of transcribing the data from video to Excel is excruciating, and it's long. A 40-minute drive took a bit less than the length of a football game to do. And it's tedious. And I'd have to do it multiple times for every incremental change in order to get usable data.

So I'm tempering my self-expectations of doing all of that work. It's brutal and the opposite of fun. It's also tempered by the spread of the data too. There's a good chance that incremental changes still fit within the envelope of the existing data; in other words each change may make a difference, but not enough to draw responsible conclusions about the degree of improvements.

Maybe I'll make a few changes, take some readings, make a few more, more data, etc.
I think that's responsible, and probably matches the pace at which I can actually do the modifications.
I don't have a garage or a good method of taking the back clamshell off, so it was going to be front panels only to start with.

Anyway - not sure the time frame I'll do that, but here's the data in case these baseline profiles are useful to anyone else.
 
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orion1224

orion1224

Wildtrak
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So people have been hilariously quick to ask everyone else to collect noise data without actually doing it themselves.
I'm attempting to rectify that.

I've got an actual decibel meter. I've made a few drives with the meter on and clamped about 8" behind the driver-side ear. And I'm logging data using a tripod-mounted phone. The setup is built to get the dB-meter and speedometer in the same frame, recording video, and being able to pair pure speed with pure loudness readings.

Photo of the setup:
Ford Bronco MIC Noise Reduction Guide - wind sound- aka more (or less) cowbell please CKMtaoo


About the vehicle:
- Full-size Bronco, 2 door BB model, non-sasquatch.
- 2.7L engine.
- MIC top with headliner installed.
- Wheels/tires switched out with Badlands OEM KO2s.
- Back seats removed (not sure if that's relevant or not).

About the data collection:
- This is a baseline data set; I've done nothing to reduce cabin noise at all.
- I drove these in ECO mode and was gentle on acceleration.
- Each trip was about 40+ mins of driving across my daily commute, including a range of speeds from 0 to 70/75 mph.
- Radio off 100% of the time. Driver silent.
- I didn't just log data blindly, I tried to only include responsible noise readings.
- Only logged static or near-static speeds (ie excluding engine acceleration noise).
- Didn't use data under bridges or tunnels (amplification of environmental noise).
- Didn't use data where extremely loud neighboring vehicles are present.
- Data includes both asphalt and concrete pavements (yes, there's a difference).

So the data itself:
I've transcribed the data from 3 separate drives. Each one happens to have occurred during different volumes of traffic. There's about 1,500 readings across all of the trips.

Ford Bronco MIC Noise Reduction Guide - wind sound- aka more (or less) cowbell please CKMtaoo


Each of those trendlines are 4th-order polynomials. That just seemed to fit best.
Here's ALL of the data, with each of those loudness trendlines overlaid.

Ford Bronco MIC Noise Reduction Guide - wind sound- aka more (or less) cowbell please CKMtaoo


Initial impressions
I think the numbers match my qualitative opinion on how loud or quiet the Bronco is.
I've noticed 3 distinct sources of wind noise in the top - one at 36 mph, one at 54ish mph, and another at 63ish mph, and I'm thrilled to see those appear as peaks in the aggregate loudness profile.

Future work
I had ambitions of making incremental changes, and looking at the piece-by-piece contribution to noise reduction.
HOWEVER - the process of transcribing the data from video to Excel is excruciating, and it's long. A 40-minute drive took a bit less than the length of a football game to do. And it's tedious. And I'd have to do it multiple times for every incremental change in order to get usable data.

So I'm tempering my self-expectations of doing all of that work. It's brutal and the opposite of fun. It's also tempered by the spread of the data too. There's a good chance that incremental changes still fit within the envelope of the existing data; in other words each change may make a difference, but not enough to draw responsible conclusions about the degree of improvements.

Maybe I'll make a few changes, take some readings, make a few more, more data, etc.
I think that's responsible, and probably matches the pace at which I can actually do the modifications.
I don't have a garage or a good method of taking the back clamshell off, so it was going to be front panels only to start with.

Anyway - not sure the time frame I'll do that, but here's the data in case these baseline profiles are useful to anyone else.
This is fantastic and sounds like you and I should go into business. Well done! I look forward to making some readings as well once my top goes back on.
 

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negativezero

Big Bend
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This is fantastic and sounds like you and I should go into business. Well done! I look forward to making some readings as well once my top goes back on.
Thanks! The only reason I did this is because you went through all of the effort of assembling all of the ideas, equipment, product links, well-documented installation photos, etc. And ultimately that's how I fought through the tedium too... I wanted you to see ample quantification of what the improvements are.
 

68 galaxie

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Ha I ordered all the materials and spent last Friday installing . Had to take the roof rack off first but everything went together pretty easily. It sure makes a difference in the ride noises. Just to re check ,I had my buddy help me take the tops off again just to make sure nothing moved. He couldn’t tell what was factory or what I installed. I think it’s a great add on. Thanks for all the information and conversation's on the install.
 

Fubl

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Picked up the rig on saturday in charlotte drove through the remnants of ian as i made way up 77 and 81 to Va. Had a couple cross wind warnings on the road but didnt notice much diffrence in wind noise. I am coming from a lesabre with 3 bad wheel bearings and other issues so..... Loud is subjective
 

Fdillon

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You post is useful, I follow it step by step, noise scale before 10, after 1.5, Thank you for taking the time to do the post links, photos etc. I recommend to all the bronco 2021 do the same, thanks again
 
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orion1224

orion1224

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You post is useful, I follow it step by step, noise scale before 10, after 1.5, Thank you for taking the time to do the post links, photos etc. I recommend to all the bronco 2021 do the same, thanks again
It's like a golf score... better to be lower... I love hearing the "1.5" !!
 

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Again thanks for the outstanding post and documentation. I have purchased all of the material and intend on installing it all soon. Not ever having the rear panel removed, I’m a little concerned about properly installing all the tubing on that section. I’m assuming there are changes in the surface levels to assist in determining where these are to be placed.
Thanks
I spend $60k on a vehicle and have to do this to make the sabin sound reasonable?
 
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2 door BadSquatch, Lux. Took delivery in March. Love it. Upgraded the Banger stereo front three dash speakers and rear 2 pod speakers, per one of the threads on 6G. Was experiencing quite a lot of wind noise over the B pillars at anything north of 50MPH. At 60-80 mph, stereo was pretty much worthless, even with the upgraded speakers; forget about trying to talk to someone on CarPlay.

So, finally got around to doing the following from the above recommendations: 1. added the weather stripping into the B pillar areas of the hardtop; and 2: added rubberized pipe sealer (not the pool noodle type) into the top channel between the A and B pillar.

Result: marked improvement. Using CarPlay (Note: my experience is that, at the same volume setting, the CarPlay volume is quite a bit lower than HD radio) I can now comfortably listen to music at level 10-11 going up to 80 mph. Whereas before I had to turn it to 16 or more and it still sounded like garbage. Can also comfortably make phone calls using the car speakers at speeds up to 80 mph.

Highly recommend the 2 foregoing mods. Headed to Moab on Friday (18 hour drive from here) and this will make the drive much more enjoyable.
I absolutely appreciate the ingenuity, and I'll probably do it myself, but I have to repeat what I said in another post: I'm talking to Ford here - Why do we have to be the ones to run to home depot to rig a sound deadening system after we gave you $60k for a truck?
 

8oncoPete

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Just did this project this morning. MIC 2.0. Noticeable difference for sure! Thanks for putting together the step by step guide. Just seemed to make a difference. Now I don’t have fancy measuring tools but I have 2 ears and it sounds different, even if it’s just my subconscious telling me it’s different.
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