# '01 Accord Build Log (Alpine, Zapco, TC Sounds)



## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

This is my first build log because I finally have decided on the equipment to use and those who know me, know I haven't had a complete setup because it has always been changing. First, I'll list what I'll be running.

Headunit: Alpine W200
Mids & Tweeters: Zapco Competition (6.5")
Subwoofer: 18" TC Sounds TC-5200 (Quad Voice Coil)
Fronts Amp: Alpine PDX 4.150
Sub Amps: 4 Alpine PDX 1.1000 (1 per coil)
Processor: Alpine H701
Navigation: Alpine Blackbird B100 via dock connected to the W200
Enclosure: Wedge style, approximately 2.5 - 3.5 cu. ft. sealed
Power and ground wire: Kicker Hyperflex
RCA's: Custom (Canare cable and Tara Labs RCA)
Optical Cable: Tara Labs
Batteries: Odyssey PC 1200 under hood, Odyssey PC 2150 in trunk
Deadener: Second Skin
- Trunk lid - 1 layer damplifier, 3 layers (soon to be 4 or 5) of Spectrum
- Trunk walls and floor - 3 layers of Spectrum
- Top of rear deck - 3 layers (soon to be 4 or 5 layers of spectrum)
- Bottom of rear deck - 2 layers (soon to be 3 or 4 layers of spectrum)
- Front doors inner portion - 1 layer of Damplifer, 1 layer of Ultra Kill, speaker tweaker pad
- Front door outter portion - 1 layer of Damplifier, 1 layer of Rattle Pad

I really don't know how long this will take me and things take longer than I expect so I have no set completion date. Some of the work has been done already, but a good part hasn't.

I will be getting the Zapco CK 16.2 set on Friday and hopefully I can get them to fit. I will more than likely have to cut my speaker grill off the door panel and fab up my own grilles since depth will more than likely be an issue. Right now I want to get the design ready to go, which it pretty much, just need to make the RCA's, and once I get the enclosure built, all that is left is install. 

Here is my layout for the amps and processor. As shown in the first pic below, this is how it will look. However, I will have 2 amps stocked on the bottom portion. Those will be the 1.1000's while the one on the top to the left of where the processor will be is the 4.150. I have just barely enough room for everything to fit and barely enough room for clearance.






































Test fit of the RCA's is shown below. I will be daisy chaining the 1.1000's.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

Good luck!!! I'm just about to finish up my latest version, so it'll be cool to see what others can do!!! My thread is down here somewhere!!


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

Looks to be a great setup!

Trunk layout is also very nice, can't beat the size and power of the PDX and the ability to stack FTW!

I am going to use up 80%-90% plus of my trunk floor with my Zapco Reference setup!

You'll probably lose a big chunk of total trunk space with your sub box also : )


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah I will lose about half the trunk space. It will be almost as tall as the trunk height, almost the same width as the rear width, and come to a lil over half the depth. Much better than before, which was no trunk space at all. 

My other plan was the enclosure in the spare tire well and the amps on the floor of the trunk near the rear seats. That would have left me with the full width and depth of the trunk but only 8-10" of height, which is not ideal for storing much. 

BTW, thanks again Carlos for your help 

Off to check your log lashlee.


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## worlddre (Oct 27, 2007)

fyi ive had issues with pdx1.1000s using the preamp pass through to each other....the one receiving the signal almost always ends up in protection


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

worlddre said:


> fyi ive had issues with pdx1.1000s using the preamp pass through to each other....the one receiving the signal almost always ends up in protection


 I hope I don't run into that issue. it will be a big time downer. Did it matter what volume or gain setting it was on for you?


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## worlddre (Oct 27, 2007)

last one was using a cda-9887 and around volume 20 with the gains matched via dmm it always did it on the one 2nd in line


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Hmmm, I guess I can play with it a little. Only thing is I don't really have subs that can take that much power...guess i can just try it out with my eD EHQS 8's , but ill most likely have to have the gains set all the way down. Did by any chance you switch the order?


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## worlddre (Oct 27, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Hmmm, I guess I can play with it a little. Only thing is I don't really have subs that can take that much power...guess i can just try it out with my eD EHQS 8's , but ill most likely have to have the gains set all the way down. Did by any chance you switch the order?


yeah i switched order and it still did it...stopped when we ended up y-splitting the rcas....at the same time this was only with two 1.1000s so it was more of an option then with 4


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## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

Can I make a suggestion? Blue or green tape to cover up those amps and keep them as pretty as they are. You never know when a piece of wood will slip out of your hands. Good start though, good gear.

Juan


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

worlddre said:


> yeah i switched order and it still did it...stopped when we ended up y-splitting the rcas....at the same time this was only with two 1.1000s so it was more of an option then with 4


Hmmm, I'll see what kind of luck I have. If I end up y-splitting, I wonder how I could make my own...somehow I don't think I can 



OldOneEye said:


> Can I make a suggestion? Blue or green tape to cover up those amps and keep them as pretty as they are. You never know when a piece of wood will slip out of your hands. Good start though, good gear.
> 
> Juan


Thanks . And you're right, anything can happen, I should have protected those amps better, but I was being lazy. I actually almost did drop a piece of wood though, got lucky and it hit the frame.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I forgot to mention, the goal of this setup isn't necessarily to get loud. I know the first thing that comes to one's mind when you see 4,000w and an 18" sub is SPL. I'm more into being able to hear my music. I will be playing mostly at moderate levels, but every now and then I have the urge to crank the volume.


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## fit_tuner (Aug 14, 2006)

he likes his bass deep and hard hitting...


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Just started making one of the RCA's and it didn't work. Seems like the pin on the RCA end is not going in. The clear dielectric is very stiff. I have my heat gun in the garage and it's too late to go out. I'm thinking about heating it and then putting the RCA end on, but not sure if that will work. Another idea I have is using a thumbtack and heating the metal portion and pushing it into the dielectric to create a hole and then putting in the RCA end. If neither of these work, I'll have to find some other coaxial cable that has a softer dielectric. The one I currently use for home will work, but it is thin and I will need a couple layers of heat shrink to make up for it. If anyone has any ideas other than the ones I mentioned I'd really appreciate it. I really don't want to buy more wire and let 50' ft. go to waste.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

BTW if you need any pointers on how to get our interior apart, let me know. I probably have pics as well!!!


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Thanks lashlee. I'll be sure to ask ya if I run into problems.

Started doing some more planning. Here is where the battery will go. As you can see it is uneven.










To solve this, I found a scrap piece of 3/4" MDF and it did the trick. It's pretty even. There is a block of wood for comparison.



















Here is how the battery will be placed. I will be making a box for it and bolt it to the chassis.










Onto the doors. I will need to use 3/4" and possibly 1" baffles instead of the 1/2" baffles that are currently installed once I get the Zapco's in and the speaker will be pushing up against the grill so I have to take them off. I wish it were clips that were holding them in place, but the clips were actually melted, thanks Honda (bastards). I used a hot razor blade to cut them and popped them off with a screwdriver. Some pics as shown below.



















The tape measure shows the melted clips.














































I'll be needing to make a custom grill, though I'm not quite too sure how to go about that, so any suggestions would be great. Here's how it looks with the P.O.S. stock mid.










And for the bass heads, captured a quick video. The enclosure is actually 2.5 cubes sealed net and you will hear an odd sound in the video. I have a couple air leaks and I sealed those up after taking the video. The rattle you hear comes from some foam tape I put on a metal bar that attaches to the bumper. It actually created rattles so I will be taking that off and replacing it with rattle pad. As mentioned in the video, it is seeing 1,000w. The enclosure that I will be using will be about the same size, possibly .5 - 1 cu. ft. larger and will be a wedge style. It will also face into the cabin and I'll be sealing it off. It will also see 4 times the power.

In comparison to when I had the sub running off 3kw and in 5 cubes sealed, I lost a lot of lowend, but it gets pretty loud off just 1k.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wK--xWab1eE


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

donpisto said:


>


Hee hee. Did you make those tiny RCAs by hand?


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## Hernan (Jul 9, 2006)

worlddre said:


> fyi ive had issues with pdx1.1000s using the preamp pass through to each other....the one receiving the signal almost always ends up in protection


Are them stacked? Temp...


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

HondAudio said:


> Hee hee. Did you make those tiny RCAs by hand?


Yep, very simple, but I have to order the proper wire, this one was a bit different than I needed.



Hernan said:


> Are them stacked? Temp...


Would that be reason or is it a guess?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Since it might take up to 3 weeks to get the proper wire that I need for the RCA's, there really is not much I can do so I'll entertain you guys with some pictures of previous work I have done to the vehicle, such as deadening the doors, installing the navigation, and anything else I come accross in my old pics.

I will be using butt plugs (try not to laugh) for connecting the TR-7 bypass to the W200 since I have them twisted and electrical tape around. I will also be re wiring my Ai-Net cable since it partly goes through the center of the vehicle and along the side, I was in a hurry at the time of the install. The current optical cable will also be replaced so I'll be doing those two in the meantime as well.

I'll start with the doors. I have a picture somewhere of how the factory door looks without the panel. There was a plastic sheet covering the door so I took that off and also took off some of the tacky dough, or whatever was used on the door to keep the plastic in place.










One layer of Damplifier on the inner door.










One layer of Ultra Kill over the Damplifier.










Speaker tweaker pad over the Damplifier.










One layer of Damplifier on outer portion of the door.










One layer of Rattle Pad over the Damplifier. It looks a bit different now since I had issues of the door panel clips staying on. I also used velcro to keep the Rattle Pad in place.










Onto part of the trunk and the trunk lights. Here is a before picture, quite dirty as you can see.




























Cleaned it up a little bit.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Applied Spectrum.




























I added some 3/4" foam tape, but I'm going to replace it since it makes the lights stick out a tiny bit, just a few mm. I might use some Ultra Kill or Rattle Pad or even strips of Damplifier.










Completed picture, looks like nothing was done 










Also, now that I have the time and I have nearly a full gallon of spectrum leftover, along with putting more of it on the rear deck, trunk lid, and such, I will put a couple layers on the front doors and maybe a layer or two on the rear doors. Rear doors don't have any deadener, but they could be deadened to reduce some road noise. I think I will also order another 20 sq. ft. of Damplifier and some Rattle Pad or Ultra Kill.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

for the batterybox, I really recommend the ABS molded boxes available at automotive and marine supply stores. They take all the work out of making the box, come pre-able to route wires, look good with no need to finish, and come with all the strapping you need to both tie down the box, battery, and lid all in one shot.

All that is needed beyond that is a custom acid vent at the bottom and you are good to go.

With the wiring access portion of the lid turned away from the trunk, the whole thing will look well finished.


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## pianist (Mar 10, 2006)

fantastic stuff, i've been wanting to see how those lousy speaker grilles were removed without screwing up the door panel..you saved me a lot of time and energy


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Whiterabbit said:


> for the batterybox, I really recommend the ABS molded boxes available at automotive and marine supply stores. They take all the work out of making the box, come pre-able to route wires, look good with no need to finish, and come with all the strapping you need to both tie down the box, battery, and lid all in one shot.
> 
> All that is needed beyond that is a custom acid vent at the bottom and you are good to go.
> 
> With the wiring access portion of the lid turned away from the trunk, the whole thing will look well finished.


Thanks for the tip, it will make things much easier. I'm definitely going to look into that. You mentioned something about a custom acid vent, what would this before and can you elaborate a bit on it? Thanks.



pianist said:


> fantastic stuff, i've been wanting to see how those lousy speaker grilles were removed without screwing up the door panel..you saved me a lot of time and energy


The hot blade got messed up because I was using one of those mini ones and the plastic melted so the razor started sliding out. I ended up using a solder and it did the trick but came out cleaner using the razor. I was trying to figure it out as well but went to a shop and the installer told me how to do it, so I guess you can thank him, I just provided pics, lol.


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## trunks9_us (Oct 25, 2007)

hey quick question i have never seen anyone sound deaden there head lights/tail lights do they rattle?


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## Vestax (Aug 16, 2005)

trunks9_us said:


> hey quick question i have never seen anyone sound deaden there head lights/tail lights do they rattle?


All 6th gen tail lights rattle pretty bad. I haven't seen anyone deaden it yet.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah they rattled quite a bit. When I take them off I'm going to do another layer. I ordered some more deadener, rattle pad, and sludge activator. Going to deaden the hood. I also did some deadening and I'll post pictures, probably tomorrow.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Still think your build is great! Can I suggest...


donpisto said:


> Also, now that I have the time and I have nearly a full gallon of spectrum ...
> ....
> Rear doors don't have any deadener, but they could be deadened to reduce some road noise.


 On the subject of road noise. Locally in Aus, we had a person apply (brush on) deadner to his wheel arches.
His first hand experiance suggested great improvements in road noise, or better put, less road noise transfer into the cabin. Something to consider.
Here's the link http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=539591&hl=


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

syd-monster said:


> Still think your build is great! Can I suggest...
> 
> On the subject of road noise. Locally in Aus, we had a person apply (brush on) deadner to his wheel arches.
> His first hand experiance suggested great improvements in road noise, or better put, less road noise transfer into the cabin. Something to consider.
> Here's the link http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=539591&hl=


Hmmm, interesting. If I have enough spectrum leftover I will go ahead and do this, couldn't hurt I guess. And if I run out of deadener and I still have major areas that I want to cover, then I will order more spectrum. I have 3/4 of a gallon leftover and I'd like to do the bottom and top of the rear deck twice, the trunk lid once with sludge or twice with spectrum, or once with sludge and once with spectrum, the firewall and hood with one, possibly two layers of sludge. Tire wells will the next thing. I should have enough I think...at least I hope. Pics of most current deadening to come tomorrow morning. Left the camera in the car and I don't feel like going outside to get it.


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## Whiterabbit (May 26, 2006)

the acid vent is not only iasca friendly, it is a genuine safety concern. The ultimate goal is to have NO battery acid touch any part of the car in the event of an acid leak.

As an aside, all batteries have acid inside. The sealed ones or the AGM ones have the acid suspended in a glass fiber matrix which is not immune to leakage. Futhermore, in the event of an overvoltage or overcharge situation, a sealed battery can not emit hydrogen (but does anyways) which can lead to ruptured batteries or in the worst case, explosion. Keep that in mind when designing electrical protection.

To design the iasca friendly acid vent, a simple hole in the enclosure and trunk will suffice. Then, a flange to prevent acid leaks from fatigue between a vinyl hose and the ABS box. Finally, a vinyl hose that extends just far enough below the metal floor such that acid leaking out will avoid touching the car.

The vinyl hose and flange are epoxied to the batterybox, and the vinyl hose just slips through the hole in the trunk floor. Then the whole thing is cinched down with the batterybox strap (the $13 ABS batterybox will come with the strap and hardware for mounting).

combination of sound deadener and weatherstripping in appropriate places prevents water from backfilling into the trunk.

I've yet to find a good plastic flange but I KNOW it is out there. I used brass for my last battery box and reinforced vinyl tubing found in every hardware store.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

This is how much Spectrum I have left...more than I thought 










Decided to do the rear doors. Originally I had mentioned I would post a pic of what the front doors looked like, well it is exactly how this one looks.



















Took the plastic cover off and you can see 7 years of dirt, ew!



















This is the sticky residue, kind of like a sticky dough.










Cleaned the door and took off as much of the sticky residue without spending too much time on it since it really doesn't matter.










All dried up after 1 layer



















I ended up doing one more layer on the inside of the door. I noticed that it did help a little, I haven't driven the car yet, but I'm sure road noise will decrease as well.

Decided to do the front door. This picture is with 1 layer of Spectrum. I did 2 layers but forgot to take a picture after the 2nd layer was on. It looks much better with the 2nd layer.










Not sure how those two layers will help, probably will elimante some road noise, maybe not, I just did it for the heck of it.

Here is underneath the rear seats, quite dirty as you can see.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Vacuumed and cleaned with a damp towel.



















And one layer applied.



















I might do another layer, but for now I want to save for what is more important, like the top and bottom of the rear deck, trunk lid, hood, and tire wells. If I have any leftover I will go over the bottom of the rear seats and anything else I come across. I have also put expanding foam in the rear quarter panel and it help ALOT! I do not have pictures, but once I take the panels off in the rear I will take some quick photos. I plan to put expanding foam in the C pillars sine they are pretty dense. I'm supposed to pick up the Zapco's today so hopefully they'll be there when I pick up . Pics of those will be up possibly tomorrow, but Sunday for sure.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

Lookin good!!! I may hit you up on the expanding foam deal!!!


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Ah HA, I knew something was amiss with all the door-deadening-pics I've seen! 

What the hell are people doing with those plastic sheets? Are you just throwing them away when you cover the holes with wood/plastic/metal and putting deadening mat on the inner skin??


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Whiterabbit said:


> the acid vent is not only iasca friendly, it is a genuine safety concern. The ultimate goal is to have NO battery acid touch any part of the car in the event of an acid leak.
> 
> As an aside, all batteries have acid inside. The sealed ones or the AGM ones have the acid suspended in a glass fiber matrix which is not immune to leakage. Futhermore, in the event of an overvoltage or overcharge situation, a sealed battery can not emit hydrogen (but does anyways) which can lead to ruptured batteries or in the worst case, explosion. Keep that in mind when designing electrical protection.
> 
> ...


Is this the same as a "battery vent"? I remember seeing that batteries any place other than the engine compartment had to have some kind of gas vent to the outside of the car.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

HondAudio said:


> Ah HA, I knew something was amiss with all the door-deadening-pics I've seen!
> 
> What the hell are people doing with those plastic sheets? Are you just throwing them away when you cover the holes with wood/plastic/metal and putting deadening mat on the inner skin??


Yeah, I'm throwing mine away. I have no use for it. Also, on the front doors there was a plastic piece, not sure exactly what it was for or why it was there, but I removed it to cover the open space with deadener.


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

donpisto said:


> Yeah, I'm throwing mine away. I have no use for it. Also, on the front doors there was a plastic piece, not sure exactly what it was for or why it was there, but I removed it to cover the open space with deadener.


I understand that plastic piece is to protect the door panel from any water that may be inside the door after rain, a carwash, etc


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## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

donpisto said:


> Yeah, I'm throwing mine away. I have no use for it. Also, on the front doors there was a plastic piece, not sure exactly what it was for or why it was there, but I removed it to cover the open space with deadener.


It's called a moisture barrier. Basically the other stuff you are using accomplishes the same thing.

Juan


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

HondAudio said:


> I understand that plastic piece is to protect the door panel from any water that may be inside the door after rain, a carwash, etc


I'm not too worried about the front doors, there rattle pad will soak up any water, but I've gone through a bit of rain and washing my car and everything seemed to be just fine. On the rear doors there is a section that I probably do need to cover. I'll probably get some plastic or carpet and put it over that little section. You actually can notice in the picture that the plastic isn't completely flat. Guess it couldn't hurt.


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## speakerboy (Oct 2, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Here is underneath the rear seats, quite dirty as you can see.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol. I had a bunch more in the spare tire well, and various screws throughout the car. I just get lazy and don't deal with it...though I found a couple razor's and my work ID under the seat. Not sure how those got there, hehe.


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Hmm. It might help to retain the moisture barrier over the larger holes, then put MDF or whatever over that. It'll protect the MDF so you won't have to coat it with resin.


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## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

HondAudio said:


> Hmm. It might help to retain the moisture barrier over the larger holes, then put MDF or whatever over that. It'll protect the MDF so you won't have to coat it with resin.


Sounds like a pain to do it that way. It's basically a thick plastic tarp. Plus you won't have anything to grab onto. 

Juan


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Well you could run screws through the MDF and into the metal.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Ended up painting spectrum on all of the wheel wells. I did two layers on the front ones and 1 layer on the rear. The front had panels that needed to come off, very simple. Just a few clips and screws.

Three wheel riding 










7 years of dirt, debris, and miscellaneous crap.




























Cleaned up a tad.




























This is just off one wheel well.










This was very handy 










After two layers.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I ended up doing the plastic piece as well, but I did not take pictures of that. Gonna head out shortly so I'll take pics and upload them when I get home later this evening.

I hope I notice a difference in road noise. This entire job took about 4 hours. It was very tiring, my arms and face came out 50% darker, and my back aches...hopefully the lady gives me a nice massage


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Here are the additional pictures. A bit difficult to see since I have the tire on. I noticed a substantial decrease in road noise, even engine noise decreased. I found myself doing 90 on the highway instead of 80 since I go by the sound of the engine, so I'd say it was well worth it. Can't wait till I do the hood and firewall


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

donpisto said:


> Here are the additional pictures. A bit difficult to see since I have the tire on. I noticed a substantial decrease in road noise, even engine noise decreased. I found myself doing 90 on the highway instead of 80 since I go by the sound of the engine, so I'd say it was well worth it. Can't wait till I do the hood and firewall


  , well done. I'm glad you put in the effort & the results paid off!


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I'm glad as well  I should get the new coaxial cable for the RCA's today, wish they had the color I wanted, but I guess it doesn't matter since I will be using tech flex over it. I'll be filling in the C pillars with expanding foam and adding another layer of spectrum on the trunk lid and if I don't get lazy, then two layer of spectrum on the bottom of the rear deck. The Zapco's should come in today as well so I might pick them up after work, but UPS may not have arrived at the shop by the time I get off work, so maybe tomorrow I'll have to pick them up. Crossing my fingers though


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Got a nice surprise today. I thought I was going to get just the Canare coaxial cable, but I ended getting the Second Skin products and my federal tax return 



















The cable is more like RG6 in that it does not form back to it's original shape, however, it is still in a sense like RG59 since it is quite flexible as you will see in the following pictures. This length I tested out, and it worked without a problem, thankfully. The wire itself is about 5" in length.



















Here is the sheet of Rattle Pad and 10 sq. ft. of Damplifier, along with the bottle of Sludge Activator.










Better shot of the Sludge Activator.










I'm about to go outside now and fill up the C pillars with expanding foam and do some deadening on the trunk lid and rear deck. I kinda wish I would have ordered more Damplifier so I could lay it on the entire hood and firewall, but I need to save some of it for my baffles and doors.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I added another layer of Spectrum on the trunk lid and put some expanding foam in the C pillars, however I have no clue where it went because it didn't fill up some of holes, it was completely empty. I'll buy another can and see if that will help some more. If not, I'll buy a 3rd and final can and if it doesn't fill up, oh well. 

I also re-ran my Ai-Net cable and replaced the optical cable. Originally the optical and ai-net cables were ran down the center console then under the passenger seat and along the side panels. This time I ran them behind the glove compartment and along the entire side panels. I also hooked up the KCE-900E (unit to allow my Blackbird navigation to get audio since it gets split since I have the H701 processor). Since it required me to use an RCA, I ended up using the Tara Labs RCA ends and the Canare coaxial cable.

Here are pictures of the Blackbird with the dock and the W200.










Blackbird and the KCE-900E










I had to drill a hole to get easy access from the dock to the W200.










I needed to run the wires from the KCE-900E to the processor and instead of making a big circle I drilled another hole and ran it from the right side of the glove compartment, down the right side of the vehicle and to the processor.










Here is as look at some of the wires I've ran. On this particular side it's the Ai-Net, optical, and the two for the navigation. Please don't mind the red wires, those are for the cheap Lanzar tweeters so that I have temporary highs, at least until I get the Zapco's in.










Another shot of wiring










Installed. I moved the KCE-900E further down and the other wire as well so only the dock and Blackbird are visible.










After hooking everything up, everything worked great, except I had no audio for CD's or DVD's. I had picture, but no audio. Took me about 45 mins till I gave up and started cleaning up, looked at the processor and noticed a bright red light...it ended up being that the optical cable was unplugged. Plugged it in and once I heard Kenny G, I jumped with joy . I'm probably going to work on the doors tomorrow and cover up the holes with some sheet metal and then cover with deadener. Hopefully the Zapco's come in this week as well.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Just bought some parts from Honda. I was given a site by lashlee over here (THANKS! )and they have great pricing. I ordered 11 hood clips, 14 door panel clips, 4 clips for the door handle to cover the screw, and 1 piece for the door handle. Shipped cost it $48. I called my local Honda dealer and they wanted $3 a clip for the hood clips. The hood clips from the site I bought them from were $1.25...imagine buying everything from my local dealer. In case anyone with a Honda is interested, the website is http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/

Once I get the hood clips I'll be laying the Damplifier, spectrum, and then a layer of sludge. Hopefully Ant calls me back today so I can place my order for more deadener


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

I'm glad it worked out for ya!!! Good luck with it, and I hit me up if you need anything else!!


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## BoomZilla (Mar 18, 2008)

Damn, thats alot of deadening, i like how you spent alot of time on it, usually no one does, your work will pay off man, and youll have a really nice sounding ride.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I like your avatar Boomzilla, lol. This project has been going on for quite a while going through different gear, but I have not really done much labor up until recently. I used to do things here and there, but lately I've been trying to finish things up.

Just got word that the Zapco's will be here by next Wednesday...hopefully sooner because my right stock mid semi-crapped out on me.


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## BoomZilla (Mar 18, 2008)

lol thanks man, beavis is the shiz, i love that show.
But yea post some pics up when the zapcos come in, ive only seen their amps


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Will definitely do. Today was supposed to be a rest day but my cousin's friend came over and wanted to downgrade his 2 12's to a single 12 so he needed a box. I had one for a 12 that I made into a 15, now it's back to a 12. Triple baffle, lol. Took me too long to do, but at least I'm gaining storage space and $30 in my pocket


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## BoomZilla (Mar 18, 2008)

Cool man, its always good to save money on tha type of stuff. Always remember if you build a box specifically around e subwoofers T/S perameters, youll have tht sub putting out its FULL potential, low powered, or high powered.


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## jj_diamond (Oct 3, 2007)

donpisto said:


>


*seCKsy!*


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

BoomZilla said:


> Cool man, its always good to save money on tha type of stuff. Always remember if you build a box specifically around e subwoofers T/S perameters, youll have tht sub putting out its FULL potential, low powered, or high powered.


Yeah, the guy has JBL subs and specs call for 1 cu. ft. sealed but the enclosure I have is 2 cu. ft. sealed. He said it didn't matter to him just as long as it wont fall apart. It will be a completely "custom" enclosure since it will have drawings and calculations I wrote on the box for my current layout, hehe. I guess he doesn't mind seeing math on the enclosure and he doesn't want to carpet it.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

jj_diamond said:


> *seCKsy!*


Will look much better with blue tech flex when I get it..should come today


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## Thumper26 (Sep 23, 2005)

you should have lined up the set screws on that rca...


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Thumper26 said:


> you should have lined up the set screws on that rca...


It was a test fit. I was mainly concerned whether or not it would work. Thankfully it did because the previous coaxial cable I bought did not work.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

Am i the only one who gets a hard-on off secksy cables?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

You can add me to the list for hard ons


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## speakerboy (Oct 2, 2007)

donpisto said:


> After hooking everything up, everything worked great, except I had no audio for CD's or DVD's. I had picture, but no audio. Took me about 45 mins till I gave up and started cleaning up, looked at the processor and noticed a bright red light...it ended up being that the optical cable was unplugged. Plugged it in and once I heard Kenny G, I jumped with joy .


-1 for Kenny G.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

speakerboy said:


> -1 for Kenny G.


Lol...easy there. Bought it the day before a meet. The lady was rushing me and I am barely getting into jazz so I had no idea what to go with.


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## Brian_smith06 (Jan 31, 2008)

he has mad saxophone skills


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

After 4 long hours I did the first step in deadening my hood. There is some insulation or something, but I took it off. I had to break a couple clips but I have new ones that have already been on the way. Here's the progress so far.

With the insulation/splash guard (whatever its called) taken off.





































Cleaned up and ready for Damplifier.




























Covered the holes that will be used with tape so I don't cover them, and then try to look for the ones that I need to uncover.










Two hours into it and about halfway done.










Decided to take a bit of a break so I decided to drink the drink of champions 










Some of the tech flex I ordered. Not shown is the black that I already have and the red that I will be needing to order. RCA's, speaker wire, power wire, ground wire, optical wire, Ai-Net cable, and navigation RCA will each have their own color.










And four hours, 20 sq. ft. later since the beginning of the project....


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I have not put the insulation/splash guard back on yet since there is no need to put it on and take it back off. Either Saturday or Sunday I will be adding 2 or 3 layers of Spectrum and 1 layer of Sludge.

Engine noise was minimally reduced. I need to do part of the firewall still, so that should help a bit more. It is a little quieter, but with music on at low volumes, it's hard to hear. I got a hose and turned it on full blast. With the hose running I can faintly hear it about 6 ft. away from the car. When I had my cousin spray the fender and then the hood, there was a HUGE difference. So much that it surprised me. I could barely hear it and usually I would sorta feel it, but I didn't feel anything and this is just the beginning. As mentioned I have Spectrum and Sludge to add. The hood itself is a good difference heavier as well. This was well worth it and hearing the difference makes me want to see if I can remove the front fenders and put some spectrum on them.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

you seem to being going all out...motor mat next? or more spectrum on top of that


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Just spectrum. I'm done spending money on deadener. I think $600 is quite plenty. Next vehicle will be intensive, probably around $2-3k. I'm sure Ant will enjoy the day I put in the order.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Picked up the Zapco's yesterday. I like them already and haven't even installed them. Mids are quite a bit heavier than the Iridums and the tweeters looks super sexy. Crossovers simple, but still look pretty nice...though I won't be using them.

Here are several pics.



























































































I also painted 3 layers of Spectrum on the hood. It will see an additional layer of Sludge in a few days. I'll be doing the trunk lid once more with a layer of Spectrum, the rear deck will receive some Damplifier and a couple layers of Spectrum, the C pillars with another layer of Spectrum, and then I will add a layer of sludge to the hood, trunk lid, and top and bottom of the rear deck. If I have any leftover I will probably do the bottom of the rear deck, then top, and if I have more still, then the trunk lid will get another layer of Sludge.




























Tomorrow I will be making new baffles and hopefully I can get the mids in on the first try. I tried using my existing baffle but the cutout was too small so I couldn't check for depth either.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

boobies


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## tyroneshoes (Mar 21, 2006)

great job, youre gonna love those speakers. Those are my favorite tweets I have ever used, still have them going.


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

tyroneshoes said:


> great job, youre gonna love those speakers. Those are my favorite tweets I have ever used, still have them going.


How does the tweeter compare to the Dynaudio md100 and md102? Should of picked up a set : (

Donpisto looking good! I should get off my lazy ass and get to work on my system!

Did you do your fire wall yet?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Haven't done the firewall yet and didn't even do the baffles today. Completely forgot it was Easter. I'll see if I can get around to it tomorrow but it's no guarantee since my gf got me Guitar Hero III for our 3rd year anniversary


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

easter?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol...yes Easter....do celebrate it? I know you're Pakistani, but nowadays, who knows what people do.

Anyhow, I started on the baffles today...all I can say is that all went downhill. a 3/4" baffle is definitely not going to work. The mid still hits the glass. Another issue is that the mid overlaps the holes for the stock location. To overcome this issue I figured I would cut one baffle out first and screw it into the stock location. And for test purposes, use the baffle I had just cut out and screw that into the 1st baffle. The mid would then get screwed into the 2nd baffle. Sine I was using two 3/4" baffles I had more than enough depth, but that brought another problem, the door panel sticking out.

I think I will be fine with a 1" baffle, so I will do two 1/2" baffles. When I do the final product, I will glue the two baffles together and do a combo of eyeballing and using the stock baffle to figure out where the first baffle will be screwed in from. Even with the 1" baffle, I still have overlap from the door panel. Some of the melted clips that were on the speaker grill that I cut off need to be entirely cut off. There are small portions where the inner part of the door panel need to be cut off which isn't a big deal. My only worry is the door panel that will be exposed. I kind of don't want to cut through the door panel. My worry is cutting and messing up and it being visible.

I may (hopefully not) have to put this into the hands of a professional, or maybe another DIY'er who can lend a hand. I'll try and see what I can do tomorrow as far as test fits go and if all goes well, I will work on the final products by gluing the pieces and then screwing into the door, followed by covering the baffles with deadener. The last task will be to make some speaker grills, which it think will be the tricky part. If anyone has suggestions I'd love to hear them.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

First, please excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. It was getting dark outside and I think I left my camera at my gf's house.
Here is how the baffle will be and I will have to cover that open space up with my own grill somehow.










Notice the two different baffles. They are not cut to shape, they were just test fits. The second baffle is way too thin on certain sides.










Portions like these little buggers will need to be cut out, which I'm not worried about and don't mind doing.










About a 1/4" gap between the door panel and the door with 1.5" baffles.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

what is the mounting depth of the zapco?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

2.87".

The 3/4" is just a tad too thin of a baffle. It barely hits the glass. I'm just hoping 1" will do it and I won't have to do 1.25".


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

hmm seems there will be no way for me to fit these Adire Extremises ibought from Justin without heavy modifications


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Those are over 3" aren't they? It will take some work, just don't know how much. Hopefully you don't have to worry about cutting the door panel. Too bad I can't make custom door panels like cv_joint. No door panels would work even better 

BTW, thanks for the link


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

they are close to the 4" range. if your zapcos cant fit no way in hell these will fit at all without cutting that grill off.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol...time for a) new car or b) new door panels

I think you can take on the task of custom door panels. You got mad skills


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

i am looking for a new car. havent decided.

either Lexus is250 or bmw 328i. or option 3 Yamaha R6


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Hmmm..I'd probably go with the Lexus...I'm more of a BMW fan, but the 3 series is too small for me...unless its an M3 . I vote no on the Yamaha...only audio you will have is from the exhaust


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I figured with the state tax refund I'll modify the cosmetics of the vehicle. Got a pretty good deal on this stuff so I figured why not. I got JDM Altezza black tail lights, JDM Black projector lights, and a cold air intake. I installed the tail lights, but need to deaden the back of the lights since they will rattle quite a bit. I probably will even put rattle pad behind them.

As for the headlights, I have to take off the bumper so I'll be working on that tomorrow and hopefully the intake as well. I'll also be buying an HID conversion kit next week 

Here are before and after pictures.

Before:



















After:



















With the lights on (wasn't really dark out at all so you can't really see the full effect).


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## fit_tuner (Aug 14, 2006)

please keep the stock tails on... not much of a fan of ricer boy altezzas... but if u like it, then leave em on...


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

camry_tuner said:


> please keep the stock tails on... not much of a fan of ricer boy altezzas... but if u like it, then leave em on...


+1... those new lights look sh!te.. sorry but the originals look like they belong on the car.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Eh, I like these better, mostly because of the black and they go with the vehicle better than the stock IMO. Plus they will be matching the headlights. The furthest I'm taking mods on the appearance are the lights, intake, and tint later on. I'd get rims, but I don't want to pay 1k when I can use that money towards something else or just save it.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

oh noe :O

i thought you changed your mind last night


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

fair enough. Go for it! It's is YOUR car. Afterall, opinions are just like an ars#hole.. everyone's got one.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah, don't worry, you're not the only one who doesn't like them. Several people aren't fond of them and I have no problem with that. There have been people who think they look nice as well. What really matters is that I like them. I didn't buy them for anyone else's pleasure, just mine .

Anyways, I got the cold air intake installed today, a pain to get the stock piece out. I had to take out the front bumper and part of the fender. I'll have pictures later. I'll admit, it is a bit more on the ricer side because it's louder once the VTEC kicks in and if I'm accelerating fast, but it sounds nice. Other than that you can't really notice it with normal driving and for $35 bucks hopefully I see a difference with better gas mileage.

I was going to buy an HID conversion kit, but I found out the projector lights I got are not compatible with them. In a way that's good, because it's money I can save and I can get the headlights in already. I was going to wait till I got the HID's. I'll probably install the lights on Friday and my car will FINALLY get a wash after maybe 4 months. I was going to wait till my car was completely finished and get a full blown detail, but I'll stick to a regular wash by myself for the meantime.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

how is that possible its not compatible? those kits fit stock harnesses...your new headlamp should still use the stock harness....doesnt add up..


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Megalomaniac said:


> how is that possible its not compatible? those kits fit stock harnesses...your new headlamp should still use the stock harness....doesnt add up..


Not sure, unless I'm misunderstanding the item description. Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/98-9...ryZ33710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm assuming now that maybe it means I would still need to get a conversion kit. I don't know...any idea?


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

hmm now i see those projectors use a completely different light it looks like, and has a harness so it can still integrate with factory..

the hid kit will not work due to it wont fit since its not using stock fittings for the lamps..

how gay


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

Any updates on the zaps? I am going to see if my stuff is finally here.

I am hoping to take my car in on Monday to get my install done unless my engine arrives.


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## lostsuspect21 (Mar 28, 2008)

alot of sound deadener lol lookin good bro


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

More deadener to come...Gonna do the wheel wells some more, probably several layers more of spectrum.

As for the Zap's, haven't done any audio updates lately, been resting on that. I'll start on the weekend or sometime next week. I might move the tweeters to the a pillars though. Gotta visit a junkyard first.


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

I think there are a couple of junkyards out by Irwindale speedway that are probably close to you.

Also if you check out the recycler you will find all the yards that specialize in Honda.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah, I know of a few by Irwindale Speedway. That is actually about 3-5 mins from my house.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

hurry up with the stereo install, all these exterior cosmetics can wait


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol. I mixed some sludge activator with the gallon of spectrum and wow, that stuff is thick! I put on some gloves and spread a nice and thick layer on the front wheel wells, along with a layer of spectrum before that, another thick layer of sludge on the top and bottom of the rear deck, and a thick layer on the trunk lid. Tomorrow I will add a layer of sludge to the rear wheel wells and if I have any leftover I will do the trunk bottom of the rear deck for sure and either the hood or the trunk lid again.

I think the trunk lid is fine though, it has a layer of Damplifier, 5 layers of Spectrum and one layer of sludge. I also put a layer of damplifier, 2 layers of spectrum, and 1 layer of sludge on the firewall on the engine side, but since there is so little room to work with I was only able to do pretty much the top portion. I would really need for everything to come out, well mainly the engine, in order to do the entire firewall as I would like. That would kill a great amount of road noise.

I also installed the projector lights and they are brighter and the beams are wider than the stock. I still have to connect the wires for the little circles that light up. I do need help with that though. If anyone knows how I can get the positive/power wire connected so that it turns on when the headlights turn on I'd really appreciate it. I will have some pictures up of what I did yesterday and what I will do tomorrow up around noon or so. I plan to wash my car so it won't have layers dirt either


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Haven't posted in a while, but I've done little work here and there. I put the splash guard back onto the hood, installed the head lights and cold air intake, and deadened a bit more.

Pics of headlights installed:
































































I put a layer of damplifier, 2 layers of spectrum, and 1 layer of sludge on the firewall (engine side), but unfortunately I couldn't do the entire firewall, just the top portion which probably covers about 10-15% of the entire firewall. I would need to pull out the engine in order to do the rest and I'm not wanting to do that at all. It's hard to see the difference between the before and after pictures, but nonetheless, here they are.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I mixed up the sludge activator with the spectrum and man, that stuff is THICK! I did some thick layers on all the surfaces I covered and did so by putting on a latex glove and spreading with my hand. Much easier and quicker than using a putty knife. I did the front wheel wells with 1 layer, though may have been two, I can't quite remember.Also when I had done the wheel wells before with spectrum, I did the front quarter panels as well. I did the front quarter panels with a layer of sludge too. I actually noticed a difference once doing the layer of sludge on the quarter panels.

Sludge on the wheel wells










The top of the rear deck with one layer










The bottom of the rear deck with two layers










The trunk lid with one layer










I still have some left, so I'll probably do the bottom of the rear deck again or the trunk lid...i'll do both if I have enough though.

I also put deadener over some of the holes in the rear doors. I didn't bother with sheet metal because I didn't feel like it and I still have some deadener left over, about 7 sq. ft. I'll have to figure out where that will go.

I have not worked on the baffles yet either...well, I actually was yesterday until my cousin brought over his sister's 6 month old. She was sitting in my car playing video games, rather my cousin was playing, she was pretend playing, and I didn't want to do any wood cutting while she was around. I did cut parts of the door panel where the mids might be be touching the panel. If it doesn't rain today I will work on the baffles.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

Clean up your engine bay mang! and your wires are run kinda weird. also you need more techflex 


cool stuffs


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yeah they are...I have to re-do my big 3 and I still need to put the tech flex on those wires. Going to replace the Kicker fuse holder with a nicer Kicker fuse holder I have as well. I just noticed I never put the power wire that goes along the firewall back where its supposed to be. Gonna start working on the baffles now.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Just got done working on the baffles and it was going quite well till I had actually cut them out and did a test fit. Everything went downhill from there. With two baffles, a total of 1", the mid had perfect clearance depth-wise. Unfortunately, the basket was still hitting the door so I figured I'd give it a shot and add another 0.5" baffle. The mid went in perfectly, no issues.

Just by looking at it, it looked like it extended quite a bit. I put the door panel on and it doesn't come near fitting on properly. I cut part of the door panel again, and even accidentally cut part of the exterior of the door panel, , and it still would not fit. I have about 1" of a gap to fill.

My only option that I can think of is to cut a good chunk out of the dark brown (lower) portion of the door panel around where the baffle would go. I know the baffles are in squares in the pictures, but even if I cut them in the shape so it would fit inside the huge hole (where the speaker grill used to be) it may not work because of the mounting holes. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking that it might be possible to actually do that, but I'll have to double check some other day.

I actually do have a second option, which is to have a shop or maybe even another DIY'er who can make this all look real nice. If anyone knows they can do this type of work and make it look real good, let me know.

Also, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to blurt it out. I'm open to suggestions, because there may be things I'm not thinking of that could help me a great a mount.

Anyhow, on with the pictures. Here's a picture of what the mid WOULD look like if everything fit properly.










Side view of the gap










Top view of the gap










Side shot










Where I screwed up like an idiot and cut through the door panel










Baffles with the door panel off




























Plenty of mounting depth










Just not enough mounting width


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## glidn (Apr 21, 2007)

Hmm will it help if you round off all the sides of your baffle? Maybe the square baffles are getting caught that way.


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## speakerboy (Oct 2, 2007)

Since you've spaced the mid out so far, is there any way you might be able to move it back towards the rear of the door so that it fits at least through the factory speaker hole? From there you can figure out a grill situation. It looks like it might fit with a little convincing.


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## shinjohn (Feb 8, 2006)

Having this gen Accord myself, I think you need to redo your baffles as a first step.
- I know you tried to make them thin, but the pictures make them seem alot thicker than you need to clear the glass. Get the thickness down. You can get 1/8" and 1/4" material to laminate together. Or if you have access to a table saw with the right fence/fixturing, you can thin down a thick piece of MDF.
- Cut the baffle out to be the same size as the speaker basket, adding only a couple of "tabs" to hold the baffle to the door metal. Or make simple donuts and screw the baffle to the door first, and then the speaker to the baffle, offsetting the mounting holes.
- As a last step, be prepared to shave the door metal a little to shift the mid towards the center of the door, getting the speaker more centered about the opening.

With all that, it should be possible.

Or get yourself a shallower set of mids. 

Here's some examples of some thick door baffles I made for a fairly recent install. Not the prettiest, but very functional:

http://www.pbase.com/shinjohn/sti_door_speaks&page=all


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Thanks for the input guys. Shortly after I posted this, WattsLOk187 called me up and we had a good chat. Gave some great ideas and I'm going to take some of them. A couple of you mentioned moving the mid closer to the middle of the door, which is what he mentioned as well. Only way doing this is by moving the mid up and back, so some cutting of the door will be necessary. I really never wanted to go that route but it seems the most logical.

Also, I'll either have the bottom portion fiberglassed or cover it with cloth. The bottom piece is actually two pieces. The pouch is a separate piece so it can come off. I'll just use grill cloth. I probably won't start this out till next week or so. I gotta come up with an exact plan and follow it. Hopefully all goes well. In the meantime there is not much to do, except for putting deadener on the back of my tail lights, which I completely forgot. I have some Damplifier and sludge leftover, so that should take care of that. I'll probably re-do my big 3 as well.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

hit at me at aim tomorrow don, i got to speak wit you for a minute


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## capnxtreme (Feb 5, 2008)

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah couldn't you have spent that money on the lights on some Monster wiring or something aaaaaaaaaaah

edit: tbh I really don't know where to begin... custom anything when you're rockin hubcaps is just................................. (custom sound is badass if it's stealth and you're rolling stealth, but you're blowing up your spot without even adding ballinness) On the plus side, I guess it is a sleeper in the sense that no thief would ever suspect your sound system is as sophisticated as it is based on the retardation of the exterior. I'm trying so hard to be constructive in the the spirit of the forums here but lolomg. Please take my constructive advice and put the stock lights back on. Please please please.

extra constructive edit2: you don't need close to 1k to buy some used OEM Honda alloys from one of the 100000000000 Honda forums on teh intarwebs. Custom lights with hubcaps  is more appropriate for taking a ride on the Audiobahn, and doesn't belong in the same thought as Zapco.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

capnxtreme said:


> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah couldn't you have spent that money on the lights on some Monster wiring or something aaaaaaaaaaah
> 
> edit: tbh I really don't know where to begin... custom anything when you're rockin hubcaps is just................................. (custom sound is badass if it's stealth and you're rolling stealth, but you're blowing up your spot without even adding ballinness) On the plus side, I guess it is a sleeper in the sense that no thief would ever suspect your sound system is as sophisticated as it is based on the retardation of the exterior. I'm trying so hard to be constructive in the the spirit of the forums here but lolomg. Please take my constructive advice and put the stock lights back on. Please please please.
> 
> extra constructive edit2: you don't need close to 1k to buy some used OEM Honda alloys from one of the 100000000000 Honda forums on teh intarwebs. Custom lights with hubcaps  is more appropriate for taking a ride on the Audiobahn, and doesn't belong in the same thought as Zapco.


I know it looks odd with the hubcaps, but it doesn't matter to me. I'll eventually change them, but right now I'll stick with what I have. I don't want the Honda rims either. Unless it looked like something cv_joint did, putting a Honda emblem on some nice rims, making it look like they are factory.

As for Monster wiring, I wouldn't put my money there. I have Kicker Hyperflex which suits me fine and I wouldn't take their RCA's either since I'm using my own. I take no offense to anything you mentioned, I appreciate all input. I know not everyone will like what I did, but what's done is done. Right now the rims/hub caps issue is not much of a big deal for me, but down the line I will be changing them since I don't want to get a new car for a while. I'd rather save up for my own place and I don't want an apartment...I'd rather have a house, and with California housing, I need to save up quite a bit


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Megalomaniac said:


> hit at me at aim tomorrow don, i got to speak wit you for a minute


I may not be on today. I'll be out all day but I'll be on Friday till about noon....i'm sure I'll see you on then.


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## trunks9_us (Oct 25, 2007)

nice going keep up the pics.


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## 2167 (Dec 5, 2007)

Anyway you can "shim" the window track with longer bolts and washers?


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## cvjoint (Mar 10, 2006)

I'm ready for this sat! Talk to you then, much easier in person. Never heard the Zapco comps. I have a few car upgrades too this time


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Looking forward to see/hear your setup George.

2167, as for the window track, not sure....and I'm not sure if I would even want to mess with that either.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I got around to cutting the doors. I only did the driver door since I want to make sure everything works just fine and then I'll move to the passenger door. I accidentally messed up by cutting the size of the speaker instead of the cutout diameter. It's not too big of a deal, just need to make the baffle a little bigger and cut more of the door panel, maybe by half an inch each side.

With the door panel I placed the thin foam gasket that came with the mids where I would want the mid to be so that it would fit well in the area I need it to be.



















Took the door panel off and marked with a Sharpie where I need to cut.



















Did the actual cut with a jigsaw. It was very easy and I found it to cut in a circle by itself somehow. I was hardly turning the jigsaw itself  I started using some sheet metal cutters at first but felt it would take too long and the jigsaw was a good idea. The little piece in the upper left corner sticking out has been removed, just not pictured.



















Put the door panel back on to see if I needed to make any adjustments, but it seems it turned out quite well.



















Got my Sharpie out again and traced where the door panel was so that I know how to cut my baffles without them touching the door panel itself.



















Reason I did that is because I will be using 1" baffles which will more than likely work. If not, 1.25" baffles will definitely work. As you can see I have a little under 3/4" of space from the door to the door panel, so anything larger than that, the baffles will not allow the door to remain in place via the clips.










Tested to see how the mid would with the door panel on. I inverted it to see better and get a better idea since as I mentioned, if the baffles are in place, the door panel will be sticking out. Everything seems to be going well.



















Tomorrow I will be cutting the door panel a little and start on the baffles. I plan to trace the stock speaker grill so I have a general idea what the maximum size and shape the baffle should be within.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

deflex pads work with the window down?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Megalomaniac said:


> deflex pads work with the window down?


The glass is invisible FYI...oh I wish that were true.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Didn't do any baffle work today since I was waiting on a call for something, and won't be able to tomorrow. Might be able to on Thursday or Friday. I did check some things out though. My stock locations for the tweeters are up on the dash by the windshield. I was getting reflections off glass to the dash and it messed with the imaging so I got a dash mat. I am going to end up doing the tweeters in the A Pillars.

They were quite easy to take off (thank goodness). Here is a picture of it nearly taken off.










A shot of where the wires will come, which will be on the left side by the A Pillar. You can also see where the tweeters were originally mounted. I will either use my 2nd dash mat since it doesn't have the openings for tweeters or I will cover them with speaker grill cloth I just bought.










Reverse side of the A pillar panel and where the tweeter will be mounted.










I have plenty of room thanks to the short mounting depth of the Zapco tweeters. It doesn't look like there is in the pictures, but visible to the human eye there is plenty of room.





































General location of where the tweeter will go.




























As I just mentioned, I bought some speaker grill cloth. Part of it will be for the lower portion of the door panel and another part will be for the rear deck cover. The only holes that will remain uncovered will be the furthest left and right one on the top (or rear) and the two small ones in the center bottom (or front). Everything else will be covered.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Got the speaker grille cloth for the doors, a pillar and rear deck. The one on the right I got two of for the rear deck and the a pillars, the one on the right for the lower portion of the door panel and even the triangle piece on the door.










The light color is VERY similar to the stock color, good choice 



















The brown is a bit darker, but it still will look pretty good. You can see the triangle piece in this photo I mentioned earlier. I'll probably cover that so the door doesn't look awkward.



















Didn't get to do much today since I was busy running errands and same for tomorrow. I did use a dremel to trim down the trim ring for the head unit, but I don't like the way it came out. It will suffice, but I'd like a closer fit to the unit. I plan to go to the junkyard and pick up some door panels possibly and even see if they have the center piece where the head unit goes. If they do and it's not too bad of a price, I'll buy it and try some fiberglassing.


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## braves6117 (Feb 13, 2008)

Hey I love the look of that Light Color Grill Cloth. Is that their off white or light sand color on their website??


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Light sand. I got it off eBay (thanks to megalomaniac for the link). Here is the ebay store I bought it from: http://stores.ebay.com/Uneek-Supply


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

dude ships fast


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Yes he does, especially when he's 45 mins from me, lol.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Got done with one baffle, it should work. I decided that the easiest way to do it would be a square, only thing is there is a little hump as you can see.










I cut out a square, rectangle actually, 8" x 7.5" and cut off one of the corners










I was going to use another 1/2" baffle, but I figured I'll be safe and do 3/4". I used the cover for the gallon of spectrum I have, traced it, and cut it. Then I cut out a mounting hole using a previous baffle.










Test fits:





































Fits fine in the door










Glued last night and its ready. Figured I wouldn't use screws so it won't split it and so I don't have to worry about some screws hitting others.










I'll do the other one this weekend.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

cute


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Ya, I try to make things pretty 

By the way, those clamps I got came in a pack of I forgot how many, I think 12 or 16, something like that. They come with VERY tiny ones all the way up to large ones. I got them from Wal-Mart for 5 bucks. I had bought some other kinds from Lowe's before where you press down and they click as you tighten, which were nice, but were 8 bucks each IIRC. I prefer those since you can add more pressure, but the Wal-Mart one works great and you can't beat the price.

I also got a Black and Decker Dremel from Wal-Mart. WattsLOK told me about it and said they had it at Home Depot for $35. I went there and they no longer sold them (the one I went to) and I figured I'd check Wal-Mart across the street and sure enough, they had it and it was $25. Very worth it, works great and I'm putting it to a bunch of good use. I just need to get some of the additional pieces for it and I'll be set.


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## WaTTsLOk187 (May 1, 2007)

Levon you should have made the spacer ring the same diameter of the woofer. It is to big now and it won't go through the opening of the doorpanel without cutting a big chunk. You will see when you mount it.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Part of the reason why I did the square was because the hole in the door is not a perfect circle since I pretty much just cut one side, if I cut the baffle to the size of the mid, there would be some gaps. My intention was to use a dremel the excess, but I guess that's more work. Another thing I noticed is that I do have some space between the door and the door panel, about half an inch so that first baffle piece may work. I figured I'd try it out this way first and if it doesnt work, I can always trim it down to the size of the hole in the door. I'll be messing around with it today before I even start on the 2nd baffle.


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## BigRed (Aug 12, 2007)

ask your girl for a router for christmas!!


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## WaTTsLOk187 (May 1, 2007)

Levon I'm not talking about the baffle. The baffle is good, covers the large hole in the door and it will work. I am talking about the ring you made that you glued to the baffle. It NEEDS to be the same outside diameter as the woofer especially on the top and bottom. On the sides isn't that big a deal because you have space to work with.

Look at this pic.










The woofer BARELY clears the doorpanel. That ring is too big and it won't go through doorpanel opening therefore not letting your panel sit flush.

Can you save it? Yes.

Is it more work? Definately.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

BigRed said:


> ask your girl for a router for christmas!!


My birthday passed and she didn't get me anything, coulda gotten me that  But it's ok since we had a close friend pass away and her mom just had a baby. I actually do cut circles fairly well with a jigsaw, I just used a trace from a baffle that wasn't a perfect circle. I was in a hurry and was tired of making baffles and them not work, I figured as long as I get something that fits, I can worry about making it nice later.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I see what you're saying now Jimmy. I don't think it will be much more work to do that. I'll probably get another piece of wood and put it on the circle baffle and cut with a jigsaw so it only cuts through that. Or I'll sand the life out of it with a dremel....or simply make another baffle.

Thanks for making a suggestion that would save me from cutting more of the door panel  You wanna be my installer and fabricator?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I didn't get to work on anything over the weekend, not a big deal, but I did pick up a Dremel kit since the one I had bought was missing a couple pieces. I also found a dremel attachment to shave some wood which will make it easier when I trim the top and bottom portions of the circular baffle (this way I won't need to cut the door panels more than I need to.

I also will be adding a second Odyssey PC 2150 to my setup. Got it for a good deal. If anyone in the So Cal area needs one, there is still one more for sale, PM me and I'll get you details. The enclosure will probably be built, or start getting built either this or next weekend.

Today I will trim the top and bottom of the circle baffle and if I have the chance I'll cut the passenger door and work on the baffles for that side. More than likely that will have to wait till tomorrow.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I just decided that I’m not going to use the 18” 5200. I have to make a few calls and send out a few emails to figure out what I’ll get. Reason why I have the sudden change in mind is because one of the tinsel leads came off from the spider and a couple are loose. Also, this somehow happened to the coil.



















The driver still works just fine and I’ve been playing it like this for quite some time. I noticed this several months back when I was building a new enclosure for it. I’m going to get it reconed, but I have to see if whoever does the recone can make it similar to what it is. Basically I’ll need something that is a QVC that is 1.4 ohms or higher, though 2 or 4 would be preferred since I’m running the PDX, must be able to be used in 3.5 cubes sealed. I’ll have them use different tinsel leads and maybe use a paper cone. Whatever I can do to make the sub more efficient and still work with what I need, I’ll do it.

In the mean time, I’ll probably take out my 18 for now and have some fun with 15” LMS 4000 that I was using for HT (5 cubes with 1k for HT is not near enough what the sub needs I guess). I’ll see how it does off 1,000w in my car. Worst comes to worst I’ll seal the 15” hole and see what three or four 8” eD EHQS subs will do.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

oh my :O


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## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

You didn't notice that? That would have been a rasping file against metal type of noise. Also, is the glue holding the voice coil blackened more than usual?

Juan


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

Its going to be tough to get a new topmount now for you with TC vanishing and all.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Tis why I'm just gonna recone it and hopefully to something even more efficient. 

OldOneEye, you would think I would hear such a thing, but there is no coil rub. I'm still trying to figure out why I don't hear it. Coil doesn't rub against anything. As for the darkness, I think it was just the lighting. I'll have to verify when I pull it out of the box in the next couple of days.


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## WaTTsLOk187 (May 1, 2007)

Levon you finish your doors yet?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

No, not yet. Been doing other things. Partly the reason why I didn't finish is because one of the mids was making a popping sound. I took it to the shop and they played it for very short and said they really cant do be 100% sure unless they do a test with the mids installed. So made the other baffle and put it on the door without the door panels and it played fine. I guess it needed some break in, not sure.

I currently have the mids in and the tweeters in the stock locations just so that i have some decent sounding music. This week I plan to do the A pillars, but im trying to figure out how to mount them from the inside so they dont protrude past the pillar since I will be covering that up with the speaker grill cloth.

I'm also gonna take your advice Jimmy and do the baffle to the size of the speaker rather than what I had it...however, I will pre drill because I didnt do it last time and it split the wood. It looks like I'll have to cut some more of the door panel off though, just a tiny bit. I also might need to deaden the door a bit more, unless when the door panel is on it doesn't rattle because it does a tad right now at louder volumes.

I still need to figure out how to make a grill or something for the mids so that when I cover it with the speaker grill cloth it won't look ugly but still can provide protection to the mid...or at least partial protection.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

My shocks seemed to have been giving out, at least they made squeaking noises time to time. Plus I had the whole boat ride going on so I bought a Megan Racing coil over damper suspension kit. The strut bar is also from Megan Racing and they didn't have the gun metal but had red so I was gonna go with that, but it turned out it was broken so I get the gun metal in about a week. My alignment was a bit off before and i can tell a big difference now, but it's still drivable and will get fixed next week as well.

I dropped it about 2.5" and it rides nicely and handling has GREATLY improved. Anyhow, here are before and after pictures.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)




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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

And here's a quick picture of the kit.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I plan to take the tail lights out and put something else on. I sorta don't like the one's I have anymore and they are looking a bit more "ricer" with the lowered car. I would like suggestions as to which of these two I should go with. I like the red, but then again, I will be getting tint so the black may match that along with the dark green of the car. Thoughts?



















Or I can do these if the LED's will be too much. If I go with these, would them being blackced out look better?


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## benny z (Mar 17, 2008)

oem for the win!


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I dont really like the yellow portion on the OEM. The last ones look very similar to the OEM. Here's a picture of the OEM. The last ones pictured have the colors positions reversed and don't have the yellow or amber box for the blinker (the bulb itself is still amber)


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## sporty_drew (Dec 7, 2007)

I'd say the last ones if you want aftermarket

The shot of your kit looks really nice, makes me jealous that I don't have my air ride put together yet


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Air ride would be nice...that way i can just dump the car when I want to and looks nice just resting, and then you can prop it back up and not worry about bumps.


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## WaTTsLOk187 (May 1, 2007)

Can you post a pic of the stock lights without the yellow bulb?

I say save your money and smoke the stock taillights and just leave the reverse light clear. Would look better IMO.


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## sporty_drew (Dec 7, 2007)

WaTTsLOk187 said:


> Can you post a pic of the stock lights without the yellow bulb?
> 
> I say save your money and smoke the stock taillights and just leave the reverse light clear. Would look better IMO.


wow, i should have thought of this before. Replace the stock bulb with some amber leds. That would make your lights appear clear but still be legal.

You can either buy one made to replace it or make your own and get a load module that stops your car from thinking the turn signals burnt out (since leds draw less current).


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## fit_tuner (Aug 14, 2006)

i say u get the last set if ur ognna go aftermarket, or u can clear out the yellow part on the stock tail lights


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

WaTTsLOk187 said:


> Can you post a pic of the stock lights without the yellow bulb?
> 
> I say save your money and smoke the stock taillights and just leave the reverse light clear. Would look better IMO.


Bulb is clear I believe, might be amber, I just have to check. But there is a little amber piece, some sort of plastic bulb inside the tail light for the blinker. That's why I was considering the last ones I showed since its just red and clear.

Your gf's camry, was something done to the tails? I wanna say that there were but my memory can't recall. If it does, got pics?


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## fit_tuner (Aug 14, 2006)

o yea, forgot to comment on the drop, looks good, you just need some rims, have you thought about just smoking out the stock tails?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

camry_tuner said:


> o yea, forgot to comment on the drop, looks good, you just need some rims, have you thought about just smoking out the stock tails?


Thanks...i want to keep the stocks as is in case i sell the vehicle...ill get a bit more out of it with OEM lights.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Came across an issue just now. I wanted to hide the tweeter behind the a pillar. The mounting depth of the tweeter is fine but the grill cover is curved so it extends out. I can't figure out a way to mouth the tweeter from inside either so that it stays stable. I thought about mounting to the frame, but the frame is angled and if I were to mount it so that it's not angled, it would be hitting the a pillar and sticking out.

I think what I'm going to have to do is this 










I guess my concern is the way the tweeter is pointing. I'll take pictures so you guys have a better understanding of what I'm talking about and can possibly provide suggestions.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

It would be aiming down like this and I assume that would mess with imaging.










I would have to extend it out quite a bit and it would hit the pillar and would probably extend out the hole that I cut out for it. Plus once the grill cloth that goes over the entire pillar is put on, it will look as though there is a little bump, and it might be better to just top mount the tweeter over the pillar.

Here is the gap.










The pillar is slightly angled pointing down, but not nearly as much as the frame, so I think I would be fine with that. Any suggestions?


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## sporty_drew (Dec 7, 2007)

I took a dremel and made a hole the size of my tweeters and then pushed them into the a pillars from behind. The tweeters "wedge" themselves in place because they are larger to the back. I'm not sure if yours are or not from the pictures.


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## WaTTsLOk187 (May 1, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Your gf's camry, was something done to the tails? I wanna say that there were but my memory can't recall. If it does, got pics?


Hers are smoked where they were red. The reverse and turn signals were left clear. I have no pics.

Levon you can flush your tweets from the front like the pic you posted and wrap the tweets themselves in grill cloth to make them less noticeable.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

WaTTsLOk187 said:


> Hers are smoked where they were red. The reverse and turn signals were left clear. I have no pics.
> 
> Levon you can flush your tweets from the front like the pic you posted and wrap the tweets themselves in grill cloth to make them less noticeable.


Kinda like this?










how would i mount the tweeters so they don't move?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Many thanks to James Bang for being a cool dude helping me tune my setup, even though it was to check out how well my noob self tuned it....way off


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Kinda like this?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I am going to pm that guy on CA.com to see if i can get some more info on that install for you... **** i want to know too


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## dexza (Feb 22, 2007)

donpisto said:


> I dont really like the yellow portion on the OEM. The last ones look very similar to the OEM. Here's a picture of the OEM. The last ones pictured have the colors positions reversed and don't have the yellow or amber box for the blinker (the bulb itself is still amber)


than sell your oem tail light to me if you dont want it no more
please let me know
Thnx


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## sporty_drew (Dec 7, 2007)

dexza said:


> than sell your oem tail light to me if you dont want it no more
> please let me know
> Thnx


. . .


donpisto said:


> Thanks...i want to keep the stocks as is in case i sell the vehicle...ill get a bit more out of it with OEM lights.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

dexza said:


> than sell your oem tail light to me if you dont want it no more
> please let me know
> Thnx


I'm keeping the OEM tail lights and head lights in case anything were to happen to what I have now and when I decide to sell the car I'll put them back on. If you want, I can sell you the ones I have on right now


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## tc3k101 (Apr 23, 2008)

ehh saw that car like 2 days ago not all that pretty though the gum on the tires really added to it


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## dub22 (Apr 13, 2008)

damn i didnt even know an 18in could fit in an accord wow nice


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

tc3k101 said:


> ehh saw that car like 2 days ago not all that pretty though the gum on the tires really added to it


Got that taken care of but didn't really matter since I had to follow a guy who hit my car and wouldn't pull over. I doubt they'll be able to buff it out, prorbably needs to be replaced.



dub22 said:


> damn i didnt even know an 18in could fit in an accord wow nice


Easiliy fits in there, just need to have it firing up or in a wedge style enclosure. I can actually do 2 18's which I'd like to try, but is just too much. It will cost too much to do, cost a lot to keep the amps in a healthy state, and then I need more amps. The box would barely fit. I'm curious how low it would get though. I'd have twice the cone area, but half the enclosure size.


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## BigRed (Aug 12, 2007)

when you say 1/2 the enclosure size, how much is that, and what kind of woofs?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Running a single 18" TC 5200. They'll work off 2.5 cubes sealed (I had one in 5 cubes sealed and it was beautiful). I'm going to try to get 3 - 3.5 cubes out of what I'm doing but a 5 cu. ft. enclosure with 2 18's can fit in the Accord firing up. To be honest, it would be difficult to put in by a single person because they are so heavy.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I'm facing some issues now. Originally I planned for the enclosure to be a wedge style facing the rear seats (sub on the wedge face). Here's a pic to get an idea of the angle I'm dealing with.










I can't deal with any measurements since the vehicle is in the shop for about a week, but I'm trying to get ideas of how I will mount the sub in the enclosure and get the enclosure in the vehicle. The seatbelt casing that hangs from the rear deck causes me to lose a good 2 - 3". Because of it, I'm restricted to about 16 - 17 inches of height for the enclosure.

I do want some trunk space towards the rear of the vehicle, plus the amps will be there and i don't want to move the enclosure every time I want to show the amps or something.

I am possibly thinking about considering IB, but not sure if I want to deal with the hassle or if it will even work with the 18.

I do have a question though. As far as loudness goes, would I notice a difference between the sub firing upwards or facing the rear seats?


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## tc3k101 (Apr 23, 2008)

ehhh hes gonna sell me his 5200 later down the like but he just dont know it yet


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

tc3k101 said:


> ehhh hes gonna sell me his 5200 later down the like but he just dont know it yet


You can keep dreaming, just like the 10, it's not going anywhere


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## theothermike (Dec 20, 2006)

curious to find out but would mounting the sub in a prowedge type jl box offset 1 inch back behind the actual angle affect its sound characteristic. so long as the sides as sealed off? i definatelly feel facing upwards would definately affect the sub sound and performance.

curious to figure out as well.


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## JasonJones (Apr 24, 2008)

If you need some measurements, just let me know. I have a 00 accord coupe completely gutted right now and I am happy to take any measurements for you.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

JasonJones said:


> If you need some measurements, just let me know. I have a 00 accord coupe completely gutted right now and I am happy to take any measurements for you.


sedan and coupe trunk are different 


you are in dallas  id like to hear more about your plans for your car audio wise


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

theothermike said:


> curious to find out but would mounting the sub in a prowedge type jl box offset 1 inch back behind the actual angle affect its sound characteristic. so long as the sides as sealed off? i definatelly feel facing upwards would definately affect the sub sound and performance.
> 
> curious to figure out as well.


The prowedge type is what i was thinking of but it may not fit as I had mentioned. I should get the vehicle back within the next few days so I'll be able to measure and get an idea. I had the sub firing upwards before and it sounded just fine. If doing that again, but pushed more towards the rear of the seats sounds the same, then I'm pleased with the sound.



JasonJones said:


> If you need some measurements, just let me know. I have a 00 accord coupe completely gutted right now and I am happy to take any measurements for you.


I believe trunks are different like Megalomanic mentioned. Thanks for the offer. Does the opening of my trunk in the pic a couple posts back look like the opening you have?


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## JasonJones (Apr 24, 2008)

It looks exactly the same, but I dont know for certain...

Meglo, shoot me a pm with anything you want to know, I dont want to steal his thread.


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## filtor1 (Apr 24, 2008)

Just stopped by to say I have enjoyed the install thread. And to say thanks for the ZX850.4. It is still going strong! I can't wait to see this bad boy finished.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

JasonJones said:


> It looks exactly the same, but I dont know for certain...
> 
> Meglo, shoot me a pm with anything you want to know, I dont want to steal his thread.


Do you think an 18" driver with a depth of 12.5" can be used in an IB application if the baffle is mounted and a specific angle?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

filtor1 said:


> Just stopped by to say I have enjoyed the install thread. And to say thanks for the ZX850.4. It is still going strong! I can't wait to see this bad boy finished.


Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the amp


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## JasonJones (Apr 24, 2008)

I think with the stock floor it would be very tight. You have about 19" from bare floor to the bottom of the rear deck lid at the widest point. If you angled it you might be able to find a spot to mount it that would give you a little more height, but not much. as far as the driver is concerned. I think if you have to angle it a lot, the driver should be back far enough that it can drop into the spare tire well which will give you more than enough clearance on that part.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Hmmm, I'll have to check it out with the driver once I get the car. I'll have a 1/2" floor replacing the original floor, so I'll have to take that into consideration as well.

Thanks for checking!


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Got the car back, but still haven't done much with the car. I started to today though. I had about 3 sq. ft. of Damplifier so I laid some under the carpet on the driver side. I'm going to order 20 sq. ft. of Damplifier and 9 sq. ft. of luxury liner and do both the passenger and driver sides on the floor (front only). Gonna do as much of the firewall from the cabin side as I can as well. I'll start working on new baffles sometime this week and finish the doors either this week or next. I'll have pictures as I do some more updates.


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## Megalomaniac (Feb 12, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Got the car back, but still haven't done much with the car. I started to today though. I had about 3 sq. ft. of Damplifier so I laid some under the carpet on the driver side. I'm going to order 20 sq. ft. of Damplifier and 9 sq. ft. of *luxury liner* and do both the passenger and driver sides on the floor (front only). Gonna do as much of the firewall from the cabin side as I can as well. I'll start working on new baffles sometime this week and finish the doors either this week or next. I'll have pictures as I do some more updates.


i want to hear how that turns out


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Will do for sure, but it's going to have to wait a couple weeks. I might end up getting ANOTHER gallon of Spectrum so my costs would be about 140-150. I have car insurance coming up at the end of next month and I wanna pay the entire year up front. Hopefully that 2nd tax return comes soon as well.

By the way, I like that quote in your sig. I guess I have finally matured


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Well unfortunately I ran into some problems yesterday. Car wouldn't come out of park. Happened all of a sudden once I got back from work so I have to manually release it. Now the gear seems to be stuck. Seems like its in 3rd gear all the time since acceleration from stop is horrible and it won't go past 2.5k RPM. Could be the transmission or some electrical issue like a short, which it very well may be. I'm sick and tired of all this and to the point where I nearly wanna call it quits and just stick with the simple 10 I have running and sell the rest of my stuff. But for the moment I'll see how things go and I just want to finish the setup and be done.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Apparently I had a short. The other day I was looking at the tail light bulb and I guess something over there had an exposed wire and was shorting out. It caused a couple other fuses to blow I believe. No charge but I'm buying my mechanic and his 2 other guys pizza and drinks. So damn glad it wasn't anything major. Amazing what fuses can do the vehicle.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I have decided to do a couple things. I haven't done much work but started a little. The tweeters should be done end of this weed or beginning of next. I have also decided to tint my current tail lights just to get experience with them. I'll end up going with the red/clear tails that look like the OEM ones, or go with the OEM ones and either way tint them. I'm still debating on whether or not the LED's will look good since I heard they are bright enough and some say they are not bright enough. I'm also going to replace the headlights with some retrofitted ones (hopefully real soon )


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Anyhow, sadly I got in a big accident today. Some guy on the freeway crossed 2 lanes, cutting me off and I slammed on the brakes and rear ended a truck, one of those enterprise-rent-a-truck sort of ones. My front end looks to be completely gone. My battery post got yanked out, radiator pushed in, distributor knocked off, glass broken, engine cover partially broken, one of the spark plugs got yanked, and probably a bunch of other crap that I didn't see...not to mention the hood and bumper being royally messed up. I was really looking forward to finishing this up before summer but it looks as if they may not happen. I'll probably end up selling almost all my audio equipment


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## veloze (Jul 2, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Anyhow, sadly I got in a big accident today. Some guy on the freeway crossed 2 lanes, cutting me off and I slammed on the brakes and rear ended a truck, one of those enterprise-rent-a-truck sort of ones. My front end looks to be completely gone. My battery post got yanked out, radiator pushed in, distributor knocked off, glass broken, engine cover partially broken, one of the spark plugs got yanked, and probably a bunch of other crap that I didn't see...not to mention the hood and bumper being royally messed up. I was really looking forward to finishing this up before summer but it looks as if they may not happen. I'll probably end up selling almost all my audio equipment


AHHH SH*T!  Hey Levon, sorry to hear about your accident. Thank God you are fine & well. You know material stuff don't mean squat, but you can never replace your life or health in a bad situation.

The Accord was looking pretty nice, but for whatever is worth we'll get you a nice set of wheels. 

Would you care to post some pics of the damages? If you have any parts that fits my 94 Accord, please let me know.

Just stay positive...


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Thanks for the concern. I don't have any parts for a 94 though. Here's a pic of the damage.










Under the hood looked pretty bad too, but I didn't get a picture of that.


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## sporty_drew (Dec 7, 2007)

Thats such a depressing picture. 

I'm glad you're alright because in the end thats all that matters.


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

WOW! That sucks!

You didn't even get to experience your system!

Did you have the car towed to your house?
Cause I have heard of some shady towing companies.

Did you have full coverage?


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

sr20det510 said:


> WOW! That sucks!
> 
> You didn't even get to experience your system!
> 
> ...


I have full coverage and AAA (my insurance) is taking the car to one of their centers or facilities. I took pretty much everything out the vehicle except for the audio, which hopefully Wednesday I'll be able to take out.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I was scared ****less because I felt the impact of crashing and a split second later i just started to see the windshield fold. I thought it was going to break and I was going to go through it.


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## BlueAc (May 19, 2007)

donpisto said:


> I was scared ****less because I felt the impact of crashing and a split second later i just started to see the windshield fold. I thought it was going to break and I was going to go through it.


I know the feeling I was involved in head on crash when I was young and dumb... now that I'm older I realize how lucky I was to walk away with only a sprained wrist and some burns from the airbag! Glad your ok homie...


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## veloze (Jul 2, 2007)

OMG!  It looks the like your Accord is totaled. Are you gonna buy the car back from the insurance company, so you could salvage some of the after market parts. That's what I was referring in my previous post; if any parts will fit my Accord (suspension, sways bars, etc).


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## sr20det510 (May 20, 2007)

PM sent!


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Ah...well I gotta see what the adjuster will say. I'm gathering all the receipts, like my suspension,and see if they will give me what I want, otherwise i'll take them out and replace. other than that all i had was tail lights, headlights (which are broken in numerous pieces), and a cold air intake. I don't know if the suspension will fit, it's for 98 - 02 accords and some Acura CL's. It's by Megan Racing and it's their full coil over damper kit on their website. If it may fit your vehicle, let me know. if the car is indeed a gonner and it works, we can work something out.

Thanks for the PM Carlos


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Oh, and I had been thinking of selling my 18 and the PDX's anyway before the accident. I was starting to like the single 10. Wasn't super loud, but loud enough and sounded good. I guess this just knocked some sense into me and sped up the process to sell what I don't really need.


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## lashlee (Aug 16, 2007)

That sucks!!! Sorry about that!!!


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## fliplyricist1 (May 27, 2008)

dang I was following your progress through the first couple pages and decided to skip to the last page and blam...found out the car is totalled

really sucks dude, sorry for your loss but glad you're ok

nothing pisses me off more than wreckless drivers


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol..what a surprise huh? At least it wasn't as big of a disappointment from having to view all 21 pages and then finding out.


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## Dougie085 (May 2, 2006)

Like I just did  Read all 21 pages....oh wells. Sucks not many Audi installs on the forums. I'm in the process of purchasing a 2002-2004 Audi S4 but only a few Audi installs so have to get idea's from other installs.


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

I realized I never gave any credit to my cousin. I was going to once the build was complete. He helped me a great deal. He was there to help me pull out the system in the end and since the beginning was there to assist me when he was available. He helped the deadening, some of the wiring, enclosure building, etc. He's not avidly into car audio, but a great cousin and I appreciate his assistance. He did it because we're family and he also thought it was fun. I just wanted to give him credit.

There were also a couple other people who helped me out, either buy suggestions or by helping with the build, and I'd like to them as well, dalucifer and supa c, even though he doesn't frequent these forums. Thank you.

I'd also like to thank James Bang. I must give him credit as well. He helped me out on NUMEROUS occasions and helped me A LOT when it came to tuning. It would have sounded like ass if it weren't for him. He also gave me several suggestions, which I did do and worked out well. Thanks James


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## James Bang (Jul 25, 2007)

I have tools if you want to work on the G35


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Lol..let's sit on it. If you need tools that you don't have, I may have some. I think I might have some sludge leftover, want it?


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## James Bang (Jul 25, 2007)

donpisto said:


> Lol..let's sit on it. If you need tools that you don't have, I may have some. I think I might have some sludge leftover, want it?


hell yes


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## donpisto (Jul 26, 2006)

Hopefully it will work out for ya, we'll see.


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