# 2006 Z06 Install: Part 1



## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Well, after over 2 years of planning and building I am finally starting a thread on my project. The car is a 2006 Corvette Z06 and it all started with me wanting to install a Nav unit for the stock bose HU. I bought an Avic Z1 when they first came out but decided to install that in my pickup truck as I was trying to get my wife to drive it more and not put the miles on her car. So the Nav unit went into the truck….which turned out pretty nice. Although I still want to put some new drivers and amps in there, but that’s another thread.

So after putting the Nav in the truck, I started looking at options for the car. I thought about just going to the local Car Toys and having them install a system but that’s an arm and a leg for a nice system and they never do it the way I would want it. Then I stumbled across a web site called mp3car.com. This has a bunch of nut balls that install PCs and Macs in the cars. How crazy is that? Hmm….not a bad idea…my little wheels started turning. So I started reading and reading and reading some more. It was definitely not a plug and play sort of thing, complicated, challenging and best of all unlimited potential for integration and customization as well as a source of unlimited headaches and frustration. So I read and planned some more and finally decided to take the leap and begin. I bought my first system from an industrial computer builder. You can’t just plop in the desktop into a car, you need to consider power, power source, current draw etc. So I finally had a system, power supply and wiring. I got a monitor and a double din bezel to mount it in. Now I went and got some amps. I always wanted to do an install with McIntosh car amps so off to ebay for a set of amps. I got the amps, however I wanted to use an optical TosLink out from the computer (had to make sure the computer I got met that spec first and foremost) to allow for a clean signal with no ground loop issues and noise from the PC. I was pretty sure a PC in the car would create all kinds of RFI issues so using an optical out should nip that in the butt right away.

Now, the issue was how to go from computer TosLink out to McIntosh amps. Damn, more reading and research. I finally found the Zapco DSP6 unit, exactly what I was looking for. I saw there was also a Pioneer (or maybe it was Alpine, can’t recall) unit that did DSP but it was more for 5 channel surround sound. I was going more of a SQ install and not looking to play Dolby Digital movies in the car with the DD surround sound. I wanted a more pure SQ install. So I purchased the Zapco DSP6.

So armed with all the goodies, plus some sound deadening material I had everything I needed. Now I only had to decide how to do the install. I was a bit perplexed how on Earth I was going to cram all this into a Corvette. Then about 2 years ago, there was a C6 install that caught my eye http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/diyma-member-build-logs/33471-2008-c6-corvette-install-you-guys.html . It was done by Bing. For those who don’t know Bing, go to his web site Home and you can see his work. His installs are largely the same, but they are nothing short of perfect and classy. Just the right amount of zing and clean as a whistle. I liked it. I even thought about shipping my car to him but decided that would be more trouble than it was worth.

Then I started thinking, maybe I should just have someone do this for me. I don’t really have the time. Yeah it would be expensive but I wouldn’t have the headache. So I looked around and found someone that came highly recommended. I dropped off the car along with all the goodies: Amps, PC, Zapco DSP6 with the DRC, custom wiring, integrated wiring for Valentine, Custom mount for the DRC, Blinder Laser jammer. Needless to say, a monster install. Paid big money, took 6 weeks to finish. Got the car back and after a couple weeks decided I did not like the install. Took up the entire back of the car, I couldn’t put a damn thing in there. I was not happy with my choice of install options. The guy did a great job, did exactly what I asked for. I didn’t like it. So I ripped out all the stuff from the back. I took a few pictures but didn’t get any with all the panels in place, but it pretty much looked similar to what Bing did. 
























































So after pulling everything out, this is what I’m left with:






































Crap, now what am I going to do? Only one thing…do it myself. Buffalo bagels, not what I wanted to do.

So, over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting up different threads chronicling the install. It is a complete PC, sound system and interior upgrade along with a few custom items I did myself.

Jay


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

keeping an eye on this!!


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Conan is back on so my ratings are going to tank.

Jay


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## sinister-kustoms (Jul 22, 2009)

Damn that's a lot of McIntosh goodness!  Subscribed!


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

Hey Jay, nice gear. Do you have details on the CarPC? OS, soundcard (if any) for S/PDIF out, frontend?

I imagine you're using the Zapco DRC for master volume control. I might have a better solution if you're interested.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

All that info is coming soon. Car PC went through 2 versions and I'll get into that in specifics but the MB is a Commell LV67B with a core 2 Duo T9400 and 2 gigs ram, win7 pro 32 bit, onboard S/PDIF out and Centrafuse front end. 

As for the volume, yes a DRC plus Zapco's SLB-U. However, there was an interesting development with the volume I'll get to, an unexpected surprise.

Jay


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## Matthew13 (Aug 21, 2009)

Can't wait to see the finished product. Love the Mac!


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## Christiene (Nov 6, 2010)

nice one . . . !!!
that reminds me of pimp my ride . . . lolz


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, so I have torn out the first install. Now I need to figure out what my goals are so I sat down and made a list:

Maximum cargo space in the rear (no jokes, it’s too easy)
SQ audio install all the way with McIntosh amps and PC for source, not after dBs
Audio source from PC to amps must be TosLink optical out/in
Maximum sound deadening
System to be run by PC
Onboard OBDII reader and logger
Onboard HPTuners for flashing different engine tunes and logging
Hardwired Valentine One
Hardwired Laser detector and jammer
Onboard Video security and DVR
Front facia camera
Rear backup camera
Harness bar for track usage
Upgrade interior and exterior lights to LEDs
Install HID fogs

And finally it had to be complete stealth. I didn’t want anyone to know any of this was in the back when you opened the hatch. The only thing you would see are the sub boxes (can’t hide those) but the rest of the stuff would be invisible.

There are other items that made it into the list and some that worked their way out but for the most part that’s the system. So now onto the teardown. I figured this would be a long process. I was right. I parked the car in the garage towards the end of March 2009 and it didn’t move for a year! It wasn’t until March of this year that I moved the car and started driving it again. We’ll get into why it took so long.

I started looking at the back section trying to figure out where all this stuff would go. I had a lot of equipment I was trying to put in minimal space. So I needed a plan of what was to go where. So the first thing was to decide where to put the subs. I knew to keep maximum usable cargo space they needed to go where they were out of the way. The logical spot is in the corners. How do I do that? I looked at commercial sub enclosures and there just weren’t any out there that really fit what I wanted to do. I had an idea of what I wanted but wasn’t sure how to do it…I didn’t have any experience with making that kind of enclosure but knew there were those out there that did. So I decided they would go in the corners, one in each corner with some custom sub boxes. Turns out a friend of mine is a whiz with making custom fiberglass goodies so I started bouncing ideas off of him. I came up with this general idea:










So that is the general idea for the sub boxes. We’ll get back to those later on. For now I needed to start gutting out the interior and get started on laying out the components:
































































Continued in next post.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Well as you can see there is not a whole lot of room for much of anything else back there. The black box in the middle is the PC and it’s just not quite the right shape or size for this area. It won’t fit in the cubby hole which is where I really want to put it. I can’t find a case that’s the correct size for the cubby. Maybe I can come up with a solution for that. In the mean time I’ve got wiring, fuse box, DSP6 processor to pack in there as well. I can’t find the space for it. Damn. On top of that, how the hell am I going to mount this stuff. I don’t want to put down a slab of MDF for me to screw in anything. That will take up too much height. I decided the limitation of the height could not go above the lip behind the seats. That was as high as things could go. I would put in a false floor on top of the components and then a carpet mat on top of that. That would take care of the stealth part. But I was not having a good time trying to cram everything into my predetermined constraints.

So, I continued to fiddle with component placement while moving onto the tear out and sound deadening portions.

The tearout:




























And one with the Dash and Doors torn off:










We’ll get back to the dash a little later. I hope I remember where everything goes 

Due up next: Door insulation…wu-Hoo!!

Jay


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

great to see pics after all this time! awesome work so far!


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

subscribed


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

crease-guard said:


> Ok, so I have torn out the first install. Now I need to figure out what my goals are so I sat down and made a list:
> 
> Maximum cargo space in the rear (no jokes, it’s too easy)
> SQ audio install all the way with McIntosh amps and PC for source, not after dBs
> ...


Very close to what I will be doing to my 07. 

If running a carPC, I love 5.1 and set up for video and SQ. 

Centrafuse is very good, but a pure carPC solution is a commitment. Have you considered a HU and carPC sharing the monitor? 

What are you using for your DVR?

Good luck!

subscribed


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

simplicityinsound said:


> great to see pics after all this time! awesome work so far!


I know, I've worn your keyboard to a frazzle asking questions and buying parts. Thanks for all the help. I didin't want to post up anything until I was sure I could actually pull it off and the system working.

Lot's more to come.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

bfb1963 said:


> Very close to what I will be doing to my 07.
> 
> If running a carPC, I love 5.1 and set up for video and SQ.
> 
> ...


I thought about going 5.1 as well but thought that this particular car did not lend itself to a 5.1 type setup. Of course, it doesn't lend itself to a SQ setup either given the type of car it is but SQ is the way I went.

Yeah, the CarPC part was the part I was not sure I could pull off and actually have it working and stable. I do get glitches from time to time but for the most part I've gotten it to be quite reliable and stable. 

Centrafuse turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would. I had pretty much resigned myself that Ride Runner would be the way to go but I went ahead and tried the new 3.0 Centrafuse and was quite pleased with the way it setup, the way it looked and functioned and the ability to tweak but be fairly user friendly. Thre is a bit of a learning curve on CF but I suspect any quality front end would be the same as well.

I did consider keeping the HU but the resolution of the monitors just won't give a PC good readability. You need a VGA monitor for the PC, PCs look like crap when piped into a NTSC screen so I went for the full PC and VGA screen.

DVR is a Mobile Watchman.

Jay


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## pankrok (Jan 1, 2010)

It will be intersting to see what audio interface will work properly in a mutlichannel sq setup


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

I had 5.1 in my C5 Z06. Redid my center console to house a 10.4" SVGA touchscreen and relocated my A/C control to my roof. SQ was great, 5.1 was awesome.

Here was my monitor setup:


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

That is the only thing about my system I wish I could have different is the monitor size. I would love to have the bigger monitor but it would take a huge amount of customization to do and I'm not willing to do it so that's out.

Jay


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## dapert (Feb 22, 2006)

that big monitor looks killer


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

dapert said:


> that big monitor looks killer


Thanks. Now I am spoiled. I'll be doing the same thing in my new install. It would be a lot easier to stick with 7" and not relocate the A/C control. When it comes to having a touchscreen for a carPC, nothing beats real estate when your driving and tapping. 

I have to get around to selling console soon, but it served me real well.


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Looking good so far. I have a '97 C5 that I'm currently kicking ideas around for. A CarPC is certainly in the running. Especially since I'm going to need to rework the dash for a double din anyway. I love the fact your looking to keep HPTuners in dash for logging and flashing. I run EFI Live so I'll be paying real close attention to how it works for you. Keep up the good work! :thumbsup:


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## colled96 (Feb 2, 2010)

Wow your in the same boat as I am. I have been planning my build for about 2 years now and I finally came up with a final plan. I didn' see the amp models your are trying to install. Here is a suggestion that mey help. If you have the MC58, MC205, or MC207 these may help. Try doing more with less. I had to get this in my head. Also insted of the big bulky computer. try something like this or similar https://store.archos.com/archos-internet-tablet-p-5005.html
and far as internet acess Home ? Autonet Mobile

Maybe this will help or maybe not. Anyways, its good to see a fellow vette owner taking the plunge into the ultimate satifaction. I should be ready to tear into my install soon


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

I've already finished the project, I'm just now getting around to posting a build log. What you see now is NOT what I ended up with in the end.

I'll try and post some more later tonight.

Jay


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## tintbox (Oct 25, 2008)

subscribed.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, so I now want to press forward into sound deadening the rest of the car. My previous install laid down a pretty comprehensive layer of Damplifier and Damplifier Pro throughout the cabin and the back hatch area. When I had gotten the car back from the original installer I noticed that it really wasn’t much quieter than it was before. So I started doing some more reading about the different products and what they can and cannot do. I then realized this stuff didn’t really block sound, it prevented vibrations. I want some sound deadener in the car. So I did some more reading and decided to buy some Luxuary Liner Pro to deaden the entire car. I had spoken with a sound engineer and his advice was to plug every possible hole in the car where sound could permeate…an impossible task. But I set out to deaden and plug as much as I could.

I first needed to decide where to install the drivers and which drivers I would use. I had initially decided to do a 2-way active up front with a pair of 10 inch subs in the back, Seas RT27f tweets in the front and Seas RW165’s for the mid bass as well. This would allow full active processing of all drivers with the DSP6. But shortly into the build I decided I really wanted to do a 3-way active up front. The mid bass drivers were going into the doors in the stock location. Not the best solution, but kicks were out of the question due to the space contraints. I could not one on the drivers side, just not enough foot room. So they had to go in the doors. This, I felt, would affect staging mostly and SQ to some extent. So I decided I would go with a pair of mids in the upper part of the doors to help with staging and to not drive the Seas drivers to the limits of their frequencies. That brings another problem. Now I have another set of channels for which I don’t have any processing power to go active. So I either go active 3-way with a passive Xover for the subs or buy another DSP6…not something I want to do or have the space for. I’ll deal with this issue later…I need to get started on sound deadening, I can tell this is going to be a real PITA.

So I start with the passenger door (driver door was done the same way and there is a mixture of pictures from the two). I pull off the door panel and find the Seas RW165 driver installed in the stock location forward and down. My installer had made a nice MDF ring to install the driver. However, I see there is NO dampening material in the door at all but there is a couple pieces put on the inside part of the outside door panel, but nothing on the inside part of the door. I pull out the driver and there is nothing protecting the driver from water damaging it. It already shows a few water spots. Thankfully I have not washed it but once since I got it back and have not driven in the rain. So there is no damage to the driver. So I get started with the vibration mat followed by the Luxary Liner pro deadening material.




























































































Jay


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## colled96 (Feb 2, 2010)

WOW..I cant wait for your finished pics


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Now the Luxury liner pro goes in.



















You’ll also notice some expanding foam is some places to seal off areas I can’t get any of the deadening material in place:









































































That is pretty much the extent of the door deadening and insulation. The doors are heavy and solid and close with some authority. Next I will address the speaker mounting and protecting the mids from water. I will also cover up that big hole at the back of both doors.

One other thing you will see in that second picture is the side airbag sensor. I had to be very careful not to damage that sensor or have anything in the way that might interfere with it. The extra padding probably increases the likelihood of the side airbag deploying in a more minor incident since the intrusion depth might not be as great as it was before.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, now that all the dampening and deadening stuff is in place, I need to address the speaker mounts and the big hole in the back. Luckily, my previous installer made a pair of speaker mounts for the front section. In the C6 the subs sit in the doors…they are big ass holes but crappy ass subs. So he cut some 3/4” MDF mounts for that hole. They are very nicely done…saved me some time but cost me a fortune for what I paid him…let’s not go there. He also cut me some covers for the back holes as well…again nicely done and something I won’t have to mess with.

This is a picture of the back cover in place:










The speaker mounts in place:










He did cover them with some thin foam type material which was nice, I like the way he did that. 

The problem I saw though was the MDF was not protected from water. MDF does not like water...AT ALL. I was concerned this would become an issue over time so I wanted to address this. I decided I would spray some sort of covering over the wood to protect it from water. I wanted something that was made for a harsh environment, tough, would last a long time. So I went to Home Depot and thought I could find some spray on bedliner type stuff. That stuff is good. I looked and couldn’t find it. Damn. But I did find something else that ended up being just as good. It was called Plastidip and is the same type of stuff they dip tool handles in to coat them in a rubber type coating. This was a spray on version of that.










So I bought a few cans of this stuff and started going to town on the wood parts. And I mean going to town…I sprayed the holy hell out of these things with about 10 coats of this stuff.














































Then I installed the big piece back into place. I placed a bead of silicon adhesive along the edge and then screwed the panel into place:











Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Now with the parts mounted back in place with some additional dampening material in place:



















Now the driver needs to go into place. I need to make a protective covering for the back to keep the elements out of the driver. I got some foamy type baffles from Parts Express. They were a little deep and I was afraid the window would clip into the baffle so I cut the back off one about the depth the driver would sit and then pushed it in from the inside and hot glued it into place:





































Then I mounted the driver into place:



















There’s an extra layer of sound deadening in those two pictures but I later had to remove that because I couldn’t get the door panel back on. We’ll get to that soon.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Next I have to cover the silver foil of the dampening material with something nice and flat back. I have some left over foamy pad type dampening stuff from the earlier install. I’ll cover the driver with masking tape and spray the adhesive on the foil and then place the material in place:



















I’ll trim the middle away and then spray some flat black around the edge to cover any small exposed parts:




























Finally we’ll need to mount the mids to the door panels and then deaden the inside of the door panel:





























Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

And finally, we’ll fit the door panels back in place. When I first tried to do this they would not go. I could get them on but the door pins would not stay seated so I knew I had too much material in place. So I found the spot that was causing the trouble. I had to remove the dampening material as well as some of the wood given the new material on the door panel. Here’s the result:





































It was a gigantic mess. It took a good 30 mintues to vacuum/blow all that crap out of the car. Fortuneatly, all the interior was gone from the car including the headliner. Everything was out. 

The reason everything was out was because it was all off getting a new cover. I figured since I had the entire thing apart, I might as well get rid of the crappy plastic leather and cheap plastic parts and get some stuff that this car deserved. So I had the entire interior redone in leather and Alcantara. I also had most all the cheap plastic bits laminated in Carbon Fiber. Not a carbon fiber silk screen but real CF.

Finally I got the door panels back from the leather and assembled the CF bits on as well then installed the panels to finish off the doors:





































That’s it for the doors folks, they are done. They are heavy, solid and when you close them, they make themselves known…it’s a good solid THUNK. I had a minor buzz in the driver side by the mid range. Turns out it’s grill was buzzing against the doors metal screen. I fixed that issue and no more buzz.

Next we’ll do the interior cabin sound deadening. That will go quick as I don’t have as many pictures of that then we’ll get to the amps and PC installing.

Jay


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## ultimatemj (Jan 15, 2009)

Nice work!

On the 3-way topic...


> I decided I really wanted to do a 3-way active up front. The mid bass drivers were going into the doors in the stock location....That brings another problem. Now I have another set of channels for which I don’t have any processing power to go active. So I either go active 3-way with a passive Xover for the subs or buy another DSP6…


Here's an idea: Try running the tweeters passive off the mids. I can't vouch for it being true, but I've read that the tweeters are least effected by the T/A due to their short waves. So you wouldn't be giving up anything there.

If the mids you have can be run HP (instead of band pass) and let them roll off on top without adversely coloring the top end, you could put a cap on the tweeters. This would avoid adding more equipment (amp, DSP, active x-over) and maintain the EQ ability from the DSP-6 all the way up.

The one thing it does give up is digital intensity adjustment between the drivers. Depending on the efficiency of the drivers and the tweeter aiming you might need something passive to attenuate the tweeters.

Anywhose, like I said, just ideas to avoid more equipment, YMMV 

Interested to see which way you go!


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Hmm...never thought about running the tweets passive off the mids.

However, I solved that problem in another way which shall become evident soon enough.

Jay


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## BigBadBakken (Feb 16, 2010)

subscribed for this one. looks great!


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Now on to the sound deadening of the cabin but first a few pics of the original dampening material:




























And some more I added:
































































I did the back wheel wells and all back behind that area as well as all the vertical parts of the back hatch. I didn’t take any pictures of that but you get the idea.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Now for the true sound deadening material:














































And I do similar applications to the back along the wheel wells and inside quarter panels and vertical areas. All in all it takes me about 3 months of working here and there to get this part done. I will not be quitting my day job, I would starve trying to do this for a living.

While having the car apart I wanted to have my tweets in the A-pillar. Problem was I did not know how to do this but I did know someone that did. Problem was this particular someone would not do them without the car present so he could properly aim the drivers. So matter how much I tried to get him to do it he wouldn’t. I respect a man that sticks to his principles. Good man Bing! So I tried to line up a fellow Corvette forum member to let him borrow the car for an afternoon. I just about had this done when Bing emailed me saying he had another C6 in the lineup for an install. Send him the A-pillars pronto and he could get them done. So off they went to bing for his magical treatment. Here’s a few pics of them. I borrowed some previous pics from Bing but the process is the same:














































The pillars are then sent off to be covered in black Alcantara. All in all it takes about 5 months to get the pillars sent to Bing and back from the leather shop. It takes forever but the end result is worth it.

Jay


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

nice progress!!... lots of works on the doors. We don't have those cars down here, so its a treat to see what you are doing.


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Wow! I love the attention to detail. Your build is very similar to what I'm planning on my '97. Keep up the good work.


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

Are those heavy doors tiresome after a while? Do you still have water drainage?


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## beyondredline9k (Nov 28, 2010)

Love the car, sick setup


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## CraigE (Jun 10, 2008)

Have you done any deadening of the plastic interior skin of the hatch lid, on each side of the glass ?

I get some resonance in that area at about 37 hz, and don't have a good solution.


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## subiemax (Nov 19, 2007)

How much weight do you think you have added just with deadening. I guess its my racing background that has me horified at adding that much weight to a Vette.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

bfb1963 said:


> Are those heavy doors tiresome after a while? Do you still have water drainage?


Not really, you just give them a little push to close and they close very easy with a solid thud.

Yeah, there's a hole in the under side of the door for water drainage. I punch through there to allow it to drain. It's not a big deal for me since the only time the car gets wet is when I wash it. I don't drive it in the rain unless I get caught out in a shower. This car does not do well on wet roads.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

CraigE said:


> Have you done any deadening of the plastic interior skin of the hatch lid, on each side of the glass ?
> 
> I get some resonance in that area at about 37 hz, and don't have a good solution.


That's one of the few places I did not deaden. I wasn't sure how to pull off that plastic. I notice when I first start my car I get a resonance/rattle over the passenger wheel well area and I can't for the life of me find it. I think I'm having that issue as well as on low freq passages I get the resonating feel as well.

Anyone know how to pull off that section of the hatch?

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

subiemax said:


> How much weight do you think you have added just with deadening. I guess its my racing background that has me horified at adding that much weight to a Vette.


I would say it's a substantial amount of weight. All in all with all the hardware and sound deadening I would bet 125-175 pounds...and I'm just guessing wildly really. That guess comes from knowing how much a box of each stuff weighs. That lux liner pro stuff is REALLY heavy.

My take on this was to have a nice comfy, quite as possible car that was still muscle. I decided if I track the car, it's for fun, not for competition. If I really get into tracking someday, I'll find me a C6, strip it, cage it and race it 

If you are a serious tracker of your car, then this mod is not for you...it will add significant weight. 

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, so now we have all the sound deadening done…and thank God for that. I swear I’ll never do that again. It was a PITA…worth it…but a PITA. I’ve got all the interior parts off being covered in leather or Alcantara. I sent the Dash and carpet to Caravaggio and many of the other plastic parts to APSIS for covering. Those are trickling back little by little. This gives me time to start the component placement and wiring phase of the project. 

My biggest issue now is where to place all the parts. I’m having spatial issues with the amps and PC and other bits and pieces in the back…I just can’t seem to get everything to fit and keep my hatch area volume loss within my specifications. So I called on a very well known installer here I had gotten my DSP6 from, Bing. He and I started chatting about options. He was very nice to answer my emails and give me some pointers. He helped me pick my drivers, which I bought from him, and sold me the DSP6 and DRC controller.

After much debate I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to stay with the Macs, I would have to raise the floor up past the lip in the back. The other option was to go with different amps. Ones that were very thin that would allow me to keep the floor within my limits. After much thought and the pros and cons of each, I decided that keeping the floor to my max height was more important that using the Mac amps. Bing advised that I could go with the Zapco DC Ref series amps that would do all the processing I wanted (one of the goals was to be able to do the processing from the drivers seat…that’s why the DSP6 was such a great option for me). I would still be able to use the PC and the circuitry in the amps was the same as the DSP6. So this was a major deal, I could eliminate one box. The opened up the cubby hole on the drivers side and I could put the PC down in that hole.

Looking at the physical dimensions of the amps I could tell this would be a much better solution and open up a lot of valuable space I could use. I also decided to go with a pair of SLB-U volume controllers. One would be the master control for ALL drivers and I would split that signal and use the second one for Sub volume control.

The drivers were installed as previously described. The mid bass and mid were in the door, kicks were not an option for me due to limited foot space in the Vette. I over did the doors knowing these drivers would go there and knowing they were not the optimal spots but if the doors were done right would maximize their performance. On another note, I did remove the baffles to the mid bass drivers after several folks told me (Bing being one of them) that this was not a good idea and would not be best of SQ and would really hold back those mid bass drivers.

So I purchased 3 Zapco DC Ref amps. A 650.6 for the mids and mid bass. Channels 1,2 and 3.4 were bridged for the Seas RW 165 mid bass drivers. Channels 5 and 6 for the DLS UR 2.5 mids. For the Seas rt27f tweets I got a 200.2. Finally for the DLS Reference W10 10 inch sub (got two of those), I got a 1100.1 amp to drive those two. I plan on running those in parallel at 1 ohm (both SVC at 2 ohm). The subs will be housed in a custom fiberglass enclosure in the back corners.

So that’s the plan and so I started laying out parts to see the best fit. Here’s are a few pics



















I went through a number of spots for everything placing, pickup up, moving and finally this is the end result where all the back parts ended:



















The computer went into that cubby hole in the upper left hand part of the shot. It’s hard to see and I’ll post some more pics of that here in a bit. But for the most part, this is what it looks like today. I’ve wired up everything as seen. There is a power block and ground block. There are distribution bus bars and a few relays that control fans, amp turn on and retained accessory power functions. There is a video security system in the back as well. This can be access by the PC and videos reviewed. This automatically records when the car is turned on and stays recording for a specified amount of time after it’s turned off. I still have a few more security features to add.
I did not want to drill into the floor board in the back hatch. There are things like brake lines and gas tanks and what not that would not react well to screws. So I needed to epoxy threaded stand offs to hold the parts in place. A buddy of mine got me some aerospace epoxy used on the YF22 for just this sort of thing. Turns out one can buy the stuff mail order as well:



















And a few pictures of the stand off going into place:





































Next, we’ll get into the PC and how that evolved over time.

Jay


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## Ludemandan (Jul 13, 2005)

Holy mackerel, nice car and nice build. Are you going to add a cooling system for all that stuff? An extra radiator perhaps?


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

It's funny you mention that. I hadn't really given cooling that much thought until I installed the floor this summer and started having the amps thermal protection kick in on some of the really hot days here in the Dallas area. That led me to rethink the second sub and as of now I'm committed to using the second sub box as a fan portal that cools the computer.

The sub amp sits right on top of the exhaust and it gets hottest of them all. I installed temp sensors in each amp and can monitor the amps internal temps from the PC. I also installed fans along side the amps (not the ones you see in the pics, those fans were worth less). I installed some very high cfm fans in a push pull config for each amp that cools it somewhat.

Jay


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## CraigE (Jun 10, 2008)

crease-guard said:


> That's one of the few places I did not deaden. I wasn't sure how to pull off that plastic. I notice when I first start my car I get a resonance/rattle over the passenger wheel well area and I can't for the life of me find it. I think I'm having that issue as well as on low freq passages I get the resonating feel as well.
> 
> Anyone know how to pull off that section of the hatch?
> 
> Jay


I think that peice is epoxied to the hatch lid.
I was thinking of using deadener like Raamat on the visible side, and then covering it with suede or alcantara.
I've asked about a solution on Corvette Forum, and everyone agrees it is a problem area, but no one has a solution.


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## Ludemandan (Jul 13, 2005)

crease-guard said:


> It's funny you mention that. I hadn't really given cooling that much thought until I installed the floor this summer and started having the amps thermal protection kick in on some of the really hot days here in the Dallas area. That led me to rethink the second sub and as of now I'm committed to using the second sub box as a fan portal that cools the computer.
> 
> The sub amp sits right on top of the exhaust and it gets hottest of them all. I installed temp sensors in each amp and can monitor the amps internal temps from the PC. I also installed fans along side the amps (not the ones you see in the pics, those fans were worth less). I installed some very high cfm fans in a push pull config for each amp that cools it somewhat.
> 
> Jay


How do you know what temperature is acceptable? Did you place them inside the amps? 

Buying four McIntosh amps for a coupe... and then deciding not to use them... that is being very particular indeed!


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ludemandan said:


> How do you know what temperature is acceptable? Did you place them inside the amps?
> 
> Buying four McIntosh amps for a coupe... and then deciding not to use them... that is being very particular indeed!


The amps thermal protection kicks in at 180 F. I placed temp sensors inside each amp and have that hooked to a fusion brain, which I can monitor inside of Centrafuse. So I can pull up the screen and see what the temps are. From there, I can program the fusion brain to kick on the amps at what ever temp I want...set it for a specified amount of time and the fans will then kick off. The temp is monitored every second so when the temps cross the threshold again, the fans kick on and the cycle starts again.

Yeah, buying the macs and then not using them did not...and still doesn't sit well with me. However, I'm pleased with the final setup. I still have the 4 amps sitting in my closet and hope to either sell them or use them in my truck.

Jay


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## Ludemandan (Jul 13, 2005)

crease-guard said:


> The amps thermal protection kicks in at 180 F. I placed temp sensors inside each amp and have that hooked to a fusion brain, which I can monitor inside of Centrafuse. So I can pull up the screen and see what the temps are. From there, I can program the fusion brain to kick on the amps at what ever temp I want...set it for a specified amount of time and the fans will then kick off. The temp is monitored every second so when the temps cross the threshold again, the fans kick on and the cycle starts again.


Radical. :guitarist:


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## strakele (Mar 2, 2009)

This is really looking awesome. It's great that you're really taking the time to do it right and do it how you want.

Where in Plano are you? I live right around 15th and Custer, but I'm out in Atlanta for school. I'd love to see and hear the Vette when you're finished.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

strakele said:


> This is really looking awesome. It's great that you're really taking the time to do it right and do it how you want.
> 
> Where in Plano are you? I live right around 15th and Custer, but I'm out in Atlanta for school. I'd love to see and hear the Vette when you're finished.


Very close to that. Drop me a pm when you are back in town and we can meet up. Once I get this thing done and tuned, I want to go up to the Cars and Coffee on the first Sat each month at Classic BMW there in Plano. I hear it's a great time with a lot of cool cars old and new.

Jay


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## pjc (May 3, 2009)

I did both of my old boss's vettes back when I was working in the industry and enjoyed the cars. Great build so far.


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

That Click Bond looks like a great fastening solution. Can you give more detail on which adhesive you used and the fasteners you employed?

Glad you went with Zapco DC Ref. I have 5 such amps I had in my C5 Z06 that will be going into my 07 Z06. Cooling was a problem in my prior vette, but I will solve that in the new vette by venting it out the cabin.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

I got my stuff from here: The Flight Shop, Inc -- Click Bond® Click Bond Authorized Dealer

I used the CB-200 stuff. Stinks to all getout. You have about 30 mintues when it's 70 out, 15 minutes 90 and above working time. When it's cold it can take a couple hours to setup. You store the stuff in the fridge and it's shelf life is a year. Room temp it's 6 months. Also, make sure you scuff up the surface before hand. If you don't it will pop off, it needs something to grip onto. That's why you see the little mouse sander in the picture. I sanded a spot then took a utility knife and cut some scores at random angles.

If you buy it keep in mind it's a hazardous shipping and they charge you like 30 bucks to ship one tube. So you might buy a couple.

Don't buy the tips, they waste a lot of product unless you are going along and have someone to place the standoffs in place or if you are laying down alot of adhesive at one time. Otherwise squirt it onto a piece of carboard, mix and apply. I usually did one amp at a time and this method worked quite well.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok now on to the PC. This was a complex endeavor and involved quite a bit of research before deciding on a system. I needed something compact but also needed/wanted a TosLink optical out to go to the Zapco DAII DAC. The first PC I ordered met these requirements but the case it came it just wouldn’t fit where I needed. So I have a buddy build a fiberglass case that fit into the cubby hole in the back and installed a metal plate to act as a shelf for mounting. I took all the components out of the case and installed into this box. 














































Seemed like this would be a great idea…and it would have been. However, something with the motherboard on this PC just did not like the power supply or the environment or something because it kept having power on and power off issues. Just would not boot right in the car with the Opus power supply but would boot just fine with a regular ATX desktop supply. After screwing with this for a week, I finally canned it and decided to use it in another project. I bought a new PC…this time in a case that would actually fit in the cubby hole in the back. I mounted the power supply inside the case so the unit was a nice contained unit. This did the trick and is the PC in the car today. I added a second hard drive to hold all the music, videos and pictures. The primary HD is for the OS and software.














































I back up this PC using Windows Home Server and the connector software and that keeps a nice backup to restore in the event of a catastrophic failure. I’ve had to use that a couple of times and damn glad I had it as it made life quite nice for me.

Jay


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## colts95ta (Jan 8, 2011)

Lots of good work here! Subscribed...


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## Brian NS (Jan 20, 2011)

Subscribed here a Corvette Forum looking forward to the next step


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, now that all the major hardware is installed and wired in, now it’s time for the accessory electronics. We’ll start with the screen, then proceed to the OBDII appliances, the Laser and Radar devices, XM and audio switcher, video security and finally the steering wheel controls.

After looking at a number of screens and trying one and not liking it much I finally decided to spend the money and buy the high dollar Transreflective Lilliput screen. Glad I did because it is night and day better than the other screens out there (or at least the ones available at the time). I wanted it to also blend and look stock. This required a melding of screens case along with a double DIN installation frame. I could do the marriage, but I didn’t have the skills to do the fill and blend work to make it look stock, so that was sent off to someone else that could.

First thing I did was to take the screen apart from the its bezel and trimmed off excess material to get a flush fit inside the DDIN frame:










I then tool the DDIN bezel and sanded down the texture using progressively finer paper and finished with a wet 600 then wet 800 grit. This gives a similar texture as the OEM plastic housing for the ash try and A/C controls.










I also wanted to move the IR sensor into the bezel so I could control the screen with the remote. So I drilled a hole, desoldered the sensor and use a silicon adhesive to mount in place:



















I then epoxied the two pieces together:




























I then sent bezel to a guy who I found that did really nice fill work and bezel work. Here are some of those pics:




























Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Some more and finished bezel pics:














































Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Now I needed a place to put a DVD player for the PC, a USB hub and the Zapco DRC controller. The only spot to put any of this was in the glove box. So I needed a custom fiberglass job for this. For this I called on Nexson and his talents. We exchanged a few emails, I told him what I wanted and what the parameters needed to be and we agreed on a design and placement of the parts. I sent the glove box, DVD, USB hub and Zapco DRC to him for fitting and testing and he went to work. Here are the picture of the progression:



























































































Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

More pictures of the glove box:



























































































Jay


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## Brian NS (Jan 20, 2011)

Great job on the glove box. The components look like they have always have been there.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

awesome job on the glovebox!  coming together eh?


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Yeah, it's pretty much all done except for the second sub/fan box and then paint the floor and have a custom mat made for the back. All the electronic and interior work are done and I drive the car on a fairly regular basis now.

Jay


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## Mixerdriver (Nov 8, 2010)

subscribed


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Did Nexson do the glove box too? Looks great....probably one of the best integrated carputers I've seen.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Yes he did.

We are almost to the end of the build. Just a few more goodies to run through.

Jay


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## yong_ly07 (Jan 12, 2009)

nice! i've yet to see a build here that has a pop up screen on the top dash


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## Big D (Dec 28, 2010)

Wow this is awesome! Great work


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## MaXaZoR (Apr 1, 2007)

That guy Nexson from Fiberglass forum does great work...good job on the build


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I first saw him on MP3Car...FGF came later...the guy's everywhere! 

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

My next part of the install was installing the HPTuners and OBDII interfaces to the Car and PC. For those that aren’t familiar with HPTuners (non Corvette Forum guys) it’s a hardware/software package that allow flashing of the Cars ECM to change your tune/timing etc. With this hardwired, I can do this right there in the car changing to different tunes, running logs while driving to diagnose and/or tweak tunings issues.

Goals are to hard wire to the OBDII wiring so the port stays open. Wire the two modules in such a way that only one can ever be the active interface and completely hidden.

To get this done, I needed to pull apart both devices and put them in one box. To isolate one from the other, I decided to use a USB switch. This would physically remove one device from the USB bus on the computer. This was done with a simple USB switching device used for computers sharing one printer: 

Ultra Mini 2-Port USB 2.0 A/B Manual Switch for Two Computers USBG-MS200 LOW PRICE $17.98

I tore this apart and wired in a key switch that would allow me to switch between devices with a key. This way I can keep the HPTuners locked out unless I want it accessed. Here are a few pictures of the assembly:


















































































This box was tucked up under the passenger side floor area where the bose amp used to sit. The DB15 connector was used off the HPTuners devised and hardwired into the OBDII wiring. The key switch was placed in the center console inside the arm rest compartment where the accessory power connector lived. This was hacked apart and the keylock assembly epoxied into the plastic housing. I don’t have a picture of that at this time but I’ll get one on the final post showing everything in place.

Jay


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## draft6969 (Aug 4, 2009)

WOW this install looks $$$. This is one crazy ass install and super nice too. cant wait to see how it ends.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, we are almost done with the install. Let’s summarize what’s left:

1.	Steering wheel controls
2.	False Floor
3.	Sub Woofer enclosure
4.	Painting of the false floor and custom mat.

Of those, 1 and 2 are done. 3 is halfway done, one box is made the other we are still working on. 4. will be done when 3 is completed for reasons you’ll see in a minute.

So, let’s start with the Floor. I needed a false floor for the back. Two reasons, to hide all this stuff as we all know there are those out there that would like to steal this stuff because they are lazy scumbag POS. The second reason is I need a floor to allow me to put stuff in the back…stuff like golf clubs and other recreational goodies. Part of the whole reason I undertook this monster project was I wanted to not lose all my cargo space in the back.

So, I boiled it down to two choices….Wood or Metal. I choose to go the metal route for a couple reasons. One it’s lighter. Now, I see you guys back there rolling your eyes…NOW I decide weight is an issue. Well yes, mostly because it’s easier to get the floor out to work on the stuff underneath when the floor is lighter. Second reason is the metal will provide a bit of a heat sink for the components in the back.

So after much debate with my fellow builder that helped me with this part and the sub woofer enclosures (thanks Earl) we decided on 0.064 inch aluminum sheet. To mount the sheet in the back, I picked up some 0.125 inch C-Channel aluminum that was about 24 inches long. I think cut those into about 1 inch sections for the outside standoffs. The ones down the middle that would span the two pieces of floor were about 3-4 inches in width. I was either damn lucky or damn good as I had exactly enough C-Channel to do the job.

The standoffs were placed on either side of center line at roughly the same spots from each other in a mirror image with the center line down the car as a reference point. From there I removed the dampening material and scuffed up the floor. We used the same Aircraft grade epoxy to set the standoffs in place I used before when mounting the amp standoffs. This is epoxy used in fighter aircraft and is stronger than the floor it’s being mounted to.

Here’s a few pictures of the process and final result:

We cut the pieces on the band saw and then mounted nut plates to the top side










.The following pictures show the mounting of the standoffs and their locations:














































We then used poster board to make a template for the metal sheet. It was cut slightly bigger than we needed, the metal was cut and then final trimming to the correct shape was done by refitting, marking and cutting. This was done multiple multiple times to get the fit we wanted. We used the straight edges from the factory cut as our forward and middle edges as these were important to get perfectly straight.




























We then fit the floor in place and clamped it down. We then used a hole finder to mark the locations of the holes on the floor we needed to drill for the fasteners. Now, a hole finder is a pretty slick way of finding a blind spot underneath a sheet. We made our own out of two pieces of flat metal stock epoxied together at one end. At the other end we drilled a hole perfectly through both pieces of flat stock. On the under side of one we popped a rivet in place with the head on the underside and the protruding end point up toward the other piece of flat stock. From here you slide the rivet side under the sheet and the side with the hole on top of the sheet. You used the rivet body to find the nutplate hole on the mount. You then lay the top piece flat making sure there are no offsets in the flat piece or binding. You hold this in place and use the hole to mark the spot to drill the floor. Worked like a top, perfect hole placement.

Finally the floor in place:










Once the last sub/fan box is done, I will have the floor painted and a custom mat made. The passenger side floor has been cut to its final shape and sound dampening material applied to the underside. I’m not sure if I will apply any sound deadening material as the thickness of that might inhibit air flow over the amps. I’ll have to play with that some.

The floor is secured in place using a custom fastener made out of an unusal material not often found in cars. For security reasons, I won’t discuss the nature of this, but suffice it to say it would take a thief a long time to get them out…and no, you can’t drill them out…I tried. One thinks you could just get your fingers underneath the floor and pull…go ahead and try to do this…it won’t come up. You are not breaking that epoxy bond…you will need the floor it’s epoxied to separate first. You could cut or torch the floor I suppose but you’ll end up damaging the stuff you’re trying to steal. Not to say that it's impenetrable as we all now someone that wants it bad enough will get it...I just made it a royal PITA to try.

Next, we’ll look at the sub enclosure. Quite a task to make these suckers.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, let’s take a look at the sub enclosure now. I selected a couple of DLS 10 inch reference subs for my install. These are Single Voice Coil 2 ohm impedance subs:

Reference RW10 - 10 inch subwoofer

They need an 18 liter enclosure, this is the biggest limitation on the size of the sub I can/want to use as I want to build a fiberglass enclosure that will sit in each back corner of the car. Now, I’m a bit concerned if I will have enough volume in that space given it’s shape and clearance issues of the sub, false floor and closure of the hatch. I’ve also got to make the boxes symmetrical in appearance, take into account the height of the driver above the box to make sure not only the hatch closed but does not touch any part of the driver or box so it does not resonate. Big things to accomplish.

So we start off by laying out what needs to go where and limitations of size and shape. We started by cutting out pieces of cardboard and laying them in the corner and cutting to shape. Once we got things cut to shape, we used a hot glue gun to “weld” the pieces together.














































So, we have the two sides made. My fiberglass buddy uses these cardboard templates to act as a skeleton to apply the fiberglass. Here he started to apply layers of glass mat and resin:



















After several layers we end up with a bottom and sides:










Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Sub Part 2:

Once those basic boxes are done, I make a pair of sub rings for the driver to sit on top of and for attaching. I make these out of MDF and a router with a circle cutter. I screw up the first one but the next two come out just fine.

Next thing we did was to fine fit the sub box we’ve made so far for a better fit in the car. I was originally going to cut out the carpet where the sub was going to sit but later decided that was not a good idea and left the carpet in place and fitted it that way. What we did was cut the sub box fiberglass pieces along the edges and used those pieces for a more precise fit and look of the box. Once in place, we hot glued those pieces together. From here we drilled 4 holes through the rings and used wooden dowel rods to secure the ring to the sub box using hot glue.














































We then fit the box and ring assembly back into the car to make sure we had the clearance we needed. Once everything was set, my friend then finished up the fiber glassing job. Sorry, no picture of that. But he spent a boat load of time doing it and the box is very thick and rigid as all getout.

He shaped the box and then gave it a quick covering of a flat satin type finish which was to be temporary but so far I kind of like it. The box was secured to the back of the car using two lag bolts that go through the back tail assembly through a pair of holes that were already there for a pair of plastic cargo hooks used for the cargo net in the back.

Here’ what it looks like:














































The amazing thing was we hit the volume of the box right on the nose. We needed 18-20 liters and the box volumed out to 21 liters. This was checked but placing a plastic bag inside the box and then filling it with water 500 mL at a time….42 times. I didn’t think there was any way we would have hit the volume but sometimes it’s good to be lucky.

Jay


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## ryomanx (Feb 18, 2011)

speechless. seriously.


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## bfb1963 (Aug 28, 2006)

How are you fastening the subs to the cabin?


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## subiemax (Nov 19, 2007)

Wow! The back of your car looks like an Amp Guts pic. Lol.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

bfb1963 said:


> How are you fastening the subs to the cabin?


The back of the hatch area has a cargo net as stock. That net has a pair of plastic hooks on each side. Those hooks are in an over/under type configuration on each side about 6-8 inches apart. Those hook screw onto a stud. That stud is placed on a oblong plate that is epoxied in place.

So, I punched out this stud/plate assembly to leave the two holes on each side. I then set the box in place and marked the box from the inside of the back facia by removing the tail lights. I then drilled holes in the box and used lag bolts with large washers to distribute the force of the nut/bolt assembly along the back bulkhead area. I also used large rubber washers on both sides to provide a seal for the box.

The box is very secure, barring a major hit to the rear of the car, it's not going anywhere unless the back rips apart during a crash.

I talked to my friend last night and he should have the other box finished in the next couple of weeks.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Ok, for the final part of the install, I wanted to put in steering wheel controls in the car. Now, the 2006 Z06 did not come with steering wheel controls nor did it come with the wire to do it after the fact. However, starting in 2008, IIRC, the Z06 did come with the steering wheel controls for the stereo on the right side spoke. And in 2009 I believe the blue tooth option was added and those controls were on the left side of the spoke, Now, the problem I had to solve was how to make the controls interface with the PC to control volume, answer the phone change the current music track…etc.

First I needed to get a hold of some of these controls and find out how they were designed and how they worked. So I picked some up from the chevy dealer…couple sets actually. I popped one apart and did some analyzing of the circuitry inside and found that there were only 4 damn wires that controlled the 7 buttons and two of those wires did the backlighting on the buttons. So that left a 2 wire control for 7 buttons. At this point I realized that this had to be a voltage ladder type arrangement. That basically you supply a fixed voltage down a series of resistors that ends in a ground. When you press a given button that completes the circuit at a given point in the ladder and returns a voltage. That voltage is essentially a fixed value that can then be read by the return circuit and the button can be identified and the function executed.

Great, now I know how it works, I just need to turn that into an interface with the computer. So I started working and a circuit that compared a known voltage to that of a button press and that, in turn would send signals down stream. Now you might say, why not use a microprocessor like a PIC or Atmel chip? That would be the more elegant way of solving the problem. However, one little obstacle is I don’t know how to write firmware for the micro and I knew it would take more time to learn than it would to do by brute force (at least for me). So I choose the brute force method of using voltage comparators, Hex inverters and AND gates for my project.

So I designed and started to test the circuitry to control the steering wheels. Here are a few shots of the prototype board I made:





































Now, I came across another issue and that was I needed…well WANTED…more than just 7 buttons for control. I had ideas to control the radar and laser detectors/jammers as well as the monitor and possibly some other controls for other little devices. I needed a way to alter the function of the buttons. Turns out I found a solution using some data switching chips and a need little signal chip from microchip. This additional circuitry allowed me to have 4 banks of 8 switches. The only issue was I needed to be able to toggle the additional switch banks. The way this works is to turn on and off different signal chips. As you toggle from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and then back to bank 1. When you start the car, you are on bank 1 by default. As for the toggle, I choose to use the paddle shifters used in the C6 automatic triptronic type transmission. Turns out they are a 2 switch and 2 wire voltage ladder as well. So these were integrated into the circuit using the finger paddle as the switcher and the thumb as the 8th switch.

From there I needed a way to switch various signals from low voltage low current to higher voltage and up to 1 amp in current. I choose a type of optoisolator for this task.

Here’s a few picture of the final circuit:





































In order to make this work, I had to replace the clock spring on the steering column. For those that don’t know what this is, it’s a springy type flat cable inside a plastic housing that allow you to turn the steering wheel without tangling up any wires. There are connections to the wheel and on the column but keep the regular wires from getting tangled. I also need to redo the harness along the column to accommodate the new wires but still allow the horn to be wired in properly. I then have to wire to the computer. I used a little device called UHID to convert the button presses to keyboard strokes that will then control the various function in the front end software. I also wired in the controls for power to the Laser and Radar detectors so I can control them turning on and off. I also wired in the Valentine One mute button.

On a final note for this post, I and another car nut developed a circuit that will show the V1 and Escort 9500ci detectors in the Heads Up Display. So I have this information in my HUD and the V1 blanked.

Jay


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

A couple pictures of the buttons and paddles in place:



















Don’t have any better pictures than that. I’ll have to take some of the entire interior here in the next couple of days.

Also, got the second sub box roughed up and fitted in. However, it’s not going to work as both a sub box and PC cooling fan platform. I’ll go into why in the next post with some pictures of the box.

Jay


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## odj23 (Jul 13, 2010)

I'm earnestly amazed at this build... and that's all I have to say


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## PottersField (Mar 18, 2011)

I had to change my underwear like five or six times while reading this thread. I now have a deep, deep respect for the man behind this massive project, and a wife that's pissed cuz all my draws have stains in them 

Awesome, awesome work, my man.


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Thanks for the compliments to all. This brings us up to date where I am now with the car. Last week I ran a few tests with the other sub box and found that our cooling solution was not adequate at temps in the mid 80's. This led to the conclusion that during the very hot times during July and August, I was going to be having some major cooling issues and possibly some equipment issues with the heat. As such, we decided to forego the second sub and use that box as a conduit for the fan to draw cool cabin air and run it over the pc. What we also hope to gain as a secondary benefit is forcing some air across the amps and out the front edge of the false floor right behind the passenger and driver.

Once I have the second box in, the floor painted and mat made, I will post up some final pics of the install and the interior.

Jay


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## ehaze (Aug 31, 2010)

you're my hero.

amazing work!


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## steve671 (May 13, 2008)

Awesome!
Has the steering wheel been recovered, or is that stiching stock?


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## turbo5upra (Oct 3, 2008)

subscribed'


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

steve671 said:


> Awesome!
> Has the steering wheel been recovered, or is that stiching stock?


little to reply but that has been completely recovered and reworked.

I've finished the project and need to post up the pictures of the final result. Turned out quite nice.

Jay


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## ousooner2 (Jan 6, 2011)

^ Yes...please do!!


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## blackknight87 (Jul 11, 2011)

Crazy intense build. Looks awesome.


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## ecbmxer (Dec 1, 2010)

Old thread, but I'm seriously impressed by the circuit design you did to utilize the steering wheel controls. Awesome. I feel spoiled by being able to buy the controls and an Axxis adapter for my Alpine HU, haha


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## Tarheels1 (Jan 20, 2011)

What is the latest?


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## brent319 (Aug 13, 2011)

wow. Just.... wow.


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## rjtapp (Mar 22, 2012)

I to am speechless. Completely. Totally incredible. Master of all things electronic!


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## chevyrider96 (Mar 5, 2010)

Nice ride, nice build. I will be watching this closely


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## vwjmkv (Apr 23, 2011)

WOW! SUBed!


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Well, I finally got around to getting the car cleaned and detailed and of course it rained the next day. Anyways, took some pictures of the final product today for all to see. Been done for about a year now and everything works great:


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## hyundave (Jun 7, 2012)

Wow unbelievable build! Just read through all of that. Truly incredible work. I'm sure it sounds phenomenal


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## crease-guard (Mar 15, 2008)

Thanks. That's the thing, I haven't tuned the system yet. Just have some basic settings.

Anyone know of a GOOD tuner, someone that knows how to tune an active crossover system in the Dallas/Fort Worth area?

Jay


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

Fantastico! J 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2


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## jcollin76 (Oct 26, 2010)

Incredible! From start to finish, that is super impressive work!

Amazing stuff man.


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Simply amazing!


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## mr.metoo (Feb 20, 2010)

Amazing build


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## Haase (May 12, 2011)

What are you planning to use the paddles on the steering wheel for?


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## db_Outlaw (May 10, 2012)

paddle shifters?


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## Haase (May 12, 2011)

db_Outlaw said:


> paddle shifters?


You can't get an automatic transmission in a Z06...Not from the factory at least...


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## rjtapp (Mar 22, 2012)

were you ever able to get it tuned jay? shoot, id try just to be able to hear and see it in person but id screw it up.lol 
i bet even untuned it sounds amazing.


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