Saturday, April 09, 2005
More on the amp rack build
So now that I have a big sub and two amps in my trunk I now also have a mess. I did the install of everything very nice from an electrical standpoint( hello, there's an electrical engineer here). I used big fat wire, I have two bus bars for any additions, and some caps too. But mechanically it looks like a dog's ass. My roommate, M, and his friend, MFMJ, wanted me to do a big, fancy new enclosure for the sub out of fiberglas and insert some sliding tray into the trunk to mount the amps to the package tray so they could be slid out of site (sheesh, two mechanical engineers). Not having the time or the cash I've done it my way (if I had the time and cash I'd be working on the Superbee.
I rearranged the components first before making my hide-the-mess cover. I wanted to move the amps to the rear of the trunk to show them off more and the sub more to the center (front to back) of the car (while still keeping it near the side for better acoustics). That done I knew I'd never be able to cut a 4' X 8' piece of hardboard out while trying to shove and hold it in the trunk, not to mention that it wouldn't fit in there. To make things easier, so I could work on the huge sheet of hardboard on the garage floor, I made a template out of two pieces of cardboard then taped them together. The template fit very well in the trunk so I put it down on the hardboard, made a trace, used a square and a compass to straighten all of the lines up, and cut it all out (I did the trace in green and the corrections in red so that I could tell the difference -- smart huh?).
It fit perfect (how this happened, I'm not sure). I had to make some 2" tall standoffs to hold the hardboard up off the amp rack (I set the amps lower on purpose since I wanted them to look like they were sitting down in the hardboard. Note: I'm not worried too much about cooling since these Alpine amps have cooling fans). Finally I put all the parts into position, screwed everything down, and cranked up the stereo to make sure I had not ruined anything (especially to make sure the hardboard was secured well enough to the sub box to keep it from rattling). It looks good and sounds good too. Now I just need to cover the hardboard with some gray carpet, to match the carpet in the trunk, and I'll be finished.
I started this project at about midnight and was finished by 2am. Who knows what kind of wild hair I had up my ass: almost manic-depressive. The hardboard cost $6.change and I'm hoping to get carpet for about $10 or so. I've tried to keep this all real cheap. The only reason I started in on the stereo on this car is because M gave me a real nice 12" MB Quart sub that he didn't want anymore.
The head unit is still the stock Delphi (and somehow sounds great. I'll be sad when it finally craps out because it sounds good and keeps the cab of the vehicle looking stock). When I move into the shity I'll have to be careful to only crank where I don't park for long periods to help reduce my chances of theft and also keep the cab clear of any materials someone might decide they want for their own. Hopefully only 5 years of that and I'll get to move back to a less urban environment.
The speakers in the door are about 1/2 new. The drivers are from a project I did years ago. I had a warranty return on the tweeters and they just sent an entire new setup. I only used the tweeters and kept the rest of the stuff (which I eventually gave to M and he gave back to me for this project) Since I didn't have the tweeters I just used the factory units. I was surprised to see factory tweeters. The stock Matsushita/Panasonic amp wasn't driving them for crap. I'm surprised they are taking this much power but they are filtered twice when it comes down to it: once from the crossovers that came in the box and another time from the inline cap in the factory wiring. They are only being asked to produce the highest of highs.
I did replace the rear speakers with new JBL 6 X 9 speakers. To me, the 6 X 9 is one of the best car speakers. Huge surface area for producing enough bass so that you can hear it above road noise, and an odd shape so they fit in many place. They clipped right into the factory locations and with the wiring harness adaptors from Crutchfield the install was next to painless. Even though JBLs are a "cheaper" brand I have been impressed every time I've heard them used.
The amp was also supposed to be cheap. You can read here in the blog about how that piece of junk blew up ... again. And also how I replaced it with two amps I bought from eBay stores. Count me as not impressed with eBay stores. Yeah, I saved about $100 but it felt crooked somehow.
Now it is time to get some real, actual work done today.
I rearranged the components first before making my hide-the-mess cover. I wanted to move the amps to the rear of the trunk to show them off more and the sub more to the center (front to back) of the car (while still keeping it near the side for better acoustics). That done I knew I'd never be able to cut a 4' X 8' piece of hardboard out while trying to shove and hold it in the trunk, not to mention that it wouldn't fit in there. To make things easier, so I could work on the huge sheet of hardboard on the garage floor, I made a template out of two pieces of cardboard then taped them together. The template fit very well in the trunk so I put it down on the hardboard, made a trace, used a square and a compass to straighten all of the lines up, and cut it all out (I did the trace in green and the corrections in red so that I could tell the difference -- smart huh?).
It fit perfect (how this happened, I'm not sure). I had to make some 2" tall standoffs to hold the hardboard up off the amp rack (I set the amps lower on purpose since I wanted them to look like they were sitting down in the hardboard. Note: I'm not worried too much about cooling since these Alpine amps have cooling fans). Finally I put all the parts into position, screwed everything down, and cranked up the stereo to make sure I had not ruined anything (especially to make sure the hardboard was secured well enough to the sub box to keep it from rattling). It looks good and sounds good too. Now I just need to cover the hardboard with some gray carpet, to match the carpet in the trunk, and I'll be finished.
I started this project at about midnight and was finished by 2am. Who knows what kind of wild hair I had up my ass: almost manic-depressive. The hardboard cost $6.change and I'm hoping to get carpet for about $10 or so. I've tried to keep this all real cheap. The only reason I started in on the stereo on this car is because M gave me a real nice 12" MB Quart sub that he didn't want anymore.
The head unit is still the stock Delphi (and somehow sounds great. I'll be sad when it finally craps out because it sounds good and keeps the cab of the vehicle looking stock). When I move into the shity I'll have to be careful to only crank where I don't park for long periods to help reduce my chances of theft and also keep the cab clear of any materials someone might decide they want for their own. Hopefully only 5 years of that and I'll get to move back to a less urban environment.
The speakers in the door are about 1/2 new. The drivers are from a project I did years ago. I had a warranty return on the tweeters and they just sent an entire new setup. I only used the tweeters and kept the rest of the stuff (which I eventually gave to M and he gave back to me for this project) Since I didn't have the tweeters I just used the factory units. I was surprised to see factory tweeters. The stock Matsushita/Panasonic amp wasn't driving them for crap. I'm surprised they are taking this much power but they are filtered twice when it comes down to it: once from the crossovers that came in the box and another time from the inline cap in the factory wiring. They are only being asked to produce the highest of highs.
I did replace the rear speakers with new JBL 6 X 9 speakers. To me, the 6 X 9 is one of the best car speakers. Huge surface area for producing enough bass so that you can hear it above road noise, and an odd shape so they fit in many place. They clipped right into the factory locations and with the wiring harness adaptors from Crutchfield the install was next to painless. Even though JBLs are a "cheaper" brand I have been impressed every time I've heard them used.
The amp was also supposed to be cheap. You can read here in the blog about how that piece of junk blew up ... again. And also how I replaced it with two amps I bought from eBay stores. Count me as not impressed with eBay stores. Yeah, I saved about $100 but it felt crooked somehow.
Now it is time to get some real, actual work done today.
# posted by chilort @ 12:12 PM 
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I got the carpet today. It cost more than I thought. Something like $12!! I used my template again to get everything the correct size and used the hole I cut out of the hardboard as a template for the cutout in the carpet. I test fitted the carpet after the first few cuts and everything fit well. I then used 3M spray tac to install the carpet. That was the first hour. Then I spent the next hour making little carpet parts to fill in between the amps and to hide all of the support stuff. Too bad M's digital camer sucks or I'd take some pictures and post them on Flickr. As it stands everyone will have to wait until I develop the film on my camera.
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