# 06' Si Daily SQ build (56k no way)



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Hello all, I figured I'd post up my build log here as well... I started my build in December of this year with the initial intentions of a simple SQ setup but over time I've become more and more addicted to this hobby... 

Here a couple shots of my DD:



















Interior mods (excludes audio):
Blue LED map and rear dome light
Blue foot well and rear seat
White trunk LED's wire to stock light 

Exterior mods:
4300K HID's lows
3000K HID's Fogs lens painted yellow for deeper yellow


Future mods:
Tint 
Repair road rash and repaint rims


Anyway that doesn't really matter. I've got a good chunk of my audio done so there will be a lot to read up on. Feel free to ask questions, suggest things to improve my setup, and please enjoy


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

We, my friend new a lot about audio and I have learned a lot from him and others as well, used #2 ultra flex welding cable for the alt to battery+, battery- to chassis, and chassis to engine block. All connections are in contact with bare metal for optimum efficiency. We fused 200a right before the battery for the alt to battery+ and fused a 200a inline for the power cable which is run through the plastic trim through the fender into the cabin through an open grommet right above the dead pedal. This cable was then run through the driver side trim, through the rear seat and into the trunk. Here are some pics

Note we don't have the fuse holders mounted atm:






































The next thing we tackled was the HU. I was on the fence for a long time debating whether I wanted to keep the stock HU or go with an aftermarket. After much research and asking around the forum I decided to get an aftermarket unit as they have many more options and tend to sound better.

I got the Pioneer DEH-P7200HD:











After some time we then hit the wiring and speaker/amp combo. After seeking help from a friend and listening to what seemed like thousands of speakers I choose the MBQuart PVL-216 6.5" component set for the front. Power is transferred through 16 gauge true OFC speaker wire. This wire is run through the rear seat up the driver side door trim and splits (two to the passenger and two to the drivers side). 

We were very excited to find out that we could recycle the stock speaker hanger. We had to do some trimming (or melting) but everything fit like a glove. Best this about this is you won't be able to tell by looks its not the stock speaker because the stock speaker cover covers everything up. Looks very nice. 

Sorry for the dirty car:

Drivers Side









Passenger Side









Unfortunately the new tweets were to big to even thing about mounting up top without doing something custom. After remembering what Papasin, over at 8th, posted we decided to mount them in the kick panels 











After spending hours upon hours on the door speakers we then moved on to the amp. I decided to get the Hifonics ZXi80.4. 

Here are some pics:











The wire that goes towards the top of the picture leads to the stock sub. I'm very surprised at how well it sounds on an aftermarket amp:



















We made our own ground directly into the frame of the car, scraped the paint off to bare metal and bolted it down securely:










We tested this connection for any change in voltage and there was absolutely none that the DMM showed.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

We were able to apply Second Skin's Deamplifier on the doors.

But before this I have some pictures of my Mb Quart speakers. These were taken before the tar crap was taken off. 

Driver Side:










Yes we were able to modify the stock baffle. So mounting these were fairly easy.

Passenger Side:











I do want to say for those who are potentially looking for great 6.5" components. These Mb Quart PVL 216's sound great. All frequency ranges are very clear and crisp and the bass reproduction is amazing.

Here is a clearance shot. Loads of room.











Now here are the shots of the doors before deadener.

Driver Side:










Passenger Side:











Now after












Now I had gotten 20 sq. ft of deadener and ended up using roughly four sheets per door. Now we applied some deadener the full length of the door in between the structural bars and some above and bellow. To fill the two massive holes we used cardboard that we trimmed to fit and then applied deadener over top to make a tight seal. We also filled all the smaller holes as well. 


As far as the sound difference of the speakers. I could defiantly feel the beat more in my feet.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Alright here are some installed pictures. We didn't take pictures as we were building as there wasn't much measuring/following a preset drawn box. The whole box is out of MDF. We figure its probably between .6-.75 cubic feet. Sundown recommends 1-1.5 cubic feet for sealed. With this setup the sub seems to handle the box well. Still sounds very clean and smooth. I'm currently breaking it in so there isn't a lot of movement. 

Our biggest issue was fitment with the least amount of overhang onto the spare tire cover and to not hit the trunk door hing. As stated above this took about 12 hours to do. Basically in the beginning this thing looked like a bunch of wood at odd angles and tons of overhand. Lucky we had a portable belt sander which we were able to make this hunk of wood to look something like a box. 

We painted this a textured black with silver glitter to add some dimension. The pictures really bring out the imperfections from sanding and whatnot. In person it looks much better. Sorry for ranting but here are the pics you've been patiently waiting for. Video's will be up soon. I will try to make one tomorrow after my exams but I can't guarantee that it will sound/look good.

Excuse the dirty floors. The MDF is hard to get out. If you have any good suggestions on something to use let me know. I did sweep some but didn't have time to hit it hard.

This was taken through the little opening from the passenger side rear seat folded down:











Side shot:











Here is what it looks like from the top. There isn't to much of an overhang. I'm very pleased with its location. According to my friends I can still fit my dead bodies in there:dancing:













Here is a shot of the clearance of the top of the box:












The trunk lid just barley even touches the box. You can't really tell that from the previous pic.

We drilled a total of three holes to mount this box down to the floor. We used some beefy screws as well. This thing isn't going to move easy...

I'm in for video suggestions as well. What are things people like to see. This being a SQ sub and all...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Unfortunately about a week after that box was built the sub fried as the box was extremely restricting the sub which cause the glue to melt... Luckily Jacob over a Sundown was understanding and sent me a replacement...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

My previous box is going to be sold, as long as we can determine what the actual cu feet it is. We personally believe the box was way to small and due to the sub being so stiff in the beginning we didn't realize it was suffocating the sub. Probably due to the 11+ hours we worked on it and fatigue. 

Lesson learned and we are going to do this thing right this time. The goal to save space has went down the tube with the blown sub. I still think I'm going with the SQ sealed setup. Also the idea of placing the amps on the rear seat also changed. I am now in the final planning stages of an amp rack. Here are some pics:

Now this shows four fans but that has changed to two:



















Here is what the two will look like:










Here is the 3D rendered rack:





















Now the hope is to be able to place the amp rack and the sub box side by side up by the rear seats. I measured a good 40.5 in and am figuring a max of 39.5 to be safe. The sub box is going to be 1 cubic foot and I believe we figured the length needs to be 18 in. These two items will be painted black as well.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Ahhh... here we go... Sub box rebuild V.2

Sorry for the crappy shots


Here are a couple random shots:




























Alright some shots of it being put together. Used screws and glue to hold this together...





























And some finished shots:











This is going to be a nice video angle would you say? Imagine the sub jumping out at you.... 












Now we didn't get to the amp rack but that should be coming in a few months or so... 

My friend also had an amp he wasn't using and let me borrow it until I get my mono amp in... I would show some more pictures but right now everything is kinda ghetto rigged down and somewhat organized. Also we sealed the box with a water/glue mix and a base coat of black spray paint... Yesterday I also added some sub woofer grills to protect the sub as well... Things are coming along nicely...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

*This post is picture heavy*



The day has finally come to build my carefully planed amp rack. I will have to say that I had put a few hours into designing this amp rack to fit and had many visions for it. 

So basically here was the mental plan:










The major idea was to clean up the install via adding a rack that holds all the amps and present itself as visual eye candy... The major issue with this was to have adequate air space around the amps. 

The original idea was to add 4 fans to pull air through the box, over the amps dissipating the heat and blowing this hot exhaust out of the box... Of course when designing, things will change and the finial design was to use two 80 mm fans...


Didn't take a lot of build pictures but here is a shot showing everything together. All sides of the rear of the amp rack (which will be seen from inside the car):










The clap was used to hold the top on as I will either attach it with small magnets or use Velcro strips to hold this in place. The idea here is that the interior shelf and the top will be removable for access to the amps. The interior of the rack has been painted black as well.


Here is a shot of the front (what you will see when you open the trunk) of the amp rack. As you can see the fans will mount on the right hand side and the crossovers on the left hand side. I was originally going to hide these crossovers but they do look very nice and my friend suggested to even out the box and place them on the left of the fans. What isn't show is the voltage meter which is in the middle of these two things towards the top of the rack...










In case your wondering how the wires are going to get to the inside of the box, we drilled a total of three holes just under the crossovers to provide a very clean install...


Here is a shot showing the cut outs for the fans. We ended up rounding the outer edge to provide a very clean look. 










Of course we tried to make these as center as possible. Nothing worse then uneven components :facepalm:


Off to paint:











As you can see here there are some holes inside the box to allow entry for speaker wire, power, ground, remote and its not shown here but the middle shelf has a hole to allow passage for more wire to the upper level. Unfortunately we weren't thinking and should have mad it a slot so we could remove the middle shelf to access the lower amp. Easy fix

We first sealed the box with a glue/water mix which helps seal the out pores of the MDF and provides a barrier between the paint and the very absorbent MDF. The next thing we did was add a base coat of flat black spray paint. Lastly we added the final coats of Textured black spray paint. 



Ok to turn away from the amp rack itself for a little bit... Shown here is the mess of wires that need to be hidden and routed into the amp rack... Unfortunately I must not have taken a picture of the false floor but we were able to cut a piece, I believe, half inch ply wood to provide a solid place to mount the sub box and amp rack to.

Mess o' wire:



















Now to fast forward a little bit. 










This was a pita to do as the plastic under the stock cover is very tough for what it is. Also aligning the holes up was quite fun as well. As you can see all wire is run under the ply wood and up through to the positions to enter the amp rack... BTW I am still able to access the spare tire even with the boxes inside the trunk...


Alright back to the rack itself. Here is a shot of what the amp will look like inside:










BTW that's a temp amp until I get my mono amp


Time to mount the crossovers, voltage meter, and fans:










Now you can see the holes I was talking about...


Wire Wire everywhere:











Now to move to the side where the power/ground wires go.










Here is a shot showing the main idea. The power wire will enter from the right and the ground will exit from the left.

A relay was added to power the fans and any other accessories in the future. Didn't know which kind to get so I got a 30A relay as I can power many things with it before they draw to many amps...




















Now for the power/ground to enter into the box:










Kind of a cool little design I must say.


Good Lord!!!! look at the mess we made











Close up shot of the Crossovers:












Look at how much we trimmed off the ground wire. Don't have a pic of the power wire but it was a good little bit as well.












Fast forward through the loads of connections and here is the final look:














The sub and amp rack are bolted down from the inside with at least three 1-3/8 in wood screws. The amp on the lower level then covers these screws and is bolted down as well. The sub box has three screws on the inside of the box. 

It will be physically impossible to steal these things without spending loads of time busting the boxes and damaging the products... there is just no way a theft can get away with these things without having to take the car. Which has a security system with the immobilizer system which means they will have to either push it, or have a flat bed...


Now there were things that went wrong when things were fired up. First we noticed that the sub was extremely loud and was probably moving a good 1.5 inches or so... After about 6 min of this (playing How low can you Go) we noticed the sub and sub amp were hot. The amp being the hottest. After spending a good few min to get things moved enough to see my friend realized that he wired the sub bridged. Which the amp is stale at 4 ohms at 600W. So really the amp was seeing 2 ohms bridged at around 800W or so. Theoretically speaking of course, could have been even more...

This is speaking to the quality of Sundown's subs. Not only did it handle more then double the power but it was clipped power. Not at one point when it was playing did it sound bad. No distortion and sounded very good...

Now we will have to modify the amp rack a little so we can get the the gain on the sub. I want to thank my friend for his help as this wouldn't have been possible without his help. 


Now its time to go to some car shows and maybe a comp or two to see what I got... 



Stay tuned for more pics and videos as well... I do plan on hauling things in the trunk still so a sub grill is a necessary thing to have in my case. I've already paid a good bit of money towards it and don't need a golf club smashing into it and making it a dead sub...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Here are some pics of it running:






































I really liked the way things turned out and love the way the blue from the amps and fans look as well...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Excuse my shakiness and the poor video editing... First time every doing a video


First portion of the video is for SQ and am playing Hotel California, second part is an attempt to show some movement but not much shows up on camera. At the point of this video the amp is doing 300W RMS... The third part shows the excursion... At the time of the video its doing half of what it can really do so hopefully the extra power will wake the sub up some more... We will look into increasing the power hopefully 100W more then rated but it all depends on if the setup can handle it... Read on it has increased by almost double the rated power...

Look for better video's in the future... really its awful I know


06SiSQ.mp4 video by beckerson1 - Photobucket

Forgot to mention

Artists in order played

Hotel California: Eagles
Fire Wayne: Sonny Instrumentals (Decaf)
Put On: Young Jeezy


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Hey all just wanted to give you an update on my build... I had recently won a free case of Alpha Damp over a ROE and today was a good day to get it in with a lot of other things as well...

Also wanted to share this compilation of my build... 7 min of pure fun and adrenalin...

Beckerson1 audio build compilation.wmv - YouTube

First thing was to gut the trunk so my friend work on dampening the trunk and do some necessary cleaning... I was amazed at all the crap I found down there...

As you can see there is a lot of the factory dampening on there already so all we did was reinforce that with the alpha damp










Hmm wonder what the plastic tube and vent sorta things is for?










Laying out the sheets to figure placement...










Damp in lets move on... I made sure to really hit the area over the muffler in hopes to eliminate whatever vibrations from the muffler I can...










I really didn't like the black random pieces of damp so decieded to get some aluminum foil Duct tape as I've heard its a wonderful sealer and makes it look much more uniform... Here are a couple progression shots





































Finally done after a couple hours with a break or two included...











Got to represent my audio buds over at ROE. Custom made to fit my car and color matches... Thanks 98Civic



















My friend hitting my door panels with deadener to kill the buzzing sounds I get at high volume...










OMG!!! LOOK AT THAT MESS. Did I do that...










Also to help with the buzzing sound my friend added some 3/4" foam tape on the outer spots of the door to separate metal to plastic contact as much as possible...










Also we finally added some Velcro to the amp rack to hold the top and middle pieces down so they won't become flying pieces of death when I slam the breaks on...










We still need to sand the top down flush to the box so it looks nice...

We also upped the power to the sub... First off the sub is rated to 400W RMS and can take that all day every day non stop no matter the music... I've been running it at 500W RMS max controllable with the included controller at which I have marked where 400W RMS is located for daily driving and 500W RMS for demo's/metering... Well needless to say the sub had no issue playing 500W RMS constantly... I was able to test it very well this past week as it was middle 90's and 30 min drives to and from work... So today we decided to up the power some more and we came upon 625W RMS for the max as the sub plays comfortable there on any song without having to much of an issue with thermal produced... We figure this is about the limit of the box and didn't want to push it to much and bottom the sub out... I am stilling using the remote to control the gain and have it set to play 500W RMS daily... 

I played a couple songs with a 5 min break in between each song or so to allow the sub to cool (on took a few seconds but didn't want to push it) and the response is amazing... I wouldn't be surprised if I were mid to slightly upper 130's... Also the transition between bass notes is amazing... Just looking at the sub as it plays wants to make me go to the bathroom if you know what I mean... For a sealed setup I couldn't ask for more... Jacob did a wonderful job with these subs and they have a lot of potential... 



We still are not done yet as today we need to work on sealing the rear deck with the foil tape and use some of the foam tape to stop it from rattling in the back as Honda has made it quite hard to put back on with the rear window in the way...

Second day of working:

There really wasn't a hole lot we had to do yesterday to get one step closer to finishing...

What we did:

Tore rear deck off and used deadener to reinforce a little better and 3/4" foam tape to prevent rattling... The deck actually went into place and all the clips snapped in so we were both extremely happy with that... basically from here we are going to move to the interior plastic panels as there are a few places in the rear are where the plastic is actually rattling against metal... Hopefully once we get these pieces off we can then deaden the rear fender area as it flexes a lot...

I also added some white LED strips in the trunk to illuminate the area much better then the blue LED I had in the stock location... It looks really good and looks great with the blue fans I have...


Still have a lot to do as more things keep coming up




I did do a demo for my friends brothers friend and man it was insane for a sealed sub... Loudest I've heard it yet... I figure mid 130's... When I go to get metered I will post a "Whats my score" thread for those who want to guess...


Just for you local OH members I and a couple other people will be taking our cars to the Medina car show probably in a couple weeks to give demo's and look at some of the cars there... I will make sure to post a thread within a week to inform you all...

What the other guys are running:

Obsidian 15 on a MB quart ONX 1500.1D at 1K RMS and the other guy is running a single 12" PSI platform 1 on a Hifonics BRZ1200.1D at 600 atm planning for 1K

I've seen this PSI and the movement on this thing is insane, close to 2.5" if not more peak to peak and on 600W RMS... Can't wait to see this thing on the 1k he wants to put to it... It plays extremely nice, the low end is extremely punchy and has a fairly flat response as well...


I also plan on doing some competitions as well....


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Alright the most recent update is this:

I just received my Maxxsonics MX-3 bass controller for better control over my subs EQ and have the clipping indicator as well... I hope to get that in sometime within the next three weeks... I really like the way it looks but unfortunately I had to extend my RCA's so without buying another one I would have to hide this under my false floor... But I would like to mount it on the front (facing rear trunk) of the amp rack so it can be seen...



Some future upgrades would be probably the EQL by audio control to do my active setup I have planned... It would also be nice to see if I could work in some 3-4" mid drivers for better coverage over the 2 way setup I have now...


----------



## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

Nice camera or is it the user....:beerchug:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

trojan fan said:


> Nice camera or is it the user....:beerchug:


lol the user... I am very shacky for some reason and don't really have control over that... 

Sorry for those who where reading while I posted these...


----------



## lopezel (Aug 3, 2009)

Love the new SIs. I have a 2000 Hatch DX with 239k miles.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

lopezel said:


> Love the new SIs. I have a 2000 Hatch DX with 239k miles.


Not to fond of the 9th gens... Honda completely screwed it over


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Just a small update:

Went to view a meet in Mansfield and Dominic was extremely nice and let my friend and I borrow his Thermlab... 

I was actually very surprised by the results:

136.3 peak at 47hz

I was only thinking low 30's figuring the low power used


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Hello all,

We were able to get the MX-3 put in yesterday, well roughly as the setup instructions are really vague... but to the install


First off the unit itself looks really good with the chrome finish so I wanted it to be seen but with an extremely clean finish... I've been looking at the drivers side rear well for some time and imagining a nice flat finish with the unit inset with matching fabric that bleeds into the curves for a flawless flat finish... Kinda got the idea from those sub boxes that go into the same area... Just looks clean and flows

With all this in mind we took a few measurements to make a mounting base for the unit with close to a 30 degree angle to give a nice look...

The base was a basic triangle setup with a 3 in base and 8 in high...

Want to say sorry for the crappy cell phone pics but didn't have my camera with me as this was a spur of the moment type of thing...










The whole mount is drilled into the sheet metal right behind the carpet... 


Now that we had the basic mount done up we had to figure out what we would use to make the beauty panel to hide and clean things up... After running to our local Wally World we found a sheet of black Foam board that we could shape to the contours of the well... This stuff is actually quite strong and when coupled with the fabric/carpet finish shouldn't have much of an issue with things damaging it to much... I mean for $2 it wouldn't be hard to replace/fix...

Basically we just used a utility knife to cut the general shape out... Being careful to not take to much at a time:











Next on the list was to cut out the window for the MX-3... Once again we found and cut a small window where the unit was and then cut small pieces off until we got the finished look...



















At this point it was time to run power, ground, remote, and RCA input/output wires... Won't go into much detail about this but the wires where run behind the carpeting through the stock hole in the carpet from the screw tab that held the carpet up and to the unit itself... It was recommended to put a 5 amp inline fuse on the power wire as the unit itself isn't fused. We didn't have a inline fuse holder on us so we had to make our own... I do have on order a fuse holder and that will replace our mock up... Once it stop raining I will get more pictures for you... At this point this is a work in progress so things are not tied down




















Now tuning this thing was really unclear as there isn't much detail out there about the unit and the tutorial vids for this unit don't necessarily sit well with conventional amp tuning... I will probably make a DIY about setting things up correctly using this unit as things can seriously go wrong if things are not set up right...



A few weeks ago we were able to determine that I have a slight dip right around 37 hz of roughly 3 db's... So we focused right on a 40 hz tone for the setup with roughly +/- 5 hz to either side of roughly 1.5 db boost on the MX-3. Depending on how good the clipping indicator is there isn't any hard clipping until the exact peak of my max output at 47 hz... And were talking a millisecond... I don't really worry about it as this unit seems to pick up any clipping within the recording itself and i can't really do anything about it. 


Hopefully in a few weeks or so we can get back on the meter to further tune the unit and tune things correctly at that point...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

This is going to be a huge update as we did a whole lot this weekend getting speakers in and working on my 4th/6th swap-able conversion. 4th order for SQ and parallel 6th order for SPL. Enjoy

Friday evening we started to work on getting the Crescendo PWX 6.5's into the doors. Unfortunately as I have said earlier that I ran into an issue fitting these into the stock opening because of the massive 7" basket and what seems to be at least 6" motor if not a little more. 

Comparison shots of the Quarts (left) and Crescendo's (right):

As you can see the Crescendo's are a bigger diameter










Look at the puny motor:










Even though the Quarts are not even in the same league they are still wonderful component speakers and I still will highly recommend them to people. Great quality speaker...

In order to fit the magnet and the speaker terminals we had to open up the hole a little bit. Mainly removing the bottom tabs and widening the hole slightly. 











After digging metal shavings out of our hands we moved onto building the baffles to accept the speaker. With these it wasn't to hard as we measured from the point the door mount starts to fall off to the other end to get a diameter that would fit and then cut the cutout out for the speaker. We built these out of some leftover birch. We attached these with 4 tapping screws (what we had) and silicon on the baffle to door connection to seal it. 



















Once we go this in and let it set up a little bit we mounted the speakers. We had to drill a pilot hole into the sheet metal as the screws we used were a little long and instead of cutting them to fit we decided to screw them into the metal which basically doing this further secures the baffle to the metal.

Won't lie these are some sexy speakers:



















Yes I know the logo is upside down, its just the way we had to mount the speaker to get the speaker terminals to work as they stick out quit a bit.


Won't bore you with the passenger side but it was the same procedure but took about 3-4 hours less to do. Hate that that happens, would make things so much nicer...

Anyway a little commentary on the speakers:

I did not change anything on the amp so these are running same power as the quarts were (tested just over 110W rms on a 1000 hz -2 db test tone so right around 80 W RMS on music).

With that being said the difference is night and day. The sensetivity on these are really high so the L/R signal is very distinguishable over the Quarts. Currently I'm HPF the Crescendos at 50hz and even played them with no HPF and the low end is very nice and crisp. Nothing like a sub but there is no issue playing the lower end of the spectrum. I will most likely stick with 80 hz once these break in even more. So overall the wait was more then worth it. Also even though these need more EQ they still sound great using Quarts crossovers and tweeters. (Will have to look at getting different tweets though as I feel these won't work with each other)


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Sunday:

Today we worked on getting the first portion of the 4th to 6th experimental conversion. Personally I haven't seen many if any of these types of boxes over the SPL tuned to SPL daily box. Which in this case I'm going from a strictly SQ tuned 4th to a theoretical SPL 6th due to its mid 40 hz peak.

Anyway here was the way she sat in the beginning:










The first thing in order was to cut an access hatch, the idea here was to be able to get the sub out of the box without destroying the box. So after some measurements we figured our line of attack. Also we decided to round over the edge as well. Originally 98 was going to do this free hand but looking around there were some spray paint cans in which we used to get a consistent radial curve:










Gave a nice curve:










Now it was time to cut this section out. We drilled three holes right on the line in order to get the saw in:










It was a very wide blade and the only one we had so we made it work:




























Yes that smoke. Was very tight cornering:










She still looks great, no issues:











Now that the access hole is out we measured and cut out the front panel to mount the access panel onto to allow bolting points and a way to seal the panel. Yep still doing free hand, 98 probably cuts better free hand then anyone I've seen:



















Here how she sits:










We had to measure and center the access panel to the mounting panel. Glued the bottom and used screws to hold the pieces together:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Of course we over measured for a reason so in order to keep the panel from moving when sanding, bolt hole drilling, and what not we used two screws in both the left top and right bottom corners:










Time to sand:




















Birch seems to be vary sanding friendly as in no time we were measuring for the bolt holes to secure the panel to the box:










Set up the bolt configuration:










Lol here is our version of a scratch all (we switched to using a screw a couple holes later):










With proper prep work done it was time to drill out the holes:



















Yes they are not evenly matched between them but there is a pattern which still looks great:










At this point we used a drill size to fit the T-nuts:










Shot of the T-nuts in place:










Now that mounting is set we moved onto the cutout for the port. Lol not done freehand:




























Lol yes a slot port and an areo port on the same box. For this application its necessary to do:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

After getting the outer flared part mounted we quickly realized Helga the blower came to life (Meant to be dirty lol):



















Anyway with the little perversion we got to cutting the port to length (7 in. in length). We didn't have a working ban saw so we had to improvise:










Then to the assembly stage:










Some aluminum tape to help seal and further hold the connections:











Now at this point we filled in some screw holes and hit the kitchen for some food:



















With full bellies we moved onto sealing (used this: M-D Building Products 2618 All Climate EPDM Rubber Weatherseal for Gaps 1/16-Inch to 1/8-Inch,White - Amazon.com
Just cut it in half and works wonders, highly recommend this product)










Here is how the port will look:










Time to bolt here down (used washers as well) :




























Now at this point I got to excited and forgot to take a picture of bolts secured and box in the car. So will get them up for you tomorrow. 

Overall this experiment was a huge success as we up'd the power to 800W RMS at 2 ohms and boy I have a lot of deadening to work on. A lot of my rattles inside the car are from the roof (moon roof area) and rear quarter panels. Over all its much louder then the 4th and don't see an issue making it into the 40's with this setup. Defiantly hurts the ears.

As far as SQ goes the 4th is defiantly better but the 6th isn't all that bad at it either. 

So that's as far as we got tonight but here is the future plan. We will be adding a large window for the sealed 4th conversion section and add, probably on a three way switch, red and ultra violet (black light) led's to illuminate the chamber. Also the 6th conversion section will also have a smaller window. Also next weekend we are building a box for a member on 8th and getting mine bondo'd and painted. Then a couple weeks, hopefully after that, get the (windows, leds, switch) and whatnot in, amp area cleaned up and a second floor for the MS8 to mount... So still a lot of work to do so stay tuned


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update:

This past weekend (cold rainy night with Sandy knocking on the door) we tore the box out and got it painted (no where near as nice as I want it) but will suffice until I can either afford to wrap it or actually take a weeks time and Bondo the entire box, sand it smooth, and get a paint gun instead of spray paint... Anyway here are the pics

Really can't tell by the pics but we initially went with wood filler to fill in the holes but you could see the screw holes perfectly through it (hence the top is black) so we went to Bondo










We literally baked this thing. Used a torpedo heater and closed all the doors for like 5-10 min till it got probably a good 90+ degrees or so and let it set for a while...

Base coat flat black with gloss black for top coat. I like how the wood grain comes through but you can defiantly tell where we Bondo'd










Finishing look inside the car... The bolts really stick out being a goldish color, looks nice:










A little dirty in the pic so that really shows on the camera. The port we noticed isn't painted as nice as the rest and you can really see it. We did what we could do as far as fixing it...

Still have a few things we are going to add to the box such as windows in the hatch and some interior RBG leds to illuminate the inside of the box. If we can fix the port I was thinking of adding RED leds to give a slight glow in the port but doesn't look like it will happen for a while...


A little thinking ahead (well way ahead):

Originally I was going to make a two tier rack for the amps and MS8 but there won't be enough room so have been thinking about doing a true false floor with hatch and inside this hatch the MS8 will have its own little box and a plexi window so it can be seen... Probably eventually wrap it in black and red suede, (SI) emblem somewhere, tare out the stock carpet and built up beauty panels and cover them... Basically a whole trunk cosmetic treatment (want to work towards a, not only sounding good, good show car as well...



Next on the list:

1) I have some rattles to fix in the rear area. Figured out why my mirror rattles really bad, simple fix and if I have to remove it easily for show/events. Deadend my rear quarter panels (have about 10 sheets of alpha left so should be more then enough to do that and possibly deaden some on the roof if the headliner isn't to hard to remove.

2) Fix/clean up my courtesy leds (probably will swap them out for RGB led strips as well). Right now this is whats holding them up:

(Duct tape and Goop)










Any suggestion for cleaning it up would we welcome. I'm thinking bondo and some time to make a pod will do wonders. Passenger side won't be easy as it has a lot of curves to work around...

Work in relays so the lights turn on with the passenger door as well. Right now its just the driver side door. Wire them into a switch so I can turn them off if I don't want them to light

3) Fix my door inserts as I must not have gotten enough adhesive in areas. Its possible the adhesive isn't the best either...



Just stuff to tackle over my friends winter break when he isn't busy.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update:

We worked a few hours on deadening the car today. We hit the rear quarter panels as they would move quite the bit.

We started off by taring out all the seats so we can get to the rear panels easier:





































We also ended up removing the rear deck as well:










Also removed the rear speakers to provide more area to enter the cabin. While on the topic of stock speakers here are a couple shots:










I seriously wasn't kidding when I said about a half dollar. Look how wimpy. Must be a half inch voice coil:










This is what we found:










From what I could tell this applies pressure to the exterior panel, which we tested does help:










Then there was this random piece of foam in a bag shoved down towards the bottom:










Ended up using two sheets of Alpha damp per panel which helped a lot:




















Originally I was also thinking about doing my courtesy lights but running the wire and figuring mounting points and taring the center counsel out we decided to hold off on that till we had more time. Also forgot to mention that we did fix the rear view mirror by adding little dabs of hot glue to cushion the mount. So far its doing great.

Still get a lot of noise out of my roof which might have to be left along unless its not that bad to tare the headliner off. Not to bad outside the vehicle its more for the inside. Overall the quarter panels are much better but still move and have some tone to them but a good 70% better then it was.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Parts-Express update:

Got my shipment of wire management supplies from Parts Express: the #1 source for audio, video & speaker building components

First off this is a wonderful company. Quick shipping, properly packed boxes, and not to mention for me they are local. They have just about everything I would need and then some. If I were an owner of a shop I wouldn't mind having them as a supplier. Great products


Any way for those who don't know I'm re-designing my amp rack. You can say I'm building it up to code for competitions if I choose to eventually get into. 

Here is what I got:

First off I need to extend my power wire as atm it is to short to effectively mount it out of the way.

3' Black OFC 2 gauge power wire (I actually measured about half a foot more then 3':dance: )










As you can see it's not the most flexible piece of wire but is still workable.










Construction: 2641 strands x 36 ga. OFC. 12mm OD.

5' Black OFC 4 gauge power wire (Once again I measure over a foot more then ordered)



















Construction: 1672 strands x 36 ga. OFC. 10 mm OD.

5' Red OFC 4 gauge power wire (Same result as the black)



















Construction: 1672 strands x 36 ga. OFC. 10mm OD.

I was thinking about using Tech Flex as a covering agent but decided against it as it wasn't cheap for 25'.

10' 3/4" Split loom. Lol no the cat didn't get shipped with the loom.










1 Three pole 20A panel mount:

This will be used as my remote turn on board for my amps, fans, and whatever else I decide to run off this (don't worry at that point a relay will be used)










3 Packs of 12 of 1/2" cable clamps:










3 Packs of 6 of 3/4" cable clamps:










2 Packs of 3 of 3/4" rubber grommets:










2 Packs of 18 of 1/4" cable clamps:










2 Packs of 15 of 3/8" cable clamps:











As you can see quite a few things. I hope to get to working on the rack by the end of this month to the beginning on next month.


----------



## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

Looks like you have put a lot of work into this build. Great job on the enclosure!


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Chaos said:


> Looks like you have put a lot of work into this build. Great job on the enclosure!


Thanks. Have a crap ton more to do but will be well worth it in the end.


----------



## rdubbs (Sep 26, 2012)

Nice Beckerson!  As always it's totally coming together


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

rdubbs said:


> Nice Beckerson!  As always it's totally coming together


Thanks man


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Tweeter update:

Tweeters from Papasin came in yesterday. 

For Sales Thread:

8th Generation Honda Civic Forum

He sent it double boxed and stuffed with air pouches. As stated they are LNIB and at closer inspection they look BNIB. Tested ohm readings and everything checks out great. Here are some shots I snapped this morning.






































Went with a flush mount. Can't say I did a good job with drilling the holes as my Dermal got away from me both times so the holes were a little big. Nothing major and nothing a little Goop and black sharpie can't fix for now till I can get replacement kicks (holes for my first tweeters) as I couldn't utilize the same location.

Overall impression with a general MS-8 tune is great. Sound good (needs small tweaks) with the basic tune (no EQ adjustments yet) and keep up nicely with my mids...

Crossed initially at 2500 hz but ended up going to 3k as it seems to transition well at this point. Over the next couple weeks I will make small adjustments and listen to multiple songs to get an idea and soon hope to have this thing tuned just about perfect.


----------



## 98koukile (Nov 3, 2008)

Glad to hear you're liking the ms8 so far. I've been curious how much I'll actually benefit from it before I install a new front stage since the jl amp I bought has quite a bit of adjustment itself.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

98koukile said:


> Glad to hear you're liking the ms8 so far. I've been curious how much I'll actually benefit from it before I install a new front stage since the jl amp I bought has quite a bit of adjustment itself.


With jumping between processing on/off its night and day the difference. There is just so much the MS-8 does (and I mean it does a lot with little input from you).


----------



## rdubbs (Sep 26, 2012)

Hey Beckerson did you fuse the MS8 externally or are you just using the onboard fuse?


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

rdubbs said:


> Hey Beckerson did you fuse the MS8 externally or are you just using the onboard fuse?


For the time being onboard but will fuse it once I get to mounting it...


----------



## papasin (Jan 24, 2011)

rdubbs said:


> Hey Beckerson did you fuse the MS8 externally or are you just using the onboard fuse?





Beckerson1 said:


> For the time being onboard but will fuse it once I get to mounting it...


To give you a couple data points, I have the MS-8 wired via a fused distro block in the Smart build...but in the earlier incarnation on my Civic, it was not. I've seen it done both ways, and I've done both myself .


----------



## rdubbs (Sep 26, 2012)

Thanks as always you two! I just was thinking about your advice over on 8th and was tossing back and forth between the 6to8 and the MS8 and I've seen a bunch of guys run their wire fused, and not fused, I was just curious the size of fuse I should consider to put into the distro block for the processor. I know the MS8 is 25A so I figure the 6to8 is probably similar, I'm just curious as always


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

rdubbs said:


> Thanks as always you two! I just was thinking about your advice over on 8th and was tossing back and forth between the 6to8 and the MS8 and I've seen a bunch of guys run their wire fused, and not fused, I was just curious the size of fuse I should consider to put into the distro block for the processor. I know the MS8 is 25A so I figure the 6to8 is probably similar, I'm just curious as always


Always good to ask questions. I will eventually fuse it, more so preventative then functional. Never know


----------



## papasin (Jan 24, 2011)

Some opinions on this topic:

http://www.mp3car.com/newbie/102893-should-distribution-block-fuses-be-used.html


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

papasin said:


> Some opinions on this topic:
> 
> Should distribution block fuses be used?!?


Quite an interesting find.


----------



## rdubbs (Sep 26, 2012)

Seriously I think you're a wizard of online knowledge Papasin! You always have the best info!

Hurry up and post more pics Beckerson!!!!!!


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

rdubbs said:


> Seriously I think you're a wizard of online knowledge Papasin! You always have the best info!
> 
> Hurry up and post more pics Beckerson!!!!!!


Lol... won't be for a little bit as I'm waiting for an opening to tare things out and clean up. At least a couple days so I don't have to drive the car the next day.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Small parts update:

Haven't really had time to get with 98Civic over his break so some plans have been moved to a later time. So all I have to report is some parts that I ordered.

First off I want to report I swapped my battery out to a Diehard Advanced Gold AGM battery. 55 AH 20 hour rating.

Also decided to grab a Battery tender as well as I would have to drive quite a ways to get the battery charged up especially over the winter. Also plan to use my older battery for a field battery till I kill it. Can't sell it as its going out. I can also always trade it in for another battery if I so choose.










Now I decided to grab a few more things for the amp rack and surrounding area.

First off was a new power distro block. The one I have now is good but there isn't enough room for all the power leads I have planed...

It has:

1: 1/0
1: 2 gauge
2: 4 gauge
2: 8 gauge










Also decided to get some 4 gauge power and ground wire as well. The inputs for the Hifonics amps are a little to small for my 2 gauge right now so we had to trim the 2 gauge to fit. This will allow me to detach from the distro block and leave all connections to the amp in place on the distro blocks. 

The plan is to make the rack completely removable with little detachment as possible. Basically the ground and power would have to be removed as well as speaker wire. 


Also went ahead and purchased two more 80mm fans and will be looking into a temperature fan controller as well. Why that, don't really want them running if they don't need to and can have them come on when the temp of a specific amp gets to a certain degree predetermined by me. Only issue right now is that I need a 12V+ and 5V+ 4 pin molex connector to power the controller. Any ideas much appreciated.










Also got some mesh covers for these as well.












This is the controller I was looking at. Temp prob would go either in between amps or near the input of one. 

Amazon.com: Coolerguys Programmable Thermal Fan Controller with LED Display: Electronics


Seems to be a decent unit and is within price range I'm looking at. Not sure if I will make it visible or not but if I do it will look decent as it displays the temp...

Fully programmable from 0-100 deg C or (32- 211 deg F)... 

Why not a switch, I can but this will be fully automatic and does present itself nice is visual.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

I'm sorry I haven't been good about updating this thread. This will bring you up to the current state:

Update:

As you may know with my temperature controller I needed a 12V+ supply and a 5V+ supply. So I ordered a variable voltage regulator to supply the need for 5V.

Now the regulator isn't exactly pretty so I decided to swing by Radio shack and pick up a project box to hold the regulator and clean things up a little bit. Also picked up a red led to indicate when power is reaching the board.

Will skip all the mess. Here is what the finished box looks like:










I decided to go with the aluminum as it will match all my equipment back there. Hifonics amps and MS-8 are all aluminum finish.

12V constant (well constant off a relay) and constant ground enter into the box on one side and 5V/ground exit on the other side. Both the fan and LED are wired into the constant 12V/ground.

Here is a shot of the fan and wiring:










Here is the whole operation:










If anyone is curious what the power supply is:

Its a Junsi P350

ProgressiveRC - Junsi P350 Power Supply

Rated 350W at 23A continuous. 

I bought it for use with my RC plans, etc...


Had to use my older camera with flash off so sorry for the fuzzy pic.












I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out and was a great learning experience.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update (Day 1 progress)


Got a good start yesterday evening on taring things out and getting the base layer of carpeting down. Enjoy

I am ashamed, complete newb move right here:










Amazing I got little noise from this mess of wire:



















Starting to tare out the amps, wiring, and old amp rack:










Old mount for the previous MX-3:










Got the ol amps out. Now she's looking a lot better:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Jumbled mess of wire. A good 90% of this is trash, doing a complete re-wire (accept power and ground). As long as I have enough wire I will re-route the power wire on the left hand side of the trunk and bring it in from the rear. 










Give you a better idea what I'm talking about. Run along this edge and brought around. IMO is the best way the wire won't interfere with the false floor.










RCA will be run in from this side and run similar to the power wire and wired into the MS8.










Removing the rear seats to gain access to the wire run. 










I've actually have a trunk and its clean:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Complete Sex:











Getting the carpet put in. Earlier I posted the type of adhesive I'm using. Amazing stuff:




























Nice clean glue lines, goes on smooth, and very strong bond:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Carpeting continued:




























Finished product. Looks really great:















































All in all we made great progress yesterday. The plan for today is to build the amp rack, false floor, mount all (amps, distro's, power supply, etc), run new RCA, power wire, etc... Very busy day ahead


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Day 2 Progress:

First object on the agenda yesterday was the construction of the amp rack. From previous work we used foam board to cut out a template in which we transfer to the wood. Great time saver.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Test fit of the final amp rack:





























Had a slight scare with one of the amps as when handling it I would hear something rolling around inside. To find out it was a screw head from what looks like a mount for the board. Tested everything and all is solid. Amp guts:










Next step was to figure out the configuration of the amp rack:










With the configuration down it was time to carpet the rack:



















With the addition of the carpet the rack literally disappears:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

If you ever wondered who the mastermind of this build is. Here she is:










Not to mention free labor.


Time to get the items on the board:




























Here is a shot of the remote barrier strip. All three amps in the rear will be attached:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

With the amp rack 70% built it was time to re-run the power, remote and speaker wires. 




























Another shot of the amp rack. If you notice to the left I am using split loom:










Location of the power supply:











Now the idea behind this rack is to be able to remove 3-4 items and be able to remove it from the trunk to allow for, well easier working conditions. Using a barrier strip for the front stage:










Split loom run along the stock run:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Now when I was doing the speaker wiring in the rear 98 did up the RCA run:



















Here is the shot of my work. We are changing how the wire is run today. We are going to run it under the amp rack up and around for a cleaner look.










As you can see I've labeled both the wire off the amp and on the barrier strip. I still need to do the wire run to the speakers.











Here is the shot of where we ran the RCA into the rear:










I've got way to much RCA. We might cut to shrink them down. 













By this time we were ready to quite so I was more then happy with how much we got done yesterday. On today's agenda is to finish up the amp rack, do up the courtesy lighting, false floor, etc...


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Here are a couple shots I took today of what we have done so far. 



















The MS8 will be moved from this location. Just to much going in down there. The location at this point is TBD. I've got plenty of RCA to move anywhere in the trunk. Probably will build a small box for it an mount it in one of the open areas on the side.





























As you can see by the shots I have four separate pieces that (once built up) will construct the false floor.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update:

Not much going on other then waiting and planning out some fan configurations, potential locations for fan controller, voltage meter, etc...


I was going to do a 2 stage center channel setup but that has passed as I will eventually move to a competition daily setup in a few years (at least thats the plan as of now, can always change). 

So I have decided to utilize the same main switch, volt meter setup as I had before but integrate the fan controller in as well so I can monitor the temps from up front. The only difference is I will be doing it up in fiberglass instead of MDF like last time. The temp prob will be place withing a half inch of the BRZ (right around the power supply). 

Here is the layout:










Now of course this could change depending on space constraints but feel I will be able to get things to work out. 

The system kill switch is for emergencies and will most likely be inline for the HU main power. I'm re-running power and ground directly from battery (fused) I thought of doing the remote off the HU but want it to kill everything audio related. 

The ELD disable (right now) won't be used (don't run enough power to notice any effect).

The rear lighting I have a few ideas running in my head. But that's all they are. I have an RGB kit that I have plans to integrate into the car. 



Now I'm also thinking of fan configurations as amps are hidden (layout in above). I've got all kinds of room to raise my box up so am thinking of adding some channels for inlets for the fans mounted beneath the box

Here is the layout:










Now this shows two inlets and two exhaust. Which is also an option.

Just have to figure out how I want to mount the box in.


I hope to get the trunk done this summer but that is all dependent on 98's and my work schedule (all my crap is over there and he has all the tools) as time is limited as far as being able to work goes. I really wanted to get it done up for this season so I can show it off (its not loud, as you can see bellow, but looks 100% better then 95% of competitors out there. As far as in my area. Most are slapped together with all the guts hanging out.)


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update:

Got some good progress done today and now have a good idea how she will look when she is all done. 

First we started out sealing the vent holes in the trunk as I was losing a lot of pressure (even on low volume, trunk open they would flap like mad dogs. Full tilt you could feel a good bit of air movement through them:



















Here is a little shot of all the mess. Once we get the MS8 in its final mounting position we will shorten the RCA's and clean this up quite a bit:










Now with the false floor we made it a 4 piece floor. Two side pieces similar to this one. Underneath this we had to add a Styrofoam spacer. Worked quite well:










Now it was time to build up the final mounting location for the battery. Even without this cradle the battery didn't move so this is more for security. Never know when I will decide to drift a corner or drag an unsuspecting teenager:










Now it was time to carpet the 4 individual pieces. Built the same way as the driver side:










Here is another shot of the battery holder. The carpet really made this look real nice:










Seeing that I will basically seal off the amps I decided to run some fans (controlled via a temperature controller which will be mounted up front). One draws in air and the other is exhaust. There will be two other fans circulating air inside as well (stay tuned for those pics). Using a steel fan guard to keep big items out of the fans blades:



















Last but not least and final progress of the false floor was the main board. Had to do some trimming and a few trips later and 3 min worth of wrapping this is the final result:






























Plans for tomorrow are to finish up the fan placement in the amp rack, run a main power and ground run up to center counsel (where HU power and ground will connect, main power for fan controller, and voltage meter). Then temporarily mount the temperature controller, voltage meter and switches.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Update:

Got some good work done yesterday. Not as much as I hoped but at least it looks a hell of a lot better then before and is functional again.


Here is what we started the day off with. 










If you look at the power/ground wiring we redid the ground as we were waiting for the final battery location to trim things up. As you can see here we had the ground from the amps running all the way pas the battery to the bolt for the chassis ground and then from there to the battery. Surprisingly I didn't have much of a drop in voltage. Roughly .1V

Now I ended up trimming a good 2+ feet off the ground from the amp and now the amps are directly off battery. Later on you will see the improvement in the wiring. I can probably take 6" or so off the power wire which I may end up doing but probably will look into upgrading the power/ground wire off the amps to battery to 1/0 as right now they are #2 gauge.


Anyway after this we started to work on the mount for the MS8 and after some thought of where I wanted to place it and how to help cover up some of the holes on the passenger side pocket. This is what we came up with:










We used some foam board to make a template and then cut the wood to the shape of the template. 


Next step was to carpet it:










This panel is bolted directly to the sheetmetal backing in 3 (we had 4 but seemed to have missed on the very top portion). Still very solid. We couldn't get the MS8 totally horizontal but still looks really nice:











This is basically all the big parts we got done yesterday as for some reason I couldn't wire anything worth a crap and that took way to long to do. Also not show was temp mount and power up for the internal fans for the amp rack (atm they are wired into the remote turn on off the MS-8 for now. This will change in the future. I may even look at more powerful fans for down there as even though the fans I have now do move some air I don't think it will be enough under extended periods. Also will look at a better way to mount them as right now we have them down via velcro which is secure enough but I want a more stable platform for them. May look at a mount on the side well if I can.































As you can see she is looking great and I am comfortable taking her to shows without all the guts hanging out lol. Oh btw before someone asks I have the box mounted in place with blocks to keep it from shifting. Not shown in pictures.

Anyway here are near future plans:

1) Run dedicated power/ground into cabin (looking at 10-12 gauge for this) for:

Power/Ground for HU (this will have the system kill switch on it)
Power/Ground for voltage meter (battery voltage and switched)
Power/Ground for temp controller and 5v power supply

2) Mount power supply under center counsel (has own fan to keep cool)
3) Make temp mounting board and mount switches, fan controller, voltage meter (battery)

4) My Crescendo Mezzo comp set should be coming in sometime next week so will give them a try.

5) Make some supports for the rear false floor as with the heat and weight of the box there was some bowing which need to be dealt with. Also we will be fixing the box and most likely carpet it as well to match the trunk. If not we will paint it either black or look into bed liner.

Long term

1) Re-mount Courtesy LED's and fix wiring to work with both doors (everything is run as far as power/ground, just need to wire up the relay and run power/ground for LED's. Remount the LED's for cleaner look. Changing out LED's for pure white LED's.

2) Add a couple more White LED's in the trunk for more illumination and maybe add some red leds under the amp rack for ambient lighting through the fans (just an idea now not sure if I will do it.)

3) Carpet exposed metal in trunk for better uniform look also deadening wheel wells to kill some road noise before carpeting.



Anyway as you can tell the biggest bulk of the work is done and the build is nearing an end as far as its current state. Then its time to start working on electrical so I can do all this over again lol.


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Minor Update:

Nothing much going on with the build as money is tight. But recently got the Speaker tweeker kit from Second Skin. Also I haven't been good about posting up updates such as the new speakers etc...


Anyway some of you already know but I am now sporting the Exodus Anarchy mids. They are the 8 ohm version which I got while DIYCable (now offline) had them on sale. Awesome drivers:




























Now with the tweeker kit I had to trim a small section off to clear the brace in the door. 

Ya ya I'm sorry. I got a little to excited about the Anarchy's:











Here you can see what I was talking about:










Finished:


----------



## Beckerson1 (Jul 3, 2012)

Saving for a couple vids of the mids in action (close to an hour to upload). 
















In the vids I have the MS-8 set for 2 way only no sub, HPF/LPF (35hz @18db/oct to 2800hz @12db/oct) . I really wanted to hear what these would do in a crude 2-way setup. Would be sick in a 3 way setup. Mainly wanted to see the low end extension of these drivers. Crossover is key with these mids as they have a nasty peak around 4k and can be quite overwhelming. I'm still experimenting with crossover points with these. I really need to get a RTA so this will be easier lol.

Granted they are not seeing anywhere near enough power they sounded great. You won't be able to tell in the vids but I was able to get clean down to 30 hz or so. Faint but could hear it. Was shaking my mirrors. Plus they only have close to 3-4 hours of play time on them anyway so are fairly fresh and need to break in more.


----------

