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Tell him he’s missing a zero or two . Most dealerships I’ve been to are just not car guys. They have no metric by which to judge prices for these kinds of vehicles. Safe to say, high MJ prices are not just temporarily inflated. They are on an upwards trend overall. I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way.

Great question. Neither is good but ultimately, you want to avoid leaks in the first place. As long as you don’t cover over any factory seams or seam sealer and you use a roller to really apply the Dynamat (or other brand) well, there should be no water trapped under it. As far as water absorption, again, you don’t want there to be a water source to absorb in the first place but, absorption also means there is a “wicking” effect and little by little it will evaporate. Trapping water is much worse in that scenario. Here is how it’s worked for me in the past: I bought a nice acc carpet set for the MJ with the mass backing thinking it would also provide some nice sound deadening and maybe even thermal insulation. I also applied Kilmat to the floor and did pretty much the entire floor with it. About 2 years later I had epic rust out through the floor. It came in both up through the seams in the floor under the factory seam sealer and was trapped under the kilmat and it also came in though a couple of cab leaks (rear window and around blower motor seal). That water got trapped on top of the kilmat and under the mass backing where it became a haven to mold, mildew and every sort of vile microorganism imaginable. I documented the repair in my 91 Eliminator build thread. The repair was very extensive and I learned many a place where the MJ was very poorly assembled and just asking for rust trouble. It’s true what they say, these trucks rust from the inside out. Anyways, after new floor were replaced, all the factory seam sealer removed and all the joints repaired and sealed, I installed regular carpet with no mass backing (just the regular jute backing in certain areas) and limited the Dynamat to certain panels that had no beads. Any panels that have design or structure elements to them (beads) will not have nearly the same panel vibrations as the big open panels like the roof and door skins. In summary: You can strategically place your sound dampening materials in an MJ to get the best result. Also, don’t be concerned nearly as much with items that can absorb water. Avoid trapping water by installing some impermeable barrier that will not allow any wicking or absorption. Just my $.02 for what it’s worth.

Dynamat and others are butyl rubber adhered to a thin aluminum sheet. The main difference you will see in how Dynamat performs is due to the thickness of the aluminum backer. The copy brands tend to have much thinner aluminum backing and some don’t even use aluminum as a backer. in other words, having thicker butyl won’t make nearly as much difference as a thicker backer. They go hand in hand. It’s not just a name brand that is trying to ripoff the customer, in fact it’s quite the opposite. The copy brands tend to be the real ripoffs. Don’t get me wrong, you can find some good quality products from other manufacturers but you’ll be paying about the same amount.

Just remember, it’s very difficult to change down the road. That butyl is nasty to remove

Sounds good. Yeah i'd personally recommend doing the trans tunnel door skins, roof and back of cab. I'd just keep it off of the floors, or at least off of the uniframe caps or any other seams.

I find keeping a good divider between dirty or heavy mechanical work and clean work make a big difference. In other words, make a sealed single (or dual) car area that has really good ventilation and lighting along with separate access. That way it’s not dirtying up other vehicles with dirt, grease, fumes, overspray etc. OSB is also a good alternative to sheet rock and you have a good surface for mounting things on. Keeps the wall material about 1/2” above the floor also and use some outdoor spray foam or similar to seal the gap. That way you can easily hose/mop/squeegee it out without water damaging the walls.

Dynamat has a wide range of products depending on the application. There are several competing brands (noico, kilmat, sound skins etc) but few match the same deadening properties of some regular Dynamat Extreme (though something is better than nothing I suppose but you will get what you pay for). As Pete said, roof, door skins, b pillar, back of cab, all are good places to reduce the panel noise. They do not however “absorb” sound. They deaden the noises produced by those panels. My approach to sound deadening in an MJ is as follows: deaden any sheet metal panels that I can get access to including the hood, door skins, b pillars, roof, back of cab, inner firewall and trans tunnel. I then used 3/4 dynaliner on the firewall and 1/4 on the roof and back of cab and 1/8” dynaliner installed in place of the factory water shield. I no longer put down dynamat or any sort of butyl backed material on the floor themselves as you will inevitably trap some moisture at some point unless you stripped your truck down far enough to replace all the factory seam sealer and repair the worthless factory overlap seams and pinch joints. Mass backing on carpet will also disintegrate and turn to crumb over time not to mention it produces a horrible smell when it starts failing. If you need to deaden the floors use dynapad and trim it to fit almost like a floor mat but below the carpet. It’s a heavy material that does help soak up some sound but really helps with heat as well. Quieting down the cab also involves tracking down any little loose trim pieces or panes that can start to resonate or vibrate and either getting them all re-secured properly. Even proper door alignment and gaps along with good seals will make a world of difference in terms of wind noise at higher speeds. Good suspension bushings, rubber spring isolators all add up. Plus don’t forget to use a heat shield on the exhaust wherever it gets close to the cab floor and especially around the CAT if you have one. Keep in mind, this is not specific info for getting good audio system performance (although it will help to a degree) this is just to quiet down the cab of the truck for a more enjoyable ride. Audio performance has many other factors involved. There are also several area that have factory “pillar foam” and some areas where it’s good to add additional pillar foam. The back of cab brace to back of cab bulkhead is a good spot as is the inner rear roof bracing to roof skin seam and the a pillars. Basically anywhere there is a small gap between an innner and outer structure and filling it will not prevent access to water drainage or wiring. You’ll want to use the semi rigid (flexible) pillar foam. 3m and other manufacturers produce it and it’s a 2 part system. Plenty of videos online regarding use and application that can have a huge impact on cab noise.

Seems those under that amount are just rust buckets or beaters.

I picked up the glass and trim at my local glass shop and the rubber gasket was from PRP. I trimmed out the metal studs for the clips in my window frame but with proper alignment of the windshield you would have to. I just didn’t want any extra metal that could rust lol

The pillar foam has much better adhesion to sheet metal and especially if there is paint on the surface. Plus being a 2 part system it should last a lot longer without deteriorating. It’s able to maintain its “springiness” without fatiguing. Yep the T&M braces go right over the factory sheet metal. Used weld through primer on the back sides of any pieces that would be welded together though for corrosion resistance. Then I welded them on, epoxy primed them, then used some medium bodied 2 part seal sealer to seal the welds. They are a nice reinforcement to that otherwise flimsy area. My last MJ was starting to develop cracks around the door latch striker.

Nice idea! I’m going to copy this for my flares when the time comes

Agreed. It adds a nice look to the front without throwing off the classic look from the side.

That’s a clean look imo

What we really need you to reproduce is splash guards with both the AMC and Jeep logos. They've got to be stupid simple to remake but I'd bet they sell out right quick

@Pete M Do you happen to have that picture of the 97+ front clip with the old style fenders? I seem to recall you had posted it but I can't find that thread. It's the one where the corners of the grill have been sanded and matched to the fenders. I'm contemplating going that route as I could still keep the stock style flares front and rear. I always liked the look of that grill more anyways. I think that will complete the best of both worlds look: full size door glass, Early XJ limited style all black interior, pre 97 mirrors, 97 grill 96- fenders and flares and my first get warrior bumper with grill guard. It does leave me wondering about my full set of new turbines though...

Not those relays. They are strapped to the harness. It’s nothing odd though, many oem harnesses do that. There wasn’t really any relay center inside the cab.

No. The previous owner/s made a mess of things. Most of those items mount to the harness itself normally with zip ties and tape. What starts to happen is some component fails and instead of tracking down the simple problem (like a connector not making good contact), someone will just determine they have bad wiring and run a jumper to bypass an issue. not the way to go. For some of those added components, someone needs to study relays for a few minutes along with the Jeep’s stock power distribution.

Lol, looks like someone took an axe to that clutch pedal. I Can tell you that those yellow and red wires in the front of the fuse box with spade terminals are not factory. Could be someone was searching for an ignition switched 12v source for some accessory. That number 5 item is the aw4 transmission ecu.

Iirc the MJ takes 3 of these right? They are basically under each seat near the rear. 4 total holes and 1 is the wiring pass through. Or are there more?? These things are pricey!

@OffGridResearch can you provide a pic of the orange lights?

This is awesome!

It’s funny, all of the vendors on here (myself included) love making parts for these trucks but it’s tough getting consistent order volume. And since this isn’t our full time jobs, it’s tough to keep these custom parts going long-term. I’m stoked to get my custom labels! Will post up in my build thread when I get them. No company would have taken the time to customize the labels to the degree that @SoCalJeepComanche did.

A new rubber grommet is good but I’d also add some black rtv sealant. I used some 3m 5200 sealant on mine. Also, be sure to add a “drip loop” to the antenna wire before it enters the grommet. Never had a leak after that from the antenna

Did they pull the bearing cap to inspect the crank? Just wondering how they came to that conclusion and what data they provided to back up their assumption?

We should copy this info to the modifications and repairs section for more views. That’s awesome!