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Nope. I've said it many times on here before. I LIKE the sounds my Jeep makes, and when it doesn't sound right, I know immediately. I have a stereo, but rarely turn it on.
LOL

If a Jeep doesn't make noise or vibrate any, its not running right. Lol (couldn't resist)

Just installed sound meter, not sure when I'll be on an open road though. I always drive to work the back way.

I play tapes of groaning u-joints and droning driveshafts at night to fall asleep.

Ran acroos this site through a pop-up on here: http://www.daubertchemical.com/products/sound_vibration

Alright guys... got it all together and ran some more readings.

First off, my jeep is very loud. I have the spectre cowl intake and a 3" exhaust with a high flow cat and a flowmaster super 44. I actually have wanted to replace the muffler or add a resonator for along time. It is way too loud for my tastes. Its louder then on a previous XJ, I had the entire exhaust ripped off/smashed by a rock from downpipe back.

Anyways... I am using a little hand held decibel meter- has multiple settings and stores the highest decibel reached in a certain period. (that is the decibel reading sitting in my works parking lot)






Before Readings= Just Bed liner, seats and floormats.

After= Same as above but with several coats of microballoon mixed into Bedliner and a few additional coats of Bedliner.

Idle :
Before- 90-93
After- 84-86

60mph OD (2000rpm)
Before- 96-101
After- 86-91

60mph non OD (3400 rpm)
Before 99-105
After- 88-92

Highest reading- (romping on it)
Before- 107
After- 96


So in conclusion, Its still loud BUT I did have a measurably quieter ride. (I think stock is around 75ish?) Also (and the biggest thing for me) the vibrations have been cut down substantially... I dont know how to measure that but It is only slightly more than stock now instead of rattling everything apart. Had I used something cheaper than Bedliner and done another 6 coats, it probably would have been even more successful.

I would highly recommend the use of microballoons if you are going to gut your interior. What I would do (if I could do it over) I'd go to Lowes/homedepot and buy a gallon of their "oops" paint (5-8$)... color doesn't matter.. and buy a gallon of microballons(mine was 10$ on eBay and i used less than half of it), mix the two together and do a half a dozen coats. Then bedline over the top of it. I would probably do a coat of bedliner on the bottom just so it all adheres very well.

I wish I had done it with my carpet still in to give even a more inclusive result. Oh well.

Well done sir! How bout a plus 1 for science and doing test the proper way!

Nice. Actual measured results. Thanks for that.

I can't believe I missed this post, I could have actually felt smart on this forum for once haha! Great job though, it is fantastic that it worked and you got positive numbers to share!

We use glass microballoons religiously at work. We use them a lot for vibration dampening/weight reduction as they are cheap and VERY effective. I am not sure how much you added to the herculiner but you can add an incredibly high weight percentage of GMB to almost any polymer.

For people that may try this in the future, I would recommend using 20 lbs of GMB to every 100 lbs of polymer (scale accordingly) and this may vary on what polymer coating you are using.

Downsides: The more GMB you add, the thicker the polymer will get and harder it will be to apply. So depending on how thick the polymer coating you are using will affect how much GMB you can add without making it impossible to work with.

Also, for a spray on liner like Rapter liner, adding GMB will make it almost impossible to spray. It will most likely spit out globs rather than an even coating.

Upsides: For the same thickness of coating, the coating with the GMB will be lighter, absorb more vibrations (hence sound dampening) and use less polymer than a coating without any GMB which makes complete sense since you are basically adding "air bubbles".

I think that with any liner that you would roll on like herculiner, adding GMB would only make things better.

Great post and report Ianf! I think that the "oops paint" idea is awesome and I may try it and then respray the raptor liner.

Cruising at 55mph I'm right at 70db.
As stock as it came off the showroom floor.

Thanks guys! I'm happy it worked and hopefully will give an idea for someone else down the road.


Thank you for the info! I didn't measure but the first batch I made was like putty haha. I estimated after that a 1-3 ratio.

And thanks!

Great job man. Good write-up with great testing/results.

I think this is probably a good idea. Ceramic microballoons could also be used with the added advantage of thermal insulation

http://www.shop3m.com/3m-ceramic-mic...og_98021235936

50 lbs is alot lol. My gallon bag was Maybe a couple if lbs. And that is expensive. I'm sure you can get them cheaper elsewhere but yea... good idea!