# e36 utopia/mosconi build



## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

This is a filler as I need to pm someone for a purchase. But the build includes:
1x165w-rc
2x13ws
1x33wx
AS100.4
AS300.2
EQS (to be replaced with a 6to8, 360.3 or whatever later)
Eclipse cd8053 (why i made this post)

Pics soon?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Couple more pictures:


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## stuckinok (Jul 22, 2008)

Yummy


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## req (Aug 4, 2007)

looks spendy!


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## cobb2819 (Jan 13, 2011)

Pillars look great!! Build pics?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

@req: The joy of accommodations and being able to do it myself!

@cobb: I was completely stupid and forgot to take pictures of pillar build out, which was compounded by the fact that this will effectively be my rolling resume. But to make up for it, I'm taking pics as I go of everything else.

Current progress, box one of two for door subs (13ws):


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

So already a slight modification:









Mcintosh Mx406 CD In Dash Receiver | eBay

Seemed like waywayway too much of a smoking deal to pass on


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## cobb2819 (Jan 13, 2011)

Slacker!! Haha. I know how it goes though. Most of the time I'm in such a groove I forget what a camera is.


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

The "slight modification" is a good one! nice...


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

In for any updates. Coupe or sedan?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Sedan, going to deaden the front doors/kicks today while I put finishing touches on door enclosures.

After that I'll probably do my kicks.


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## therichinc (Mar 1, 2011)

good stuff so far, Moar pics !!


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Update:

Had to redo sub enclosures for the 13ws, but they're done:









The square of dynaliner is where the box touches the back of door panel, hid from view and protected from squeaks.

Also, had to make kicks for the mid out of the 165w-rc:









There are the back molds, the mounting ring is aimed, sound deadened and curing as we speak.

Tomorrow:
Door panel meets enclosures for a little bit of bondo love. Kicks get finished.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

As the pictures will no doubt show, I suck at upholstery.

Trying to hide wrinkles in these first two:


















Kinda happy with this one:










I will probably strip and redo the one on the left without dynaliner. I thought it would make it look good, hide bumps and it looks like a lumpy pillow. I know that without the dynaliner, I'd probably be completely happy, instead of meh.










Going to work on the door panels later tonight. Maybe.


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

tjcaustin said:


> As the pictures will no doubt show, I suck at upholstery.
> 
> Trying to hide wrinkles in these first two:
> 
> ...



Why did you build out on the kick panel? E36 Kick panels work awesome as they are. Just enlarge the hole for the driver


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

That's a sedan kick. And this picture shall show you why:









I still wanted to open my hood.


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## Mic10is (Aug 20, 2007)

tjcaustin said:


> That's a sedan kick. And this picture shall show you why:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Im building my Ti right now, which has the same limitations with the Kick panels as a Sedan and just did 6.5" mids in the kicks.
You can fit most 6.5" mids in the kick panel opening with some cutting, then grind down the plastic that is on the backside of the OEM grill.
There is more than enough area for the speaker to play through and perform fine.

Or rebuild the Grill to look more aesthetically pleasing.

and

There is more than enough slack to just attach the Hood pop mechanism to the underdash panel right behind the OBD2 plug


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

I was thinking after what you'd initially said that I could have cut into the actual dead pedal to get the additional area i needed and build from there. 

Sigh.

Yup, that's a totally better idea than the puffy pillow...


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Body filler 75% complete. Using it to help create another bond between factory door panel and enclosure. Will use fiberglass to shape the top of the box fully into the panel.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Yup, I'm stupid. In 30 min, I've broke down and rebuilt one kick already. Why did I think this was the harder way?


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## bmwproboi05 (May 3, 2009)

Nice stuff!!

Just wondering, but how much do those wr-c cost? How do they compare to krx?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

They cost the same as the krx3s. Don't know yet how they sound compared to either krx2 or 3, Nick Wingate talked me into buying em.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

I still can't upholster for crap, but thanks to Mic, I have a better looking kick.

















And door panel is waiting for less hot outside for its first layer of resin:









Seriously, it's superduper hot outside. Summertime is not funtime.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Decided that I needed to fill the hard corners the glassing did a bit and that a two piece panel should be easier for me to make look right. We'll see in a bit.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Seems like you cut off lower portion that has a pocket and using saved room for that box? I am assuming you are bolting the box to the door and making a transition into the door card itself?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

That is correct, sir.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Passenger side kinda sorta done. Need to figure out a good way to integrate back into the door card and decide if two-tone suede is what I really want. May strip it and go black vinyl or a graphite vinyl if I like the two-tone part.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Nice work.

Full on enclosure on the doors.

Have you fired them up yet?


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Mic10is said:


> There is more than enough slack to just attach the Hood pop mechanism to the underdash panel right behind the OBD2 plug


How do you prevent the lever ripping itself out of the plastic panel?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

The lever can be removed from the panel easily. There's a screw in the middle of it and if needed, I can take a picture and put it up.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

I understand that.

The question is, how does one prevent the lever from ripping itself free of the new location ie underneath the steering wheel since it is bolted to that soft plastic vs metal in the old location.


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## IamMurph (Jan 12, 2009)

I see you work at Car Toys. I am going to assume you are a salesman and not an installer. I applaud your attempts at custom work. Do you plan on demoing this to your Car Toys customers?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

I am a salesman, yes and I appreciate the applause. 

As to demoing, I don't feel the confidence in the bay I work with to replicate even this level of slightly polished turd so /shrug. It'll be a good way to show what deadening and high end audio can do and be, so it'll help in equipment sales, but yeah, if it's not stock location drop ins, the crew I'm with is frankly awful.

The plan is to get sound done, then redo the lazy finishing work (like all the suede upholstery so far) to use as a rolling resume to get myself more success in the field.


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

I too applaud your bravery. That was a big project you tackled. Keep in mind, though, that THIS is part of your resume. The way things are going, ANYTHING you post on the internet will be used in determining future jobs...


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Mini update: 

Back seat area and driver door dynamat/line/pad-ed. All that's left of that is the driver's floor and wasn't motivated enough to pull the seat to take care of that tonight.

Also, driver sub enclosure is molded into panel, all resined up and waiting to cure. I separated the door card differently this time so the enclosure has more attachment points from that. Depending on its success, I may grab another door card for the passenger side and redo that one as well.

The more I think, the more vinyl sounds appealing for the enclosure. Not entirely certain on if I don't want two-tone or not, but we'll see soon enough.

Now to think on if I want a floating amp rack or to put it in the spare well and where/how I want to build trunk sub box. Definitely going to go with mounting the sub inverted, it's got a purdy ass, but not completely sold on plan from there.


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## jjhwick119 (Dec 22, 2009)

tjcaustin said:


> I am a salesman, yes and I appreciate the applause.
> 
> As to demoing, I don't feel the confidence in the bay I work with to replicate even this level of slightly polished turd so /shrug. It'll be a good way to show what deadening and high end audio can do and be, so it'll help in equipment sales, but yeah, if it's not stock location drop ins, the crew I'm with is frankly awful.
> 
> The plan is to get sound done, then redo the lazy finishing work (like all the suede upholstery so far) to use as a rolling resume to get myself more success in the field.


You really should watch what you say on the internet TJ. You never know if a member of your frankly awful crew that you have no confidence in views the same forums that you post on. 

Look forward to seeing you at work, by the way!


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

well this certainly makes for an awkward work situation 

for what its worth, I think the OP has a bit more practicing to do to fine tune his fabrication skills....a lot of the things i see isnt really of the "i ran outta time so i just did it real quick" variety...but a more fundamental issue.

and its quite a slap in the face to your installers if you are saying your skill set is well beyond theirs...i mean, thats basically telling everyone on the net not to ever go there...no?

b


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## schmiddr2 (Aug 10, 2009)

jjhwick119 said:


> You really should watch what you say on the internet TJ. You never know if a member of your frankly awful crew that you have no confidence in views the same forums that you post on.
> 
> Look forward to seeing you at work, by the way!


Fair enough. Just don't let a discussion about it get out of hand here guys.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

simplicityinsound said:


> well this certainly makes for an awkward work situation
> 
> for what its worth, I think the OP has a bit more practicing to do to fine tune his fabrication skills....a lot of the things i see isnt really of the "i ran outta time so i just did it real quick" variety...but a more fundamental issue.
> 
> ...


I'm not saying that I believe I'm better at this than them as I think I've been clear in saying I've been unhappy with just about all the fabrication(honestly, I'm being stupid and just doing things instead of truly researching); what I am saying, however, is that I don't think any of them would try this and that's where the lack of confidence is born.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

tjcaustin said:


> I'm not saying that I believe I'm better at this than them as I think I've been clear in saying I've been unhappy with just about all the fabrication(honestly, I'm being stupid and just doing things instead of truly researching); what I am saying, however, is that I don't think any of them would try this and that's where the lack of confidence is born.


i know what you saying...just have to becareful becuase afterall, it IS the place you work at and take a paycheck from, so saying something like that is gonna really cuase peoples confidence to drop on your shop...you know?


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

simplicityinsound said:


> i know what you saying...just have to becareful becuase afterall, it IS the place you work at and take a paycheck from, so saying something like that is gonna really cuase peoples confidence to drop on your shop...you know?


I do and I regret the "frankly awful" bit. It was much too harsh considering what I've put to the table.


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## jjhwick119 (Dec 22, 2009)

schmiddr2 said:


> Fair enough. Just don't let a discussion about it get out of hand here guys.


no worries, i did not plan on saying anything more to start an argument on the forums.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

The more i look at it, the more i dislike my door idea. And I'm not even sure i can fix it. 

This is sorta depressing...


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Don't ever sweat the small things, for they can always be worked out. Just take some time out, remap what you want and review how to achieve it. Keep it simple, don't stress and you will be back at it and do fine.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

I think adding that fill and slight curve helps the overall look a large amount.































I went ahead and covered it in some scrap suede to get a better idea of finished product. I'll pop it on door tomorrow and post a picture of that, but the plan is to make the door card whole again and cover in black vinyl.










Even without the woofer, I like this shape more than the first one I posted.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Apologies for the halos:


















Clearly, it's still rough, but in comparison to the passenger side, it looks a lot better overall.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Update: All front stage is wired in. Now on to trunk, then back to doors to make with the pretty. I also decided to sell the mcintosh(posting soon) and eqs to get this:








Though, since I got it through work, it wasn't near retail...


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## Coppertone (Oct 4, 2011)

Which unit is that please ???


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

DEH-80PRS. With dust on it.

I hate Texas...


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

I'm rethinking my sub choice, either to 2 27v2 or 1 46kx4. I did a bit of theorycrafting for the 33WX I have and I'm just not happy with the results.

But on a positive note, I have front stage playing today. So far, I'm very happy with the performance of the 165W-RC and 13ws.


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## tjcaustin (Apr 19, 2012)

Has anyone had any difficulty with the auto tune on the DEH-80PRS? As in it constantly throwing an err: outside noise in the same spot in the process. I think I know what is causing it, but just checking, too.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Any updates on this?


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