Underbody fabric panels

[Soupbowl68]

How many of you removed the underbody fabric panels, if so does it really make that much difference with road noise

 

[2020FordRaptor]

How many of you removed the underbody fabric panels, if so does it really make that much difference with road noise

I imagine it’d make a difference, whether it’s big or small I wouldn’t know. What’s your motivation to do so?

 

[Polizi212]

I can see a few thoughts on why to remove them, seems they would hold dirt and salt and moisture in places you may not want any, or the fact they seem to randomly lose hardware in spots and fall down, I've have to resecure several places on mine. I leave mine in mostly as some protection from road debris. Not sure if it would add any additional road noise if you took them out but its possible.

 

[pumpgas110]

Well haven't yet but I live a 1/2 mile down a stone road. When I pressure wash the wheel wells they absolutely won't come clean. Not even close. My work truck "24" f250 only has this fabric in the front wheel wells, the bed wells are metal.
I am testing this idea on the work truck in a week or two... I'm going to paint the fabric with an oil based paint. I may even try a bedliner coating? I think the felt will work as a good binder to hold the coating.
If it works and is a washable surface then I'm going to do this to the explorer..... if not I think I want to remove my under body liners as well. It is a massive amount of dirt comes out every 2 or 3 weeks whe n washing.
Has anyone tried anything similar

 

[DaHuntah]

Painting them, especially with a bedliner, will make them heavy. You will need to upgrade the hardware because the clips they use are not going to hold. They don't really hold them as they are!

 

[2020FordRaptor]

Painting them, especially with a bedliner, will make them heavy. You will need to upgrade the hardware because the clips they use are not going to hold. They don't really hold them as they are!

This ^ Plus I don’t think it’d make it any better.

 

[2020FordRaptor]

Well haven't yet but I live a 1/2 mile down a stone road. When I pressure wash the wheel wells they absolutely won't come clean. Not even close. My work truck "24" f250 only has this fabric in the front wheel wells, the bed wells are metal.
I am testing this idea on the work truck in a week or two... I'm going to paint the fabric with an oil based paint. I may even try a bedliner coating? I think the felt will work as a good binder to hold the coating.
If it works and is a washable surface then I'm going to do this to the explorer..... if not I think I want to remove my under body liners as well. It is a massive amount of dirt comes out every 2 or 3 weeks whe n washing.
Has anyone tried anything similar

I’ve found that using a brush makes them really clean, here’s a video on it:

 

[pumpgas110]

This ^ Plus I don’t think it’d make it any better.

Yes I thought about the extra weight and I have had to replace a few of the plastic rivets already.

I have scrubbed them and it does work great.. just alot of extra work.

I don't necessarily want to remove since they do serve a purpose.

Maybe with enough scrubs the felt will get scrubbed off and I will have a surface that is slightly less prone to hold dirt

Surely someone here has removed there's and can comment on the noise level difference.

 

[2020FordRaptor]

Yes I thought about the extra weight and I have had to replace a few of the plastic rivets already.

I have scrubbed them and it does work great.. just alot of extra work.

I don't necessarily want to remove since they do serve a purpose.

Maybe with enough scrubs the felt will get scrubbed off and I will have a surface that is slightly less prone to hold dirt

Surely someone here has removed there's and can comment on the noise level difference.

I guess I can comment on having them removed, totally forgot about this. A little bit ago, my front driver fender liner completely shredded so I had to take it off until a new one came in. I did notice a very slight increase in road noise, and that was just with one off. Also, it through all kind of dirt all over the engine bay, and was a pain to clean. I would never remove the front liners just because of how dirty it would make the engine bay.