Hotheads sound assassin with factory headliner works great!

[IOS-XR]

On a whim I ordered the sound assassin top kit from Hotheads during their Memorial Day sale. I was concerned about installing it under my factory headliner. I shouldn’t have worried as so far it’s a piece of cake. My wife and I just did the front Freedom tops yesterday. The factory headliner pieces were held by two velcro strips per top. Super easy to take out. I work for a fiber carrier so I used some fiber cleaning alcohol wipes to clean the area where I’d be applying the butyl sound deadening strips. My wife used a pair of healthy scissors to cut them appropriately and we slapped them in. They were covered completely by the factory headliner.

We took it out for a quick test drive with just the front tops done and I was truly impressed with the change. Wind noise was definitely decreased especially at higher speed. I passed a slower car and left my foot in the turbo diesel as the road was clear. Blasted up past 90 and it was significantly quieter than it seemed on the freeway last week at 80. Much easier to speak at a casual volume with my wife and the stereo sounded “different“. We’ll pull the rest of the top off on 4th of July weekend and do the rest of the sound assassin kit and report back.

Overall I’ll say it was an excellent upgrade for less than $50. I highly recommend it!

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[CivilJeep]

Thanks for the review, I’ve been considering this.

 

[Chance575]

Just buy a giant roll of stereo sound deadening material. I think i have a roll of fat mat. Then use as much as you want.

 

[Mrbizkitt]

How is the material compared to the factory headliner?

 

[IOS-XR]

The factory headliner is very thin. The butyl sound absorbing strips go under the factory headliner.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Just buy a giant roll of stereo sound deadening material. I think i have a roll of fat mat. Then use as much as you want.

I went this direction. I ordered this pack of large butyl patches:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082Q2J2T4/

Removed the factory headliner panels, traced them over the butyl patch, then applied the butyl patch to the freedom panel.

Ended up removing the latches and rattlecanning the panels in satin black, masked off a section for the velcro with blue tape, then glued the velcro strips to the patches and re-attached the headliner panels.

 

[Chance575]

That’s exactly what I’m going to do

 

[IOS-XR]

Shasta, that's nice! I'm betting that worked pretty well.

 

[ShastaJT6]

Shasta, that's nice! I'm betting that worked pretty well.

I appreciate that. Like you said in your post, conversations on the freeway are easier, wind noise reduced, etc. Its still a little loud, due to the nature of our vehicles, but I agree with you that its absolutely worth doing.

 

[IOS-XR]

I finally got around to pulling the back section of the top off today and installing the rest of the sound assassin kit. It’s too damn hot and humid for me to have taken “in progress“ pictures. The strips aren’t long enough to cover the “ribs” in one piece but it works out perfectly to chop one up per side. You basically install three per side, then cut up a 4th to fill to the end. You use four strips per side for a total of 8. I went ahead and cut down the width of a 9th strip to put in the narrow center. I trimmed two “squares” from the width and it dropped right in. I didn’t extend this one as I didn’t even want to get close to the sat antenna.

Overall impression is very good. It lowered the ambient noise some more over just the freedom panels. I ended up tweaking the audio levels on the stereo a bit and will probably tweak some more. I can now set the stereo two numbers lower while cruising at 60 and it’s clear. I would highly recommend this kit.

Also, a gratuitous topless shot of the Gladiator:

 

[The Welsh Griffin]

I went this direction. I ordered this pack of large butyl patches:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082Q2J2T4/

Removed the factory headliner panels, traced them over the butyl patch, then applied the butyl patch to the freedom panel.

Ended up removing the latches and rattlecanning the panels in satin black, masked off a section for the velcro with blue tape, then glued the velcro strips to the patches and re-attached the headliner panels.

ShastaJT6 that looks amazing !!! I was pondering the rattle can look. You definetely made me see it's worth the work. I dont have headliners but I'm thinking now that I have to get rid of all that white !!! Do you have any pics from the interior project all finished up ?

 

[ShastaJT6]

ShastaJT6 that looks amazing !!! I was pondering the rattle can look. You definetely made me see it's worth the work. I dont have headliners but I'm thinking now that I have to get rid of all that white !!! Do you have any pics from the interior project all finished up ?

Got you! Just went out and took this.

 

[The Welsh Griffin]

Yup definetely sold on that look !!!

 

[raypla]

I built my own headliner and painted the freedom top with Krylon Fusion Satin. I had some second skin sound deadener laying around from a past project and put strips directly on the hard top & freedom panels. Sound system sounds better an road noise is reduced. Also retains heat better. I built it for less than a 100$ and my own time, one of the better upgrades I’ve done over the years. Probably have 4 hrs into the headliner, including making the templatess. I used 3/4” insulation board from lowes and still have enough to make another pair, for the front freedom panels, going to do another color, maybe red to go with the dash? The black hardtop feels more refined.

 

[raypla]

Doing it again, glad I held on to the templates I made

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