# An old Bronco



## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I've done lots builds, used to be an installer, but it turns out, I hate retail. After leaving the industry, I took a LONG break from tinkering with car audio. However, I did have a bunch of nice gear sitting on the shelf. A few years ago I started lurking on the forums again, and in 2013 started playing with my 1986 Bronco. In 2014 I did a whole bunch of work. I'm about to start another round of work, so I thought I'd start a build thread.

I'll start off by recapping my ownership of it.

Here is the Bronco the day I bought it in late 2013:









Days like this are why I love it so much, top down on the beaches of Carova:









Moving from Virginia to Texas last summer, I got a flat on the trailer:









I converted from a carb to Holley Terminator EFI:









Spectre Performance ram air setup, you can also see a bit of the battery and the headers:









The headers are Bassani and ceramic coated. They feed a Bassani 3" y-pipe and Gibson cat-back. The stock cat has been removed.









It sounds pretty good (VERY short video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwRtBU8zBt8

The battery setup, I also upgraded to a 130amp 3G alternators and did the big 3:









I have a few JL ground lugs in the vehicle, I want to tie them all together. I was lucky that this one screwed right into a factory nut welded to the fender:









I did all the typical DIYMA sound damping stuff, I went a little overkill on the doors:









The bracing you see is also tied into the outer skin in two places with bracing on the outer skin as well. The doors are no longer like a skeet of tin foil, they are sturdy, close with a solid thud you've never heard from an 80's Ford, and sound like solid wood when you knock on them.but I still have some more work to do 

For the last year or so my system has been this:

My iPhone has been my main source, with a Pro-Clip mount holding it to the dash. A Pioneer DEH-P800PRS has basically just been a volume control, with a PPI DEQ.8 handling the processing duties. After that I have Image Dynamics CD2 Comps with mylar diaphragms on big bodies, powered by a Zapco AG200. A pair of super cheap Pioneer 6.5" coaxs with the tweeter and crossover disabled, powered by a bridged JL 300/4v1. And last, pair of Image Dynamics IDMax12v3's powered by a Zapco ST-1500XM.

It has worked ok-ish, but I knew the mids were living on borrowed time. Yesterday the left mid released the magic smoke. I was actually surprised it lasted that long, I wasn't exactly gentle on it:









Smoking the mid has prompted the next round of upgrades, they will happen over the next week or so. I'll still be using my iPhone as the source, but I'm eliminating the head unit. I'm replacing it with a Lighting to HDMI adapter and HDMI audio stripper feeding a digital signal to the DEQ.8. I had a custom faceplate made up for the DEQ.8 controller by a DIYMA member. It has a spot for the bass knob on the right side so it'll look like an old shaft radio. I'm not sure if I should use the big knobs or little knobs:



















Tonight I took my dremel to some cutting boards to make some speaker rings, I'll trim them as needed tomorrow.









I'll have a pair of IDQ8v1's and Audax PR170M0's to go in the doors. The IDQ's will be powered by the bridged JL 300/4, and the Audax mids will be powered by an MTX RT2400.

The speakers:









I'll take more pictures of the install as I work on it this weekend. The amps and processor are mounted to the sides of the bed so that I can build new panels to hide them. At the moment the subs are in a prefab box I picked up from Amazon Prime for $40, they have about 1.5 cubes each. I plan to build them into the sides of the bed as well. All the RCA's are custom made by me and I made a cargo cover to hide it all until I can build the new interior panels.

More to come this weekend...


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## Lou Frasier2 (Jul 17, 2012)

glad to see it coming along john.now if you will just send me those 8s i will be a happy old man


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks old man, but you aren't getting them 8's. But I could see me taking a rip to the west coast and you'll get a listen!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I had planned on working on the Bronco over the last week, but the weather got too cold. Now it's warming up but I leave for a work trip tomorrow. I'm packing today, but did find a few minutes to mock up the mid mounting plates.










I'll need to cut a pretty good chunk from the doors, but as you can see in the next pic, they'll fit nicely behind the factory panel.










If I mount the mids on the back side of the plates then the panel insert attachment pins won't hit the mids when installed. I'll have to do more cutting this way, but everything will fit better.


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## rockinridgeline (Feb 2, 2009)

Always wanted an old bronco. Good to see one being well cared for.


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

now this is my kind of build! I never feel a 3 mid is enough..lol..ever.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

rockinridgeline said:


> Always wanted an old bronco. Good to see one being well cared for.


I was always interested in them, but never really sought on out. This one just kinda came to me from the original owner at a steal of a price. I needed to replace a cheap car so I bought it. I liked it, and it fit me needs perfectly, but it was "just another car" at first. 

Then I slid it off a dirt road and totally destroyed the hardtop, or more accurately, the tree destroyed the top. I couldn't find another hardtop quickly, so I bought the softtop from softtoppers.com and that one change transformed the Bronco to my favorite car ever. Now I LOVE the thing.

I have a pair of NOS rear quarter panels that I picked up for $50, now I just need to find someone to install them for me. The rest of the body stuff is easy for me to do by myself, except for the paint.



Lycancatt said:


> now this is my kind of build! I never feel a 3 mid is enough..lol..ever.


What can I say, I like big sound


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

To continue the theme of going big, I just orderd a pair of W15GTI MII's to run instead of the IDMax 12's.

I'll be home in a week, hopefully it'll be warm enough to work on this project. In the meantime, here's my makeshift desk at the golf course:


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## 1FinalInstall (Oct 13, 2013)

Sub'd I love these old Broncos! She looks to be in nice shape, I don't see a lot of rust on her. So tough to find a good one now days.


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

Wow, that is too cool! Very nice upgrades you have planned. Always loved the Bronco and Ramcharger. Blazer, not so much.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I forgot about this, when I gutted it to replace the carpet and do the sound treatments I actually took measurements of every step. A bunch of Bronco people thought it'd be useless to try and kill the road noise with a thin soft top, but my data says otherwise.

All measurements were done with an iPhone and iMM6 Mic in AudioTools. The phone was mounted in the same ugly phone holder on the dash. Al were measured with the soft top and windows closed.










Since taking these measurements I've changed from worn out mud tires to new Nitto Terra Grapplers, so my next test should look better still. I'm hoping for some more improvement when I finish the doors. I suspect the idle has gone up due to the new exhaust.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

After taking all day to get from Ocala Florida to home yesterday due to a ridiculous comedy of errors. I walked in the front door of the house to a bit a of surprise. My new 15's were sitting just inside the door, but there was an issue.










I ordered JBL's!

I quickly opened up the box and found this:



















I appreciate the extra shipping protection, even if it had me worried for a minute!

I'm off work for four weeks, so I should be able to get some more work done, as long as the weather holds out.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today was one step forward and two steps back. Sigh...

I got the Audax 7's in and running off the bridged 300/4, they'll be switched to a smaller amp when I get the 8's in.

Drivers door:









With an old door panel on:









A zooming out:









Passenger side done:









Now I can get new door panels and mounting hardware.

I also threw my GTI's in a prefab box and swapped them for the ID Max 12's.

Terrible picture:









I reset all the EQ's and left the time alignment and gains alone, though I haven't REALLY set the gains properly anyway. I high passed the Audax at 250 @48db and low passed them at 1600 @24db. I changed the high pass on the horns from 800 to 1600 @24db 

Then I went for a quick spin. The horns and Audax blend so damn well together, it's like they were meant for each other. Just splendid.

The subs were sounding for for about five minutes, then the amp went into protect. I disconnected the subs and it still goes into protect right away. The funny thing is, I went from a 1 ohm load to a 1.5, so it should have been easier on the amp. I was contemplating buying a bigger sub amp anyway...

If that was bad enough, about two blocks from home something in the dash let out the magic smoke. I don't know what it was, everything still works. I pulled the dash panels and cap and inspected everything, it looks fine. I really don't know what it was.

I pulled the 800PRS anyway, tomorrow I'll add the parts to go digital from my phone to the processor. I hope I get that done tomorrow, in less than I week I leave on tour and won't get back 'til the end of July.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I started today my putting my DMM on the subs, sure enough, one has a bad coil. The sub amp is still going into protect, even with no speakers connected to it. 

I pulled the bad sub and boxed it back up. I put the one good sub on my old trusty MTX RT2400. Since I'll be replacing the sub amp, it's tempting to rethink the whole amp setup.

All of this stuff made it's way into the Bronco today:









Here is the list of parts:

CableJive Lighting extension cable
Apple Lightning to HDMI dongle
Apple Lighting cable for power
Sanus HDMI cable
KanexPro audio de-embedder
Homemade RG-59 with RCA ends
StarTech.com 4-port USB 3 hub
Switchcraft USB pass though port










I have the same USB 3 hub in my nightstand and it works great. It can work off BUS power, a 12v wall wart and has a phoenix plug that accepts 7-24vdc. It will charge devices even with no computer plugged in. I need all four ports, one for the DEQ.8, one for the Holley Terminator, one to charge the phone, and one to power the HDMI Audio Stripper.









I wanted to do something similar to the Papasin Smart Car, but I don't need video. So I found a single port stripper on Amazon that defaults to two channel audio unless it gets a 5.1 signal. The USB to power adapter was found on Amazon as well. I ordered a bunch of different cables and just tried them out to see what works. It doesn't need much power, my laptop can power both the hub and audio stripper off of one port. It also disables the volume control on the phone.









I found this Switchcraft panel mount connector on Amazon as well. Most of my gear at work that has custom patch panels have Switchcraft connectors, they are VERY durable. Here it is mounted in the old cigarette lighter hole, it took a little work with a dremel to make it fit perfectly.

















The Apple Lightning to HDMI dongle is zip tied snugly to the main dash harness above a gauges. It's still easy to get to if needed.









The USB hub and audio stripper are on the other side of the dash. If anything stops working, I can easily pop the top of the dash off and see all the LED's to see what's up.









A DIYMA member made this panel for me. I wanted to mimic the shaft radio look, mostly for simplicity, and as a theft deterrent. When you don't have a real roof, that kinda stuff matters! 









Four screws do a good enough job of holding it in place. The old DIN mount dash kit is still in place and supports it nicely.









And here it is all together. When I first fired it up I had no sound. I unplugged the RG59 cable and plugged in a StreetWires UTP cable I had and it worked. So I ran it properly and all is well now. When I get back from the tour I'll make a new cable that matches my existing custom RCA's. I have a Switchcraft panel mount 3.5mm stereo input that I still need to install, in the meantime I have a 3.5mm to RCA cable coiled up in the glovebox.

I gotta do something about those terrible looking dash panels!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The bad sub is on it's way back. The tiny girl at the shipping place had a bit of trouble moving it around behind the counter


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## KrautNotRice (Nov 2, 2015)

Cool build! I've had many a great memories in old, American 4x4s...
Sub'd for more


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks man!

"Unfortunately" on Friday I hit the road for five months on tour, most of that on beautiful golf courses, so this build will go on pause. Hopefully Eric Stevens will be shipping his ES Audio 10" midbass drivers by the time I get home. If not I'll have to "settle" for the IDQ 8's I already have.

I did some tweaking with REW today and am more and more impressed with how well the Audax drivers and horns blend together. It's like they were meant for each other. After adding a few biquad filters, it sounds fantastic from 250hz and up, but from 250hz and down it's a total mess.


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## jamesjones (Mar 8, 2007)

Very cool. I'm going to copy this build when I finally get around to doing my 72 Blazer build up.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I had yesterday and today off and didn't really do much, mostly just prepping for 5 months of travel. This morning I fired up Ol Smokey to go to the SLev and it cranked REALLY slow. That's not normal. With 1500CCA on tap for a gear reduction starter, it normally sounds like the starter is gonna throw the engine out of the engine bay. Hmmm...

It was even worse when I started it when leaving the SLev. So I grabbed the handheld controller for the Holley Terminator and checked the voltage, 10.4 volts! Luckily it stayed running long enough for me to get home. I did some poking around under the hood, and there was no voltage on the ignition wire going to the alternator, so it wasn't charging.

I looked for the cause, and found the wire was pinched, and shorted to ground, in the engine bay and had completely burned to a crisp. I checked the fuses and none of them were blown. I'm damn lucky it didn't burn to the ground. I suspect this is the source if the smoke from in that dash this weekend. I'd bet there is a damaged wire in the dash too.

There is a slight chance that my sub amp continued to go into protect after disconnecting the subs due to low voltage.

I leave for a show tomorrow, so I didn't really feel like diving into it today. I put it on the charger and have been charging it all day. It'll be parked at work for the next several months with about three square feet of solar panels maintaining the batteries.


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## hot9dog (Mar 23, 2013)

Like this build alot! I want a bronco badly... a white one like o.j. of course! Lol


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## Goldcar (Dec 8, 2015)

We got similar broncos, love that color scheme. Mine has a huge 4" rollbar right across where the back cap goes, and the PO fastened it on. so i have never had it off but your pics make me want to!

Will follow for inspiration


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Dude, the soft top was the best $850 I've ever spent on any car. It transforms the Bronco from just another SUV into something completely different. I can roll up the back window, completely remove the back window, roll up the side or fold the top down like a regular convertible. I can even completely remove the top without tools!

Everyone who rides in it loves it. My last girlfriend begged me to let her go the the airport and get the Bronco while I was gone on a work trip, just so she could drive it around instead of her Ranger.

The Bronco as a whole doesn't look that great, but people ask me about it at gas stations, grocery stores and so on. I've had Bronco, Blazer and 4-Runner people follow me to ask about the top. there is just something about the Bronco with a soft top that people LOVE, including me.


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

Too bad you are leaving, it would be awesome to have you up in OKC for the GTG.
We have an amazing group of SQ guys in the area and would love to see another come out to join us at our GTG's.


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## tibwolf (Feb 29, 2016)

This reminds me of when I tried adding a radio to an 85 Blazer that came with none. Had to cut sheetmetal and trim everywhere. What a struggle that was. Keep up the good (clean!) work


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

chefhow said:


> Too bad you are leaving, it would be awesome to have you up in OKC for the GTG.
> We have an amazing group of SQ guys in the area and would love to see another come out to join us at our GTG's.


I get to play with MUCH cooler toys at work, and it pays for all the silly hobbies I have. This week I'm playing with carbon fiber LED panels that are the lightest in the industry.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I'm home for the weekend before heading out for 28 days in Phoenix and San Diego. I spent most of my day cleaning the house and prepping my personal belongings for the tour. Once I was done being responsible I played with some audio gear. 

When I bought my CD2 Comp horns in 2003 I ordered them with big bodies, but the shop screwed up and ordered mini bodies instead. Since I was so eager to play with them, I didn't bother getting the big bodies. A couple years later I traded the mini bodies straight across for some used big bodies. The ones I got were the early fiberglass version that were cut down as far as possible without going into the mouth. Recently I ordered a new set of big bodies from Eric. tonight I decided to measure them with REW to see if there was any difference. Here is a link to the test results: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4xib56s2ep9hk79/Horns.mdat?dl=0

For some non-audio fun, this is my pack for my tour:










If this was a concert tour, and I was riding on a buss, I'd be limited to one small bag and one big bag, but it's not. Instead, it's a one-man-gig. I drive the truck, setup the gear, tech it, run the show, and stuff it all back in the truck. One of the luxuries of that is being able to take up a large amount of space for just myself, and the stuff I'd like to make my life more comfy.

Starting from the top:

• Small tool box of my own personal tools, I also have a bunch of company owned tools that travel with me
• Yeti cup!
• Baby Weber grill
• Microwave
• Pelican cooler
• Hotel bag
• Camera bag
• Tripod
• Hoverboard
• Pelican of my own personal electronics
• Pelican with two+ weeks of pants and a few other random bits
• Pelican with two+ weeks of shirts, jackets, hoodies, shoes and battery chargers

The Pelican with the fun toys:










From left to right:

• A 15" Macbook Pro get sandwiched between those two Asus 15" portable monitors
• An Asus Windows laptop that never goes online, it's a time capsule of software that works with older equipment
• USB BluRay drive
• Spare 13" MacBook Pro
• VZW Aircard
• OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock
• Cradlepoint router
• TP Link ethernet switch
• iFixIt tool kit so I can fix electronics
• Cables, cables, cables! I have cables for just about any situation I run into while working with video gear.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I fixed the charging issue, I'm back to 14.4 volts again! My Zapco sub amp is working again, so I think it is just MUCH more sensitive to low voltage than the other amps in the Bronco. Since it's working now, I finished running the bass knob and mounted it. I also swapped out the old horn bodies with the new ones.

I'll get a good chance to listen to it on the way to work tomorrow, and then I'll park it for 26 days :-(


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Well, I got a call from the seller of my JBL subs, they said that JBL said the sub was fine. Something isn't right there. Either way, they are sending me a new sub, so I all should be well when I get home.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got home last night from four weeks on the road, including two weeks with some awesome friends on Oahu. I found some fun toys waiting for me when I got home. The replacement for my bad JBL sub had arrived, and it tested good. There were also 5 M25 tweeters here, they'll go in my home theater build.

I had the Bronco at my last gig and ran into a few issues in that two weeks. The biggest was that the engine would just randomly shut off, as if I'd just turned the key off. Sometimes it would run for several minutes without an issue, and sometimes only 20 seconds. My hotel was only 1 mile from the venue, so I just dealt with it. One day I was tinkering under the hood and narrowed it down to a bad wiring harness from Holley. It was the adaptor harness to go from their Weatherpak ignition plug to the Ford TFI module.

On the 30 mile drive home from the venue my alternator quit charging. By the time I pulled up to the house my batteries were down to 9.6 volts. I had them on the charger all day today.

And last, my headlights quit working.

Today I spent about six hours working on things. I replaced the bad harness from Holley. The charging issue turned out to be a loose belt. I also replaced the ignition switch as I'd had some other issues that pointed to the original one failing. I also replaced a bad O2 sensor while I was working on it.

I tried to track down the headlight issue, I think it might be a bad switch. I ordered a new one.

As I mentioned in the APL thread last week, I ordered an APL-1, I also bought the Workshop and TDA software. Now if I could just find my UMIK-1 I could start playing with TDA...

I'm gonna be working tomorrow, have Friday off, then leave on Saturday for five more weeks on tour.

For fun, here is a picture I snapped while installing the replacement sub today:


I'm having enough trouble with the factory wiring harness that at this point I'm thinking I should just replace it all with an aftermarket setup. At the moment I'm leaning heavily towards an American Autowire kit.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice build!


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## Lycancatt (Apr 11, 2010)

I have a stack of pelican cases..usually can only take two with me but they are so damn handy! 

mic case, also has cables and adapters and a few t bars..even a tiny tabletop mic stand.

clothing case, used to have a projector in it and is quite big once the foam is out.

I have an allen heath mixwizzard 16 3 in one with custom foam, I have to take it out to use it unlike a proper case but I already had the pelican so it works for now.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Lycancatt said:


> I have a stack of pelican cases..usually can only take two with me but they are so damn handy!
> 
> mic case, also has cables and adapters and a few t bars..even a tiny tabletop mic stand.
> 
> ...


I probably have close to $1k wrapped up in those pelican cases, but they are so worth it. When hitting the road I just use the liftgate to throw them in the back of the truck. Because I work on golf courses, there is no hope of keeping anything clean. Tomorrow I'll be at the shop and I'll unload and reload half my trailer, that alone will leave me with dirty clothes and black hands. The Pelicans keep all that out and keep on going. 

Last week I played with tuning a bit, and I found that 1200hz @48db seemed to be the best x-over point between my full size mylar CD2's and the Audax mids. It sounds a little less hollow than 1600hz and doesn't effect the impact or liveliness at all. I'm still in love with the Audax/horn combo.

Big mids for life!


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

We just had a show in Ft Worth last weekend, sorry you missed it.
Keep an eye out for a few over the summer. I am about to start working on the schedule. Bronco sounds like its coming along really well.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

At the moment it looks like I'll make the Aggieland show.

I have 8 days off between now and the end of July, after that things will slowdown for me a bit and I'll be able to work on it more.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I found my UMIK-1 today and played around a little. I Started with TDA with only the right side mid and horn, it looked like this:










It was really easy to get to this with those two speakers:










It took another ten or fifteen minutes or so to get the rest of the system to this:










After TDA I switched over to REW. I ran some sweeps on each side without the subs, made some corrections, then remeasured and came up with this:










My target curve in on there too.

After listening to a handful of songs, i'm quite impressed. I thought before that the Audax mids and horns blended really well, but WOW what a difference today made. The front is more coherent than anything I've put together before. It's a shame I will have to go five weeks without listening to it after tomorrow morning!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I don't have any updates on the Bronco because I haven't been home yet. However, I do have a pile of goodies waiting for me when I get home.

My tour stop got hit by copper thieves last week, they took a bunk of custom built cables with plugs on them that haven't been manufactured since 2006, ouch! My company spent $3100 in replacement cables, plus another $1500 overnight shipping cables and another $250 in small parts so that I could get the show up and running a day late.

Because there is no off the shelf part that fits my needs, I had to cut up a bunch of proprietary cables to make it all fit my needs. The thieves left behind a few Socapex cables that had the connectors I needed, so I started by cutting them up:










Next up was to strip the cables so I could put the right connector on them:



















And one at a time twist them together and insert into the new plug:



















After getting all three sets in, tighten the strain relief clamp.










Then slide the sleeve over the connector and tighten the screws in the end of the connector:



















One completed connector, 5 more to go. You can see the proprietary/irreplaceable plugs on the ground.










Then I just added a bunch of these extensions and climbed up on the back of the video walls to install them.










All this time and money so some meth head could get $50 for "scrap" copper. Even worse, this gear only has to make it through this show and two more and then it's retired permanently.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

Serious wires here!
So even here in US this can happen? Damn' it reminds me the **** happening regularly in France on the fast train lines (tgv)...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Yeah, it's not uncommon at all.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I arrived home today and opened up this:










I also got a 3in 1out optical switcher with remote and optical cable so I can go right out of my laptop into the APL.

Unfortunately, on the way home my car threw the alternator belt. I know the old v-belt setup wouldn't like a 130 amp alternator, but I didn't expect it to eat up a belt in under 1000 miles. Time to switch over to a gear driven belt system.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I didn't really get anything done this weekend except for some repairs. I also designed and ordered a new black anodized aluminum dash panel to replace the factory one in the center. Here is the drawing:










The blue lines and text won't actually be printed, the white letters and lines will be printed in white.

The blue horizontal lines are where I'll need to bend it to contour to the dash. The white lines are cutting guides as this service can't do complex shapes, only rectangles.

I also ordered CarlingTech Contura XIV rocker switches from OTRATTW, some with custom labels to fit my needs.

The lower holes are for SwitchCraft panel mount ports.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

So no time to play with APL workshop yet?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

No, I have to do the front brakes tomorrow, get a state inspection done, then renew the registration. I leave home for two weeks on Tuesday.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Lumberman : wow , what a cool setup. 

I'm intrested in the entire build, being a horn person I'll definitely be watching this.


I like your iPhone setup. Looks like you got a good way to get digital signal.


You seem pretty up to par on this stuff. Would you know how someone could get an optical signal from a iPhone and how to get it to have a volume control. 

Or , just a way to get a volume control on a optical toslink wire? 

Is that setup you have take iPhone to hdmi than to digital coax or optical? If so I'm intrested in how I can get the same setup


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

oabeieo,

At the moment I'm pulling a digital coax feed from the phone, with the gear that arrived in the last few weeks, and what I have on preorder, I'll be switching to optical.

At the moment I'm using a ProClip phone mount screwed right to the dash, slightly tacky, but perfect for this era of vehicle in modern times. I have a Lightning Extension Cable going to an Apple Lightning to HDMI adapter. The phone is being charged from this adapter by a normal Apple Lightning USB cable. The HDMI cable is going to a Kanex Audio De-Embeder with an RCA cable running to a PPI DEQ.8. The downside of this setup is that volume control is left up to the DEQ.8, and the rotary knob is digital, so the volume changes in steps. The Apple HDMI adaptor completely disables volume control on the phone.

With my new gear, SwitchCraft ports and whatnot, it'll change a bit. I also have a JL Twk D8 on pre-order from Crutchfield. With the Twk I can program the remote knob for my own use, I'll use it as a bass knob. I plan to also swap amps, from my mix of stuff to JL HD amps. These amps will allow me to use the RLC setup to control volume, just like ErinH's setup. This will get me back to a true analog volume control, with the added benefit of zero hiss at low volume, a common problem with crazy efficient drivers.

Another problem with going digital from the phone to the processor is getting a comparable signal from REW/TDA/APL Workshop into the processor.

So, with the new setup the signal path will look like this:

Iphone ---> Kanex HDMI Audio De-embedder ---> Optical Switcher
MacBook Pro ---> Optical Switcher

Optical Switcher ---> APL-1 ---> JL Twk D8 ---> Amps

At the moment I'm planning on an HD 600/4 for the horns and mids, HD 600/4 bridged to the midbass and an HD 1200/1 per sub.

The optical switcher, HDMI de-embedder, iPhone power, two USB ports, Holley EFI and sound processor will all be powered/connected by a StarTech USB hub with a single USB type B port in the dash.

Given your location and employer, I suspect you are working at one of the most profitable stores in the company. My first installing job was at the North Seattle store, we did more alarms than any other store in the company. I once tried to kick Dan Bretler out of the shop, not knowing what he looked like. I was also part of the union vote way back then, I was the only eligible employee who didn't vote, I was busy buying super rare Mustang that day. If you ever run across someone who knows what Northwest Autosound was, then you might want to listen to their stories


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

oabeieo said:


> You seem pretty up to par on this stuff. Would you know how someone could get an optical signal from a iPhone and how to get it to have a volume control.
> 
> Or, just a way to get a volume control on a optical toslink wire?


The volume control over digital isn't easy, however, I do believe it's possible with an iPure. The catch with the iPure is that you are limited to slower charging, you will lose charge with the screen on. Also, you'll need a Lightning to 30-pin adaptor. But you do get a physical remote to use with it.

I think I have the iPure parts somewhere around here that I could send you. I leave in the morning for 15 days, and I could send it to you when I get home.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

LumbermanSVO said:


> oabeieo,
> 
> At the moment I'm pulling a digital coax feed from the phone, with the gear that arrived in the last few weeks, and what I have on preorder, I'll be switching to optical.
> 
> ...


Man that sounds like a rock solid setup. The HD amps are good. I am running that exact setup , although, I took out one of the 600/4s in place of a focal 4ch class ab with same power as 600/4 for horns and midrange. And I did notice a sq improvement right away. And it wasn't a small improvement. I noticed switching to the class ab focal amps there was a lot more depth and the sound was more layered and wide and open sounding. I took the focal amp on midbass and couldn't tell I did anything, but the HD amps are the best class d out there . After about a year of listening to the HD amps you'll want to try something different. I would suggest the focal amps. There pretty bad ass! So are brax amps. I was going to get two more focal amps but I just discovered that I don't have the room for them so I'm going to keep the two JL audio and the one focal for now . 

I'll definitely watch how you do yours with the optical because I definitely might consider copycatting . I have 4 minidsp HD dsp's that have optical in. I have a p99 right now and want the alpine x008 because it has a optical out but volume is disabled on the optical output . The minidsp I can train a infrared remote but the problem is if I turn the volume up and down through an infrared remote both DSPs may not turn up at the same time for turn down at the same time which could be cumbersome. I would really like to figure out a way to use the optical out and go into some sort of device that will get me a volume control and then pass the optical out with a volume . I've read that Dolby Dts does not let volume go over optical but regular PCM and all that other stuff will if I'm using a phone with Spotify I seriously doubt I'll ever have a Dolby issue . I just have no idea where I should start but those parts you have look sort of interesting 

Yeah DR is a busy store , were num 3 in company in power ranker. It's fun, but stressful. 

That's funny about Dan B. I wonder if he ever called you on your bday after that. Lol. I've been w the company 6yrs and a IM 2years. I enjoy it , it's nice when we hit all our goals. I will ask, I have a tech that transfer from a Washington store, Brandon, I bet he'll know what your talking about. He's been CT for attract 15-20yrs.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

LumbermanSVO said:


> The volume control over digital isn't easy, however, I do believe it's possible with an iPure. The catch with the iPure is that you are limited to slower charging, you will lose charge with the screen on. Also, you'll need a Lightning to 30-pin adaptor. But you do get a physical remote to use with it.
> 
> I think I have the iPure parts somewhere around here that I could send you. I leave in the morning for 15 days, and I could send it to you when I get home.


I didn't see this post dood that would be awesome but I'm using lightning off of an iPhone 6 will it work for that... That's super cool of you.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

oabeieo said:


> Man that sounds like a rock solid setup. The HD amps are good. I am running that exact setup , although, I took out one of the 600/4s in place of a focal 4ch class ab with same power as 600/4 for horns and midrange. And I did notice a sq improvement right away. And it wasn't a small improvement. I noticed switching to the class ab focal amps there was a lot more depth and the sound was more layered and wide and open sounding. I took the focal amp on midbass and couldn't tell I did anything, but the HD amps are the best class d out there . After about a year of listening to the HD amps you'll want to try something different. I would suggest the focal amps. There pretty bad ass! So are brax amps. I was going to get two more focal amps but I just discovered that I don't have the room for them so I'm going to keep the two JL audio and the one focal for now .
> 
> I'll definitely watch how you do yours with the optical because I definitely might consider copycatting . I have 4 minidsp HD dsp's that have optical in. I have a p99 right now and want the alpine x008 because it has a optical out but volume is disabled on the optical output . The minidsp I can train a infrared remote but the problem is if I turn the volume up and down through an infrared remote both DSPs may not turn up at the same time for turn down at the same time which could be cumbersome. I would really like to figure out a way to use the optical out and go into some sort of device that will get me a volume control and then pass the optical out with a volume . I've read that Dolby Dts does not let volume go over optical but regular PCM and all that other stuff will if I'm using a phone with Spotify I seriously doubt I'll ever have a Dolby issue . I just have no idea where I should start but those parts you have look sort of interesting


I already have the Lightning to HDMI adaptor and HMDI Audio De-Embedder working, and it works great. The catch with the Lightning to HDMI adaptor is that it disables volume control on the iOS device.

As you know, volume control has been an issue with digital audio in the car for a long time. Ideally you want the control the volume at the end of the signal chain, and the JL HD and XDv2 amps have the solution built in by letting you use the remote knob on all channels and even link the knob to multiple amps. And it's analog!

I have a remote for my PPI DEQ.8, but I don't really like the stepped rotary knob it uses for the volume control. 



> Yeah DR is a busy store , were num 3 in company in power ranker. It's fun, but stressful.
> 
> That's funny about Dan B. I wonder if he ever called you on your bday after that. Lol. I've been w the company 6yrs and a IM 2years. I enjoy it , it's nice when we hit all our goals. I will ask, I have a tech that transfer from a Washington store, Brandon, I bet he'll know what your talking about. He's been CT for attract 15-20yrs.


If Brandon was at a store that participated in the union vote, then ask him about the meetings at SeaTac. 



oabeieo said:


> I didn't see this post dood that would be awesome but I'm using lightning off of an iPhone 6 will it work for that... That's super cool of you.


It'll work with a Lightning to 30-pin adaptor, at least is did on iOS 8, I don't know about iOS 9. I dissected it some time ago, so it's just the board and the 12v to 5v DC power supply. I'm not sure of I still have the wall wart for it, but I know I still have the remote. Shoot me a PM with your mailing address.


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## Alextaastrup (Apr 12, 2014)

Regarding the volume control if playing through the optical output - I have mentioned once the easiest (and cheapest) way to do it, if you own APL1. Mine came with the the switch for 16 presets. I use some of them (preliminary programmed with the Workshop) to control volume from the CD-changer connected to the APL with toslink cable. Practically 6-8 presets (-24dB til -6dB) should be enough. Yes, we have steps in this solution, but no more parts between the optical source and DSP.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I have the APL-1 switch too. I'm just not of fan of having the volume control done in steps. The JL amps + RLC remote solves the problem without adding anything to the signal chain.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

I found a way for me at least, I could a 10ch Rca in/out board for volume ,
I'm going to solder in a digital pot and get it to work on my swc vol buttons , there not resistive so it'll work


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

I found a solution to mine , 10 channel in 10 channel out Rca board with volume control

I just need to figure out a way to add a hard button that way I can add my steering wheel controls to it


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## Ride154 (May 14, 2016)

subd!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got home tonight after attending a company party. When I got home I had to open the new toys and put them together.










I also ordered a WeatherPak kit to help with the various connections...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Well, the aluminum is to thick to bend how I need without damaging it. So now I'm working on another plan for the dash. Sometime you just gotta dive in and do the crazy thing you've always wanted to do... 

I leave in the morning for another tournament, I'll be gone for 16 days. After that I'll be home for 3-4 weeks so i should be able to get quite a bit of work done. Though I'll be on-call, so hopefully no last minute shows pop up.


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## danno14 (Sep 1, 2009)

> Northwest Autosound was, then you might want to listen to their stories


Just saw this!

Oh yeah, some stories for sure! I know a few of the old guard.
I still work with a guy that was there, although in an accounting capacity. 
Travel safe!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Did you know a guy with the last name of Nuber? I think his first name was Dan. He was an installer when Northwest Autosound closed, one of the guys who found a note on the door when arriving for work. When I knew him he lived across the street from me, and he was installing electronics for wheelchair vans. I heard a lot of stories about Dan Bretler from him.


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## danno14 (Sep 1, 2009)

Rings a very vague bell. I knew Danny B a bit, along with a few of the other old crew. I was closest wth Walt Ottenad And still live about a mile as the crow flies from each other. 

Lots of stories!!!
Raging 80's


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

In that time period from the 80's to the early 90's when owning a shop was a license to print money, I was just a kid. But I knew a handful of people from those days, and I sure wish I was there for it!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

In a week I'll be on my home home and I'll have 3-4 weeks off, I've been home 12 days since February 26th. It's gonna be so nice to kick back and relax! My only work task will be to replace the wiring harness for the liftgate on the other truck that leapfrogs around the country with me. I did that to my trailer yesterday.

The very first task at hand will be to take the Bronco to a shop and have them find and fix the oil leak. Once it's home I have a pile of parts waiting to go in it:

- American Autowire wiring harness to replace the factory harness
- New plugs for all the factory lights
- Electric fan to replace the mechanical fan
- New radiator and A/C condenser
- New valve covers
- Oil catch can for the new breather setup
- New crank and water pump pulleys to fix my alternator belt wear problem
- APL-1
- JL TwK D8
- 10-port USB hub
- Optical switcher
- USB and Optical ports
- All the switches I posted about earlier

Depending on how much it costs to fix the oil leak, I should have the budget to buy all new Holley CAN-BUS gauges to replace the factory junk. If I manage to get all that done then I'll start building enclosures for the IDQ8's.

It's gonna be so nice to relax for so long!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I was a bit annoyed to learn that I gotta do a gig a few days after getting home. Even more annoying, It's not gear I'm familiar with, so I gotta spend a day at the shop learning it. Then I looked up the gig a found pictures from last year.










I'll be running one of the many truck-mounted video screens, and my scenery will be what you see in the pic. So I guess things could be worse...

But it does add up to only getting three weeks off instead of four.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Wow!


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## danno14 (Sep 1, 2009)

Holy cow! What is that event? Looks like a women's fitness thing?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

It's some Beachbody thing in Nashville.


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

WHAT!?!? When is this?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Coach Summit 2016

I got pulled off the gig today, Instead I gotta go to Toronto and Montreal to pickup the gear we have at the Rogers Cup. Not any better, but it'll help pay for the SI 24's I've decided to order...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I arrived home today and unboxed a bunch of stuff...










The coming weeks are not going to be boring.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I didn't get anything done today. I dropped Ol Smokey off at a shop so they can find the source of my oil leak. It could be as bad as a main seal, but I hope it's better than that. I should get it back early in the week and then I'll start installing stuff.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

So you are going to put 24" subs in the Bronco? My wife and I have the T25 Alpha, Beta, and Gamma DVD's.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I'm sticking with the W15GTI's in the Bronco, the 24's are for my home.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice! Be sure to attach a link to your HTS build.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Nice! Be sure to attach a link to your HTS build.


It'll be awhile, so far I'm just slowly collecting gear. Once the 24's arrive I'll have all the drivers. I have TM65's and M25's for the mains. I still need power, processing and to build boxes for everything.

I do have some gear in the rack already though:


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Lol! I have an old Yamaha 5.1 AVR powering my HTS in stereo mode. It's a Kicker 08S15L74 in Tapped Tapered Quarter Wave Tube (T-TQWT)...negative flare tapped horn.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

On Saturday I dropped Ol Smokey off at the shop so they can find my oil leak, it's REALLY bad. They finally got to look at it today, and they are positive it's the rear main seal. The thing that sucks about it is, replacing that $26 seal requires either pulling the engine, or yanking both driveshafts, the transmission and transfer case. I could easily do it at home, except for the part where I don't have a garage, or flat level place to work in. They told me it's unlikely they'll have it done by Saturday. While they may be slow, it'll cost me under $600. To me, that's worth it so I don't have to do it myself, especially since the whole chassis is coated in a thick layer of oil.

In the meantime, I've rented a Ford Fusion and will go visit my sister in Colorado for a couple days, and on Sunday I leave for a week work in Canada and NYC. When I get back I'll have two weeks to accomplish everything on my checklist. My main priority will be replacing the factory chassis harness.

Also, somehow I lost all my Switchcraft connectors. I tore my place apart looking for them, but zilch. So a couple days ago I ordered some new ones and they came in today. I put them in my dash template and they looked alright:










But then it occurred to me, they can be rear mounted:










That looks SO much better. Whats really cool is I can have the final dash piece made with studs on the back, making flush mounting a snap. Hooray for two products coming together in a fantastic way!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

That sucks about the rear main seal. The flush mount does look better.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

This thread delivers. Subscribed.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got home from Canada this morning and picked up Ol Smokey from the shop. Not only had the rear main seal failed, but it had completely fallen out. No wonder it was going through so much oil!

It is stupid hot out today, and I'm exhausted from traveling from Toronto, to Montreal, to the Bronx and back to Dallas, so I didn't do much today. I fiddled with the EFI a little and got it idling smoother. Here's a clip of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuVMqkFJdBM&spfreload=10

Tomorrow I'll start in on more mods...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today was ridiculously hot, but I went outside and worked on Ol Smokey anyway. I started the morning with a simple project, replacing the valve covers and installing the oil catch can.

The old stock covers:










One cover on:










The other cover on with the catch can installed:










I couldn’t find my Makita, I think it’s on my tour trailer. So I had to improvise and put the catch can on a factory bolt for now. I’ll move it somewhere else once I find my drill, I’ll also replace that dumb blue/green line while I’m at it.

Here’s the engine bay buttoned back up:










Then I turned to the interior, I removed the PPI DEQ.8 and installed the JL TwK D8:










When installing it I realized that I forgot to buy a long TOSLINK cable, Amazon to the rescue!

Next up I installed the APL-1, optical switch and various cables.










Things were going GREAT! I was making good time and things were going smoothly. And then I started to look for a place to put the new fuse block. Under the center of the dash is where I I wanted to put it, but stuff was in the way. I started removing the factory heater controls, I replace the factory HVAC system with an aftermarket one anyway.

My god did Ford install that panel in a stupid with. It was MUCH more difficult to remove than it should have been. Just ridiculous. But I eventually got it out:










I I then started to pull the HVAC wiring and cables, and those were stupid too. I got frustrated and eventually just ripped out the entire HVAC system. All the gear I installed earlier in the day was in the way, so I pulled it too, so much work wasted.










I forgot to take a picture with all of it gone, but there be plenty of time for that later!
I have to take it in for a state inspection and renew my registration tomorrow, so I buttoned the dash back up.










The real fun begins after I get a clean inspection sticker


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Wow!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I had to drop into work today. As normal, a trip to the office is never a quick trip. Dropping off receipts turned into 3 hours of making the rounds, discussing the next stop on my tour, the other truck on the tour and how things are gonna go at my off-tour gig, the Ryder Cup.

After that I stopped off to get Ol Smokey inspected, I checked everything yesterday so thought things would go smoothly. Naturally, that didn't happen. My headlights stopped working. Luckily the shop was cool about it and let me poke around a bit to try and find the problem without just punting me. I quickly tracked it down to the relay that turns on the high beams. I was able to quickly yank the the relay used to turn on the amps and replace the high beams relay with it. I got my "Passed" printout, then renewed the registration. Now I have a year to do whatever I want and get it to pass again.

After getting it registered I started hearing a weird sound upfront and the steering started feeling weird. I stopped to check it out, and the left front wheel was loose. In fact, a lug nut had fallen off right when I stopped. Luckily I was right near the shop that just worked on it, they replaced my front pads and rotors when they were replacing the rear main seal. 

When they looked at it, there were metal shaving in the wheel, failing to tighten it properly was tearing up the mounting holes. I had them throw my matching full-size spare on and gave them the now damaged wheel. I also dug up the receipt from when I ordered those wheels a little over a year ago. They didn't fight back at all when I told them that I wanted them to replace the wheel. They'll call me when they get the new wheel in and have the tire mounted and balanced.

When I got home I started in on the dash. I didn't get much done, but it's almost at blank canvas status:


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

That was good customer service on their part.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Yeah, I was expecting some push back when I told them that I expected them to replace the wheel.

This is why I normally do all my own work, buy there is no way I could get away with either pulling the engine or dropping the drivetrain in the street without the HOA throwing a fit. And I figured, "Hey, while it's in there, I'll have them do the brakes too."


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

They were probably just happy you weren't threatening to sue...or killed someone/your self.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I thought that too!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

thehatedguy said:


> They were probably just happy you weren't threatening to sue...or killed someone/your self.


Yeah, I'm not too concerned about why they were cool about it, just that they were. I generally hate letting someone else work on my cars, but without a good workspace, I just didn't have a choice. So I did a bunch of research on just about every independent shop in town, and the one I found seemed to be owned and run by actual "car guys" instead of grumpy old guys.

They called this afternoon and the new wheel is ready for me to pickup, I'll get it from them in the morning.

Today I had to swing by work and learn how to setup and run one of these:










Almost every tech at the company starts in one of these and works their way up to concerts and stuff. I started right off the bat with a tour and skipped the whole truck thing. I gotta do a gig with one of these on Friday night, so it's time I finally learned it.

After that I swung by the hardware store and bought the stuff I'll need to make my new dash frame. This evening my new RivNut tool was delivered, so I can start assembling stuff tomorrow. I also pulled some of the factory harness today, the remote start and the rest of the factory dash frame except for the two end brackets and top bracket. I plan to reuse the factory windshield HVAC ducting. The factory center speaker mount will serve as my reference for where the top of the factory dash was, it'll eventually go away. I also moved all the factory wiring down and out of the way of the new wiring.

Here is what it looks like tonight:










A couple new parts arrived today as well, a relay box for in the dash that holds 7 micro relays:










And a 6 relay box with fuse bank for under the hood:


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I started on the dash build. I need some place to mount the new fuse box and other in-dash electronics, so I need a dash frame first. I forgot to charge my Makita batteries last night, so I was slowed down by dead batteries at first.

Anyway, here's the basic shape so far:










It's about the same height as the factory dash, but a bit more square. I'm not a big fan of wood in cars, especially topless cars, so the build will use all metal and fiberglass.

I reused two of the factory dash brackets. They will get cleaned up and painted when I paint the rest of the dash frame. Here is how I mounted them, right side:










Left side:










It's pretty solid. It's dead level, centered in the car and at the same exact height on each end. Symmetrical dash FTW!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Can't wait to see the finished product!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks!

The goal today was to build a rack for all the in-dash gear. I came up with this for the frame. I was able to reuse the factory center speaker mount and another factory hole on the right side dash bracket.










Here you can kinda see the hole I used, as well as the extra brace I added to the main hoop. I added a similar brace on the other side, and now I can put a LOT of weight on it without issues.










Next up was to build the flat surface for the rack. I don't have a proper way to cut thin sheetmetal, or a brake to bend it with, so I had to get creative. A jig saw was able to handle the cutting, though not a precision cut. Funny thing, i bought the jig saw at a show when I needed to cut a jumbotron frame into two pieces. I was able to use a small hammer and piece of square stock to start the bend, then finish it with the hammer on the steel table.










I added a piece of Trim-Lok to each edge that didn't get folded over.










Bolted in the car:










Next I bolted the different components to it, from left to right: Fuse block, 7 Micro relay block, 10-port 12v powered USB hub, Holley Terminator ECU, APL1.










The APL1 isn't secured to the rack yet, it doesn't come with mounting brackets so I have to get creative with that.

Overall, this took a LOT more time than you'd think. For pretty much every new piece I had to unbolt other pieces, rough fit it out of the car, then bolt it back in. It also doesn't help that it's parked 30 feet from the garage!

Now that the fuse box in mounted I can start wiring the car.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Yesterday I didn't feel like doing anything and just vegg'd out all day, I did the same the first half of today.

Remember the custom dash piece that didn't work out?










I used it as a router template on some ABS plastic. The ABS isn't a permanent material, just something temporary so I can work things out until I like it and have a new aluminum piece made. I used gaff tape to hold the two pieces together while I routered it with a Dremel:










Here's the left panel with switches in place, OTRTTW can make new switch rockers with the labels turned 90º.










All three fitted in place. This is the rough idea, with HVAC vents between the panels and at the outside edges.










Wiring it up:










Wired up with Weather Pack connectors for easy removal:


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Wow !!!! Dood that is lookin awesome !!! I love them switches . (Door locks lmao!) 
Love it !


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks man! I really geek out on the wiring part.


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## 1FinalInstall (Oct 13, 2013)

Looking good, love the door lock icon!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

1FinalInstall said:


> Looking good, love the door lock icon!


Thanks man!

Today I got a slow start due to rain, but that didn't stop me from making some solid progress. I started by wiring the center dash piece:










I then took them outside and mounted them to the dash frame with zip ties. Since these are temporary panels, I don't want to drill into the frame to mount them, so zip ties it is. The mock up HVAC unit arrived while I was working in the dash, so I threw it in too, here is what it looks like in place:










It'll limit how far forward I can push the horns, but is still far better than with the factory unit, and the Vintage Air stuff should do a much better job at heating and cooling.

Here is inside the dash with the HVAC unit and part of the wiring in place:










In this pic you can see the new harness run in the upper dash. There is much more to add to it, Door locks, power windows, speaker wires and more! The two connectors in the firewall are 22-pin Weather Pack bulkhead connectors. With them I should be able to run the engine harness(black harness) and chassis harness through the firewall with a quick disconnect on the engine side. The wiring tied up in the foreground goes to the rear of the car.


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## Lou Frasier2 (Jul 17, 2012)

fricking awesome john


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Lou Frasier2 said:


> fricking awesome john


Thanks old man!

A funny thing happened. Over the last two days I looked high and low for my Makita cordless drill. I eventually came to the conclusion that I left it outside and someone nabbed it. Last night I ordered a new one.

Today when I opened the hood to mount the firewall bulkheads I found the old Makita. It was wedged between the frame and inner fender, right next to the right side header. Thanks to ceramic coated headers, it was is perfect working order.

Ten minutes later the new one was delivered.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today was one of those days where you don't feel like you got anything done, but you worked all day. I pretty much just plugged away at the wiring all day. The replacement stuff under the hood is all done. The Moroso power pass through connectors arrived, and I punched some holes in the firewall for them. After getting them, I really like them, and might get a couple more for the amp power cables. I also terminated the small gauge wires going through the firewall. Here it is from the inside:










Next up I terminated the underhood relay/fuse box. It has relays for the 2-speed electric fan, high beams and starter solenoid. Here it is in place with all the underhood wires in place, except main power cable:










You can see that I also moved the oil catch can, I mounted it with a couple 1/4-20 rivnuts, tomorrow I'll get some black hose for it. The wire stuffed into the vent hole will run to the engine, it's power for the coil and the turn on wire for the alternator.

I ran the wiring to the front clip and terminated it. there are brand new connectors for every light, all I have to do is move the bulbs over when I'm ready to switch over to the new harness. It's incredible just how simple the new engine bay chassis harness is, it's just headlights, high beams, parking lights, turn signals, fan, and starter. The factory harness does less than that but is SOOOOOO much more complex.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Tonight I wired up the relay box that goes in the dash. I just have to mount it and add the trigger wires tomorrow.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I didn't get much done today, I got called into work for half the day, might get called in tomorrow too. If I don;t get called into work tomorrow, then I should be able to apply power to the new harness and test some of the circuits. I got the in-dash relay bank wired up. The main harness on the firewall is getting beefier. Tomorrow I should have the door locks and windows wired up. 

I didn't take any pictures today, but I will tomorrow.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Remember this 7-micro relay box:










Yeah, it's a pice of ****. The connectors that come with it are ****ty too. I spent hours fighting it today. Right now everything is working, but if I have anymore problems, then I'll just pony up and buy the American Autowire severe duty relay box and call it good.

510599 Severe Duty Relay Panel | American Autowire

I've been totally happy with their fuse box/kit so far so dropping the coin for the relay kit wouldn't bother me too much.

In between battles with the relay panel, I made progress in other areas. It rained most of the day, so I was a bit limited in what I could do. I was able to apply power to the new wiring harness and test some circuits. I got the door locks and windows working as well as the new dash lights, radio and headlights. 

The pictures are kind crappy because I didn't give the camera enough time to acclimate to the absurd humidity. This is the electronics rack:










Yes, I'm using all 10 ports on the USB hub. There is the APL1, TwK, Holley EFI and power for the TOSLINK switcher. The other 6 ports have USB Y-cables plugged into them, the kind used to grab extra power for a nearby port. One cable will power my phone, and the other two will go to the dash ports.

Here is the drivers side dash:










There are two bundles of wires waiting to be hooked up. One is for the ignition switch, and the other is for the gauges and turn/hi bean indicator lights.

Here is under the right side of the dash:










The big bundle on the right is what goes to the rear of the car, including USB cables and fiber run. That big ass bundle of wires on the floor is the factory harness that will end up in the trash soon enough. The two back bundles are the EFI and I'll transfer them to the pass through bulkheads after I get the rest of the new harness fully functional. After I get the rear lights wired(tomorrow?) up I can transfer over the ignition, crake switch, turn switch and hazard switch.

There are a bazillion zip ties all over the new harness. As I add wires, I just add more zip ties. on occasion I'll go back and remove the extras. Once I'm done adding wires and changing things I'll go back and add some protective covering, cloth tape and whatnot.

Hopefully tomorrow I can report that it's all running on the new harness and I can FINALLY rip out the factory harness.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Keep PLUGGING away man!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I love a good pun, even a bad one too!

Today I did the hard part, the steering column:










I got everything transferred over to the new harness and removed the bulk of the old harness. At the moment it doesn't run, I have a small list of things to don in the morning:

• Connect new ignition coil wire
• Connect alternator ignition wire
• Run constant and ignition wires to turn/hazard switch
• Connect new low current starter wire
• Replace park/turn light bulbs
• Connect ECU ignition wire
• Wire up the wipers

It was fun ripping out the factory harness, and the interior looks MUCH cleaner now. It was too dark for pictures when I got done, but I'll have some tomorrow.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Here it is today:



















It looks so much better with the factory harness gone. Now I just need to tidy things up, add the wipers back and a few other touch up things. I leave for a few weeks on Monday, so I'll transfer the EFI harness to the bulkhead connectors when I get back.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

After getting everything on my list but the wipers done today, I did a full test of the lights. All the lights worked, the parking lights parked, the hazards hazardededed, but the turn signals didn't turn. After doing a bunch of testing, I came to the conclusion that it was just an issue with integrating the aftermarket harness with the stock Ford multi switch.

The problem is that every aftermarket wiring harness is built for a GM steering column and multi-switch. There must be a slight difference between the older Ford and older GM multi-switch setups. I eventually just wound up just pulling the flasher from the old fuse box and just added it inline to the main power line for the multi-switch.

Now the parking lights park, the hazards hazard, and the turn signals turn.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I’m still on the road for another week, but I’m in the great part of my gigs, where everything is running and I just have to respond to problems. Most of my days are spent sitting in a trailer surfing the net with a walkie that squats on occasion. This is when I get most of my research done.

One thing I want to add is cruise control, so I looked into that. It looks like the Rostra universal unit is the way to go. However, I need some sort of a vehicle speed sense(VSS) wire for it to work, and Ol Smokey never came with one. 

After some digging, I found that ’87-’92 Broncos came with a VSS unit that is crazy easy to install. You just pop out the speedo cable, remove the gear from the cable, put it on the VSS unit, pop it into the transfer case, then plug the cable into the VSS unit. Ad two wires and you are done! I went over to RockAuto and the sensor is pretty cheap, and they even stock the plug, awesome! So I ordered them.










Next I needed to figure out how to wire it up. After a bunch of digging and asking on three different forums I was able to get the info I need. One wire goes to ground, the other goes to the cruise control, dead simple. I figured that since I have extra inputs on my Holley ECU it’d be nice to be able to datalog the speed with all the other sensors, that’s when I ran into more problems…

It turns out, the Ford sensor is a Variable Magnetic Reluctance sensor, and my EFI ECU isn’t compatible with it, only Hall Effect sensors. Back to square one! After some more digging I found that Auto Meter requires a Hall Effect sensor for their cable free speedometers, and they make one for Fords. It’s about three times more expensive than the Ford sensor, but it should work great,I ordered it. It even comes with a plug for deleting the factory speedo cable.










All of that took almost two days of research to figure out.

Next up is the wipers. When I removed the factory wiring harness I also removed the wiper wiring. It turns out that a wiper system isn’t so simple. The motor has five wires coming out of it:

12v
Ground
Park
Low Speed
High Speed

The park wire is essentially an ignition wire and keeps the motor going after you turn off the wipers until it is “parked” that’s why your wipers stop in the middle of the window if you turn the key off before the wipers stop. So now that I know whats going on at the motor, I can think about switches.

I definitely want the intermittent feature, and I don’t want to build a timer circuit myself. So I started looking at the Hat Rod market to see if they have a solution for this. Nothing. I kept digging and digging with no luck. I’ve come to the conclusion that they either adapt a factory system from another car, or just suck it up and do the intermittent thing manually. I’m not that barbaric! 

I did eventually stumble across Littlefuse, turns out they make wiper switches for semi trucks. I downloaded the design drawings and was able to find that switch number 75600-4 looks perfect for my needs. It’s a solid state switch that includes the timer circuit all in one handy body with a pigtail that I can put my own Weather Pack connector on. It also has the push to wash feature. Because they are a large quantity supplier you can’t order just one from their website, but I was able to find one on Amazon.










Next up is gauges, at the moment I have NONE!

I really wanted to run a set of SpeedHut gauges made to fit my needs, but there is no way of getting an Air/Fuel ratio output from the ECU so that the gauge would read what the ECU reads, I’d have to install a second sensor. However, I did find that Holley is now making gauges that plug into the CAN Bus from the ECU making wiring them a snap!

So I’m starting with the ECU to gauge adaptor, power fanout cable for eight gauges, and one single water temp gauge, since it recently overheated. I’ll slowly add gauges as time and money allows. The nice thing about their system is that adding a gauge is as simple as drilling a new hole in the dash, setting the gauge in place, plugging the gauge into the power cable, and adding a 3.5mm stereo cable jumper to the existing gauges. The two exceptions are the speedometer(GPS Sensor) and fuel level.

Here is what they look like:










With measurements from this gauge I’ll be able to start designing the final gauge panel, I have a fun idea for that.

When I get home in a week I’ll have plenty to do on Ol Smokey for the 7-8 days that I’m there and will have many more pictures coming!


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Not that its all that important but my step dad used to be in the business. He had an old bronco that was raised, on 38s, built for crawlin...with a wall of 10s in the back. I need to find some pics of him and post it


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Jscoyne2 said:


> Not that its all that important but my step dad used to be in the business. He had an old bronco that was raised, on 38s, built for crawlin...with a wall of 10s in the back. I need to find some pics of him and post it


By "the business" do you mean entertainment?


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## Onyx1136 (Mar 15, 2009)

LumbermanSVO said:


> By "the business" do you mean entertainment?


I thought when people said "in the business" they meant porn?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Onyx1136 said:


> I thought when people said "in the business" they meant porn?


Well, that IS entertainment...


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Car audio business

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Jscoyne2 said:


> Car audio business


Aye!

I'd still be in the car audio biz if customers weren't such a pain in the ass. But I wouldn't have landed this awesome job if I didn't leave the car audio biz, so there is that.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today had it's ups and downs. I didn't get anything done on Ol Smokey, and at the moment he is sitting at the shop. Remember that wheel problem I had a little while back after picking it up from the shop? Well, this happened today, only about 75 miles after picking it up from the shop.










I was approaching a VERY busy, and high speed, intersection at about 45mph when it came off. The car gods were smiling upon me though as the intersection just happened to be empty when I went through. The wheel hit a tree in someones front yard and immediately came to a rest. Luckily it didn't hit any cars or cause any property damage. Thanks to my million+ mile driving career I didn't panic when the wheel came off. I just said "God Dammit" out load and watched the wheel and pulled off the road when it stopped.

I immediately called the shop and had a stupid conversation with them. I explained who I was any why I was calling. They told me to bring the car to them, I explained that I can't drive it with only three wheels. Then it went something like this:

Shop: We can't fix it without seeing it
Me: No, but you can have it towed to you
Shop: Go ahead and have it towed to us, and we can pay you back for the tow.
Me: How about you just send a tow truck over?
Shop: We don't know where you are.
Me: Good luck, I just happen to be in the phone with you and can tell you where I am!

From there they took my location and sent a tow truck to pick me and Ol Smokey up.

I don't know what the problem is, and they don't know either, but it is definitely is up there in the "Severe" side of the severity scale. Perhaps they didn't seat the studs properly when transferring them over to the new rotors? Maybe the lugnuts were damaged in the original loose wheel incident?

The bummer is, I was at the office working on a project for the Ryder Cup. I had just run home real quick to grab my iPad and a dongle to so I could test something out. I had this setup in the office:










Hidden in there is the absurdly expensive Ascender 48:










I'll have three of these setup and will be running 10 video screens with them. After leaving the office I had to stop by the local Best Buy and buy two more iPads to get this working the way I want. When I said it'd be cheaper to do it a different way, but it'd be slightly slower, the guy who put me on this project said, "I don't care what it costs, I just want it to work." I love those words. I fly to Ryder Cup on Saturday and will have more pics from there when I get the chance to post.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

Time to find a new shop. You could have been killed.....and the shop doesn't seem to understand the severity of what just happened.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Honestly, at this point, I'm tempted to have a lawyer handle the interactions between myself and the shop, just so they know how serious I am. They did say they might just send it to the local tire shop and have them figure out whats going on.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

I wouldn't blame you. I'd be PISSED to start with. But then them making light of it? ....oh boy....


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Geesh . That sounds like a crappy day. I hate gettin towed and having down time


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## cmusic (Nov 16, 2006)

Ryder Cup... Golf is my 2nd big obsessive hobby with car audio. Do you work for NBC in video production? 

Shame that the wheel fell off. But I know two people that have had problems with their vehicles breaking down just after leaving the mechanic's shop and tried to sue over the damages. I also knew a car stereo shop owner that has been sued over various things that were never related to the work that was performed in his install bays. Unless you can 100% prove that the mechanic's shop was at fault for the wheel falling off, most lawyers won't take the case. Since you drove the Bronco for about 75 miles after picking it up, unless there was a warranty on the parts and labor with stated mileage and time limits, it will be difficult to prove it was completely the shop's fault in court. However a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit might help in getting the shop to repair your Bronco.


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## jbeez (Aug 20, 2013)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Honestly, at this point, I'm tempted to have a lawyer handle the interactions between myself and the shop, just so they know how serious I am. They did say they might just send it to the local tire shop and have them figure out whats going on.


Some shops have insurance for this stuff that only kicks in if they get sued then they just pay right away

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

cmusic said:


> Shame that the wheel fell off. But I know two people that have had problems with their vehicles breaking down just after leaving the mechanic's shop and tried to sue over the damages. I also knew a car stereo shop owner that has been sued over various things that were never related to the work that was performed in his install bays. Unless you can 100% prove that the mechanic's shop was at fault for the wheel falling off, most lawyers won't take the case. Since you drove the Bronco for about 75 miles after picking it up, unless there was a warranty on the parts and labor with stated mileage and time limits, it will be difficult to prove it was completely the shop's fault in court. However a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit might help in getting the shop to repair your Bronco.





jbeez said:


> Some shops have insurance for this stuff that only kicks in if they get sued then they just pay right away.


I'm definitely not the kind of person who is eager to jump of hire a lawyer train. But I'm thinking it may be a good idea just to cover my rear.

The first time I had a problem I didn't even make it home(4.6 miles) before there was an issue. The wheel was damaged enough that it had to be replaced, I'm wondering if the lugnuts should have been replaced too.



cmusic said:


> Ryder Cup... Golf is my 2nd big obsessive hobby with car audio. Do you work for NBC in video production?


No, not TV. I build jumbotrons, and we will have 10 at the Ryder Cup. I'll be running the content as well.

My "normal" job is working in the LPGA tour. I build jumbotrons on that tour too, and also work very closely with the company that does the scoring. There are two trucks that leapfrog each other around the country and I drive one of the trucks and run it's shows. I also manage the other truck. When I'm not busy on the ladies tour I help out on any other golf shows we have going on.


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## jbeez (Aug 20, 2013)

Please take a quick look at this vid, https://youtu.be/SYbIr-oeIQQ?t=12m25s It's a lawyer speaking about what to do when the shop damages your car. You could probably even call his office and ask him for advice, he recommends that kind of thing in some of his other videos so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind. This video is about cars being damaged while its in the shops possession, so a little different but I'm pretty sure he has a video talking about a tire falling off but he has so many I can't find it right now hah.

I think this is the video I was thinking of, where ppl leave the shop and damage occurs afterwards: https://youtu.be/LDis9cLBiD4


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## ugnlol (Apr 14, 2010)

Very cool project!
Good luck with the car.. hope things work out with that shop.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

jbeez said:


> Please take a quick look at this vid, https://youtu.be/SYbIr-oeIQQ?t=12m25s It's a lawyer speaking about what to do when the shop damages your car. You could probably even call his office and ask him for advice, he recommends that kind of thing in some of his other videos so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind. This video is about cars being damaged while its in the shops possession, so a little different but I'm pretty sure he has a video talking about a tire falling off but he has so many I can't find it right now hah.
> 
> I think this is the video I was thinking of, where ppl leave the shop and damage occurs afterwards: https://youtu.be/LDis9cLBiD4


I started listening to his podcast about six months ago, lots of neat info.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

On Wednesday I got back from my 19 day trip to the Ryder Cup and I’m just now starting to feel normal again after working 10-16 hours every day.

We had 16 HD-SDI inputs coming in from a production truck we’d hired. On top of that we had a couple more inputs from our office trailer. To handle distribution we used a Blackmagic Design Smart Videohub 40x40. When it was all said and done, we only had 3 empty outputs left on the 40x40. The beauty of the 40x40 is that any of the 40 outputs can grab signal from any of the 40 inputs.

From there signal went into three Ascender 48’s, two of those were linked together. Our production truck lives in a 16:9 world, but only two of our screens were actually 16:9. So with the Ascenders I was able to add content to the "unused" parts of the screens.










Six of the screens could be seen by the golfers while playing, so they had to have still content when in sight. The problem is, I couldn’t see the screens from where I was working from and wouldn’t know when they needed to be switched to still content. So to solve this we came up with a brilliant little system.

We had a volunteer stand at each screen and watch the round, and GREAT deal for them. At each screen we had two media players each looping a video, one of a stop signal, and one of a go signal. They were both plugged into an HDMI switch and then fed back to the NeXtage video switcher in my office. But that’s where things get complicated.

The idea is to gather those video feeds, lay them out int he order I needed, then feed them into the Ascenders so they could be placed next to their screens on my monitors for easy identification. The problem is, the NeXtage only had two outputs, and only four layers per output, each input takes up a layer. One of the Ascenders needed five of these signals, and we needed to send this info over to the production truck.

So to solve this problem I was able to take the layers from output 2 and reassign them to output 1, this completely disables output 2. From there I send output 1 to the 40x40 and into each Ascender setup. I was then able to crop them to fit my needs on on the Ascenders. From there I was able to send the monitor output of the NeXtage over to the production truck so they could easily see the red/green signals.



















To make all this work, we sent signal to and from the course over fiber. Between video going out, coming in, internet, and coms, we used around 50 fiber runs out of our available 72. After all those cables, media converters, power supplies and whatnot, you end up with quite the rats nest in the corner.




























And I controlled this all from two laptops and two iPads. The iPads were setup to quickly pull up presets to change inputs. The laptops were used to make more complex changes whenever needed. 














































——————————

Now in to the Bronco, on Thursday i called the shop and they still didn’t have it back together, WTF? Surely it takes less than 20 days to replaced a damaged brake rotor, wheel, missing lug nuts and bolt it all together. But no, these asshats hadn’t done it yet. They told me that Friday they’d send it to the local Discount Tire to have them mount and balance the tire on the new wheel, and do the final assembly.

So Friday afternoon I hadn’t heard anything from them, so I went down to Discount Tire, the Bronco wasn’t there. I spoke to the guy who had checked in my Bronco earlier that day, and he told me he rejected it because the studs were cross threaded. So that answers the question about how this all happened in the first place.

I then explained the entire series of events to the Discount Tire guy and as I went on the look on his face grew more concerned. He assured me that when he gets it back with good studs, he’ll give everything a good look over and make sure it’s safe for the road.

On Saturday I called the original shop and asked them why I hadn’t heard anything from them yet. He said Discount was too busy on Friday and wasn’t able to send it over, I didn’t tell him that I saw the paperwork in person at Discount. He said it’d be done by the end of the day. I haven’t heard anything from them yet.

Once I finally get it back, and the wheels stay on, I’ll be writing some pretty detailed reviews on Yelp, FB and other sites…


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

You have a cool job . ( that look like fun )


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Yeah he does! Too bad about the poor shop service. That's why I work on my own vehicles.


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## funkalicious (Oct 8, 2007)

After seeing the wiring and equipment layout in post #122 I can see why rewiring a vehicle wouldn't intimidate you in the least. You DO have a very cool job.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks guys, my job is a ton of fun, also hard work, and sometimes quite dangerous. For instance, I stood on top of this structure and used rope to lift 40lb LED panels into place. At the same time I had a rigger hanging from the inside of the structure who would guide them into place and lock them together.










Here I am programming it, this particular one fought me every step of the way.










Here it is finished and with a test signal from my ops desk.










And to give you a sense of scale, this is the same screen during the tournament.










In total I lifted about 300 panels into place over 3 days. In total we had a little over 700 panels on site. On the load out, I lowered two or three to the ground at a time, I did that with 5-1/2 screens. We were able to get everything off the course and loaded in the trucks in two days, but it took us a solid week to build it.

——————————

I picked up Ol Smokey today, the shop said they hope it's finally figured out and they still don't know what caused the wheel to come off. Pretty dumb IMO. If I knew nothing about cars, and hadn't talked to the guy at Discount, I wouldn't have any faith in the repair.

What they should have said was, "We found cross threaded studs, they were probably damaged when the wheel originally loosened up. We replaced the studs and wheel."

Oh well, I'll keep an eye on it and hope everything goes well. If it stays together for through the week then I'll write up a pretty detailed review on Yelp and FB. In the meantime, I have a little over a week to work on installing stuff I have laying around!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I had one of those days where I dug out various parts and mocked them up, but didn't turn a single bolt or do any actual work. I did buy the parts I'll need to mount the new radiator fan. Getting rid of the mechanical fan and install the new pulleys. The new pulleys will allow me to double the number of alternator belts and should fix the issue where I wear out a belt every 200 miles or so. It turns out, a 130 amp alternator is too much for a single V-belt.

If this doesn't work, then I'm stuck going to the factory serpentine belt setup. I don't want to do that because it requires replacing all the brackets, pulling the water pump and front cover and replacing almost all of it, including the power steering pump. That's a lot of work for very little gain.



funkalicious said:


> After seeing the wiring and equipment layout in post #122 I can see why rewiring a vehicle wouldn't intimidate you in the least. You DO have a very cool job.


Actually, I was doing crazy stuff with cars long before I got into the entertainment biz. Pulling off crazy ass shows helps with the confidence, but isn't what got me to jump into big projects.

In late 2002 I was dead broke, working at a Burger King and a plumbing company, and was driving an abused 1985 Mustang SVO(see user name). I had just spent a year working at Car Toys and was fired for accidentally drilling through and brake line while drilling through a firewall for a 4 gauge wire run, it was my first job in the car audio industry. Life sucked.

One night I was sitting at home, a loft at the plumbing company. I was talking to a friend who was a few years older than me and had only had one job in his life, that he got fired from in less than six months. He was living in his parents basement. I suddenly asked myself, "Who am I surrounding myself with?"

I reached down, turned off my computer, and started packing my car. Anything that didn't fit went in the dumpster. I drove from Seattle to Florida, where I had absolutely zero ties or contacts. Ten days later I was working at a stereo shop again and was well on my way to a VERY fun 14 months in Florida before returning to Seattle. I had absolutely zero help from anyone I knew, my family didn't even know where I went for six months.

That experience taught me that I can do anything I want. It also taught me to just jump in and do it, wether I knew what I was doing or not. Seriously, I don't know a single successful person who didn't incorporate at least some "fake it 'til you make it" and I still do that today. 

So when I start in on project like this, I think about it a LOT. I work through as many things as I can in my head until I hit a mental block, then I start buying parts. With parts in my hands I'm able to work through more stuff in my head. Then it's time to start installing stuff.

Seriously, that Nike slogan isn't wrong, Just Do it! As this article explains, you have to make a decision to do it, even if the first impulse is a bad one.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I woke up way late and didn't feel like doing much, but I knew I had to do something just to start building some momentum. I started by making a to do list, that's scary!

Wire Reverse Lights
Add Tilt Sensor and Wiring
Wire Bed Lights
Wire Dome Light
Install Alarm
Pull Dash for paint
Move EFI wire harness (started this today)
Mount fan
Swap pulleys
Add gauge wiring 
Add gauge(s)
Fuel level wiring
Add Power bulkheads
Brace center of dash
Remove parking brake pedal
Add electric parking brake
Wiper switch and wiring 
New hood
Paint battery tray
Mount battery tray
Replace starter wires
Add starter switch under hood
Move fuel lines
Patch firewall holes
Add Cruise control
Add heater
Add Oil pressure sensor
replace and wire door switches
Wire Front corner lights
Add Speed sensor
Sound dampen dash.

That's what I need to do to make this a fully functional daily driver. After all that's done I can start making the dash look good. I just now(as in, while I was typing this post) thought of an idea for the midbass drivers, it's Patrick Bateman kinda crazy, so I gotta think it through a bunch more. 

After making my list, I started in on the wiring some more. I started moving the EFI harness to the WeatherPack bulkheads. I decided that I wanted to split the wiring up so that any chassis wiring is on one bulkhead under the hood, and the other is for the engine harness only. I had to order a third bulkhead, it'll be here Monday.

This is where I stopped today:



















The wires that are twisted together need to be soldered together. There is one under the hood that needs to be grounded. The main EFI power wires will get moved from the battery to the inside of the power/ground bulkheads. 

I need to find a weatherproof momentary switch for under the hood for the starter. Once I find one then I'll remove that bulky factory starter relay. Anyone who works on their own cars knows how handy it is to be able to bump the engine over from under the hood. If I can't find something I like, then I'll leave a plug sticking out from the harness so I can plug a pigtail with switch into when needed.

Here is a picture of everything I removed today:


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Yikes. Just yikes

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Jscoyne2 said:


> Yikes. Just yikes


Thinking like that will only hold you back! 

I'm doing it one wire at a time. It's the best way to keep from making mistakes. I'll likely finish up the EFI wiring tomorrow. Overall, I'm taking about a foot of length out of the harness as I go.


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## funkalicious (Oct 8, 2007)

What brand of electric parking brake are you going to use? Care to share what you're considering for your midbass solution?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I have this bookmarked in Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QL3JKK...TF8&colid=2LXQM3RXPJU6B&coliid=I1Z5DPFZW6N49Q

It's crazy expensive, but really only about twice as expensive as piecing a manual floor mount together from Lokar. It has nothing but positive reviews from hotrodders. I could piece together something cheaper from the junkyards, but I hate taking my tools to junkyards. I also almost always prefer to buy brand new parts, especially with safety equipment. By removing the factory pedal I'll be able to move the horns about 6 more inches out to the sides without cutting metal. 

I could get another 4 or so if I cut metal, but then I'd also lose one of my favorite features of the 80-86 Ford trucks, the kick panel vents. For those who are unfamiliar, they are vents that manually slide open and allow for fresh air to come in from the cowl. If you live the flip flop lifestyle like I do, then this feature is amazing in the summer! Keeping these vents is part of my midbass idea too.

Almost anything bigger than a 6" midbass in the kicks will require eliminating these vents. However, I could probably fit up to a 10 in the dash if mounted it just above the horns facing up, then had a slot for them to vent through the front of the dash. I could probably get away with having them vent through the firewall for IB too.

That's not a good explanation, I'll draw it out later...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

So here's the basics of my midbass idea. Thoughts?

Side View:









Interior View:


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

You mean some sort of tapped horn midbass?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Not really, just firing up. The upper section of the dash would be sealed off so all the sound is forced out towards the cabin. The opening between the speaker and the dash would only look like it goes across the whole dash, but it can't because the HVAC unit takes up too much space in the center of the dash.

It's not too unlike the setups where people have their midbass downfiring under the seat. It's just upfiring in the dash instead.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I finished up the EFI harness. There are three pins in the chassis connector, when the new bulkhead shows up on Monday I'll install it and move those three wires over. As I have to add more engine wires I'll have plenty of open pins. I do need to add one for the oil pressure sensor I already have.

It looks MUCH better today than it did yesterday.



















I can't wait til I'm done adding wires so I can properly wrap the harnesses.



















It worked flawlessly right away. One problem with aftermarket gauges, and gauges from the mid-90's and earlier, is that they are really dim. Not this! It's quite bright even in the sun. The brightness is adjustable when the dash lights are on, and when they are off.

This isn't the final look of the gauge panel, I have a neat idea for that.


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## Lou Frasier2 (Jul 17, 2012)

hey john,next time you get out this way let me know i will buy you dinner this time instead of lunch


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Will do dude!


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Not really, just firing up. The upper section of the dash would be sealed off so all the sound is forced out towards the cabin. The opening between the speaker and the dash would only look like it goes across the whole dash, but it can't because the HVAC unit takes up too much space in the center of the dash.
> 
> It's not too unlike the setups where people have their midbass downfiring under the seat. It's just upfiring in the dash instead.


I see, maybe some common points with what obaeieo is doing then.
No worry that the midbass might shake the hell out of the dash frame?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

At the moment I'm not too concerned about the shaking, you'd be surprised at how solid the dash frame is right now. After laying on my back I can lift myself back up from the frame, and I'm 200lbs. Banging on the frame with my fist doesn't reveal ay rattles yet.

Right now I have two concerns that I need to work through in my head before going through with this plan. The first is designing a bottom panel for the bottom of the upper dash to keep the midbass from getting into the upper dash. 

The second is the steering column. In the current design in my head, the steering column would significantly limit the output of the left driver to the right side of the cabin.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Elgrosso said:


> I see, maybe some common points with what obaeieo is doing then.


After reading his thread, yes!

One common complaint from big midbass drivers in the kicks or door is tactile feel giving away the speaker location. If I can figure out the kinks in my upfiring idea, then I can completely avoid that.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Today I started the electric fan and pulley swap. I started expecting to not finish today, and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was able to wrap it up. 

To start, I yanked the mechanical fan and shroud. It actually came out pretty quickly and easily. It was nice to see how much room was available after removing it all.










Next up was installing the new pulleys. I intended to order black ones, but when I was on the phone I just forgot about it.










Because the pulleys aren't the stock size, I had to measure for the new belt size. I have a bunch of these cheap plastic tape measures that work great for a task like this.










Next up was mounting the new fan. It's a new fan meant for a late 90's T-Bird/Mark VIII. The metal strap will become my mounting hardware.










I bolted the bottom of the strap to the bottom of the core support using a Rivnut. Working around the sta-bar was a bit of a PITA.










I ran the strap up past a bolt hole in the fan shroud, bolted them together, then used a Rivnut to mount it at the top of the radiator. I then used a Sawsall to trim the strap to match the radiator.










I did the same on the other side, then plugged it in.










When I rewired the vehicle I went ahead and wired up the fan so the the pigtail was just sitting there waiting for me. The more you think through that stuff the easier life is later on 

Then I walked to the parts store and bought my new belts.

After installing the belts I plugged my laptop into the dash, fired up the EFI, turned on the fan outputs, set the parameters and saved it. I fired up Ol Smokey and watched as the engine temperature slowly climbed. The thermostat is fully open at 196ºF where the temps stabilized for a couple minutes, then started climbing again. Right at 200ºF the fan came on and the temp stabilized then started dropping, at 195ºF the fan turned off, just as planned. It's programmed so that at 205ºF the fan will go into high speed mode until it drops back to 205ºF.

With the fan on, the voltage stayed steady at 14.4 volts, and was no squealing from trying to run a 130 amp alternator from a single v-belt. Hopefully it'll stay that way. Not only was I able to add the second belt, but I was able to route it differently so there is more wrap on both the alternator and crank. With the factory setup I had to wrap the belt around the water pump pulley, but that's not required with the new setup.

A new toy arrived for my home today and now it's time to install it:


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

On Wednesday I got back from a small tournament. We used a product I rarely ever use, our carbon fiber LED panels. Here is a time lapse of the screen build:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avnxIUJuLTs&spf

That whole screen ended up weighing 200lbs. While away I ordered some gear to make my job easier when working with our heavier LED panels:










Any climbers will already be familiar with this gear. The two pulleys on the left are pretty basic and the side plates open up for easy assembly of the system. The two on the right are progress capture pulleys, so you can lift your object, then let go of the rope without the object crashing to the ground. The progress capture can also be turned off so they can be used as regular pulleys. 

The best part is the mechanical advantage I gain with these. At Ryder we lifted panels into place with rope, but when I didn't have access to a pulley, we just running a rope over a scaff ledger and it resulted in a single 40lb panel requiring two people to lift into place. But with these parts I can get a 4:1 mechanical advantage, one guy should be able to easily lift 4 panels at once, greatly speeding up the build.

2:1 Mechanical Advantage:









3:1 Mechanical Advantage:









4:1 Mechanical Advantage:









Work also gave me a very nice harness yesterday, so now I need to go buy accessories for it. Mostly things that'll make it more comfortable and make positioning myself while hanging much easier.

I leave for my next tournament on Monday where I'll get to use this gear. After that, I don't have any tournaments on the books until January.

As for Ol Smokey, tomorrow I plan to get the wipers wired up and working. It sucked driving home in the rain yesterday!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

The problem I had was I was using a terribly small driver asking gobs of 50hz output from it . Having a midbass inside the dash actually worked very good up to about 250hz that's where my mid took over and it worked good. If I could get 8s or 10s inside the dash i would have kept it. Playing with crossovers it didn't matter up to about 400hz past that you Ned to be in the radiation parrtern with nothing blocking the sound. And that's being picky it probably would have worked to 800hz if I played with it a bit longer. I had a 78db dynaudio esoter 6.5 in a pvc tube stuffed with foam. Vb around .5ft3, had all the right things except a tiny cone driver trying to keep up with 100db efficiency drivers. 

Can you draw a better pic of what u mean I can't make that pic put very well. But if you talking about sticking a box next to the horn it will be the schiznit for sure. 

I have come to a BIG conclusion about getting good sound in a car. And it requires a few things to be met. 

1. All drivers need to be close to each other

2. Any TA used needs to be symmetrical across drivers in midrange midbass 

3. #2 will only be possible when #1 is achieved 


It really truly doesn't matter where a midbass is placed - it just doesn't but where the midbass meets the mid does make it make a difference. Tape measure TA works good but its more important for two speakers that are interacting at crossover to not have time differences between the blending. So if one of the speakers is 6" farther way than the other on that side just go with the TA value of the closest one on both. It just sounds better and it's better alignment that trying to get a TA setup to match actual distance. 
How waves combine is the single most important thing to make a system have a very good outcome at the end of the build and tuning .


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I'm home! And I don't have any work scheduled for over a month!

More on my midbass idea:










Picture it something like that box on each side. The top piece would be the bottom of the current dash frame and go all the way to the firewall. There would only be one side open on the front side of the midbass drivers. The idea being to deflect as much sound as possible towards the listeners.

I've thought a lot about the steering column possibly blocking the left midbass from the passenger seat, but I'm not building a two seat car, so it doesn't bother me so much.

As far as TA goes, before removing a bunch of stuff I had spent some time with APL TDA and got everything VERY close, and it sounded great. Using TDA on the horns and mids for just the drivers seat resulted in a phenomenally coherent stage.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

LumbermanSVO said:


> I'm home! And I don't have any work scheduled for over a month!
> 
> More on my midbass idea:
> 
> ...


Cool so we should get some fresh news during a month!
You don’t mind losing a bit of width with these mount/boxes?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I'm not too concerned about the width, how much does the midbass region effect the width? say 50-300.

My other options are more traditional, the kicks or the doors. I don't really like either option.


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

LumbermanSVO said:


> More on my midbass idea:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Maybe I'm not visualizing it properly, but with only one side open to air, isn't that more of a bandpass enclosure design? Or is that one side opening enormous?


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## SQram (Aug 17, 2007)

LumbermanSVO said:


> I have this bookmarked in Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QL3JKK...TF8&colid=2LXQM3RXPJU6B&coliid=I1Z5DPFZW6N49Q
> 
> It's crazy expensive, but really only about twice as expensive as piecing a manual floor mount together from Lokar. It has nothing but positive reviews from hotrodders. I could piece together something cheaper from the junkyards, but I hate taking my tools to junkyards. I also almost always prefer to buy brand new parts, especially with safety equipment. By removing the factory pedal I'll be able to move the horns about 6 more inches out to the sides without cutting metal.


I have the E-stopp mounted on my truck, works pretty good. My only complaint is I can't set the brake while the truck is running, but that's just a simple wiring change.




LumbermanSVO said:


> That whole screen ended up weighing 200lbs. While away I ordered some gear to make my job easier when working with our heavier LED panels:


Curious where you got the pulley kit from, was it online or from a local shop? I could put it to really good use...


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

firebirdude said:


> Maybe I'm not visualizing it properly, but with only one side open to air, isn't that more of a bandpass enclosure design? Or is that one side opening enormous?


I'm just gonna go with instinct and make it as big as practical.



SQram said:


> Curious where you got the pulley kit from, was it online or from a local shop? I could put it to really good use...


I ordered the pieces individually from Amazon, with the rope I spent about $600. It's tough to find info about climbing gear in my industry, but every rigger I spoke to said Petzl was good stuff.

At the last show I not only used it to build a screen with my crew, but I was able to take that screen down completely by myself using just this climbing gear, some pipes and cheeseboroughs. The progress capture function was a real life saver.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I haven't done much yet, mostly just stuff around the house. Today I pulled the subs from Ol Smokey because my HS24MkII's shipped and will be delivered to my work, I'm gonna need the room to get them home next week. 

I did install the new speedometer today, it's a Holley GPS unit.










I pulled the temporary dash panel to install it:










Installed:



















Back in Ol Smokey:










I went for a quick drive and it worked well, even at low speeds.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Lookin nice. Love the powder coating. Clean .


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Thanks, but nothing is powder coated.  The temporary gauge panel is just your ordinary ABS plastic, I bet you have some in your shop, I know there was some in the shop when I worked at CT.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Thanks, but nothing is powder coated.  The temporary gauge panel is just your ordinary ABS plastic, I bet you have some in your shop, I know there was some in the shop when I worked at CT.


Oh snap, !

Okay pic looks deceiving.
For some reason I thought u did metal work on the panels . 

And yes more abs than I care for lol


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The ABS is temporary just to hold things in place and work out ideas until I'm ready to get the real deal made from Front Panel Express. The final panel will have the same finish as the piece I had made for the factory dash and eventually tossed:










I do have an idea that I think will look great and really add some depth to the piece, but that'll stay in my head for awhile.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Okay that is Nice! 

Dang custom made panels ....very sweet indeed


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> The ABS is temporary just to hold things in place and work out ideas until I'm ready to get the real deal made from Front Panel Express. The final panel will have the same finish as the piece I had made for the factory dash and eventually tossed:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Love the door lock pic!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

You ever have that moment when you realized you just did some looney?

Yeah, my 24's arrived today. No pictures can prepare you for just how big these are. They are just simply massive.

This dude opening the box is 6' 3" tall:









They just barely fit in Ol Smokey:









It took a bunch of work, but I was able to unload them from Ol Smokey, get them inside, and up a flight of stairs by myself. Opening the first:









They make the ID Max 12's looks like little toys:









All my HT speakers:









That TM65 looks like a little trinket next to the 24


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Jesuz .... 

Are those going in the truck ? 

Or home theatre. Is that what HT meant


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

They are for the home theater. There is no way I could use them in the Bronco and keep any kind of usable cargo area. Once I start mocking up the cargo area I'll find out if I can use the WGTI15's or if I'll have to use the IDMax 12's instead.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

What kind of volume these guys need?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

They should be quite happy with about 10 cubes each, sealed. And that's why I can't use them in the car, lol.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

Ho you must have more than that behind, don't tell me you didn't think to just try


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Oh, I've thought about it! But keeping the rear seat and a useable cargo area would be a huge undertaking. Getting one to fit with the right box size AND useable cargo area would result in me easily having the most complex sub box on this site. 

I could go IB and fit both in the Bronco, but I suspect that wont work well at all with the soft top, and I'll never go back to a hardtop.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

Some sort of passive radiator with the soft top? (I wonder this myself in mine, I mean what's the effet. It probably eats some output, but it might also be leveraged?)

But yeah that would be crazy. Or ib in doors, motor out (welded doors of course)


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Fitting them in is a crazy idea that has taken up way too much of my mental time lately.










That's a 32" tall tire on a 17" wheel.

I guess I could go for the fake spare tire look and vent them out the floor pan.

I've even asked about IB with a topless car before: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/general-car-audio-discussion/167476-ib-topless-car.html

Stop, just stop. You are getting me to think about this more seriously. I don't need to be cramming 24's in the Bronco when I have a pair of fantastic 12's and glorious 15's collecting dust.

You are mad, just mad I tell you! :blush:


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

It's been too cold to do any work on Ol Smokey, so I haven't done anything since being home. While I generally like cold weather more than hot weather, it's just the opposite when wrenching. Nothing hurts quite like banging your knuckles when they are cold. Ouch! And with no heat, and a "breezy" interior, it's too cold to even go for a drive, especially at highway speeds. A working heater would be nice.

The one thing I don't have with Ol Smokey, and will never have, is the ability to toss it around a corner. It's an incredibly versatile and comfortable cruiser, but handles like an '80s truck. I genuinely love driving Ol Smokey in warmer weather, and most of that is due to the soft top. Before the soft top it was just another cheap car I owned.

Speaking of cheap cars, I haven't had a car payment in something like 16-17 years. I've been driving super cheap cars for the last 15 years or so. I bought them all for between $40 and $3000, most in the extreme lower end of that range. Knowing how to do just about anything to a car, and buying incredibly common cars, has lead to incredibly cheap car expenses over the years.

Over that time my income has gone up pretty steadily, and the desire to own a nicer car has been growing and growing, but I can't bring myself to buy something new. As someone who hates debt, and has been debt-free for about 15 years, the prices and depreciation on a new car has just been frightening. To add to that, most new cars are pretty uninspiring. Except one...

Enter, the MX-5/Miata. The simplicity and reliability of these cars has always had my attention, especially after selling my turbocharged Mustang about five years ago. I've kept an eye on the market for them, and scanned the forums on occasion. The desire to own one has been growing and growing, but at the price I like to pay for a car, it's nearly impossible to find a nice one. After looking over my year-end finances, and a bunch of meetings at work about next year, I decided it was time to take a leap.










It's a 2010 Sport(Limited slip rear) with just under 34,000 miles.

I haven't bought it yet, but I did pay for it to be transferred to my local CarMax dealer so I can take a look at it. It should take 7-14 days to arrive at my local dealer and I can make the decision then. I'm approved for their tier 1 financing and can easily pay it off in a year. If I buy it, and I probably will, I will not be selling Ol Smokey. I think both cars will compliment each other quite well.

All the plans for Ol Smokey will stay the same, except I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it drivable as I work. Also, if I buy it then paying it off will be my #1 financial goal, so a much smaller budget for toys. I can still get a lot of work done on Ol Smokey with the stockpile of parts I have, so work wont stop on it.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

Nice car, and real fun to drive! good complement, a sporty convertible and a 4x4!
(did you see their last hard top version? One of the few recent cars that catched my eyes)

But, you sure you'll resist to install something in this one?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Elgrosso said:


> Nice car, and real fun to drive! good complement, a sporty convertible and a 4x4!
> (did you see their last hard top version? One of the few recent cars that catched my eyes)


I'm not a fan of the new body style. I bet it's a better car overall, but man is it ugly! Also, after going with a thin canvas top in the Bronco for the last 3-1/2 years, I'm a HUGE fan of soft tops.



Elgrosso said:


> But, you sure you'll resist to install something in this one?


You'd be insane to think I haven't though about it. I have an unused 800PRS, horn bodies, amps, subs and other things sitting around. The biggest question is, how bad is the factory stereo, and how long can I put up with it. If I do anything, it'll be a basic install. No custom dashes or anything insane like that.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

LumbermanSVO said:


> I'm not a fan of the new body style. I bet it's a better car overall, but man is it ugly! Also, after going with a thin canvas top in the Bronco for the last 3-1/2 years, I'm a HUGE fan of soft tops.


I didn't see it real but it looks sharp I think, maybe the mouth a little too wide...




> You'd be insane to think I haven't though about it. I have an unused 800PRS, horn bodies, amps, subs and other things sitting around. The biggest question is, how bad is the factory stereo, and how long can I put up with it. If I do anything, it'll be a basic install. No custom dashes or anything insane like that.


Haaa yeah horny miata... or you could fit some little gb25 in thoses air vents 
I remember the one I tried being really tight inside.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Elgrosso said:


> I didn't see it real but it looks sharp I think, maybe the mouth a little too wide...


Those headlights though 



Elgrosso said:


> Haaa yeah horny miata... or you could fit some little gb25 in thoses air vents
> I remember the one I tried being really tight inside.


I did look up the GB60's on Crutchfield today. I'm curious how they compare in performance and price to the Illusion Carbon 8's, especially up to around 1600hz. I definitely won't be going 3-way. And I'll try to limit it as much as possible to "bolt-in" to keep the cost and time to a minimum. (<--- says the guy looking at GB and Illusion Carbon drivers  ) 

With the amps I have laying around I could easily power a set of horns, midbass drivers and subs. Really, all I'd need to buy is a set of midbass drivers and drivers for the horn bodies. Plus the little stuff, like wiring, that adds up.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Your now the third ford guy , well to even narrow it the third mustang guy I have now known about that has got a Miata , and somehow convinced yourself it's a ford.

Yeah ford mazda , we know all about that marriage but that is not no ford. That's jap jap Japanese.



Heck of a sweet ride tho


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

oabeieo said:


> Your now the third ford guy , well to even narrow it the third mustang guy I have now known about that has got a Miata , and somehow convinced yourself it's a ford.
> 
> Yeah ford mazda , we know all about that marriage but that is not no ford. That's jap jap Japanese.


Make no mistake, I know it's not a Ford, and this will be my first non-ford purchase ever. Here is my car history:

1. 1983 Ford Ranger 4x4
2. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
3. 2000 Ford Escort ZX2
4. 1965 Ford F-100
5. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
6. 1986 Ford F-250 4x4 Diesel
7. 1982 Ford E-100
8. 1987 Ford TurboCoupe
9. 1986 Ford Bronco

The engine in the 2005+ MX-5 was designed by Ford, Mazda and Cosworth, if I'm remembering correctly. It's a deep skirt aluminum block that weighs in at 200lbs and has incredible power potential. It's the base of the 2.3L EcoBoost engines. 

But the underpinnings are all Mazda, and that's where it really shines. Ford has a **** track record for building a fun 2 seater. Can you think of ONE Ford built 2 seater? maybe an RS200, but good lucking buyong one for under $130K. 



oabeieo said:


> Heck of a sweet ride tho


Thanks, I'm genuinely excited about it!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Enter, the MX-5/Miata. The simplicity and reliability of these cars has always had my attention, especially after selling my turbocharged Mustang about five years ago. I've kept an eye on the market for them, and scanned the forums on occasion. The desire to own one has been growing and growing, but at the price I like to pay for a car, it's nearly impossible to find a nice one. After looking over my year-end finances, and a bunch of meetings at work about next year, I decided it was time to take a leap.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice car! I see a ton of them at High Performance Driving Events at Indy and Mid-Ohio.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Make no mistake, I know it's not a Ford, and this will be my first non-ford purchase ever. Here is my car history:
> 
> 1. 1983 Ford Ranger 4x4
> 2. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
> ...


Nice list! 

I've never had a car payment or new car either.

1981 Honda Civic Sedan = free.
1983 Mercury Grand Marquis = $650 cash.
1996 Ford Ranger SuperCab V6 = $2300 cash.
2001 Volvo S60 = $5400 cash & still have.
2001 F150 SuperCrew = $4750 cash & still have.
2000 Toyota Solara SEV6 = free and still have.

The MGM has been the best buy tho'. I had it from 1995-2002. It blew a head gasket and I donated the car to Volunteers Of America. They gave me a tax write off slip for $675! I should have kept that car and put a GT motor in it. I had 4 MTX Road Thunder Two 15's in an isobaric BP4 in the trunk with an Autotek BTS 7100 on the highs & 7300 on the lows running at 1 ohm bridged. That box talked to whales!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Make no mistake, I know it's not a Ford, and this will be my first non-ford purchase ever. Here is my car history:
> 
> 1. 1983 Ford Ranger 4x4
> 2. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
> ...



Yeah but the ford mazda partnership had a influence no?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Nice car! I see a ton of them at High Performance Driving Events at Indy and Mid-Ohio.


That's because they are stupid reliable and handle crazy well. Add some power and they can hang with cars that cost MUcH more.

But I have no intention of tracking mine.



> Nice list!
> 
> I've never had a car payment or new car either.
> 
> ...


I can't beat free, but I have some good competition for it.

1. 1983 Ford Ranger 4x4
$1500, it caught fire 4 times and wiped out a came lobe before I was able to make it a reliable daily driver. Sold it for the purchase price.

2. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
Bought it for $2600. It was my first big project and I failed bit time. Sold it for $500

3. 2000 Ford Escort ZX2
$11k brand new, learned my lesson about credit, Ford repo'd it.

4. 1965 Ford F-100
$100, drove it for 2 years with ZERO maintenance, sold it for $100.

5. 1985 Ford Mustang SVO
$3000, owned it for 10 years. I got it to 333HP at the wheels, was a RIOT to drive but terribly uncomfortable. Though surprisingly economical, it got 26MPG in town and 33MPG in the highway.

6. 1986 Ford F-250 4x4 Diesel
$50, drove it for 4 years before some asshat stole it.

7. 1982 Ford E-100
$300, drove it for 3 years, gave it away to a family member in need.

8. 1987 Ford TurboCoupe
$800, it didn't run when I bought it. Got it running then sold it for $1000.

9. 1986 Ford Bronco
$1800 with only 145k miles on it, about 4 years and a week ago. Still going strong, and the topic of this thread.

Most of the audio gear I have now was originally purchased for the second SVO. I wanted to do a custom dash in it too, but I was just too broke. That car was never the same after I let it sit outside for two years.

The Panther platform can always interested me, I love that people are putting it under older Ford trucks.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Lookie what I have. The 85-86 svo are collectable now. Less than 10k made


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Jscoyne2 said:


> Lookie what I have. The 85-86 svo are collectable now. Less than 10k made


9844 to be exact 

Here is what mine sounded like before I sold the ugly thing: 
https://youtu.be/vQkb7OPjr6w

When it had a 4" exhaust from the turbo back, with no cat and no muffler, it sounded like a pissed off John Deere


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> That's because they are stupid reliable and handle crazy well. Add some power and they can hang with cars that cost MUcH more.
> 
> But I have no intention of tracking mine.


LS3 Miata at Indy in August. The 2 Vettes are my buddies. They're brothers.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> 3. 2000 Ford Escort ZX2
> $11k brand new, learned my lesson about credit, Ford repo'd it.
> 
> 4. 1965 Ford F-100
> ...


That sucks about the repo and stolen truck.
You should've kept the F100 and put the Panther front suspension on it! 
I loved the aero T-birds since Bill Elliott was killin' 'em on the superspeedways in the 80's!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> LS3 Miata at Indy in August. The 2 Vettes are my buddies. They're brothers.


The LS swaps make a TON of sense for a track car. Who wouldn't like a 2500lb car with 400+ HP on a capable suspension?

For a daily driver that'll never see track time, it's a mighty expensive swap when you could easily turbo the car for half the cost and have just as much fun.



BP1Fanatic said:


> You should've kept the F100 and put the Panther front suspension on it!


There is a reason that truck was $100, it spent most of it's life doing construction. Between the rust and the dents, it wasn't savable.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Tomorrow the Miata goes in the shop for the hail repair, so I tried to start the Bronco today. I found two dead batteries. I can't find my Optima charger, so I had to use my Craftsman, it has never liked the Optima batteries. After trying to get it to stay on all day, I eventually just hooked up the Miata to it with jumper cables.

Then came the next problem, it won't start. It'll crank just fine. I plugged the ECU into my laptop and everything seems fine. Some research says to do a TPS Autoset, but the handheld controller seems to had died, and there is no way to do one without it. My controller is the "old" design and Holley doesn't have anything in place to help people with this bad design to upgrade to the new design. So now I'm out $250+ next day shipping to get a new handheld controller so I can do one simple function that should be included in the desktop software. I'm kinda pissed about that.

Good news though, my new top came in today, this time I opted for the tinted windows. It took about 20 minutes to swap the tops out thanks to Softtopper's brilliant no-tool-needed design.


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

What? Your bronco is not EMP proof?
Re-what? 20 min for a top swap?

Damn' mine would take hours. Your's electric/hydraulic/manual?
I searched for months for a manual kit on mine, would be so easier.

Oh btw, the little guy got shipped


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The top is designed to be removed in minutes without tools. Once it's off it was just some snaps and buckles to remove it from the frame and swap the frame over to the new top.

The Miata top is a 4-hour job, but the body shop is doing that one, so I don't really care how long it takes!

Both tops are manual.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Elgrosso said:


> Oh btw, the little guy got shipped


It showed up today 

Thanks!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got it running again yesterday. I re-uploaded the tune to the ECU, but it still refused to start. I started a tune from scratch, but it still wouldn't start, so I re-uploaded the old tune. Then the new handheld was stuck on the new tune screen. Hmmm...

So I disconnected the battery for an hour or so. After reconnecting it, it fired right up as if nothing was ever wrong. Go figure. I then mounted the new handheld to the temporary dash:










It is set to boot to a gauge display when turned on.

Today I sat down and figured out the wipers. Here is the wiring diagrams for the factory motor and the aftermarket switch:










And the pigtails for the motor and switch:










They are ready to install tomorrow. Depending on the weather, I may tackle some other stuff too.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

So it runs now no more issues


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## Elgrosso (Jun 15, 2013)

LumbermanSVO said:


> It showed up today
> 
> Thanks!


Oh and got mine thx!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

oabeieo said:


> So it runs now no more issues


The strange thing is that apparently after the batteries die, and then you recharge them, you need to disconnect the ECU for awhile to reset it. Electronics are weird like that.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I installed the wiper harness yesterday, wipers work great now. The only thing left to do for the annual inspection is getting the horn to work. From there it's just convenience things, like dome lights, fuel gauge, cruise control, etc,..

The wiper switch mounted in the temporary dash panel.:









The harness running to the wiper motor:









I need to find a good way to secure it to the firewall. I think the best idea is to secure it to that piece of weather stripping at the top of the firewall. I really need to clean the engine bay...

The other day I found a couple leftover rolls of FatMat laying around. I bought it long before I head the big CLD test thread. I decided to throw throw it on the firewall:









I did make an audible difference in engine noise getting into the cab, but that is mostly from covering up a bunch of factory holes that I'm no longer using.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I just got back from setting up a tournament in Houston, I have a week off, then I'm on the road for 12 weeks. This is what I built in Houston:










Here I am(in the red shirt) building it:










I got home today and had a bunch of parts for a new PCV system on the Bronco. It took about an hour to install it. Luckily the new Moroso oil separator was able to fit in place of the breather on the driver side:










On the passenger side I'm using a factory PCV valve into a tee, then into the aftermarket oil catch can.










The output side of the catch can is going into a 135º elbow and then under the body. This week I'll have the venturi welded into the exhaust and install the isolator.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice headers!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

They are made by Bassani. They are the only ones I found that still leave great access to the spark plugs, don't crack, are ceramic coated and fit with zero issues. I also used a Bassani Y-pipe and, Gibson cat back and eliminated the cat. It took a few adaptors to make it work, but it fits good and sounds great!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

A made a quick video of the Bronco, it includes the exhaust sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UkoSRkPIo

Just after making that video I went to the store and it suddenly puked a TON of oil everywhere. I can't find the source of this new massive leak. Oil is covering the entire left side of the engine, as well as most of the right side. The underside of it looks like I drove through oil puddles and it even on the rear bumper and tailgate.

I think I'm done with this engine, it's the factory engine with 170,000-ish miles on it. Time to figure out how best to replace it. Do I go for a stock rebuild? AFR heads? 408W with good heads? Finally swap in a big block?


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

408 with good heads! A lot of 302 parts fit on the 351.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

That's pretty much what my thought was, it'd be quite easy to order a short block, slap some AFR heads on it, a good intake and be good with it. The problem is, I don't have a shop to do that kinda work in. If I did, I'd have the engine out, torn down, and measured before I leave town on Monday.

I don't know any of the local shops here, except for one, Vorshlag Motorsports. I know the Bronco isn't in their wheelhouse, but the owner is an active member of a racing site I've been on for years, and I know he does good work. Turns out, he is also an owner of Horsepower Research. I contacted Horsepower Research and we are working on something now.

I don't have a specific power goal, just more, within a few guidelines. More displacement, good flowing heads/intake, budget of $5000-7000. I don't want to do anything extreme, or have something that needs constant attention. We'll keep the Holley EFI, headers, front drive accessories, everything else is good to be upgraded.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

So, I actually did some work on Ol Smokey today. 


At some point Horsepower Research just stopped returning my emails, so I guess I won't be working with them. It's a bummer because they have a great reputation.

Awhile ago I pulled the batteries and couldn't bring them back to life, even with the Optima charger. I just let them sit dead for too long. I should put a kill switch on it I guess. I replaced the batteries and all is well again.

Last time I was home I fired up Ol Smokey and just layed under it to see if I could spot an oil leak. I eventually tracked it down to the valve cover gaskets. It was crazy hot out, so I didn't do any actual work.

Today I worked on the passenger side valve cover. I just went nuts on it. I replaced the bolts with studs, used a rubber gasket with metal insert, used non-hardening RTV on both sides of the gasket, and torqued it to 12ft-lbs working from the inside out.










After letting it run for an hour, not a single drop from that side.

So tomorrow I'll do the driver side and wire up the horn. Then it'll pass inspection again. After that I can start working on the wiring again.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I just did some engine work too!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> I just did some engine work too!


How wide is that engine?

I did the other valve cover today. After getting it all buttoned up I fired up the engine and let it run while I got the horn working. I also dressed up some of the under hood wiring, the lights/horn wiring is how in slip loom and resting on factory wiring clips instead of sitting on the radiator. That whole time, it didn't leak a drop, success!










I then went for a spin around the neighborhood, by the end of the block there was oil smoke behind me. When I got back to the house there was a trail of oil behind me, almost as bad as when the rear main had fallen out.










The good news is, the oil is only coming from one side of the engine, I just don't know where. I suspect it might be the dipstick tube, I did have to bend it to get the header on. If it's not that, then I have no idea what it is..


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Very! It's a 5.4L SOHC 2 valve.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

2.7/3.5 ecoboost swap from a newer f150 would be awesome or LSX. Since you have already tuned fuel injection a 5.3/6.0 swap would be pretty strait forward. I bought a 40,000 mile LQ4 6.0 with the 4l80 and complete harness for $1900.00. With a small cam, headers and ported stock heads you could have more than 450hp for less than $4000.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Don't sell out to a LS swap. Go Coyote 5.0!


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Don't sell out to a LS swap. Go Coyote 5.0!


Honestly the N/A coyote is a horrible engine for a truck. My work truck, a 2014 extended cab f150, is a complete dog under peak torque @4250 rpm. Pulling a light trailer is even worse. It just doesn't make enough torque to mate up with the 6 speed auto. It might be better with the new 10 speed, but I doubt it. Now add any type of forced induction and it gets awesome quickly. Both the ecoboost v6 are great engines for heavy vehicle because they make peak torque ~2500 rpm.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

How about the new 6.2L in the SuperDuty? Those make like 430 ft of torque.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

I test drove both the 6.2 and 3.5 when I bought my personal truck and I bought the 3.5 EB. The 6.2 is definitely a step up from the 5.0, but look at torque again. The 6.2 is [email protected] 4500rpm and the EB is [email protected] 2500rpm.

The 6.2 has huge power potential as a all out race engine. It's a 4.5" bore center and can take a 4.25" stroke so you could build one almost 500 cubic inches. The stock head can flow over 400 cfm when ported. It would probably be $50,000 or more, but you could build a naturally aspirated 1100 horsepower 6.2 based engine.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Wow, I thought the 6.2 was based of the 5.4. I didn't know it could grow to 500 cubes.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I see they got the 430ft @ 3800rpms now with twin spark plugs per cylinder. It would be nice to see what John Kaase or RouschYates could do with it N/A.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

Roush/Yates did the drag racing prototype for Don Bowles? If I remeber correctly back in the early 2000's


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I think I found the problem, look at these holes in the dipstick tube!










The mounting bracket fell off and took a bit of tube with it. I've ordered a new one.

While all those engine swap ideas sound neat, and the 6.2L would be pretty cool, ya'll are missing the obvious. The Bronco is based on an F-150 frame, the same frame that lasted from 80-96. These came with all sorts of engines. 

The choices are:

300/6 - AKA, the big six. These don't make tons of power, but plenty of people have made 300HP NA from them. It's easy, cheap and easily the most reliable truck engine Ford ever made. Plenty people have turbocharged them, and they REALLY like it.

Small Block V8 - It currently has a Windsor, and it's the most economical way to make 400-500HP without having to bother with all the headaches that come with doing an engine swap.

IDI Diesel - These are an incredibly reliable engine, and if you want low end grunt, they can't be beat. Combined with a Banks Sidewinder turbo, intercooler, Moose injection pump and injectors, and 300HP with 600TQ and over 20mpg is easy peasy. It's an incredibly quiet engine, great for vehicle where audio is the priority. Oh, and they are dirt cheap to maintain.

7.3L PowerStroke - If you want diesel, but more power than an IDI, then the Gen I PowerStroke(IH DT444) drops right in and can make plenty power and torque. Noise and cost of maintenance are the biggest issues. 

Big Block Ford - This is a fairly trivial swap and the one most people overlook. In factory form, the 460 is lazy for it's size, and most people think there isn't much of an aftermarket, not unlike a Cleveland. However, just like the Cleveland, it does actually have a healthy aftermarket and can make stupid power relatively easy.

A production big block can be punched out to 521ci without having to clearance anything inside the block, or 557 if you break out the grinder. A Ford A460 block is inexpensive($2600) compared to aftermarket blocks for just about any other engine, and can go all the way up to 604ci, or keep it at 572 so you still have some rebuilds left on it. With those engine sizes and some aftermarket heads, a 700-800HP is pretty easy while still keeping it a tame driver.

It's hard not to lean towards the BBF!

All of these engine options have some stout transmission/transfer case options that bolt right into the chassis, and the linkages have all been sorted out.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

Sorry for going off topic on all the engine swap deals....if you are going with a new engine a 351w based stroker would be the easiest. I threw out the LSX info because it's impossible to beat it $/hp. I'm in the process of doing that 6.0 LSX with a 80mm turbo for our 55 belair. The car has a 427 bbc in it now, but I want more power and nice quite street manners for it. I've been super impressed with the ecoboosts but that swap would be a nightmare, I also have a 555 inch Chevy in my nova....hence the screen name...that makes a bit over 940hp so I totally get the appeal of a big inch big block, but I've never been able to hold a conversation in any car with a big block going down the road because of noise...one of the reasons the bbc is coming out of the 55'.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

The A460 block can actually go 650+ cubic inches. people have taken them out over 4.7" bore and 4.75 stroke. Even with a 4.6" bore~632" you would still have plenty of material for rebuilds.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Don't apologize at all, I enjoy a good side discussion. That's what forums do best!

All the talk of engine swaps is silly anyway because I'd like to keep this engine in it and running until the interior is complete again. That is, if I can keep it from puking oil everywhere.

I fully appreciate the value in an LS swap, but to me it makes more sense in a situation like my Miata, where ANY engine swap requires reengineering everything. It makes much less sense when you already have a wide choice of good engines the factory had already put in your chassis.

As far as NVH goes, I've been in BBF trucks with a "work truck" interior, and it wasn't terrible. With modern noise treatments, including underhood, I think it would be completely acceptable. 

However, if NVH becomes a main priority, the 300/6 can't be beat. A BW EFR turbo with the current Holley EFI on a 300/6 with a mildly ported head, Chevy rockers, 4 barrel intake, ported EFI exhaust manifolds, mild cam, and a TFI distributor would easily make 400hp and over 600ft lbs of torque down low all day long and be stupid reliable. There would also be an insane amount of free room in the engine bay that would allow for things like compound intercooling.

Where in Montana are you? I spent 4 years going there weekly and have a bunch of friends in the west end.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I vote BBF! John Kaase got the heads you need to make big power NA.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

I'm in great falls, pretty much center of the state.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

My dad used to race a sprint car with a 300" ford back in the 70's with most of the same tricks you mentioned. He won a bunch of races and they outlawed the engine. He said the 327" Chevys and Clevelands would pull away on the straits but that 6 would murder them in the corners.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Lighter engine equals better handling.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

555nova said:


> I'm in great falls, pretty much center of the state.


I've spent some time there, nice place. I enjoyed walking up the river making photos of birds. The drive west on MT-200 is quite nice too!



BP1Fanatic said:


> Lighter engine equals better handling.


Actually, the 300/6 is a heavy ass engine, it's pretty similar weight to the Cleveland. Even worse, because it's an inline that stands straight up, there is more weight up high than a V8.

From the factory it's a true truck engine. It makes all it's measly power down low and falls on its face by around 4500 rpm, but makes great torque throughout the whole rpm range and runs forever.

It has a non-crossflow head, so packaging on the passenger of the engine become an issue, and flow isn't great. But with a good cam, some valve and port work, it makes good power by late-80's standards. The people who have turbocharged them did a pretty piss poor job at it, just super cobbled together combos, but they make good power and GREAT torque. None have tried this neat invention called an intercooler.

One guy struggled to make much more than 200hp with the factory untuned EFI setup, but he also made nearly 450ft lbs of torque and got his F-150 to get mid-20's for mpg's on the highway.

One guy put over 300hp to the wheels though a C6(power hog) and 500ft lbs of torque with a Holset turbo and slightly modded factory EFI, no other work done.

I think that with a proper selection of parts, a good tune, and proper intercooling, over 400hp and 600tq couldn't be that hard to hit. However, out of all the factory engine swap options available, it's the one that would require the most work. 

The BBF still wins for power and torque, and you don't need to call Kaase to make big numbers. An A460 block with some AFR heads is an awesome starting point and wouldn't make me cry like the bill from Kaase would.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

I've lived all over the west coast and don't see myself leaving Montana again. 

For the BBF Kasse has some reasonably priced heads, his redesigned cobra jets and his p51, which are basically max ported cobra jets with slightly rotated chambers and better valve angles..... The A460 heads are impossible to beat for the money and are about the same cost as the AFR's


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

If I'm not mistaken, the TrickFlow A460 heads have a BBC exhaust pattern and require custom headers when used in a Ford chassis. The AFR heads have a standard BBF pattern and there are a bunch of folks who make headers for them in a Ford truck chassis. The cost of custom headers isn't insignificant and make the AFR's or P51's look better.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

You could always use universal BBC shorty headers, but it would probably be a wash power wise between a460 with elcheapo shorty headers and p51's with a nice header. The a460's are a great deal but are overkill if your not trying to make to make 900+ hp. Guys have made 1000+ with the p51's. The other part of the equation like you have said is the drive train being stout enough with out having BIG money into it. It's fun to talk about/bench race building a big power engine but, In all honesty a true 600hp on the street is damn near useless even with 35" tires.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got home on Tuesday and tried to install the new dipstick tube on Wednesday, it was a no go. It was the right part, but to get around the headers would require too much bending. So i did the next best thing, I ordered a flexible one from Lokar. It arrived yesterday, and it took minutes to install. I went for a drive through the neighborhood in first gear, letting it rev up quite a bit, and it didn't lose a drop of oil!

So now I can get back to working on smaller things.


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

The LOkar parts are usually worth the price in my opinion. That's great that it was a relatively easy and cheap fix.

What are you doing for suspension on the bronco? My 2014 f150 needs new shocks and my boss(wife) told me to order whatever I want for my Christmas present so I'm really considering 2.5" coil overs and piggyback shocks from KING,FOX or ICON even though logging roads are the most it sees off road.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Suspension is tough. I wont be doing any serious off-roading, so anything extreme doesn't make sense. I don't need a solid front axle unless I make enough torque to easily break the TTB. I don't really like lifting the TTB system because it requires dropping the axle pivot points, so there is no improvement in clearance.

The smart thing to do is throw some Autofab Stock style fenders on it to allow for bigger tires. Then replace all the bushings, replace the factory bump stops with Solo Motorsports air bump stops, upgrade to modern shocks, and go with longer radius arms. In the rear upgrade to Deaver springs(eliminate the factory lift blocks) and modern shocks. That should make for a MUCH smoother ride.

The bumpsteer with a TTB system can be an issue, especially when you start upping the power/speeds. If it does become a problem for me, an upgrade to a crossover style steering system will fix it, but won't be cheap.

Should I later want to lift it then I'm already setup well for cut and turned TTB's. That gets 4" of lift, lots of travel, and increases ground clearance. But it's also ridiculously expensive, so it makes sense to stop well before then.

Also, not a suspension thing, but this Autofab Hood is all sorts of great looking!


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

I just placed the order for the KING Oem series 2.5" coilovers. Hopefully it was money well spent....considering it took $2300 away from the stereo fund. 
Any progress on The bronco?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I've been in Florida for over a week and fly home on Thanksgiving. 

I travel a LOT for work. I did get a cool promotion recently though, making it much easier to move somewhere better/cheaper than Texas!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

It's been a long time since an update. I'm in a house now where I have full use of the garage. While moving Ol Smokey ate an intake gasket. I pulled the manifold and replaced the gasket. I figured "While I'm in there" I'd replace the front main seal that was a little leaky. The new seal refused to go into the timing cover and I damaged it trying, then damaged the next one. I pulled the timing cover and used a block of wood and C-clamps to press a seal in. 

While the cover was off I checked the slack on the timing chain, WAY too much. So I swapped the chain. While everything was off the front of the engine I removed the stock oil pressure sensor and installed a Holley sensor.

I started bolting things back together today and a few very important brackets are missing, hmmm. Without these parts I'm kinda stuck. I think I'll end up buying this bracket kit: https://www.cvfracing.com/black-for...conversion-kit-alternator-power-steering-a-c/

It makes the Saginaw power steering pump upgrade much easier, as well as going with a modern A/C compressor.

It's awfully nice to have this in the garage while I decide what I'm going to do.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Man, I feel you. My Solara v6 has a cracked lower intake manifold


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I did a bunch of research and ended up ordering the v-belt alternator mounting kit from CVF Racing, I think it'll work well with my existing pulleys.

In addition to the missing alternator bracket, I was missing some bolts. Thankfully I keep EVERY factory bolt I pull off a project car, even if I'll never need it again. That bin of bolts allowed me to bolt up the power steering pump. I don't have an HVAC system right now, so I bolted the ignition coil in place of the A/C compressor.

I need to order some 1/0 wire terminals, and a harmonic balancer bolt, and then it should be ready to run. If I had that wire terminal I could have started it up today.

Pic of how it sits right now:


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I spent a little time in the garage today. I finished getting everything bolted to the crank, then worked on the alternator. The new mount looks pretty great!










The mount is intended to use inner pulley groove on the whole system. However, the stock power steering pump uses that groove. Because I have that trick double pulley on the alternator, I was able to "misalign" the alternator enough to use the middle groove for the alternator. The only issue now is that my belt is about 1/2" too short, but that's an easy fix.

One way I was able to push the alternator forward was to use the ground lug as a spacer, and put a spacer in the kit between the head and ground lug. While I was at it I trimmed the charge and ground cables for a cleaner look, then bundled them with the starter wires.

After all that was done I fired it up. He ran, but on ok, and died shortly after. The EFI has a "learn" table that makes adjustments once your tune is done, I think I need to clear the table to reset it back to a good tune. Also, I think I need to reset the idle from scratch. But first I have to put the cooling system back together, do an oil change, check the timing, and put the rest of the oil pan bolts in. All of these I can do the day after I get back from the trip I leave for tomorrow.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I got him running great, better than ever before, but I had another massive oil leak from the il pan gasket. Ugh. So yesterday I dropped the oil pan and learned that the previous owner wasn't really into oil changes.

So today I spent some time prepping the pull the engine, trans, and transfer case. If I'm going to rebuild one, I might as well rebuild them all.

Here is what he looks like right now:


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## WilliamS (Oct 1, 2016)

keep it up!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Wow!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Wow!


The crazy things is, it took about three hours to drop the oil pan. And about the same amount of time to remove the front clip. I wish I had pulled the front clip before disconnecting other stuff under the hood. It’s SO nice to just stand in front of the engine to work on it. 

The engine stand should arrive tomorrow, but I also leave town for two weeks tomorrow.

I also need to decide if it’s time to do the 385 big block swap, or rebuild the Windsor.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I need to drop my oil pan. I vote FE over Windsor!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The FE never came in this chassis, so it would be a wild PITA compared to a 385 swap. I could spend $2-3k more for a 385 compared to building a Windsor, and have 200hp more without really stressing the engine. But building a Windsor is the fastest and easiet way to getting it running again so I can put more time/effort into other projects, like the home theater, or finishing the Miata stereo. 

The Bronco originally had 235hp, and a 408 Windsor with AFR heads could easily double that without breaking the bank. The current fuel system and EFI can support that with plenty of overhead too.

A 700hp 521 big block sounds awfully tempting though...


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Yeah it does!


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## rockinridgeline (Feb 2, 2009)

LumbermanSVO said:


> The FE never came in this chassis, so it would be a wild PITA compared to a 385 swap. I could spend $2-3k more for a 385 compared to building a Windsor, and have 200hp more without really stressing the engine. But building a Windsor is the fastest and easiet way to getting it running again so I can put more time/effort into other projects, like the home theater, or finishing the Miata stereo.
> 
> The Bronco originally had 235hp, and a 408 Windsor with AFR heads could easily double that without breaking the bank. The current fuel system and EFI can support that with plenty of overhead too.
> 
> A 700hp 521 big block sounds awfully tempting though...


If you go big block wouldn't you have to start replacing a bunch of other drivetrain parts to keep up? I am guessing the Windsor package would be quite a bit lighter? Plus, what are you going to do in Ol Smokey that you would ever actually use 700 HP? But hey, it is your build, make yourself happy and do what you will love and not want to redo later. BTW, I have to say that I am impressed with your DIY mentality when it comes to every aspect of your vehicle. You have way more patience that I do!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I don't need 700hp, just like I don't need a Bronco as a play toy. 

No matter what, the transmissions and transfer case will be rebuilt. Making a C6 trans handle big power is pretty trivial, and cheap, compared to modern transmissions. The rear is a 9", those are cheap and easy to build.

It really comes down to how long I want it to be down.



rockinridgeline said:


> If you go big block wouldn't you have to start replacing a bunch of other drivetrain parts to keep up? I am guessing the Windsor package would be quite a bit lighter? Plus, what are you going to do in Ol Smokey that you would ever actually use 700 HP? But hey, it is your build, make yourself happy and do what you will love and not want to redo later. BTW, I have to say that I am impressed with your DIY mentality when it comes to every aspect of your vehicle. You have way more patience that I do!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

It turns out, you can fit a 2-ton engine hoist in a Miata, the top even closed!










Everything is disconnected from the engine and trans, and It's partially pulled. This is what it looks like right now:



















I have friends coming over later to day to help wrestle it out and push the Bronco it's it's parking spot.

I can't wait to pull the engine apart and see what it looks like inside.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The garage is a mess!


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Hauling a engine hoist in a Miata is CLASSIC!


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## 555nova (Apr 12, 2014)

Dart 9.5 shp 4.125x3.75 400". Trick flow high port heads and a 1.9L whipple. 
Or a 11 to 1 521 with Kasse p51 heads and cam it for peak hp at 5700-6000.
The big block would be way cheaper


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

I vote 521 BB with ITB's!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

I tore down the engine tonight, the garage is a mess! The bores look fine and I can still see crosshatching through most of the walls. The cam has a weird wear pattern, but the lifters are fine. The top of the pistons have a ton of carbon build up, same with the combustion chambers in the heads. Everything the oil touched is pretty black as well.














































But man, take a look at the rod bearings! The bottom row is the cap side, the far left is the front of the engine.










And the main bearings. Again, the bottom row is the cap side, left is #1.










It was definitely time for a rebuild!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

My roomie called me mid-day yesterday in a panic saying that the Bronco had rolled into the street. She is over dramatic so I just told her to calm down, told my boss what was up and that I had to go home. Before leaving work I grabbed a wood block and my climbing gear.

When I got home the Bronco was halfway in the driveway and halfway in the street. Because the wheels were turned when parked, it had turned almost 90º to the driveway when it stopped.

I grabbed some slings, carabiners, and rope from my climbing kit and hooked the Bronco to my roomie’s Jeep and used it to pull the Bronco back up the driveway, no problem. When it was back in the parking spot I put the wood block behind a tire, then went to remove the rope. The knots were going to be WAY too tight to untie, so I just grabbed a knife to cut the rope in half.

Well, I forgot to reset the parking Brake, so the Bronco rolled right over the block, down the driveway, across the street, and into another yard!










Fortunately, no one was around when that happened, and there was no damage to the yard. So we pulled the Bronco back into the driveway. This time I set the brake, chocked the wheel, and released the rope much more gently. I then setup a bunch of pulleys and used the Jeep as an anchor and used my Miata to pull the Bronco much closer to the garage.



















Video: https://imgur.com/1ylMOS5


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## Jaloosk (Jan 13, 2010)

Any more work done to this beast? The build log so far has been entertaining to say the least!


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

Since the last post I've moved to SoCal and then Ohio, so not much time to work on it. I finally have a proper garage, but at the moment I'm focussing on getting my house into good shape as it was neglected for at least a decade before I bought it.


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## bigbubba (Mar 23, 2011)

After looking at the engine tear down pics, makes me want to do the same to my Bronco. The motor needs a rebuild badly. May tinker with it a bit during Christmas week.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

LumbermanSVO said:


> Since the last post I've moved to SoCal and then Ohio, so not much time to work on it. I finally have a proper garage, but at the moment I'm focussing on getting my house into good shape as it was neglected for at least a decade before I bought it.


Welcome to the Buckeye state! What city?


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Welcome to the Buckeye state! What city?


I'm in the northwest part of Cincy, where are you?


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Columbus. My son lives in Cincinnati too


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

BP1Fanatic said:


> Columbus. My son lives in Cincinnati too


Awesome, I should reach out to you when it comes time to wrestle the 24's into place in the house


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Cool!


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## Lou Frasier2 (Jul 17, 2012)

can this thread be closed but kept here for people searching to see it?John passed away about a month ago so the build will no longer continue,im gonna tell his sister to come here and copy all of the pages because she was wanting some of thee things he was doing online


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