# 89 Mazda B2200 Pioneer/JL Audio install



## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I thought I would start a thread about my stereo install, as you guys already know I take quite a while to get things done. 

This may take some time to complete, I will do my best to take pictures along the way of the install.

Here are some pictures.






























I can see that my kids attempted to clean the windows!











A lame rendering I done of the enclosure I am thinking of building.










I ended up not being able to put the amps in the enclosure because I had to make the enclosure deeper to accept the sub. The amps wouldnt fit behind the seat.

Specs for the enclosure










If any one is thinking of building their own enclosure, you should check out bassbox 6 pro it's a nifty little program. thats what I used to design the enclosure. I just had to ad the specs for the sub and a few other things.


15" Sub enclosure for std cab B2200
OK here are some pictures of the enclosure construction and a problem or two I have run into.










Here is my fat butt working on it, (I hate getting my picture taken)


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

The wife is going to shoot me, I got dust all over her pretty motorcyle I just painted about 2 moths or so ago. censore: that was alot of work taping those stripes off)
















































Construction grade carpenters glue to make sure it doesn't rattle apart.
Oh and by the way if you do this I suggest taking sand paper or a grinder and remove the shiny coating on areas that will be glued together. 

This will let the wood glue penetrate into the wood and bond the pieces together far better than it would if you didn't remove the shiny (actually semi-shiny coating)



















Sides ground down smooth so the boards meet together nicely.




Just when I was thinking, I am almost done; but there is one small problem.










When I built the enclosure with Bassbox 6 pro I thought my Sub had a mounting dept of 7". Well it turned out that it was 8 1/4" mounting depth. 

So I had to make some spacers to get the sub woofer mounted to the box.
Below is the semi finished project.

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/briankmizell/P1080582.jpg[/url]

[img]http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/ss117/briankmizell/P1080583.jpg


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Next I will remove the subwoofer and cut holes for my wiring hardware and the handle to carry this beast.

After that I am going to stretch some fleece over the front of the enclosure nice and tight and staple it down. I am going to mix up some fiberglass resin and brush it over the fleece. 

When it sets up I will take a grinder to that and rough it up so that I can fill the imperfections with body filler. 

I haven't yet decided if I am going to paint it or put a thin padding over it and cover it with leather.



Here are some pictures of the enclosure in the truck before I fleeced it.







































With the fleece





































Now comes the grinding and body filler.

I put almost 1/2 gallon of body filler on it. I ran out of body filler, I will have to go and get more in the am.

Here are some pictures before the body filler.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Here are few pictures with the body filler applied




























here are a few more pictures of the body filler sanded. I still need to put some on the top and then it will be ready for painting. I really want to cover it in leather but it will be cheaper to paint it.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Speaker pods for doors
I got a little more work done on it today. Here are some pictures of a few hours worth of work.

Hole cut for speaker









Door panel cut.










Trial fit of base panel,










Skeleton is put together and ready for fleece and resin. As you can see below, I had to trim the hole in the backplate of the speaker pod so it would 
somewhat match the hole I cut in the door panel.










Picturing how its going to look.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I had to wait till my 4" JL audio got here so I could make sure the rest of what I build for it fits right.

Also I am not sure I like the way one side is bigger than the other. 

I did the big side first and screwed it to the kick panel. Then when I did the other side I noticed they were different, and the MDF part has to be smaller for it to fit flush on the kick panel.




















Drivers side



















Passenger side


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

JL Audio TR690-cxi Door Pods
Here are some pictures of the door pods for the 6x9. 

My 4" should be here later today, then I can get to 
finishing the kick panels.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

JL Audio TR400-cxi Kick panels
Got my speakers today at around 10 AM. I've been working on the kick panels off and on all day. I got finished putting resin on them about 11 PM

Here are some pictures.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Fleece & resin applied:


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Kick panels ready for covering.
I got the kick panels Sanded today, (sanding fiber glass is is pain in the gl-a$$)

Here are a few more pictures. I am guessing that next I will remove the seats and the carpet get the carpet cleaned, or possibly buy a new one preferably dark gray or granite gray.

While the carpet and seats are out I will address removing the hump in the back of the cab so that the sub enclosure will fit better.

After thats taken care of I will start running wires for the stereo install.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Modified kick panels
I was in the middle of making a post last night, and my 3 year 
old shut the computer down. So I'll take another stab at it today.

I made some changes to the kick panels, it seems that JL Audio 
has changed their opinion on the placement of tweeters.

Ten years ago when I bought the 1" tweeters JL said that you 
could place the tweeter as far as 18" away from the midrange 
driver.

But now JL says that you cant place the tweeter more than 4" 
away from the midrange. So I cut a hole in the kick panel and 
made a ring for the tweeter and fiberglassed it in.

Here are a few pictures of the modified kick panels.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

briankmizell said:


>


Does anyone else see a face in the bondo in this picture?


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

More pictures





































I am feeling a bit intimidated about stretching material around these babies without getting wrinkles in them.

I hope it all works out.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Power cable
I need to buy some connectors so I can hook it up to the battery.

Here is one idea I had for a connector.
2/0 ELEC-BAT Terminal










I figure I can hook my amp power cable in one end and 
all the other power cables for the truck in the other end.


Pictures of power cable.




















I need to buy a fuse holder and place here. 
(not sure wat size fuze I will need maybe 150 amp)












I really didn't want to run the power cable here 
(picture below) 
But I had no other choice. I may have to find a way 
to shield the power cable to keep any unwanted noise 
from entering the x-over.











Power cable in rear of cab.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

JL Audio XR653 X-over
XR653 X-over mounted in kick panel area.












I had to relocate something that I think was
for the cruise control, its now located to the left
ofthe brake pedal on the firewall.



















Monster Cable THX RCA's


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I got the hump 
cut out of the back of the cab. I have the sheet metal
temp in place with self tapping screws. I need to get
that welded in place and bondo it and prime it.


Below, you can see where I removed the hump from the back of the cab, the carpet doesn't cover the floor there. 

The sub enclosure will hide this.










The black cable between the seats is the power cable. It will be shortened, I will put a power distribution block there and run 4 gauge power cable back under the carpet over to the amps.





This is the back of the cab, I didnt have the right color of paint, I didnt want it to rust so I just put some old paint I had on it.










I used three big bolts and washers to hold the sub enclosure to the cab. Main reason was to keep theives from getting the box, second reson was to help keep the box from vibrating against the cab. I did use some sealant to keep air from leaking out, and to keep water from leaking into it.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I got the kick panels, door pods and the sub enclosure covered with some black (leather like material) from wal-mart. 

The material was $15.88 for 2 yards, and I spent just about $20 on adhesive to apply it.

This is the first time I have tried this so it is by far not perfect, but it doesn't look too bad.

I will tell you now, if you dont have much patients (dont attempt this part of the project) I spent about 20 hours covering all this stuff (granted I have my limitations and that slows me down) so others could probably do it in one day (8 hrs).

Stretching and forming it to the contours was the major PITA, the more I did it the easier it got (but still I was ready to be finished with this part yesterday) I worked three nights on it about 6 1/2 to 7 hrs each night.

Here are the pictures.
























































At first I thought this was some extremely strong glue (I got it at wal-mart for $9.99) it took two cans to do every thing.











This glue is so strong that when I first put the material on the sub box, I didn't have it on straight; I had my son's & daughter help me. We had to pull it off (this wasn't more than 2 minutes after sticking it down) I was on one end and my daughter on the other and my son's on each side. 

When we lifted up the material thinking it would just pull right off, it lifted the entire sub enclosure off of the table. That thing weighs (I'm guessing) around 50 pounds. I was impressed with this glue. Needless to say, I don't think that material is coming off any time soon. And it will not be an easy task to remove it.

Why I say I thought it was strong at first, is because it stick fine to porous surfaces, but when trying to glue material like the vinyl on top of another material like it. When the sun gets it warm it will come loose. I have been told to try 3M™ Super 77™ Multipurpose Adhesive










Now I need to purchase some electrical connections and my $200 140 amp alternator


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

Wholly schmolly! Pretty nifty how you made a passive three-way front stage there.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

As you can see, the Mazda 626 alternator fits quite nicely.


I really need to repaint the crank pulley. My plans were different for the colors of the truck when I rebuilding the engine. I was going to paint the truck Cobalt blue and black. Now its going to be Tangelo Pearl and black.

626 140 amp alternator.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Here is the orange vinyl I got for part of the door panels, Its gonna be brite!


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Well I have had this thing all wired up, and just finished removing the dash to die it satin black.

I did my door panels, and got all the door handles died satin black.

As for now I have is my sons ****** v3 for pics. I will try and take some pics to see how they turn out. I might even do a video if it doesnt sound distorted like so many video cameras will sound when recording the loud audio systems.

As for the stereo, its sounds pretty **** good considering I used JL TR co-axials and the JL 15W3 I would really have loved to use all the XR components and teh W6 or W7 subwoofer. But the prices for that stuff is astronimical.

I currently have two batteries hooked up, thats the only reason I can listen to it loud now, since I cant start it. 

But the custom 140 amp Mazda 626 alt I have pumps out plenty of juice. Before I had the stereo wired up, The battery was run down, I just started it, and then removed the jumper cables. I let it run mabye 10 minutes and the battery gauge in my radio said it was putting out 14.8 volts.

I shut it off and the gauge said it had 12.45 volts just after 10 minutes of charging.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I need to get some some sort of Dyna-mat for the doors. With bass notes that peak at about 200 Hz the doors resonate bad.

I just got through taking some pics with my phone, it takes better pics than my sons iphone v3

One thing I am not happy with is the color of dye the paint store made for me. I used it on the plastic kick panels and the dash parts. 

The guy proclaimed to be the best color matcher in town. But my vinyl is much brighter than the dye he mixed up.

I think it would have matched better if I just used hunter safety orange.....lol

I will upload those pics to my photobucket, and get them shared.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Here are the not so good pics, so sorry for the quality. I will buy another camera when uncle same gets my refund to me.... hopefully by march.

The color is really bad with these pictures. I want to get some black seats out of something sporty.






















I also painted the little vent under the column, I still need to paint the shifter, & I found some new black handles that open the doors on ebay, they are $19 each, but they have a chrome handle.

I seen a black Mazda3 steering wheel that was only $60, but I don't know if it will fit the truck.

Note the color difference between the vinyl on the door panels and the kick panel I painted.....that guy can really match paint.....lol







































Not much room left, if your over 5' 6" tall don't go with a 15" sub. this one had a mounting depth of just about 8 1/2". I thought it was only 7 1/4", thats why I had to make it cone out in the front. 

That ended up making the woofer fit in the box, but then I had to modify the cab by removing the hump in the back.












The speaker is centered, I just wasn't holding the camera in the center of the truck when I took the picture.











Some better pics I took a while back with the good camera.

That large black wire is my 00 gauge power cable or Double ought as some call it. It has 100 amp fuse with in 12" of the battery, and each amp has a fuse. (30 amp fuse for the 250/1 and 40 amp fuse for the 300/2)











The feet of the seats (where they bolt to the floor) really need to be cleaned up and painted semi gloss black.

But since i am wanting new seats, it will have to wait.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Its odd how the camera will show things differently than what our eyes see.

I have several different pics of the carpet, and many of them show light spots in the color of the carpet. 

With my naked eye, I cant see anything like this. Makes me wonder if the light spots seen in the picture will later be the first place to fade from sunlight.

I have seen this happen before with a truck my buddy had, it was an 87 B2000 we had it painted whited with neon orange paint drips.

When he first brought it home, I noticed that the longer you looked at it in the sunlight, there would be light spots in it. About a year down the road it started fading in the same spots that looked like to us in the sunlight.

When it was cloudy, you couldn't see any light spots.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Originally Posted by [email protected] 
Looks good. How does it sound?

Do ur amps overheat under the seat?




It sounds pretty dang good, its not the best, but I am sort of picky when it comes to sound quality.

The amps have not overheated, they don't even get hot enough to make you pull your hand away. I have sit in the garage listening to it for 1 to 2 hours non stop. i checked them and not even hot enough to burn you.

JL Audio told me that I would probably want to upgrade to a JL 500/1, but in my honest opinion, the JL 250/1 is just a little more power than that sub (JL 15W3-D2) needs.

Who knows maybe its the enclosure I built or just the acoustics of single cab truck.

If I were to do anything different with this particular install, I would get the high end mid bass, midrange, and tweeters (possibly the JL Audio ZR series) and instead of having a 300/2, I would get a 300/4 and bridge it. It might need the JL 500/1 with two 12" subs. 

I would put two 12" subs in the rear, the 8" ZR mid bass in the doors, (that would need a lot of Dyna-mat) and I would use 5 1/4" mid range and 1" tweeters.

I think the 8" in the doors would bring more of the bass impact up front, instead of it all being behind you.


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## Stoph (Jan 14, 2009)

man seeing that truck brings back memories  haha

had a B2000 and a B2200 extended cab myself.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Originally Posted by [email protected] 
I'm digging it Brian!!!
I don't know if I would like it sticking out so far, but very good work!!!













I was going through this thread and thought I would comment on the placement of my speakers.

I first angled the 6x9's like that for imaging.... but later decided to use the 6x9's as mid bass speakers.

I now whished that I would have just flush mounted them and chose an 8" midbass or two 6 1/2" mid bass.... its a pain to get your foot into the truck with out scraping the speakers.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Stoph said:


> man seeing that truck brings back memories  haha
> 
> had a B2000 and a B2200 extended cab myself.


 used to have an 87 B2000 extended cab, I had Cerwin Vega speakers and some cheap @ss Profile amplifiers. I sounded ok for an amateur install...lol

I had two 12" subs in the rear and two 6 1/2" midbass in the rear ( I know bad placement) I was a newbie then...lol

My midrange were two 4" mounted in the dash (pointing downwards...lol) I had two tweeter I mounted in the dash just above the A/C vents.

Here's some 20 year old pics of the truck that I put on cardomain.com 

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3373915/1987-mazda-b-series-cab-plus


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## Stoph (Jan 14, 2009)

first build I had in the truck was just some crappy components and (3) 8w6's in the back hehe. After that I bagged the truck so it could lay frame and then upgraded to a boston pro 12 and some diamond comps. man I miss that truck


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

I really miss my 87, when I got it the motor was worn out bad, I spent big money rebuilding it, (400 bucks just on head work) $300 on pistons the list goes on.... 

The jerk that pressed the pins in my pistons, put one of the rods on back wards. I can't be completely sure that was the cause of the rod bearing spinning. But It certainly couldn't have helped it any.

So I got pissed, pulled out the 4 banger an put a chevy 350 in it with a 700R4 Transmission. 

That thing hauled some serious @ss.

I could get from 0-90MPH in just under 1/10th of a mile. After that it was pretty much topped out. The 3.90:1 gears and 195/60/15 made it turn way too many RPMs.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Notloudenuf said:


> Does anyone else see a face in the bondo in this picture?


Woah!

That's kinda freaky.... slightly resembles the face of Jesus Christ. I guess its true he has his eyes on us all the time... lol


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

chithead said:


> Wholly schmolly! Pretty nifty how you made a passive three-way front stage there.


thank you


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## DJ Big O (Apr 12, 2011)

very slick, tanglo is gonna really make it pop!!!!


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

Mmmm... ZR800 in the doors would be NASTY. I love those things!


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

chithead said:


> Mmmm... ZR800 in the doors would be NASTY. I love those things!



Yeah I thought so too, but when I was doing the build I searched and searched for some ZR800 that were in my price range.

After a few weeks of looking I gave up and found the JL 6x9 3 ways on ebay used for $29.00

Cant beat that with a stick.... lol


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## focused313 (Apr 19, 2012)

love the kick panels you made. I need to look for that material at walmart.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

Thought I would post of upgrades done to the truck. 

We put a 1992 Chevy 4.3l with Edelbrock performer intake, Edelbrock 500 CFM carb, some stainless steel headers for a Chevy s-10 modified to clear the steering shaft. 

The heads were milled .025 thousandths of an inch, my son plans to put a larger cam in it later down the road.

It had a TH350 tranny, (really needs the 700R4) or just to swap the rear end for one from an s-10 or something with a gear ratio better than 3.90:1

The brakes really need to be upgraded as well, they get hot trying to stop the added weight from the engine and the stereo equipment.

Here are some pics and a video of it running.


















This is where we modified the header, these were for an S-10, they are made to have the center tube go around the steering shaft. The tube hit the steering shaft on the Mazda B2200, so we had to order some stainless tube from ebay and modify it.






This is what the header looked like before it was modded.









Finished install:




Distributor clearance:





Homemade transmission crossmember, we put a new pan on it after this picture:


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

*Video of the 4.3 running*

Short video of it running, we aim to paint it before long. The Tangelo Orange and black paint has already been purchased.

1989 Mazda B2200 v6 - YouTube


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## ben54b (May 30, 2014)

Nice work. Great useage of fg and bondo. should look great when finished.


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## briankmizell (May 4, 2011)

ben54b said:


> Nice work. Great useage of fg and bondo. should look great when finished.


Thanks Ben


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