[syecadelic]

Cheers guys,

stochastic if you need any more help PM me, without being cocky i know it all

And if the initial post doesnt make sense apologies, severely rushed post

[stochastic]

Thanks sye.  That's a bit more work than I was anticipating, but I see the process now and am confident that the wire will fit.  The tricky part might be removing the dead pedal as my grommet is behind it.  I also need a new tire jack and need to do this on flat ground as my driveway where I do most of my work is tilted both sideways and front/back, so it may be a bit before this mod is finished.  On goes the saga.

[stochastic]

I've had a bit of time since my last update to putter away on this project.  Unfortunately I'm still no where near completion, but I am making great progress and headway.

First things first, I got a little bit more gear.  To join the setup is the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.2 signal processor.  For those unfamiliar, this processor will allow me to time-delay and EQ each channel individually as well as auto-correct the factory stereo's built-in EQ curve.

I also got a hand-held Sony PDA for $30 off craigslist so that I can control the 3sixty.2 through bluetooth.  (the software required a Palm OS or a Windows mobile OS - and I trust microsoft about as far as I can comfortably spit a dead rat, so palm it is)  It's nice, but has no real functions that I need/want other than controlling the 3sixty.2


I've been working hard on my amp rack.  It's entirely upholstered and has the wood floor cut, sanded and stained.  I wired up all that I could while it was outside of the vehicle.  This includes a relay for the turn-on circuit, a on/off switch for the fans (they're on the turn-on circuit, but if I want them off for judging the switch allows that), and proper fusing.  All of the connections are soldered on with heat shrink tubing.  Now all that's left is final installation into the vehicle.



I've also mounted the bass/volume knob from the 3sixty.2 in one of my blank instrument panels just to the lower left of the steering wheel and ran the wires to the back.




Speaking of wires, I soldered together a wiring harness for my OEM headunit.  It allows me to easily switch between the stock wiring and the aftermarket wiring.  It also allows me to lift the turn-on wire without any cutting or splicing of the OEM wiring.  Quite pleased with how it turned out, but am having a bit of troubles getting it to fit nicely in the dash's cavities with all the wires plugged in.  Another afternoon will need to be spent sorting that out.


I also put the grounding wire in the hatch.  Chose to use one of the child-seat anchor screws that I never plan on using (my daughter's child seat is always in the middle of the back seat, so the ones off to the side can go).


Finally, the subwoofer enclosure has progressed significantly.  I have decided to abandon (at least for now) the notion of a centre console transmission line or tapped horn due to the level of modification to the car that it would entail (says the man who installed a wood roof ).  There's also key safety equipment like the airbag deployment brain (I don't know the proper name for it) hiding in the centre console, that I'd rather not put under heavy vibration stress.  Maybe one day I'll build the centre console enclosure, but that'll be a few years away.  As a second/backup plan I chose to put the sub in a sealed stealth enclosure in the rear passenger hatch area.  There's some space behind the interior body panels there that I plan on using.  I'll post another update that details the sub enclosure, but for now, here's some mounting rings for my three drivers.

[Dazzler]

Thanks for the update there is a lot involved 

[stochastic]

So the sub build is complete.  I'm not much for describing all of it, the main goals were convenience of trunk space and aesthetics.  I knew sealed was the design I wanted, roughly 22-24 liters, so it was just a matter of fitting it in.

First, we already learned that destructively editing car parts was bad.  So I made a copy:

Then I started to reinforce the box space with some internal bracing.


Here you can see some shots of the various wood parts involved

The cavity space in the back gave me an extra ~4 liters or so (20% more)

Here you can see the fiberglass structure of the finished piece fairly well

I then needed some method of keeping my camping gear away from the cone, so here's the grill material I ended up using:

And after a little black carpeting to match the trunk, here's a before and after shot of the body panels


I don't know why I don't have a pic of it actually installed, but as a reminder, here's the location of where it ended up:

[Dazzler]

Wow! That is an impressive effort! 

[stochastic]

Thanks Daz.

[Asterix]

Wow! That is an impressive effort!