Ford Ranger Sound Deadening

It’s funny how a new project begins. While waxing my new Ranger for the first time, I noticed how tinny the doors sounded. My aggressive polishing action uncovered an empty can sound from the doors.  Imagine my excitement at the prospect of finally having a project to work on!

When I removed the inside door panel, I was able to gain good access to the inside of the door.  Once inside, I found a small acoustical patch about 4” x 6” in size.  That’s it–hardly enough to quiet the door cavity, but just enough to make the thin sheet metal sound substantial.  It looks like Ford found the most cost effective way to make their doors sound just good enough.

Improving Acoustical Quality

In fairness, the amount of road noise in the cabin was not objectionable. I’ve driven noisier cars, so accepted this as adequate, but did wince a bit when my wife slammed the passenger door!

About six years ago, I had a two door MINI that was really loud in the cargo area.  I found sound deadening material on Amazon and applied it on the rear floor of the MINI.  That made a world of difference, so I turned to the same material for this project.

I bought a box of Siless Car Sound Deadening Mat from Amazon for $70 (for 36 square feet of material).  This is a butyl mastic substance with a foil outer skin.  It is self adhesive, making installation easy.  Each piece is approximately 24” x 16” and can easily be cut.

Installation

Once you remove the door trim panels, you can access the back side of the door skin through access holes and/or the speaker hole.  Removing door panels is not hard, but care must be taken to not damage the attaching clips. I found a Ranger owner who documented the door panel removal on YouTube, so my task was made easier.  I am willing to bet there is a video available for your car as well.

The pictures below show the progression from door panel removal to sound deadening installation for the front doors.  While you do not need to cover every square inch of the sheetmetal, do your best to cover as much as you can reach.  I was able to cover 90% of the doors, thanks to the access holes.  

Important tip:  do not cover the drain holes or drain channel at the bottom of the doors.  Water does find its way into doors, so those drain holes serve a critical function.

This last image is of the rear door.  I needed to remove the speaker for better access.

Final Thoughts

Taking my time, I was able to apply sound deadening to all four doors in under three hours.  My friend, Bob, stopped by as I was beginning this project.  Our conversations may have added to the task length, but we were able to catch up on life events in that time.  That’s the fun part of working on cars with friends.

The transformation was amazing.  The doors now close with a solid thunk and the interior is much quieter on the road.  I was about to invoke my GM history by saying my truck is now Cadillac quiet, but it is more appropriate to say it is Lincoln quiet. Either way, this was definitely a big bang for the buck!

I used less than half of the material in the box, so I could have bought the 18 square foot box of sound deadening for $39.  The manufacturer provides this handy chart to estimate material needed, which includes much more than just the doors.  Maybe I’ll add some to the roof some day.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below.