04 Tahoe Z71 resto/audio

[Brian_smith06]

A pillars begin. They are fugly but it's a start. Madi wanted to see what I was up to. She is very judgemental

 

[Brian_smith06]

get to put a solid weekend into the hoe. Going to be heavily sound deadening the doors. I have a lot of dynamat extreme, a couple sheets of second skin luxury liner pro, and some closed cell foam. Also purchased some aluminum stock I plan to cut up and install in the doors for extra strength. Should be a good time

 

[YukonXL04]

Keep us updated on pics please!

 

[Brian_smith06]

I love taking pictures of my progress. pics will def be added. I will try to get some pics of my buddies cars while im with him. he and I have somewhat matching tahoes. his is cleaner though.

he also has a Camaro, a Cadillac cts, my old cavalier, and what he calls Farmageddon which is an older full size chevy he keeps around for winter

 

[Brian_smith06]

This is all I've gotten done so far. Didn't end up starting until 3 today. Will finish passenger door tonight and get majority of driver done. Forgot to take pics of the aluminum bracing but will get them of driver door. It worked very well in passenger door though.

 

[Brian_smith06]

Here is how I ended tonight. Added mass loaded vinyl to both front door panels. Also got all of my aluminum bracing cut for tomorrow. All that is left is to deaden driver door and reassemble.

 

[Brian_smith06]

 

[YukonXL04]

Interesting, so do you think adding the aluminum angle helped stiffen the door up? What did you put on top of the angle to cover the hole?

 

[Brian_smith06]

It really did help stiffen it up.

I just put deadener over it. Did strips from each brace to the other and then did a second layer around the edges

 

[Brian_smith06]

100% done working on the front doors and it is night and day difference.

my mids have less distortion, they have a lot more impact and can actually listen to my radio at 20 instead of 30 for desired output on the highway.

I installed
3 ft of aluminum angle stock per door
15 square feet of dynamat xtreme per door. That includes door panel.
6ish square feet of luxury liner pro per door
dynamat deflex panel behind each mid. I already had them so figured why not

My vehicle is much quieter on the highway. Not that it was noisy beforehand but you can def tell a difference. I really need to do the rear doors now. I could hear a little noise coming from back there now.

 

[tgui]

How many pounds you think you'll add in the end? Looks great!

 

[Brian_smith06]

I added about 15ish pounds to each door. I was aiming to keep it under 20. The new owner of my old car has had an issue with the door hinge breaking due to how much material I added to that car. Granted it was a cavalier and this is a Tahoe. Tahoe is built a hair better.

deadener was .45 per square foot and I did 15 square feet so 6.75 there
mass loaded vinyl was 1 lb per square foot so and I added about 6 lbs there
speaker was 5 lbs but not sure what factory weighs? This speaker is beefy.

so approximately 15lbs

Im an audio guy which is why I did this. Honestly I have never really complained about the road noise in this vehicle, however, the mass loaded vinyl did help more than I anticipated.

Still need to do the rear doors though. I may do that this week depending on how late my wife stays at work?

This is the mass loaded vinyl I used. It is a great product just a hair expensive. I had 2 sheets left over from my old car. I finished them up on the front doors.
http://store.secondskinaudio.com/luxury-liner-pro-1-sheet-24x54-9sqft/

For the rear doors and rest of the car I plan to order this product due to how cheap it is. Will have to add a closed cell foam to it though to decouple but even with that its still a lot cheaper than the other product.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-4-ft-x-8-ft-Acoustical-Barrier-DB348X96BX/100663624

 

[Brian_smith06]

Worked on it a bit tonight. It's fugly as of right now but now that I know I can fit 2 amps under one seat I plan to make it pretty. I no longer have any intentions of selling them now

 

[Brian_smith06]

New wheel bearing.

Old

New one with backing plate installed backwards. Had to pull it all back apart again and go correctly.

Parts vehicle my dad has at his shop for me. Actually had a freshly rebuilt transmission before it was wrecked so if mine goes out I'm gold

Found this little bastard in my tire. Was a good time to find though. My dad patched it right up for me

 

[Brian_smith06]

Bit of an update on the Tahoe. Looks like the motor might be getting swapped out? Checked the oil today and there was quite a bit of coolant in there. Praying it's just the head gasket and that'll fix the issue and the coolant hasn't messed with bearings etc too much.

Luckily I do have a spare motor at my dads shop but damn that's going to be a shot load of work!

 

[Brian_smith06]

Looked at oil today over break on dipstick vs the oil cap. Didn't appear to be any traces on it. I'm beginning to think I was over thinking it yesterday? That being said still considering pulling spare motor I have and rebuilding it and swapping anyway?

 

[YukonXL04]

Wouldn't hurt to do that. I would drain the oil and check vs dipstick.

 

[Brian_smith06]

Had my dad look at it and it looks like I will be getting new head gaskets. I will take that over a swap/rebuild any day. While in going to replace knock sensors and probably intake gaskets. Anything else I should do while apart?