Bee’s 2010 SS/RS Rally Yellow Build

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

Originally Posted by Bee

With winter slowly creeping along, I thought I should probably get started on at least one of the projects I wanted to do this year.

As I previously posted, the motor mounts must have been the final ingredient needed to produce a resonating vibration. So to help combat it, I picked up a box of Dynamat and my main focus will be the rear deck. The bulk pack should also have enough to do under the back seat and the entire trunk area.

I am going to take my time with this project but will post pictures along the way. Hopefully, the hardest part is over – removing the rear speaker deck. Actually, the speaker deck itself came out pretty easy, it was the rear pillars that were being the most difficult.

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My old Trans am build was sponsored by DEI for a few years. They had recently released there "boom mat" which is the same material essentially. The only thing I want to mention here... It is a bit heavy, so bear that in mind from a performance aspect. If you ever want to remove it, its a complete PITA. It comes off in small pieces, pulls paint off, leaves everything sticky... After I decided to make some power in my build, I realized how much I didn't want this on the car and it was so hard to get off I just gave up on it.

It does make a huge difference when it comes to sound deadening though. Night and day and if your intention is just to make the car more street friendly, its great. As always your car is looking great Bee!

[Bee]

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

That bracket looks pretty sweet, I know that i need to add a fire extinguisher to my list... This bracket and the pricing might just get me to pull the trigger.

For me, it was a toss up between that one and the kind that mounts to the passenger seat (the one that slides with the seat). I figured if this one didn't work out, I could use it in my truck instead.

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

My old Trans am build was sponsored by DEI for a few years. They had recently released there "boom mat" which is the same material essentially. The only thing I want to mention here... It is a bit heavy, so bear that in mind from a performance aspect. If you ever want to remove it, its a complete PITA. It comes off in small pieces, pulls paint off, leaves everything sticky... After I decided to make some power in my build, I realized how much I didn't want this on the car and it was so hard to get off I just gave up on it.

It does make a huge difference when it comes to sound deadening though. Night and day and if your intention is just to make the car more street friendly, its great. As always your car is looking great Bee!

Thanks for sharing your experience. It's funny that I can find 100's, if not 1000's of videos showing how to install it, but I only came across one video talking about how to remove it. The guy in that video showed how he freezes it with some type of aerosol can and then chips it off. Regardless, I'm going into this with the mindset that it will be permanent.

The shipping label on the box shows it weighs 19.6 lbs, so as long as I don't go overboard and stick to one...maybe two packs at the most, I am OK with the extra weight.

[SlowLS1]

That stuff is for sure permanent. I did it on my last build, which was basically a drag car. I didn't regret it as it did help with some the noises that drag cars make.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by SlowLS1

That stuff is for sure permanent. I did it on my last build, which was basically a drag car. I didn't regret it as it did help with some the noises that drag cars make.

That's awesome...I'm sure it's one of those things where you don't know you need it until after it's in.

I made a little bit of progress today. After getting the rest of the trunk panels removed, I laid the first piece down. I wanted to start with a rather straight-forward section to make sure my measuring process would work. I can definitely hear a difference with just doing a before and after “knock” test.

[chevy pilot]

[Bee]

I finished the rear deck this weekend, and I definitely think that was the source of the rattling. Just doing a knock test, I could hear the tinny/metal vibration sound at the end. It was still there after doing the center section, so I removed the speakers and laid down another section. Now, wherever I knock on the rear deck only a solid thud sound can be heard.

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

Originally Posted by Bee

I finished the rear deck this weekend, and I definitely think that was the source of the rattling. Just doing a knock test, I could hear the tinny/metal vibration sound at the end. It was still there after doing the center section, so I removed the speakers and laid down another section. Now, wherever I knock on the rear deck only a solid thud sound can be heard.

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Everytime I ever did this I always did 100% coverage. What you did is acutally kinda nice, and might be a good option for deleting some NVH from a car like mine that is becoming more and more performance based. As always you do top notch work on your car Bee, everything is always so clean!

[DRC69]

Car looks GREAT.
I'm pretty sure my car is not going to look or run as nice as yours, but I'm working on it.
Nice job.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

Everytime I ever did this I always did 100% coverage. What you did is acutally kinda nice, and might be a good option for deleting some NVH from a car like mine that is becoming more and more performance based. As always you do top notch work on your car Bee, everything is always so clean!

Thanks man, I really appreciate that! I have been trying to resist the urge to do 100% coverage (as tempting as it can be) and take a more "strategic placement" approach.

Originally Posted by DRC69

Car looks GREAT.
I'm pretty sure my car is not going to look or run as nice as yours, but I'm working on it.
Nice job.

Thank you so much! Nah, you already are off to a good start with the right color! But seriously, you'll get yours right how you want it.

[Bee]

I finished the trunk floor and battery well and I may just stop at this point…at least until I can get out on a road test. I have 4 full/uncut sheets out of the 9 remaining, so based on my rough calculations I added almost 11 lbs of extra weight.

[Bee]

As I was starting to button the interior up, I thought I should finally get my ACS upper quarter panel ports installed while I still had access behind the trunk side panels. Back in early 2020, I had set out to enhance the appearance and spent months planning how I wanted my car to ultimately look. These were part of that original vision and I had them painted with the rest of the parts that are now installed. However, after spending some time in the trunk, they eventually made their way back into the box they came in for the last two years. At first, it was something I would get to later, but then I started to go back and forth on whether or not I should install them and then I kept second guessing the color.

Judging by the lack of pictures I could find, I would say these are not something you’ll see every day. I totally get that they are not for everyone…they’re expensive, purely cosmetic, and require cutting into the hardest quarter panel to replace. But it’s all about the things we do to our cars to make them our own, right? And since there isn’t a lot of info out there, I wanted to make sure I took pictures of the install along the way to help anyone else out there considering these ports.

Now, before I get into the install, I have a lot of ACS parts on my car. They all have an outstanding quality but I will say I was a little disappointed in their installation instructions for this particular part. All the other parts had very thorough instructions but these were extremely lacking. The first step was a link to a YouTube video, which only showed half of the installation with little to no details. In fact, half of that video was spent showing them marking and cutting out the hole. After the video is over and you realize there isn’t a second part, you then have to go back to the written instructions where it just talks about attaching the mesh grills and how to glue in the ports. Anyway, I’ll end my rant with it would have been nice if they took a few more minutes to write-up a more complete set of instructions and referenced the video or explain more in their video and show the complete install.

So before I did anything, I wanted to place the ports roughly where they would go so I could really get a good idea on how they would look. This really helped solidify that I was on the right track in my original plans and complete the look I had set out for.




Next up, I wanted to be absolutely certain that I had everything needed to complete the installation. This includes the inner pans, outer ports, the grommets/drain tubes, and the adhesive.



I then wiped down the quarter panels with some waterless wash and covered the area with painters tape.



The kit comes with a set of templates on what was probably the largest piece of paper that I have ever worked with in my life. After carefully cutting out the section (and my wife thinking I was in an epic battle with a giant paper airplane), I laid it down on the quarter panel by matching it up on the trunk side first and lining it along the outside edge of the quarter panel.



After tracing the cut line, I immediately went to the passenger side and repeated the process. I quadruple checked that the distance between the outside edge of the cut mark and the roll of the quarter panel was the same on both sides. I also made sure that the rest of the cut marks were a direct mirror of each other.



And here’s one last shot to put my mind at ease before passing the point of no return.



Since these are my 8th and 9th port holes I’ve made, I turned to my trusty dremel with a 1.5” cutting wheel. I start by carefully tracing the cut mark making sure I alternate sides to avoid overheating the quarter panel. The corners can be tricky, so what I did was get all the way through the sheet metal a few inches away from the corner and then cut towards the corner getting as close as possible to the curve. Before cutting the center part of the longer edges, I’ll make relief cuts at the corners so I can get the large section removed. Once the center section is out of the way, I’m able to get the dremel in at different angles to knock out the rest of the corners.



And finally, the hole is made. I then switched over to a sanding drum and removed all the burrs and check the fitment. Once I’m happy that, I grabbed some nail polish to cover the cut edges.



And here’s how the port looks resting in place. Now I just have to go do the same thing on the passenger side.

[0stones0]

Thought I was worried cutting the hole in the hood for the vent but, have to say this looks scarier. Looking at what you’ve done up to now, I’m sure it will come out top notch.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by 0stones0

Thought I was worried cutting the hole in the hood for the vent but, have to say this looks scarier. Looking at what you’ve done up to now, I’m sure it will come out top notch.

Thanks stones! Once you get past what it is you're cutting into, the actual cut is even easier then the center hood vent because there aren't any support brackets to deal with. So far, the T3 hood ports have been by far the most challenging cuts.

I am almost finished cutting the passenger side. I took a break for lunch and then got tied up doing some other things.

[hesster]

Killer Build! Got to the end and really like the ACS Rear Qtr Ports. Have not seen those before, looking hard at doing that mod. And - how do you like the Rockers and Winglets? Seeing as finding GFX rockers is almost impossible, I like the ACS stuff. Keep up the Modding Madness!