04 Tahoe Z71 resto/audio

[YukonXL04]

Good news on it not being a head gasket! The dash really isnt that bad to tear apart, however I have never done a heater core so maybe theres more tearing apart the dash than I have done... but i pretty much gutted a dash minus the heater core in about 30 mins lol

Congrats on the deadener! that seems like a pretty good deal. $1.6 /sq.ft.

 

[Brian_smith06]

Have a friend that says he has it down to about 3 hours from start to finish. I almost want to time him. Feel like I will be more satisfied with it if I go at it on my own though?

Plus I like taking my time when it comes to deadener

 

[Cash_88]

Nice build thread. Me myself I've been in a rut with my '03 for about a year now. I can count on one hand all my upgrades since I bought it a year ago.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------

Have a friend that says he has it down to about 3 hours from start to finish. I almost want to time him. Feel like I will be more satisfied with it if I go at it on my own though?

Plus I like taking my time when it comes to deadener

Hey with your Big 3 upgrade approximately how many feet of 1/0 power and ground did you use? Is it necessary to updrade that 8mm wire going to the back of the alternator or just 1/0 along the main line that goes to the red box? Also, with the firewall braided line ground where does it lead?

 

[tgui]

Have a friend that says he has it down to about 3 hours from start to finish. I almost want to time him. Feel like I will be more satisfied with it if I go at it on my own though?

Plus I like taking my time when it comes to deadener

When you get done with the deadener, how much weight will you have added to the truck?

 

[Brian_smith06]

Nice build thread. Me myself I've been in a rut with my '03 for about a year now. I can count on one hand all my upgrades since I bought it a year ago.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------


Hey with your Big 3 upgrade approximately how many feet of 1/0 power and ground did you use? Is it necessary to updrade that 8mm wire going to the back of the alternator or just 1/0 along the main line that goes to the red box? Also, with the firewall braided line ground where does it lead?

battery to frame was about 3 feet
body to alt was about 4 feet (factory was to engine block which is the braided line you asked about) I couldn't get in to replace it or add the braided line so just routed it to the alt
power wire from alt to battery was probably another 3 feet

so 10ish feet. I would round up to 12 though to be on safe side. I'd rather have a hair too much than not enough

also you can add the 1/0 to the power run. I left all of my factory wiring as to not mess with something that already worked just fine factory.

When you get done with the deadener, how much weight will you have added to the truck?

hmm good question.

the dynamat I just ordered if I use it all will be 60-70 pounds
the mlv is about 1lb per sq ft and I will probably be adding around 120 square feet and the ccf maybe 10 pounds?

I would give a rough estimate of about 200 pounds which is a lot of weight but I doubt the ole hoe will notice

 

[YukonXL04]

Yea... mine doesn't notice whether the 3rd row is in or not... so you should be fine lol

 

[Brian_smith06]

Yea... mine doesn't notice whether the 3rd row is in or not... so you should be fine lol

I never have my third in so there we go. It'll somewhat break even. Or itll just be like I always have a passenger with me. I can honestly say I never notice a difference when I have 3 passengers though.

My old car(04 cavalier) definitely noticed a difference after my deadening project. I went nuts on that car though

That being said it also had 3 batteries in it and probably another 100 plus pounds in amps and sub enclosure. That poor car

 

[YukonXL04]

lol Yea god knows how much weight I added to my blazer in audio and deadener lol...

I dont use my 3rd row either lol. I have used it once in the past 2 years, got tired of taking it in and out every time I folded the 2nd row for something big so one day I just left it out. That SI 18 should be taking that "space" soon though lol

 

[Brian_smith06]

Jealous! Wife wont let me do anything audiowise that doesn't look stock. Was shocked I got her to let me do the tweeters I did.

 

[YukonXL04]

Haha, My wife has her moments where she wants audio related things to happen. She has been driving my yukon alot lately, She asked me "When are you going to get a new screen? I hate the one you have now" lol

Also just finished 2 JBL 15's IB in her car.(My DD now lol)

 

[Brian_smith06]

Heater core adventure shall begin the weekend of the 17th. I plan to drive on down to my dads shop/stay with my parents that weekend and the following weekend.

I will start out on the 17th by gutting the vehicle all the way down to pulling the carpet. If I get it gutted that night aside from pulling dash I will be happy and should make pulling the dash much easier the following day

The 18th will begin by power washing/shampooing the carpet. While letting it dry I will start on the heater core and pulling the dash. Not looking forward to it but required maintenance is just that, Required. While the dash is out I am going to work on sound deadening the firewall. Not sure if I will use any cld however know that mlv will be fully covering the firewall. I have 120 square feet of deadener so may do a sheet just because?

Fingers crossed that only takes a couple hours aka no more than 6 and then I can start on deadening the floor. I doubt that the carpet will be dry and not thinking I will have all of the supplies to finish this so carpet will be left out until the following weekend when I will be able to pick up a bunch of mlv and ccf.

Hoping to get headliner pulled and deaden the roof/reupholster the headliner but not sure this part will get done? Wife pretty much said as of right now my budget is blown from the deadener purchase. Time will tell...

also going to rerun all of my audio wiring as well as potentially build an amp rack for under second row so should be "eventful"

 

[Brian_smith06]

Worked on my vehicle a bit this weekend. Power washed carpet and got the back half of the deadening done and got the heater core replaced and most of the dash back in.

The bad news. I now have very bad lifter noise. It started this morning when I first started it up to head to the shop to work on it. Really put a damper on my work today. I would have gotten a lot more done had that not happened. Optimistically I may get to do some internal upgrades now?

 

[Brian_smith06]

Now that I am on a computer vs my phone with sketchy at best signal in my home town I can update this.

Day started off by stripping out the seats and carpet. Carpet was filthy and needed a good power wash. I didn't take any pictures of the process or right before but there will be a picture at the end

While I waited for help on the heater core I went ahead and power washed the carpet and installed sound deadener in the back half. I didn't go crazy with it. I think I only used 15 square feet? Not like I really had any issues back there anyway. I would have done the front half but motor was giving me issues and wanted to spend more time on what actually keeps the car going vs making it a little more comfy inside. Motor is fine now though thank god. I did not want to pull the motor apart to fix the lifters. YUCK

In order to do the heater core we had to pull the dash out. It was the devil and never wish to do this again! That being said now that it is done, hopefully I will never have to do it again.

freshly cleaned carpet and my jl stealthbox. Carpet looks much better than before and I no longer feel the need to buy new. Still planning on some weathertech floor mats though. I also got a chance to rerun all of my wiring for my system as well and it is MUCH cleaner now. Getting to pull the carpet out helped streamline that a bit. I plan to build an actual amp rack sometime soon that will properly hold all 3 of my amps. Should be much cleaner

 

[Brian_smith06]

did get some work done last night. This piece was starting do drive me nuts. It's the piece that goes in the headliner that holds the dome lights and ac controls for the rear. Turns out 2 of the 4 clips that holds the ac controls in broke off so that was the culprit. As you can see I put some cld around it to hold it in place. I also stuffed some foam in there as well. It worked like a charm! I didn't need the deadener in there other than to hold the ac controls in place but figured why not. I have 120 square feet of it.

also started with properly aiming my tweeters. This made a world of difference. I knew it would help but wow I did not expect it to change this much. My harsh s sound is finally gone. I assume due to no longer being aimed at my windshield? You can see where I had them installed and where they are currently. Final goal is to fiberglass them as low on the a pillar as I can on axis. After doing this I no longer feel the need to upgrade and I was hardcore looking at some scan tweeters yesterday

also what really spawned me working on my vehicle last night is there there is some rattling witch craft going on inside the dash from when my brother helped with my heater core a few weeks ago so I am going back and redoing what he did. Also have a bit of alt whine at times so wanted to redo the ground on the deck. Do you think 8 gauge directly to the battery would be overkill? Have also looked into doing a small capacitor in the power line as well.

I wont be putting the top part of my dash on until I have the ground/rattles resolved. Wife isn't happy about that but to make her a hair happier I put a layer of ccf on top of dash to cover all of the internals. I think that actually irritated her more than pleasing her

 

[Brian_smith06]

Not anything big going on but progress nonetheless. Pulled the front door panels off to do a little deadening. I still need to actually deaden the doors themselves. I'm holding off on that until I have ccf and mlv to properly finish up my doors. Only ended up using 1.5 square feet. Had originally planned on doing 9 square feet per door panel. Here I am thinking 120 square feet isn't going to be enough and I'm using a fraction of what I anticipated.

also worked on the switches in the doors. They just didn't fit quite right so I did a little deadener in there. I know ccf would have been ideal vs cld but only had cld

 

[tgui]

I can't wait to see how this all turns out.

 

[Cash_88]

I always thought you needed the whole panels covered and wondered why increments of so little were often sold for the deadener. I also ventured down the path of heater core replacement when I replaced my a/c evaporator...I too wish to never do it again

 

[Brian_smith06]

I always thought you needed the whole panels covered and wondered why increments of so little were often sold for the deadener. I also ventured down the path of heater core replacement when I replaced my a/c evaporator...I too wish to never do it again

imo its definitely a piss poor design on gms part for doing the heater core the way they did. That being said im not a designer.

With deadener the real rule of thumb is 25% coverage. Now mass loaded vinyl on the other hand you do want 100% coverage. Its what actually blocks the noise. Some companies market their product by showing panels 100% covered by their cld but its not truly necessary. Im not saying it'll hurt either though. When I pull the headliner I plan to go a bit crazy with the deadener. Im only willing to pull it out once

---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 AM ----------

I can't wait to see how this all turns out.

Thanks. Me either. And my wife is really looking forward to me putting the top part to the dash back in. Its driving her nuts. Doesn't bother me though.

 

[Cash_88]

I'm still on bare interior Tahoe mode while painting panels black. Only thing in it is the center console and both front seats. Which route should I go before I put everything back in? And how much and from where?

 

[Brian_smith06]

the picture I have above of my floor deadened is only about 15 square feet. It only goes up to where the back of the center console is. Id say you could get away with doing the whole floor with 25ish square feet. You will want to do a mass loaded vinyl though if you really want to block noise.

This is a great option for cheap but you will need to add a closed cell foam to help decouple it from the metal
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-4-ft-x-8-ft-Acoustical-Barrier-DB348X96BX/100663624

this would be the best option for mlv. Its what I will be using in my doors. Its far from cheap but a very good option if you're willing to pay for it. I have about 3 sheets left over from my old car
http://store.secondskinaudio.com/luxury-liner-pro/

For sound deadener I highly recommend this. It is the best bang for your buck on the market right now. I would have used it but scored all of my dynamat brand at about 2 bucks a square foot
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KnuKonceptz...H_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58966077e8&vxp=mtr
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KnuKonceptz...H_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5aea3cf6ec&vxp=mtr