The subject : Wifes 2009 Mini Cooper S
The goal : Quite the ride down. Any sound improvement is a bonus.
The materials:
SDS deadening tiles
Second Skin SPL tiles (a few to compare the two)
SDS closed cell foam, 1/4 and 1/8th
SDS Extruded Butyl Rope
1lb/ft MLV

Audio: At this time the plan is to replace the 4" mid in the doors with a full range driver. Will keep factory midbass. Will have a processor and amp for the speakers. Keeping this cheap, audio is not a goal in this car.

This is the Cooper S, the turbo version. This is not a quite car. I will be adding CLD to the panels it is need, then the mlv. The foam will be used to float the MLV. It will also be used under/between various panels to prevent rattles where there will be no MLV.

And a few pics from this afternoon.

 

You can make under-mat floor mats from MLV. The carpet will separate it from the steel floor panel, so you don't need the CCF for them. They can also be easily removed when desired.

Don't forget wheel wells. Remove the wheels, and wheel well liner. Might be a good place for the tiles, if there is room. Lots of tire noise comes through the wheel wells.

I also did some work in the battery and windshield wiper compartment under the bonnet. I put MLV along the inside of the plastic wall that separates it from the engine compartment. I was trying to reduce the noise that comes in through the clean-air intake for the climate control.

One problem you may encounter with just swapping the 4" speaker is volume blance between the 4" and 6.5" midbass. After-market speakers tend to take more power than the factory speakers. So, the midbass may overwhelm the 4". This is why most people replace both the 4" and 6.5 with similar speakers.

 

Thanks for the info.
I will start with : this is not my first rodeo, in deadening, or replacing speakers/amps. Please dont think I am brushing off your suggestions, but that I have thought of many of them already.

An extra 150lbs or so is not going to make or break the car, it is not used on a track or anything. All the stuff will go down under the carpet for full coverage, as high up the firewall as possible without removing the dash. No need to remove anything. The benefit of a layer of MLV is the complete blocking of sound, and "floor mats" will lose that. Great for a car that needs removable weight, not so hot for this one. I have discussed the performance drop in all aspects of driving with her, and she wants the car quite.


Wheel wells will get more attention than listed, with CLD and MLV inside but also some specific liquid deadening treatment on the outside.

Good idea on the battery/wiper compartment, I will check it out when I pull the battery for wiring.

As to the speakers, I am not too worried. The Peerless driver I have selected is fairly efficient, and I have heard it used in other factory systems. I will also be amping both the full range and the midbass. Amp has separate gains for F/R channels, so I will be able to adjust gains on pairs individually, as well as the processor being used will set levels, crossovers, time alignment, etc for all speakers. And if worse comes to worse I have various aftermarket mid/midbass drivers that will match up with the full range. The speakers are the least of my worries/not a concern for her at all.

Again, thanks for the ideas, keep em coming! I have read several of your threads in researching the project. I am thankful I wont have to mess with the kick panel speaker plug. The Alpine processor accepts full range high level inputs so I will simply use the rear by-nine signal to get to the processor, then amped signal out to the speakers.