Took some time recently to prevent any rust forming in the cargo area and also finish my sound deadener installation for the XJ. I don't want to make this a full write up, but just wanted to post this here to maybe give people some inexpensive ideas to protect their XJ.

Tools:
Phillips head screwdriver
8mm wrench
15mm or 17mm(I believe) wrench for rear seat bolts
Torx bit for seat belt bolts (I forget the size and will update when I have a chance to check. Its somewhere in the 45-50 range I think)
Metal or plastic putty scraper
Razor blade
Paint brush or roller
Metal roller for sound deadener

I took off the rear trim in the cargo area first to release most of the carpet and then you have to drill out the rivets for the cargo tie downs. You can reinstall these later with new rivets or what I will be doing in the near future is installing a larger bolt and tie down to make them a bit sturdier and more easily removable for future maintenance. Once you take out the seat belt bolts and the rear seat, you can take the rear carpet out of the Jeep. Once the carpet is out there is a large thin piece of factory deadener in the center of the cargo area. Mine was very dry and in poor shape so I used a putty knife for taking out the larger crumbly sections and then a fresh razor blade to get the parts where the adhesive was still holding on for dear life. Once you have the factory deadener out you can use a wire wheel on a drill to clean any rust spots you may have before paining. I had a few areas of surface rust but nothing major so it went pretty quick. Quick wipe down with a cloth and then its ready for paint. I used rustoleum reform and seal to coat the floor since it should help prevent any rust from coming back in the future and its fairly cheap. I think it cost me 20 dollars from Walmart and I used it to coat my axle project and the rear cargo area.

This picture was the cargo area after 2 coats of the reform and seal.

Getting into the smaller areas I used a small paint brush so I could get behind some of the metal mounts and trim. You can coat the inner area of the body panels as well at this point.

I have already done this behind the sub box since I had to work on that a while back, but if you don't have a box in the way you can paint and sound deaden the wheel well area behind your factory cubby at this point too.

The reform and seal forms a pretty good layer around everything and dries very quick in the Florida heat.

Once the paint had dried, I used Siless mat to sound deaden the cargo area and wheel wells. I know this is very much overkill for the amount of mat used, but I bought a lot to make sure I didn't run out when I was doing the front area of the Jeep and realized I had plenty so I figure, use it if you've got it.

I pretty much have 90-100 percent coverage of the floor, doors, and side panels of the XJ. I will say it makes a giant difference in the sound of the doors and does cut down on road noise significantly. One of the biggest improvements though is if you put some thinner 80mm deadener on the trim panels. It doesn't interfere with the fitment on most of the trim panels and it cuts down on the annoying squeaks that the panels tend to have. I can't stand the squeaks so this was a great upgrade in my opinion. The other nice thing is that the Siless is fairly cheap in terms of sound deadener and in my experience it performs great. I used the Siless Hybrid 3 in 1 for the front floorboards, Siless Max for the rear cargo area, and a mix of Siless Max and Siless 80mm on the doors and trim pieces. I would also like to say I have no affiliation with Siless, I think its just important that people know there are cheaper options to something like Dynamat that perform quite well.

I hope this can help somebody and if there is any questions I am happy to answer.

 

Real nice, I plan to get this done eventually. How did you do the sub?

 

It’s a box from subthump. I’ve had it for almost 8 years now and the mdf is finally starting to fall apart from moisture I think. It’s a really great box that fits perfect in that cubby area. All you have to do is cut out the factory cubby from the side panel and screw the box in. I used some 1/8” u channel to make the edges look nicer on the cuts.


https://a.co/d/b9SqcQU

https://subthump.com/Jeep-Custom-Sub...Enclosure.html