Here are some pics of the sound deadening I'm doing. I'm doing 2 layers on the outside panel and still figuring out what to do with the inside. It's a little bit more difficult with the wires, cables, cutouts, etc.
I also was very thorough in looking for rattles. One major culprit were bolts that had loosened with time - I retightened everything. The other one was the intrusion beam. Although GM added a rubberized deadener under it, it is completely inadequate. You need to isolate it or it does rattle.
First layer start
First layer finish:
Start of the second layer. You can see how thick this material is:
Almost finished 2nd layer, plugged some small holes and installed an acoustic panel behind the speaker location.
This is an unbelievable amount of work. it's worse when you are a perfectionist. It's easy but requires a lot of cutting, measuring fit up, etc. I did not spare any part of the exterior side of the door unless it was reinforced or wasn't going to be feasible to cover.. I found metal all the way up to where the window sits and covered it. This meant fishing my hands through the cutouts and sticking two layers down. I found that my hands and arms could twist and bend into places I never knew possible.
This does add a lot of weight to the door. I will have to figure out how much when I'm done here. I was also going to do some before and after dB measurements but my dB meter arrived two days later and I couldn't wait for it. I will get some readings after I get this driver's door done and before I start the others.
After spending a day and a half on this, I'm questioning how much benefit I'll see...but this was my rabbit hole I decided to go down.
I'm also not going to be as thorough on the inside sections of the door and see if I need to add more later as it's much easier to do.
After I get through the doors, I also plan on covering some of the high noise areas above the wheels, but this may be after my trip.
More pics to come.