# Southpawskater's first build log, '05 TSX



## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

So before we start be warned, this is the first time I’ve installed anything more than a deck, prefab box and direct replacement speakers. I have very limited experience with fabrication. My previous installs were sufficient for what I wanted at the time, a cool deck and booty bass in the trunk. Nothing fancy but I was young and didn’t know any better. 

Then I went to an open house at Definitive Audio, where my buddy used to work, and listened to some insane home theater setups. After hearing quality sound systems like that my whole philosophy changed on how music should be listened to. I revamped my entire home entertainment system and spent hours and hours adjusting the crossovers and adjusting speaker locations, so on and so forth unit it sounded as good as I could get it. Then like a bolt of lightning it hit me…could I make my car sound like this? So I asked Google for “car audiophile forum” and guess what I found, DIYMA.com - Car Audio Forum & 12 volt Community Board.

I’ve spent the past year or so on here lurking, asking questions, reading reviews, collecting equipment, and blatantly wasting my companies time :blush:. I figured it’s about time to get off my butt and build something with what I’ve learned. 

So I decided early on that I was going to do all of the fabrication in the trunk before I installed speakers or ran power because by nature I’m inpatient and I figured if I had the speakers in I would want to rush to get them playing and half ass the amp rack and sub box. I also decided I would get to a point where I was happy with how it was turning out before I posted the build log as I didn’t want you guys laughing a my hack work.

Anyways, long story long apparently...

I have a Zapco AG750.2 to run the sub, craigslist find.
Zapco AG360.4 to bridge into the bid bass, craigslist find.
Zapco AG360.4 to run the tweeters and midranges, thanks to Complacent_One.
A JBL MS-8 for processing, thanks to rockinridgeline.
And a Stereo Integrity BM MKIII for a sub, thanks to turbo5upra.

I’m still undecided on the front stage I have a bunch or drivers I’ve picked up and figure Ill test them and see what I like the best, or I would really like to pick up a set of the Dynaudio Esotec 3 ways but for now were working in the trunk. Let’s get started….


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

So first off here is the gear:










Second here is the trunk:










Yes I plan on doing a lot of deadening but at the moment the weather has been hit and miss and I’m moving in about a month so I’m just doing the fabrication for right now.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

I started off my using the center section of the trunk liner to make a template on ½” MDF:



















Then I cut that out and test fitted it:










I had a little trimming I had to do and had to notch out a section up top to clear a hump in the floor.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Next I built a box for the SI BM MKIII, simple 15”x15”x6.5” box out of 3/4" MDF netting me approximately .52’ of air space. I didn’t have a jasper jig so I used some scrap masonite and made one:










And here is the box:


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Next I cut out a square in the bottom panel so that the sub box would slide into it and used some scrap MDF to make rails on the box to hold it level. I pulled out all of the equipment to test fit and see how I wanted to lay it out:










And from the inside:


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## Complacent_One (Jul 2, 2009)

Looking good!!

Great to see that amp going to good use!!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

After looking at it and see how little clearance I was going to have in between everything I decided to take the MS-8 out of the equation and mount it underneath the panel.

Next I cut up a ton of 2" wide strips of ¾ “ MDF to build up a foundation if you will:










So I kinda decided on a layout and started framing it out, the floor of the trunk actually rises up towards the front and there is a lip by the wheel wells so I had to get a little creative:










I used scrap strips to get the correct angles and transferred them onto the appropriate length pieces:


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

So a little test fitting in the trunk, it looks pretty good, a little sanding here and trimming there. My motto is measure once, test fit, cut a bunch of times....


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Next was to frame out pieces for the side sections, I wanted to make them separate so it would be easier to get everything in an out of the trunk as I plan on doing all of the wiring outside then installing it:










I installed T-nuts and used these bolts with a finger grip things on the ends to secure the side pieces (I’m sure there is a more technical name for them but this is what you get)










I also predrilled and installed t-nuts to mount all of the amps and the processor.


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## Timelessr1 (Feb 12, 2010)

Looking great so far!!!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Now I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I have borrowed some ideas from simplicityinsounds, 2010 Sti : Stealth SQ install with a slight twist build. You know what they say...Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The first thing I do every day after checking my e-mail is log into DIY and check build logs and he is probably my favorite installer, I tip my hat to you sir!

Now back to your regularly scheduled build...

So I wanted to frame out the amps with a lip overlapping them so you couldn’t see any wiring or anything. So I built frames out of ¾ " MDF the same size as the foot print of the amp and temporarily mounted them using scraps pieces:










Next I spent the better part of an afternoon cutting the crap out of my finger tips making a cardboard template that fit all of the curves at the front and back of the trunk then transferred it onto a piece of ½ “ MDF.










I screwed the top in place temporarily and use my flush trim bit to make perfect cutouts exactly 3/4" smaller than my amps and I trimmed out the hole for the sub.










Next I used my rabbeting bit to make the sub cut out large enough to fit the mounting lip and the gasket. Then ran a 45 degree chamfer bit around all of the openings.










Then pulled everything back out to test fit...










If I didn’t know any better Id think I knew what I was doing!!!!!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

So last night I beefed up the “wing” framing on either side and got covers cut out, that’s where It sits right now, but I got a nice sunny weekend ahead of me to work on it 










I want to thank everybody on this forum who has contributed, I would have no direction whatsoever without all of the knowledge that is shared on this site and I also want to thank everyone who puts together a build log on their projects. It is immensely helpful in learning and honestly it’s kind of a pain in the ass to take pictures and explain what and why you’re doing things while working on a project. So thank all of you for taking the time.


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## BakedCookies (Sep 6, 2011)

Great looking install so far! Looking for to more pics.


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## damonryoung (Mar 23, 2012)

Excellent work for a "hack"... Keep it up!


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## focused313 (Apr 19, 2012)

looking good thus far


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

southpawskater said:


>


I may be looking at this wrong, but are those T nuts on the wrong side of the board? It looks like you mounted them with the flange side on top, and are screwing down into them. I have had several of them strip or not hold in, so I hope you don't have the same problem. Next time I use them I will probably epoxy them in. 

Great looking build so far. Looks very Bing-esque. lol

Oh, and props for not doing fiberglass when you didn't need to.

Jay


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

the Honda based cars are not the easeiest to do fake floors in sometimes since they have such a shallow spare tire well...this looks fantastic! 

forget about T nuts next time, slot drive threaded inserts for the win  do it right and it wont ever tear out, becuase as you put a bolt into it to tighten it, it makes the threaded inserts wanna tighten too and dig depper into the wood.


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## dales (Dec 16, 2010)

awesome for your first''custom'' install. cant wait to see the finished product


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

No those T-nuts on the top were going to be for mounting the MS-8 on the underside of this panel, and I glued all of the t-nuts in when I installed them, the are pretty stout but next time I will use threaded inserts for sure!

I had originally planned on having the MS-8 up top but I didnt like the way it looked and it would have been a really tight fit with all of the wiring. So I decided to put it underneath.

But I learned a valuable lesson, when you change one aspect of your install double check that it wont afftect any other aspects....

The location I chose to put the MS-8 underneath is right where I needed to drill through to run the speaker wire for the sub amp....

Also, if your going to install snap bushings for your wiring, and the RCA cable and speaker cables are pretty close to the same size just get one size for both so you dont have to change drill bits every 30 second:laugh:

Final pearl of wisdom during lunch break...If you plan on spending hours and hours working on a big project. Spend a little time first and build yourself a waist high workbench instead of using 17" tall rubbermaid bins. Your back will thank you!


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

Everything looks great, but you may want to open up a bit of ventilation on the MS8, I can tell you from experience they dont like to be covered up and get too hot.


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## f5racing (Apr 9, 2012)

Looks great! I can't wait to see more. I have been browsing for more ideas on where to mount the new setup, and I think this nailed it down for me.


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

chefhow said:


> Everything looks great, but you may want to open up a bit of ventilation on the MS8, I can tell you from experience they dont like to be covered up and get too hot.


DITTO!!! and b/c JBL cant replicate it in a Lab, the issue to my knowledge, has never been resolved.
It does some REALLY funky stuff when it gets hot, like thermal protect and shuts down....processing gets very wonky...center image will be in your right apillar kind of stuff


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Mic10is said:


> DITTO!!! and b/c JBL cant replicate it in a Lab, the issue to my knowledge, has never been resolved.
> It does some REALLY funky stuff when it gets hot, like thermal protect and shuts down....processing gets very wonky...center image will be in your right apillar kind of stuff



Good to know, thanks guys! Looks like there will be fans going in.. any ideas on quiet 12 volt PC style fans?


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

Cool. That makes more sense. In the pic, I thought it was wrong if you were mounting something on top. 

Work looks great. Can't wait to see more.

Jay


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

I might have a few fans I can bring over next time. Looking good!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Got the fan situaution sorted out! But you need to get your ass over here and help me wire this pig up!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

southpawskater said:


> But I learned a valuable lesson, when you change one aspect of your install double check that it wont afftect any other aspects....


X10000000000000000000000

this is perhaps the single most important lesson especially for fake floor installs with lots of gear and limted room.  bravo! i wish i learned that on my first fake floor install...or second...or third...or fourth...or....


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

simplicityinsound said:


> X10000000000000000000000
> 
> this is perhaps the single most important lesson especially for fake floor installs with lots of gear and limted room.  bravo! i wish i learned that on my first fake floor install...or second...or third...or fourth...or....


I wish I would have learned it before I had to redo the bottom panel 

But I had a template so I just had to route out a new one and it was back to work.

Pics to come tomorrow morning, I prefer to upload build logs pics on company time


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Friday I finished up the top trim piece and both of the sides.



















I glued the ½” and ¾” sides together and ran a round-over bit over the edges of both the sides and main trim piece. By this time it was getting late so I decided to call it a night.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Saturday was filled with frustrations. I realized the location on I chose to move the MS-8 to was going to interfere with the wiring for the amp on the other side of the lower floor panel. I figured I could use some washers to leave a gap between the MS-8 and the board so I could route wiring, kinda half assed but I figured no one will ever see it unless I show them.

Next I drilled out the holes for all of the wiring. When using a hole saw I found if you try and punch all the way through from one side it wreaks havoc on MDF…again I figured no one would see it moving right along…



















Then I sprayed the whole thing with black rattle can.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

I found a PC fan in my box of random crap and threw that in too.



















I picked up these LED bolts from oznium.com to light up the heat sinks on the amps.










So I drilled holes, mounted them, and wired these and the fan only to find out they are too low to light up the part of the heat sink you can actually see with the trim pieces on…

At this point I went inside and poured myself a couple drinks and called it a night.


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

Got a lot done! If I didn't know any better I'd think you knew exactly what you were doing.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Sunday morning I woke up super early because the neighbor’s dog started barking it ass off at 5 A.M. and didn’t stop till after 6. It was too early to go to the garage and make noise so I did a little thinking and re-planning. 

The MS-8 location was bugging me, the snap bushings were too small to run the wire through with tech-flex on, the LEDs were pointless how they were mounted, and the chipped up bottom panel even though no one would ever see it was driving me nuts. 

Went and had Mothers day brunch with Mom and the siblings then off to my local ACE hardware. This place has an insane selection of hardware, I like to just dig through all of the drawers and it usually gives me ideas. Today was no exception.

I got home and decided to re-build the bottom panel. I just pulled off the original and screwed it down to a piece of ½” and used my flush trim bit to make an exact copy. Predrilled and countersunk all of the holes and attached it to the frame.

I found these stainless spacer tubes at ACE the same diameter as the LEDs. I hot glued the LEDs into the top then used a hole saw to cut a ½” counter bore halfway through the bottom panel and glued the tubes in place. Now they work for their intended purpose


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Then I wired up the LEDs and the fans…again.










I also installed the barrier strips for my speaker wires.










I used my router and ghetto jasper jig to cut a ½” MDF circle to fit where the spare goes. I think this is where Ill mount the MS-8 and the power distribution. 










This isn’t ideal as I wanted to be able to pre-wire everything outside of the car but, it will actually make the wiring easier and less clustered. I think I’ll mount my ground terminal at the very back where the circle is cut out, any thoughts?


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Lastly I ran all of the speaker wire, cut to size, and terminated it at both the amps and the barrier strips. 



















This is where I left off Sunday night. I only have tonight this week to work on it as I have to fly to Phoenix for business. But let’s see how much I can finish in one night!!!


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## f5racing (Apr 9, 2012)

southpawskater said:


> This is where I left off Sunday night. I only have tonight this week to work on it as I have to fly to Phoenix for business. But let’s see how much I can finish in one night!!!


Judging by how much you finished in a weekend, I would guess that you will finish quite a bit! Looks great! I hope to get that much done this month....


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

I ordered up 2 more fans to get a little more air running down to where the MS-8 sits.

Now the to do list is:
Cut out a vent in the top trim panels for the fans to breathe through,
Finish wiring false floor.
Tech-flex all wiring.
Build RCAs.
Install ground terminal
Wire relays for Amps remote turn on, fans, and LEDs.
Wrap trim panels. 
Run 0 gauge to the trunk.

Vacuum and wash my poor dirty car! :laugh:


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Well I tried wrapping the 3/4" trim piece and it turned out like crap. I couldnt get the vinyl to wrap down around the vertical lip without either pulling up in the corner or tearing. So Im going to get a larger 45' chamfer bit and make a larger angle on it, I think that will make it easier to wrap. 

Ill have more progress in about a week.


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## adamand (Apr 19, 2009)

sub'd for a local build... 

looks great so far! Definitive Audio has some killer audio set-up's, don't they?


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

Like what I see here and refreshing to see an issue thought out and solved and then aired on a build log.... cool!! 

Liking this build...


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Awesome job so far!!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

really diggin this so far


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## abdulwq (Aug 17, 2008)

zapco amps are niceeeee


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Yea I love me some Zapco goodness!

I just got the AG1000.2 to match my AG650.6 last week 

That will be for my next project, if and when I get this one buttoned up.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Sorry guys it’s been raining non-stop in the wonderful wet Northwest. I still have to run the 0 gauge to the trunk to make any of this work and my garage is way too small to try and do it inside. So I haven’t been that motivated knowing I wasn’t going to be able to hook it up anyway. I did make some more progress over the past couple of days, mostly just wiring so there’s not a whole lot of pictures but here goes.

I built my own RCAs for the first time, what a huge time consuming PITA, but it will be worth it in the end, all of the cables are an exact fit:










I have all of the amps wired, terminated, and labeled now:










Then I wrapped all of the amps in carbon fiber vinyl.










Had to test the LEDs again 










Close up:



















Hopefully Ill get some sun this weekend to run the power and RCAs to the trunk and actually get some sound out of this thing!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Hey guys, I forgot my SD card at work over the long weekend so no pictures of the progress but I'll get some tonight. 

Got the power ran to the trunk and everything powers up after some minor trouble shooting. I also got the SLS 6.5" mid-basses mounted in the stock door locations, it took some cutting on both the sheet metal and the door card but there in and have about 1/4" of clearance between the window and the factory grill on the door panel. The mantra for the day was real men cut their doors….made me feel better about hacking into the nicest car I’ve ever owned.

I also got speaker wire ran for the 3 way front and pulled through the doors for the SLS's.

I still have to get the MS-8 input hooked up which I’ve been kind of avoiding… I had bought a PAC adaptor that taps into the system between the head-unit and the factory amp that gives out 2 pairs of full range RCAs. The problem is it keeps all of the stock speakers working as well so any way you slice it I have to cut into the factory harness which honestly scares the crap out of me.

I’m going to try and get the MS-8 working tonight and see if I can’t get it to play some music for me so I can mess with driver positioning.


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## shawnk (Jan 11, 2010)

Really liking this! Nice work!


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## pjc (May 3, 2009)

We need an update. Looks great so far. And loving all of the pics. Best of luck with this install.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Yea sorry guys its been raining non stop and Im waiting on some new drivers for the front stage, as soon as they get in Ill be back on track with updates.


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

I gotta say, the most impressive part of this build is what little Jon (AKA southpawskater) has to work with. He has a single car garage (with neighbors living in the apartment above it lol) that can barely fit a 4'x8' sheet of MDF, and a small assortment of tools, half of them borrowed. I let him borrow a couple 18v drills, circular saw, and a 10 year old target clearance special ($3) Tim Allen jig saw. Another friend let him borrow a portable table saw. He has a router, some hand tools and we used Rubbermaid tubs for saw horses. That's pretty much it. Just show you don't need a huge fully stocked shop to do good work. All it takes is some patience, research, and motivation. (Good friends and beer helps too) And I gotta say Bing's website (Home) is a great place for research. Almost anything you can think of doing he's done it three different ways and has it all logged. I hope this encourages Jon to post a picture or two of his work space/tools and encourages others to DIY!


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

^^^^^ ??? wow....

well then it makes what he has accomplished even more impressive!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

evangojason said:


> I gotta say, the most impressive part of this build is what little Jon (AKA southpawskater) has to work with. He has a single car garage (with neighbors living in the apartment above it lol) that can barely fit a 4'x8' sheet of MDF, and a small assortment of tools, half of them borrowed. I let him borrow a couple 18v drills, circular saw, and a 10 year old target clearance special ($3) Tim Allen jig saw. Another friend let him borrow a portable table saw. He has a router, some hand tools and we used Rubbermaid tubs for saw horses. That's pretty much it. Just show you don't need a huge fully stocked shop to do good work. All it takes is some patience, research, and motivation. (Good friends and beer helps too) And I gotta say Bing's website (Home) is a great place for research. Almost anything you can think of doing he's done it three different ways and has it all logged. I hope this encourages Jon to post a picture or two of his work space/tools and encourages others to DIY!


^^^^^^ LMAO!!!!!!
Yea, my whole tool collection doesnt even fill one of those Rubbermaid bins. Im sure its easier with better tools but proper planning counts for alot! 

And its sunny outside so I might actually do some work on it tonight


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Hey guys got some work done this week and figured Id post some new pics.

I'm building the filler pieces for the amp cutouts and sub.

I started by cutting out the filler piece with a skill saw and sanding it to fit.










Next I used a piece a scrap trim to make a frame for my flush trim bit to follow.



















Then I used a rabbeting bit to cut a channel for the perforated aluminum to sit in flush with the top of the MDF and a 45' angle bit to give a finished edge.




























And lastly I trimmed down the perforated aluminum to fit in the cutouts. This was a blast with old dull tin snips. I felt like I had Popeye forearms afterwards lol!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Now here is where I need a little help...

Does anyone have any ideas on how to attach the aluminum to the MDF. I don't want to use staples as I plan on wrapping these in grill cloth and don't want the staples showing through.

I was thinking about gluing it together then laying some body filler down to smooth out the transition between the MDF and the aluminum.


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## Orion525iT (Mar 6, 2011)

southpawskater said:


> Now here is where I need a little help...
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas on how to attach the aluminum to the MDF. I don't want to use staples as I plan on wrapping these in grill cloth and don't want the staples showing through.
> 
> I was thinking about gluing it together then laying some body filler down to smooth out the transition between the MDF and the aluminum.


I assume this is a trunk board? I think the worry would be that the body filler would crack over time if those grills ever had any pressure put on them. 

I know it was a ***** to cut them, but I would have over sized them, to get much more contact area and wider flange area, and then epoxy them in place.

Maybe cut the same depth done by the rabbeting and cut all the way out to the finished edge. Then cut the aluminum again. Epoxy it down, or epoxy plus filler so you can create a smooth surface.


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I've used fiberglass reinforced filler (Duraglass, kitty hair, etc.) to hold it down. 
On the last one I did, I used staples, then used duraglass around the lip to hold it down and blend it in. Once the grill cloth is on it looks fine....worst case maybe you do 2 layers of cloth...that should come out fine...or some 1/8" foam padding and grill cloth.

Jay


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## eighty5iv (Aug 15, 2010)

Washers and flat head screws or finish screws? Its perforated and you could see If they would fit?


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Well guys after a lot of procrastinating and ruining one piece of vinyl I finally got the courage up to try to rewrap the beauty panels for the trunk. I picked up a gallon of DAP Weldwood contact adhesive and a bunch of cheap paint brushes from the dollar store. This time I started with the ½” top panel with larger radiuses on the cutouts.




























There is defiantly a technique to using this adhesive, I started by brushing a fairly thick layer on both the vinyl and the top and sides of the trim pieces, let that tack till almost dry.

Then I pulled the wrinkles out and pressed down the top.

Next I flipped the piece over and laid another layer of adhesive down on the edges of the trim piece, the cutouts, and the sides of the vinyl. I let that sit for 5-10 minutes and then started wrapping around the edges. This really helped with the adhesion between the MDF and vinyl.

A lot of heat and a lot of pulling got the job done.

Jason (AKA evangojason) coming over and giving me an extra set of hands and a lot of motivation was a pretty big part too!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Next I wrapped the side pieces in black CF vinyl. I didn’t take any pictures of them finished because I was on a roll and didn’t want to stop. LOL! 

Then all I had left to do was the white CF vinyl on the ¾” trim piece with the tight radius corners that I had failed on in my first attempt…

Well it didn’t come out perfect but it is defiantly tolerable.

Heres some pictures as it all gets put in the car, enjoy!


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

Glad I could help motivate. It turned out really good.


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## mires (Mar 5, 2011)

That turned out fantastic. You should be proud you were able to achieve this your first time. Hell, I'd be proud if my tenth time turned out that good. Good job man!


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## slpery (Jan 14, 2011)

Damn you. Now you've given me ideas to redo my false floor. That contrast of black and white is classy.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

slpery said:


> Damn you. Now you've given me ideas to redo my false floor. That contrast of black and white is classy.


Thanks for the compliments guys!

Yea I really like the black and white carbon fiber, they work well together especially on a pearl white car.


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

Looks great!!


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## eighty5iv (Aug 15, 2010)

Awesome work.


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## Complacent_One (Jul 2, 2009)

southpawskater said:


> Now here is where I need a little help...
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas on how to attach the aluminum to the MDF. I don't want to use staples as I plan on wrapping these in grill cloth and don't want the staples showing through.
> 
> I was thinking about gluing it together then laying some body filler down to smooth out the transition between the MDF and the aluminum.


I would have gone for a sandwich....MDF, Aluminum, MDF. If you build a slug and a mold...out of MDF, or something a bit harder, you could flange the edge of the aluminum, so it could sit flush with the IO, but the outer flange could be sandwiched between two pieces of MDF... not sure if that made sense...but in a hurry to get out of the office.

By the way...the work looks spectacular thus far!!!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

That actually did make sense, does that mean I spend too much time on here?????

I actually just used gorilla glue to attach the aluminum in the routed out flange of the filler pieces and it holds strong. With as small as the pieces of aluminum are and as tightly fit into the flanges as they are I'm not too worried about it pulling loose. I also picked up some pretty thick grill cloth (its actually sweater material) from Jo Ann's fabric to wrap them in and it covers up pretty much everything.

Thanks for the compliment and for hooking me up with the amp to make it all work out!


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## d5sc (Aug 14, 2007)

Wow, that came out GREAT!


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Again thank you all for the compliments, its been a ton of work and I'm still a ways off from being done but having you guys on here give it your approval means a lot to me.


Not much to report on but I did bet some badges installed on the Zapcos last night, they looked naked after I stripped the AG decals off but now there representing Zapco again!!!!!


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

Looks much better. The amps don't look "lost" anymore.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

evangojason said:


> Looks much better. The amps don't look "lost" anymore.


Yea they looked naked before, but I’m kind of thinking about painting them white. They just blend into the carbon fiber so much you almost miss the logo.


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## evangojason (Feb 12, 2010)

southpawskater said:


> Yea they looked naked before, but I’m kind of thinking about painting them white. They just blend into the carbon fiber so much you almost miss the logo.


Agreed! I think use should get more and brighter LED's to highlight the outline of the amps a bit more.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

evangojason said:


> Agreed! I think use should get more and brighter LED's to highlight the outline of the amps a bit more.


I don’t want to put spot lights on them as the anodizing on the heat-sinks is kind of beat up, and they are going to be covered with the grill inserts anyways.

Maybe I’ll pick up a few more LEDs and play with it but I need to get front speakers installed first.


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## mrblackrat (Apr 17, 2013)

Great setup btw. I was wondering how did you pass the audio from the stock TSX HU to your JBL MS-8? Did you end up using the PAC AOEM-HON20 adapter?


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Well back from the dead on this build, I took the past few months off of working on the car to play hockey. But I went and destroyed my ankle playing so I have some free time to finish this thing up. Got started on my A-pillars with a little motivation from evangojason this past weekend.

Pretty standard pillar build, cut rings for the tweeters out of 1/2" MDF using a circle jig on the router. Then cut out 2 pairs of 1/2" MDF rings for the midranges, one to mount the speaker to and one with a larger inner diameter to give clearance for a grill. Spent a lot of time gluing them on then taking them off to adjust the placement. I’m not 100% thrilled with the placement but it’s a good balance of speaker location and not being overly obtrusive so that’s what we’re going with. 

After I finally got the placement right stretched some cloth over the pillar and glued it in place, it was fun getting all of the wrinkles out and trying to make both sides match.

Then came the resin, laid down a nice coat over the whole pillar and waited for it to harden. Next came the milk shake on the inside of the pillars. Just mix it up, pour it in and slosh it back and forth to cover everything and wait for it to harden. It works really well in tight places you can’t get at to hand apply glass, and its strong as hell!

After that a $#!& ton of body filler, then sand, then more filler, then more sanding....you get the picture.

Finally laid some sand able primer on it to see how it came out. That’s where were at for now, updates next week.


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## $ilver~tC (Nov 27, 2010)

subscribed! amazing craftsmanship and attention to detail.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Finally got the pillars all filled in, smoothed out, and sanded. 
Sprayed them with a coat of tan spray-paint incase the grill cloth showed any of the base material after wrapping.
I found this beige grill cloth at installer.com and while it’s not a 100% perfect match its pretty damn close.
So here it is finally finished, enjoy….









I was going to recess the mids and make grills for them but I decided I liked the way they looked and left them exposed.
I might make some magnetic grills with black grill cloth to cover them up in the future but I’m digging it the way it is right now.


After getting it all installed I turned on the car to run the calibration on the MS-8 and poof, the right tweeter let out a puff of smoke and died.
The deck wasn’t even on so I don’t know what happened there but I will be replacing the tweets in the very near future.
So I ran it as a 2 way front with the tang bands running mid and tweeter duties.
It actually sounds pretty good but I definitely miss that high end sparkle that the tang bands just cant provide.


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Well it’s been a while since I posted on the build, I went to my first IASCA competition about a month ago. 
I had my mid basses bridged at 100w per channel, but I lost a channel on one of my 4 channels so I had to run them at 50w each just to have something playing.
The results were not great, I took second place in amateur where there were only 2 competitors, and had a sub 200 score.
Well I pulled the amp out and got it fixed, re-installed and spent a lot of time listening, tuning, and tweaking.
Got some more experienced ears to listen to it and give me a hand adjusting things and it really started coming to life.
So last weekend as Steve McIntyre’s shop (Soundstage Car Audio) I managed to get myself a 1st place trophy in amateur SQ.
Followed by a 1st place in amateur install.
Then a first place in a new category that uses your SQ score plus an SPL run with the door open, hit 120.7DBs with a single shallow mount 12”.
Then another 1st place for best overall theme and display.
It was a pretty awesome weekend! There’s another show this Sunday so let’s hope I can bring some more hardware home!


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

This is a really sweet build. What comps did you end up using?


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

teldzc1 said:


> This is a really sweet build. What comps did you end up using?


Its actually all home audio drivers up front:
Peerless SLS 6.5” mid bass
Tang Band Bamboo 3” mids
Scan Speak, Ring radiator tweets
With the Stereo Integrity MKIII on sub duties


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## rich20730 (Feb 13, 2012)

Awesome build! Very impressive how well thought-out everything was. Most of the time I don't what I'm going to do until the saw blade hits the MDF.


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## optimaprime (Aug 16, 2007)

Wow man that great you won ! Install looks badass


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

Thanks for all of the compliments guys, the car did pretty damn well for its first season. 
Took home a West Coast championship in both SQC and IQC for the amateur class of IASCA and ended up 3rd in IQC and 4th in SQC nationally.







Now it’s time to start all over 
New build log starting in the next few weeks.
Teaser…


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## momax_powers (Oct 26, 2013)

southpawskater said:


> Thanks for all of the compliments guys, the car did pretty damn well for its first season.
> Took home a West Coast championship in both SQC and IQC for the amateur class of IASCA and ended up 3rd in IQC and 4th in SQC nationally.
> 
> 
> ...


Which model zapcos did you get now
I have a build coming up with a dc650.6 dc750.2 and dc1100.1, very excited


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

For now I'll be running 3 DC 750.2s and a DC 1000.1.


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## momax_powers (Oct 26, 2013)

​


southpawskater said:


> For now I'll be running 3 DC 750.2s and a DC 1000.1.


Will you be using the amp dsp or HU or both


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## southpawskater (Feb 17, 2010)

I haven't decided yet, I figure Ill try both and see what I like better. They both have their strengths and weaknesses so it's probably just a matter of which interface I like better.


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## DLO13 (Oct 24, 2010)

congratulations. you have accomplished a lot for your first build! including making me feel 100% inadequate.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Man, that boot install is neat. I can see your inspiration coming through 

It also helps motivate me, as I want to do a similar style of install, I keep stalling on gear though


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## wdemetrius1 (Aug 16, 2007)

Fantastic Build Log and Congraulations on your success!!!


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## Mdemelo76 (Jun 3, 2015)

Please if you or anyone can tell me where to get that metal speaker grill you used in trunk? Thanks in advance. The car came out amazing excellent work.


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