# Alfa Romeo GT - SQ build - HELIX/HAT/JBL GTI/BRAX/CROWN by LBaudio



## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Hey Guys!

Im starting with new personal SQ build in Alfa Romeo GT.
Equipment list:
Source:
- undecided, probably modded Clarion HX or Pioneer ODR as CD transport + digital player or tablet
Front system

Midbas - 2 pairs JBL C660 GTI in ported doorpanel enclosures
Midrange - Hybrid Audio Technologies L4SE (optional JBL 400 GTI)
Tweeter - JBL TC 25 Titanium
Subs:
- 2 x JBL W15 GTI (probably in sealed enclosure due to space limitations)
Processor:
-Helix DSP Pro
Amps:
- Brax X2000 and X2400
-JBL/CROWN BPX2200.1
Cables:
Acessories: Audison fuse blocks, Brax voltmeters, Brax IPC1F + 2 x 2F, Helix Power Station
DLS, Dietz twisted and shielded, QED Silver Anniversary bi-amping, Kimber, Esoteric audio.
Damping
- Silent coat
A couple of pics of car:


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

I started with build of a-pillars
rings were drawn and cut on CNC and then chamfered behind the driver cutout and also in front.


















































T-nuts were added








Terrter will be held by neo magnets - 4 pc for each tweet

Before start, rings were soaked with poliester resin. This asure that bond with filler and MDF will be as strong as possible and wont crack where two materials meet.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Pillars were stripped down, sanded, drilled a bunch of holes in and covered in three layers of rowing/mat and trimmed. 









taped off back side of pillar









after fiberglass was applied








back side of pillar will recieve additional layer of fiberglass to create a Sanwich of Fiberglass/ABS/Fiberglass

a part of pillar at the bottom is without fiberglass applyed


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

next stage in fabrication was to create molds of the dash, which will serve as bottom part of the pillar enclosure.
Car was protected with alu tape and painters tape.....


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

pulled out of the car and trimmed










Drawn some lines for design and ventilation opening










Made a template for shape of this bottom part


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

LBAudio,

I LOVE seeing your builds...PARTICULARLY the lovely dual ported midband enclosures you gravitate towards...
which are so inspiring that one day I may have to attempt them myself!!!


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Next task was to mold together this bottom part and pillar


























A mix or resin and filler with strands were used to make milkshake which were used to "glue" this two parts together


















Large opening on the pillar was created to obtain enough unobstructed air-flow under the dash. All original pillar fastening spots were preserved


















Rings positioned and aimed


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

seafish said:


> LBAudio,
> 
> I LOVE seeing your builds...PARTICULARLY the lovely dual ported midband enclosures you gravitate towards...
> which are so inspiring that one day I may have to attempt them myself!!!


Thanks man! The doors from previous system will be reused, since doorcards are the same in both cars. The goal is to make pillars with similar design, so the theme remain the same, the same will also be a painting scheme - Black semi mat textured and silver metallic gloss.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Now fun with designing begins


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

....


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Inside walls were all smoothed out

















design arround ventilation opening


















































































And closed


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

test fit in a car - basic shape is done, now I need to make them symmetryc and smooth them out









































This is where Im at at the moment,... Will post new pics as I progress


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## cycleguy (Feb 10, 2018)

Your work is a pleasure to look at First class and oh so different but very cool


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## ejeffrey (Oct 8, 2015)

I love seeing your fiberglass work. Well done, and looking forward to more progress.


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Can’t wait for further photos and your thoughts when finished.


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## farfromovin (Mar 30, 2011)

You can tell from the way you put together multiple pieces of fiberglass that’s some top notch work. I was trying to do my first sail panels today and ran into an issue getting the shape to go “out”. Clearly you’ve done this, right behind the mids for example, and you show pics of using tin foil. Are you just forming the foil into shape and glassing on top of it? Fold the foil over 2,4,10 times, until it’s rigid enough?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

farfromovin said:


> You can tell from the way you put together multiple pieces of fiberglass that’s some top notch work. I was trying to do my first sail panels today and ran into an issue getting the shape to go “out”. Clearly you’ve done this, right behind the mids for example, and you show pics of using tin foil. Are you just forming the foil into shape and glassing on top of it? Fold the foil over 2,4,10 times, until it’s rigid enough?


@farfromovin - I use Aluminium self adhesive foil/tape from TESA. As you can see I first make shape out of this ALU tape...usually 2-3 layers are sufficiently strong and can be used as a kind of base to lay fiberglass or Filler with strands on top of it and it will not deform,...in the case it does, you can fix it from behind. Before I sart to put any material on ALU surface I apply Formula 5 demoulding wax, so after Im done I can easily remove foil away.

In some other cases I also use 1.5-2 mm cardboard to create template, then I tape it off with ALU foil, place template in desired spot and apply fiberglass or Filler with strands.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

As promised, here are the pics of doorpanel build... those doors were fabricated for previous car, but since they fit to newer car I will reuse them since they perform very good. The panels were made for two pairs of JBL C660 GTI midbass drivers. Approx volume is 20 litre. They were made in a manner that I can retune them or convert them to sealed with ease......onto the pics:

first I started with template for speaker baffle


















































Started to make duplicates
























test fit


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

started to work on "dented" part of the baffle:
cardboard template taped off with ALU tape


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

made a mold of the doors out of fiberglass to utilize all avaliable space


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Doorcard and back enclosure wall were joined together


























damping applyed to the back wall









test fit and baffle positioning


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

cleaned up edges

























transitions smoothed out with filler

























added fiberglass over the filler to prevent any cracks later


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

sanded down, smoothed with filler again, applyed guiding coat and drivers test fited


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Armrest was slightly modified


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Primed and wetsanded up to 1000 grit


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

first silver metalic gloss paint applyed
















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Parts that would remain silver were taped off and protected, everything else was wet sanded and matted - prepared for second paint - Black semi mat texturized...


































































Painted


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

armrest was upholstered and damping applyed on the back side










































Dynamat dynaxorb, wool, foam added inside the enclosure










assembled and installed


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

OMG....simply AMAZING...

Your MAD fab skills result in the nicest build that I have EVER seen!!!

PLEASE can I send you the door panels from my truck?? LOL


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## DaveG (Jul 24, 2019)

You sir an artist! Unbelievable craftsmanship!!! Absolutely killer!!!


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## oekundar (Dec 31, 2018)

Love the work, I got tired from all the sanding you did...LOL. Well done sir!


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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

Thank you for the incredible amount of detail you shared in your posts. You are a very talented artist.

Ge0


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## Earlysport (Jul 23, 2015)

Beautiful work. Can I ask what black textured paint you used? The finish is great.


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## mfenske (Feb 7, 2006)

Absolutely amazing build! Your skills are excellent!


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Your work is very detailed and insane!!!


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Earlysport said:


> Beautiful work. Can I ask what black textured paint you used? The finish is great.


Honestly, i dont remember. It was painter who did this texture, he somehow set his paint gun to achive this texture.

thanks for comment!


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

a few pics on progress on pillars
one of the options for covering the hole behind the tweeter, speakerwire will be routed trouhg it, second option is carbon plug.


















fitment to the dash was solved - dash was taped off and filler was forced in the seams between dash and pillar


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

pillars are primed and with added guiding coat on top










































































left one is wetsanded with 600 gritt sandpaper, both were test fited in a car with drivers installed


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Thump!!!


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## seafish (Aug 1, 2012)

Sick!!!!!


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## dcfis (Sep 9, 2016)

Incredible build and dream equipment love those tweets


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nothing but PURE ART in this thread!


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Nothing but PURE ART in this thread!


Thank you!


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

My goodness this is some smooth work, makes me really want to step up and do something audio wise. 


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## baggedbirds (Sep 21, 2008)

amazing work and attention to detail


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## SheepishLordofChaos (Aug 14, 2020)

I swear this is the alfa I saw on PSsound's channel last week...I was losing it over the doors being ported which is what I would like to do....sheesh!
Great job sir, truly a classy and well executed build. I'm sure it sounds insane in person...the video didn't do it justice and even there it sounded excellent.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Yes, that Alfa was mine, but that was 147 model, this is different model Alfa GT, but yeah, doorpods will be reused since doorcards are the same in both cars..... had to fab new a-pillars since old doesnt fit this car since windshield angle is different. Peter Steinbacher recorded that movie when he visited me a couple of years back....


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## SheepishLordofChaos (Aug 14, 2020)

Oh wow....excellent build sir and they sounded amazing. I'd like to do the same but it is well out of my skill set.


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## Imola_S4 (Aug 19, 2020)

That's a huge effort and perfectly executed. Well done


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Finally 3D printer arrived today, and now I can print a couple of parts that I still need to finish off A-Pillars..... then they go finally to the painter for first painting session


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Cool!


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Plans are changing,....Swapped my JBL/CROWN BPX 2200,1 with JBL A3000 GTI amp. Also Helix DSP PRO was replaced with HELIX DSP PRO V2. Now I can start designing amprack. Only thing that is missing is one additional battery that will be purchased when everything is finished.


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## Rich.E.Rich (Jun 16, 2007)

Amazing artwork in this install thread, LBaudio!


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

I’m looking forward to seeing this all come together. 


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## Reyne (May 18, 2010)

Wow. Just read through this for the first time. This level of craftsmanship reminds me of Robolops BMW build. Can't wait to see the rest of your build


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## DoubleCrown (Jun 26, 2019)

What are the plans for the second battery? Are you running a conventional starter battery?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Another ODDYSSEY extreme 1775 will be added,...the same as I already have. I dont like to mix different batterys in the same system. I thought about LTO and similar solutions, but decided to go this route for now


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## sanin171 (11 mo ago)

Very nice work !!


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## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

LBaudio said:


> Another ODDYSSEY extreme 1775 will be added,...the same as I already have. I dont like to mix different batterys in the same system. I thought about LTO and similar solutions, but decided to go this route for now


Lto is the future, I can help with that if you need me to lojze 👍🏼 Keeping stock alt and use lto cells as well 😉


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

dumdum said:


> Lto is the future, I can help with that if you need me to lojze 👍🏼 Keeping stock alt and use lto cells as well 😉


Im thinking about LTO latelly, and with all the additional weight I would really consider to go with them....


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## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

LBaudio said:


> Im thinking about LTO latelly, and with all the additional weight I would really consider to go with them....


You know where I am 😉 mine is stock alt and a step up dc-dc converter plus six cells and I sit at 15.4-15.5v dc even if I’m hammering it! The front battery drops, but I don’t care the amps have stable voltage 🙃


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