# Big Valven's Holden VX Commodore - JL, Orion, Custom Integration



## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Hi all,
First of all, an introduction. I'm from South Australia and migrated over to these forums in order for some inspiration from the many excellent build threads on here. This is going to be my attempt at one of those 

*The Car*
Is a 2002 Holden VX Commodore, series II. The Pontiac GTO is based on this car, but this is a sedan with a 3.8 152kW v6 shared with many Buicks.
Previously it was lowered on Pedders springs, shocks and bushes, and on 17in Advanti Stalker rims with Toyo rubber, with a stock system. However as it stands, it has two wheels, no left suspension, and many dented panels. A spinout at 100km/h on a wet freeway will do that.

















*The Headunit*
Over the last year I've been developing a number of mods for the standard CD tuner. Why you ask? Well you see, I'm a studying electronic engineer, and I love a challenge. The unit itself works well and has lots of room inside for circuitry.
I have developed three circuits and they've just been released for commercial production:
Ipod integration... Plug an ipod in, and get full track/playlist control. Ipod display is still used (due to 1-line headunit LCD) for track names etc, but charging, control, sound and video are all controlled by the headunit (and the steering wheel buttons.) Works just like a 10,000 track CD 

AV AUX Input... a simpler system to switch an AUX input, both audio and video. Full audio control through the headunit.

Preouts... Four preouts with up to 8v RMS output! Auto muting and individual gain. Also a buffered video output for the Ipod and AUX input and amplifier REM switching.

I'm going to build a fully balanced preamp for running four balanced lineouts from the headunit, to go with my amps. When it will happen is another matter entirely 










*Amplifiers*
I've gone for some amps I have wanted for a long time, not the last word in SQ or SPL but a great combination of both compared to what's normally running around in Oz. Plus they're solid as hell and who can resist that look? I have now found out that the sound is irresistible too 

JL Audio Slash 300/2 & 500/1









They are going to be running 4 gauge each from the battery.

*Subwoofers*
As you can see from the above photo, I've gone for two JL Audio 12W3v3s, in 4 ohm. These paralleled to 2 ohms into the 500/1 is perfect. I bought them in the sealed box you see there, and despite my concerns the 500 watts is plenty for them, but I am going to use a ported box in my install for a sharper kick and lower tuning point.

*Splits*
I picked up some brand new Orion P6.2 splits from the car audio shop I used to install for. Orion is fairly unheard of in Oz but these speakers are very solid and midbass performance is mind-blowing down to around 50Hz and treble, for titanium vapour deposit tweeters, is a lot smoother than I expected.

They're big and heavy and hard to fit though. I had them in dynamatted doors with the standard plastic spacer, and through the install you'll see the measures I'm taking to improve on that 










While the car's been in the shop for repairs, I've been planning a proper install, tidy it all up, and get it sounding just how I want it, and looking fantastic (and at least professional.) I've got a lot of plans and you'll see it unfold in this thread as I go. Stay tuned!


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## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

Welcome to the board and great looking car. My wife's best friend lives in Adelaide too! 

Very cool with what you have done to the stock CD unit. It's cool to see people making things to suit their needs instead of just waiting for a big company to produce it.

Cheers,

Zach


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks boostedrex... Here's a demo video of the Ipod integration in action:


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

And begins the install...
Bits and pieces for the box assembly








Timber as cut from my good friends at Otto Co timber, 18mm MDF.








Of the three angled panels, I cut one out to make a brace (might I add, I only have a jigsaw, sander and drill):








And partially assembled:








I then cut the woofer holes after compassing them onto the front of the box, low down and close together to point through the ski-port:
















REALLY freakin' straight cut considering I was jigsawing!








I then vinyled the front and back, and the rest will come another day as it goes into the car... 

















Also, this will end up being a ported box, but you'll have to wait and see how I do that...


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

Hey Big_Valven,

Nice work on the circuit board mods. Looking forward to what you've got planned for the rest of the system as well.
(By the way I'm a fellow Adelaidian, not too many of us around here  )


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Lowpoke, you're right, we might be the only two! Good to see you on here though!

TODAY'S PROGRESS
I made a circle jig for my jigsaw (a jig jig!) much like a Jasper Jig used on routers. I've never seen a jigsaw with a jig like this... I don't have a router so I thought I'd make do with what I have. Now I wished I'd used it on the subwoofer holes too!
The plastic factory mounts in my commodore had been stretched to the max to get the orions in and are horribly flimsy so I'm making solid timber mounts. They won't be angled but I don't think it's going to be a problem.
First, I drilled some holes in the shoe of my $30 Ozito Jigsaw, and used a spade bit to drill a saw hole through an offcut. I then mounted the jigsaw to it. The two holes mean it can be used left or right handed. Then I measured, drilled and marked holes for the diameters I needed. This could be used again and again for any number of diameters you can fit on the jig. My 18mm MDF cutting plan conveniently left a 200mm x 2400mm strip for just this job.









I then Drilled a pilot hole for the pivot of the jig, and measured and drilled two starting holes with my spade bit. These have to come right up to the edge of the diameter you are cutting. Start with the outer cut of course.









Then transfer to the inner hole and cut that. Then you end up with these!









Because I will be using two stacked spacers to get the required clearance in my doors, I am making a round ring for the speaker to bolt into, and another cut to fit the triangular shape of the door metal. I cut the inner of these rings today, and the outer will be cut when I have my car to trace the shape.









The jig takes some fine tuning, I had a practice one before I started. I find the jigsaw being angled ~2 degrees away from the centre of the cut is the best, and you need a slow feed rate, with the jigsaw flat out. If you don't do either of these, the saw blade will deviate in or out, and you'll end up with an eccentric cut with angled edges. No good.

_There are more images on my photobucket for this process._

I also finally took the plunge and tried my hand at fibreglassing, with some simple practice pieces. I used all standard Diggers brand resin and catalyst from Bunnings and fleece from DK fabrics on Port Road.
I started with a simple mold of a plastic container, that will eventually become a small part of the system. It ended up working very well!
I taped up the container








Then a thick layer of resin over it (outdoors, man that stuff is nasty)








In half an hour it was dry so I pulled it off, trimmed it down with my dremel and ran over it with the orbital sander
















I then bogged it (with Selleys Spakfilla watered down, admittedly rubbish for this job, I really will need spray putty to finish it off)








And finally threw some matt black on it for the moment until I have some proper spray putty.








(this image makes it look very crooked, it's actually very straight-edged.)

I can't believe how easy it turned out to be. A lot of the tutorials out there make fibreglassing look really hard, but this worked a treat. Incidentally, I'm not going to be FGing any of my install (well wasn't really considering it) but I am using it for other things and really wanted to get my feet wet. I also tried a double-layer of fleece for extra strength which worked well.

More progress will follow but it's been an extremely successful long weekend!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

New arrivals for the day!
















Courtesy of Ebay and Altronics. My plug ends are on backorder 

That screen won't stay that way for long either... mwahahaha!

I also got my shipment of Ipod controller PCBs and soldered up 10 RCA looms... 40 RCA plugs in an hour!


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## chithead (Mar 19, 2008)

Looking forward to this build. I like that box divider and choice of audio equipment.


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## itssteve (Oct 8, 2008)

looks really good, that is really interesting what you decided to do with the factory radio, good work i cant wait to see more


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Scant progress today... I've been soldering RCA and AUX looms for the production Ipod integration
But I told you the screen wouldn't stay that way long, got rid of the poxy colour scheme...


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Guess what arrived from Furryletters! 








I had to use some of it, then and there, so I made a 3.5mm - RCA lead, because I was sick of cheapies breaking.
Stripped the outer jacket off my canare lead, to expose the braided shield








Then techflexed in black for a wicked sparkly dark look, that goes with the "tungsten" colour earth-first RCA plugs perfectly 








The finished cable








That's what you can expect once my balanced cable and RCA plugs get here


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## tusk (Feb 20, 2008)

Nice.

Holden FTW!


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## capnxtreme (Feb 5, 2008)

I'm anxiously watching this one. Looks good so far.

That grille really just needs a giant Pontiac badge, though.


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## Lothar34 (Oct 6, 2006)

Are you sure that's a VX? My headlights don't look like that.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Lothar34, it sure is a VX, and no, the pontiacs don't have those headlights... in fact the bumpers, headlights and skirts all vary quite a lot to distinguish the GTO from the Australian models. I have modded my headlights since that photo:








Still the same shape, but black bezels like in the SS (supersports) models.

Let's see what we have here:








First of all, yes that is a 4 gauge power and ground. I am already running 8 gauge on the 300/2 (from a previous amplifier) and 4 gauge on the 500/1. Cable ain't cheap, and I am going to run 4 gauge side-by-side to each amp instead of a single 1/0 run. Terminals also pictured... If I have time (and cable) left over, I'll try and do the big 3, but at this stage it will at least be a double run of 4 gauge from the battery to chassis.
Going clockwise is my balanced twisted-pair signal cable, and plug ends & sockets from my good friends at Aztronics. They sponsored TAFE for the innovation award I won for the Ipod integration I've done, so they've looked after me price-wise 
I then have two 5-metre runs and one 2-metre run of 12 gauge speaker cable, ironically it was cheapest to buy pre-packed, and it's blue and silver like the supplied Orion 14 gauge midbass and tweeter cabling (which I see no need to replace, but they only give you ~2m of cable to get from the amps to the crossovers!?!)
Finally is the assorted heatshrink I'll need, and the techflex courtesy of furryletters.

I jumped straight into it with the RCA output loom to be fitted to my headunit:

















I also made a fantastic find today at Jaycar. I run white LED footwell and dome lights, but I find the LEDs are fiddly to build into diffuse clusters (so it doesn't look patchy) and they blow all the time due to voltage spikes and the inevitable 14v+ across them (spikes etc.) It's also pretty expensive to do like that, my current setup is 12 LEDs at 5 bucks a pop, and they draw around an amp.

In comes these LED clusters from Jaycar to brighten my day (and my flickering footwells.) They are sealed, prewired clusters of 3 LEDs, with 10 clusters in a 1m run, for $20!!! Cut off the clusters as needed and wire in! Best of all, they are diffuse and all 10 clusters peak at about 400mA together! They even light at 30mA together... and when cranked up they roughly equal a 40w lightbulb in their ability to light the room, so I reckon they'll be just the ticket. As for voltage spikes, I haven't forgotten about them, and I'll show you what I'm doing to look after that sometime later


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

What do we have here?
Printed on photo paper








Double sided tape attached to the back








The original plugs then had their "dyna-link" stickers removed, sticky cleaned then cleaned right off with isopropyl alcohol for a good surface to stick to.
The labels were guillotined into 3 x 39mm strips and stuck down!








And repeated:








Then, some magic happens, and you get this:








With these:








mmmmm.
A test fit to see how they look (on a spare SS USA 305  )









I like 
The lines have shield connected at both ends at the moment as I will initially be running unbalanced. Later on I am planning on going fully balanced so all I have to do is lift the shield at one end.


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

Hey

Nice setup . I do like the very professional cables 

I think this makes 3 Radelaidians XD


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

And where you putting your port? do share


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

What, only one of them? Don't think you'll conjure the secrets from me just yet...


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

u sneaky! grr ill find out yet 

i have my ways


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

More arrivals today 








And what's this!?!?!








You'll all have to wait and see about that one, I need the car back first lol
One of these too: (photo flipped for demonstration)








It's a WK statesman flip-down sunglasses holder with map lights. As such:









Now it was only a matter of time before I made a hairbrained scheme to marry these two in perfect harmony.
Test fitting confirmed my thoughts 








The pouch removed








Surprisingly, the pouch disassembles. Didn't know that but it makes my job easy.








I shaved the bottom lip








and covered it








The cable coming out the bottom simply wouldn't do:








A new exit hole and it's all good








Bear in mind I've had this screen for about 4 hours 
Next, I simply ran a couple of screws (carefully) into the top of the screen








And it ends like this:
























Lurvley


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

lol i like the new updates, nice little screen you got yourself there!

ebay ftw!

i shuld swing buy, have a look at this little beast XD


lol look what 4hrs of boredom gets you


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I wasn't happy with the quality of the RCA looms so I re-did some parts.
I changed the RCAs to tuck in the techflex... the hole in the shell is too small to fit heatshrink AND techflex through, but because it's such a snug fit the techflex stays in tight. Very neat.








I also re-heatshrank the headunit loom because the sockets just didn't match well, and one of the bits of techflex had melted through while I was shrinking the heatshrink.








More news as it comes.

Still trying to sort out vinyl dye to do the grab handles and visors so I can get the headlining done next week.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Fellow Aussie (MEA) saying g'day and loving this build mate! Keep it up.

ps, got relos in Burnside, Bel-Air and MtBarker too.


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## lyttleviet (Sep 11, 2008)

Looks very good so far.. Keep us posted!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Gidday Syd-monster! There's some good driving roads up around belair 

IT'S BACK!









































For those in the know, it has a VX HBD front skirt, VX SS Sideskirts and a VT SS rear bumper and skirts. Looks fantastic to me!

The 16" wheels are temporary while I wait for my PDW avenge rims to come in.

Now the real fun begins!


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## Lothar34 (Oct 6, 2006)

Hey I have those taillights!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Progress for today:
The cable run for the LCD screen in the sunglass holder just didn't cut it.








Cable ties fix all:
















I disassembled the visors and grab handles:








Then cleaned with detergent, then isopropyl alcohol, then 3 coats of plastic primer, then 4 coats of K&H matt black:








And reassembled. Worked even better than I thought!









They now match my sunglass holder well, but not the rest of the roof. We will soon see how this ends


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Booked some time at the motor trimmers on Friday to have the headlining re-trimmed, they are next door to my work so I can just drop the car off for the day and pick it up all done! I am also getting fabric to do my pillars myself that night, and while it's all out I will be running wiring for the various additions going into the roof 

This fabric is fairly hard to track down... I managed to source it from "Daleys" who have outlets in most capital cities including Adelaide. The fabric itself (VZ Calais Black Headlining fabric) is coded HD13, and is AU$33 a metre (1520mm wide) for over-the-counter sales, or $20 a metre for trade accounts. So I'm getting my trimmer to buy it, and enough spare (2m?) to do my pillars


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Id get may be another meter 3m2 (or 2m of the roll???), just incase something goes wrong with the pillars... you never know. Any left over can be saved to cover something else?


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Yeah I was guessing probably 2m... mind you the fabric itself is about 200mm wider than the roof so I may get offcuts from that too.

Each pillar (4) would need about 300mm, then 300mm for the rear cover over the back window, and 300mm (at half roll width) to do the C pillars. So 2m would have a (tiny) bit to spare. I reckon that'll do it and I can buy more myself if I need it.

I'm also getting a can of 3M adhesive for the face of the pillars and I'm using carpet tape on the backside to keep the edges down. Doing the pillars is going to be one of my most important trimming jobs (ie. It's my car and I look at them every time I'm in it) and the only reason I'm not doing my roof lining is I don't want it falling down in the next heatwave


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

lol we dont want another repeat of the magginz!

85 origional roof lining ftw!


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## Extreme SE-R (Oct 31, 2008)

Lothar34 said:


> Hey I have those taillights!


Hey i have those letters on my license plate!


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## Lothar34 (Oct 6, 2006)

Extreme SE-R said:


> Hey i have those letters on my license plate!


Which letters?


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Photos from the weekend's work so far:
The front of the roof, between the visors:








A moment later and I had hacked it up. You can see the mounting points through the hole.








Fits fine and the screw holes line up well:








I then stripped the lot out:








The resultant pile of gear:








My living room soon after. Looks like a motor trimmers' workshop, in a bad way.








The C pillars wrapped:








And the B pillars (the seatbelt holes were fairly hard):








The car is now back together but I don't have any photos yet. It's worked well though 
I left the backing foam on the fabric when I trimmed the panels, and it's worked well. Overall considering the magnitude of the project it's gone swimmingly.
More photos tomorrow when I get a chance to take some good ones.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

The re-trimming is done 
It's now affectionately referred to as "the cave" by my friends... and it looks the goods. The quality of the headlining re-trim is great and I can't believe how well my own re-trimming of the pillars went. Goes to show that if you get off your ass and give it a try, it CAN work out for the best 
Sinister looking cockpit:








With screen and visors open 
















A pillars (nearly the most important part as they get looked at so often):








Centre dome light has been deleted because the lights in the LCD screen console (along with others I am adding) take care of interior lighting








Pillars and grab handles








I tried re-trimming my parcel shelf but I'm not happy with how it turned out and it needs to be changed significantly for what I have decided to do with it now. So it won't stay this way long 









Oh, and the ground clearance when backing into my garage !


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## Sub_Zer0 (Oct 16, 2008)

nom nom nom gotta love the cave XD.


and i was sitting right next to you when u took those fotos lol. looks SWEETER than when i saw it in, a very unique common wh*re


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

One point of my install is "stealth." Now everyone has their own idea of stealth but mine is thus: my car won't have any immediately visible modifications that were not available as a factory option as part of it's original model range. For example; calais and caprice in the VX series came with black trimmed headlining (depending on the leather colour,) WH statesman and caprice (same age as VX) came with the sunglasses holder, etc. You can see that I have well and truly gone to the effort to keep the headunit stealth, so I didn't want to ruin that with the rest of the install. The trick, instead, is to be able to show off a custom install, yet be able to return it to a standard-looking state without much effort.

Because I was so lazy when I originally SS-modded my headlights:

























And the start of my rear-view system, in-keeping with the stealth idea:

















It's not a stack of progress but, well, I cbf last weekend. I plan to get the lights in the sunnies holder modded, and the lights and screen wired in soon, and then I am starting on my final headunit build. You see, the HU I am running in there at the moment is a "hybrid" of several; original front panel and CD transport, main control board from another unit, and a stack of prototype circuitry. So I will be re-building it with all it's own gear, production Ipod control system, and build quality like you hopefully won't believe


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Did a little bit of work on the weekend:
The now ruined shelf, stripped, then the grille ovals cut out, foil'd, and fleece stapled over the holes








I then cut two 5" rings and stapled them down to the fabric to make curved flares. Then resin'd!








The two flares removed, one showing the underside. I did a coat of resin on the underside as well.








I then trimmed them down and lightly sanded








Then Vinyled (only done one at this stage)








Keep in mind that I won't actually be using the flares on top of the shelf, I was just using it as a mould. This week I'm stripping the rest of the shelf and re-trimming it in readiness for reinstallation on the weekend 

As a side note, you have to love driveways!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

OK, Tiny progress update. Finally bought myself some proper bog and have de-vinyled one of the flares to smooth it better. I have other plans for the rest of the bog, but the priority is interior lighting. It's getting impractical not having any in there, and I'm not doing it unless I'm doing it properly. So this week I am working on my lighting build, which is no small feat in itself... You'll all see why as it progresses, because at the moment it's just a bag of LEDs!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

The end of the day and my box of interior lighting tricks is done:


















Could it get much simpler looking? The answer is NO.

Tomorrow I am modifying the sunglasses holder to accommodate LEDs and then it's all being installed. Finished tomorrow? Perhaps...

Comments are welcome, it seems awfully quiet in here..


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Good work, i saw that on MEA too.
It can get quiet and the busy here on DIY, it comes and goes in waves. Don't get discouraged though. Many people read, but don't post.


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

We're all still waiting to see what the hell you have planned! You're not really letting us in on much. So we have to sit here waiting .... patiently.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

LOL, I am a bit of a tease... I get a kick out of it 
Finally picked up some wheels, I got sick of waiting for new ones so got second hand instead. They're in Melbourne though so I have to have them sent over.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I ripped the console out (again) and pulled the covers off the lights, and the piddly globes and reflectors. Turns out some of my wicked cheap LED clusters fit brilliantly with some glue.








I used my brand new christmas present to do the heatshrinking 
















The finished product from behind








and the front:








The LEDs are quite obvious in that photo but not when it's mounted.

I haven't actually put it back in the car yet, because after some pestering from fellow installers, I am going to fully smooth the screen to the lid of the compartment, greatly enhancing the bog factor - <throws horns> Unfortunately due to the way it goes together I have to bog it with the guts of the screen still in place... ergh... but it should still come out good. That's happening on Saturday, so the whole shebang will be reinstalled then. I might even get time to work on the shelf, but that'd be pushing my luck


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

And my wheels are finally on!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I have some photos of the console with the smoothed screen back in! I will have to get interior light photos once it gets dark.

First of all, I masked up the console lid, the face of the LCD, buttons and lead. I wanted to smooth it without the guts of the LCD in place, but it wasn't an option because there's no way to get it back in when it's done. So I went the risky way.









I then hit it with the bog









Obviously at this stage I am wondering what the hell I have got myself into. There's this absolute mess where my LCD screen used to be, and I'm wondering if I'm going to sand straight through the LCD accidentally. But patience pays off, and I spend about 4 hours with 120 grit on my wicked cheap Ozito sander, and this is the result after round 1:

















I then hit it with round 2 of the bog, sanded, and then round 3 with spray putty to get rid of the pinholes. It really helps to leave the spray bog dry overnight, otherwise it ends in a sticky, non-adhesive disaster even if it LOOKS dry. I then masked it for painting.









Due to not taking enough photos of the painting stage, here's one I prepared earlier:
Console closed, LED lights working








And open:








It's really hard to get a good photo, my web exporting quality doesn't help either...









And the money shot. It still works! I also notched the inside of my A pillar so it actually sits flat with the wiring in there.








And everyone's favourite song. Have a guess?









More photos once it gets dark!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

A little update for today 
I changed this:








For this:








(For those out of the loop or overseas, they are Holden Special Vehicles logo centre caps.)
Looks a lot better as these are level, they don't stick out like the others.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

News from the weekend...
I finally had a chance to give the new box a preliminary tryout. The box as I have previously mentioned is a 90 litre box and is ported... there are two 5 inch diameter ports, approx. 65cm long, which go into the top of the box and curve around behind the woofers. These ports point through the parcel shelf and will be connected to the flares on the shelf. The ports are (of all things) aluminium range-hood ducting, which is flexible, easy to cut and stretchable.

First of all, a pointless macro:








And the box with the port holes cut and a thin layer of wadding.








And inkeeping with tradition, a part of the box (the top) that will be hidden in the end was scrawled with installer garble:









Well, first impressions from going ported. It's going to take a lot of work to get right. I taped the port tubes in temporarily and went for a drive. Well, the woofers tore all the tape up and actually shredded parts of the tube. I severely underestimated the air pressures involved. BUT, the fundamentals are there, kick was savagely tight and overall volume & efficiency (same amp gain and setup) was higher. Tuning was also a lot lower than the sealed box, as was expected.

As I mentioned though it is going to take a lot of work to get the ports right, because they fire directly into the cabin port noise is going to be a huge consideration, and the sheer velocity of the air movement is going to need a lot of careful work to get it right. I may end up without any of this tube in the install because it's corrugated. I have a couple of ideas though and time will tell if it works out. Currently I've repaired the tubes and temporarily glued and sealed them in place to find out if I can actually get some decent sound IF the ports are properly secured and strengthened.

More news as it happens this week!

Also, made a new desktop background:


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

cool, I like the Macro.

... not so cool on the ya mum parts. But then again, i figured your doing that to get a responce. !!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Oh, not really, I originally used to put it there to obscure my plates when I'm uploading... it then became the punchline of the whole install. Perhaps the humour of "your mum" jokes is falling on deaf ears here?

I've just "rebuilt" my ports and I'm throwing the setup back in the car tonight for a trial. Turbulence will be the focus.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Ok guys, staggeringly, another update!
I have got the box a lot closer to "right." I pulled the woofers out and wrapped the partially shredded tube in tape. I then glued the tubes to the bottom, the back and the sides of the box, and glued properly all around the exit from the box. This means the tube is properly secured and flexes a lot less. I haven't put any wadding back in yet, but sliding the box back in and hooking it up, I am a lot happier with the response. It's a lot tighter, smoother and more linear, which is to be expected, but port noise and turbulence was greatly improved, so far as to call it perfectly acceptable in the front and very close to in the back. (having your ears right next to the ports makes the port noise more obvious, but it's not obtrusive even at high volume.)

I am very relieved because I was worried that the whole "porting through the parcel shelf" idea was dead in the water, but far from it. There are many more improvements to come this week as I throw it in there more permanently and mount the amps, but for now, pictures!

Port tube after being taped:








In situ (the ports are squashed near the end but does not affect overall port area of course because it gets thinner but also taller)








The woofer - port clearance (actually around 20mm, which is heaps.)
box33.jpg - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Temporarily strapped in, you can already tell there is going to be heaps of spare boot left, and I can still get to the spare.








The woofers through the ski-port. Yes they're very dirty but it looks oh so packed!








The ports through the shelf. Quality will improve further when I can seal the ports to the shelf through my vinyled flares!










Finally, a problem. I had been driving around for the last week, and the back of my car sounded like it was full of scrap metal. Bumps etc rattled terribly and I was concerned because the car was originally quite rattle free. I thought it may have been the cabling for the reverse camera, but not so. I opened the boot and prodded around, and the two 20mm long screws holding the boot latch on fell out! Shocked, I put them back in to find my boot now closed easier and no more rattling, and I can only presume that the W12s had had their way with it... which is kinda funny, but it's definitely getting some loctite!!!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Well guys, the parcel shelf is in for re-trimming at R & J Trimmers, the same place as I had my roof lining done. I had supplied the carpet for them but I am having more quality stuff put on instead tomorrow.
I had been to a friend's house on the weekend to strip the bits of glue and foam off, and the thing was still looking wretched. The 3M 76 glue just didn't work but Rob at R&J has a better adhesive which works brilliantly when layered on nice and thick.

I am looking forward to getting it back after driving without a shelf for a month now! I have also put threads in around the grille holes so I can fit the flares properly 

On the bass, I am impressed so far. The extra speed afforded by porting has brought the bass forward really well, and the subs have almost disappeared. It needs re-tuning though because there is a lot more bass for the same gain due to the efficiency, and needs to be lowpassed a lot lower to blend even better with the Orion midbasses (which are very solid down to around 50Hz.)

Of course the ports need work too, but have improved significantly


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## marshall (Dec 8, 2008)

hey looking good mate i love your ipod intergiratio thing very innovative and handy


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

How about some PVC tubing for your ports? Low cost, easy to find, PLUS any number of angled and corner sections available for endless configuration of curves ...

Just a thought.


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

Sorry, double post!


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

As per your MEA post, cool progress....

It would be interesting to hear that (considering the fact that the ports are about (90') off set from the sub affecting the sound. Are the ports particularly tuned to length?

Otherwise those 2 JL's do look business!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I'd love PVC but 5 inch is damn nearly impossible to find!
Got the shelf back, looks blardy awesome, I'm working on it tonight then I'll post photos


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Ok everyone, well I have my parcel shelf back from R&J trimmers, the same place that did my roof lining. The carpet is apparently some of the best to work with that you can buy. It's incredibly plush. And, only $14 a metre - they only wanted $24 to trim the shelf! I gave Rob $30 because it would have cost me that just for a can of 76, let alone the carpet, and I would have just made a mess of it.








I simply can't believe the work they do. It's flawless. I don't even know how Rob managed to get the carpet stretched right over this complex shape without wrinkles, but he did. 

Luckily, I had prepared four countersunk M3 screws for each flare before it was trimmed, and now they're invisible from the top.








I then drilled and fitted the flares.








Factory subwoofer grilles fit straight on these holes, and despite my poor photo they match the colour VERY well and the flares are almost invisible.








I am installing the amplifiers properly now, but the grounds in their current position didn't reach to the mounting points, so I re-made the grounds and did them properly. Both 4 gauge cable.








Commodore owners: This is how you do a proper ground! This is just above the left wheel arch in the boot, it is a flange that connects to an inner panel and to the wheel arch. This flange is proper structural steel and already has an unused 8mm hole in it. I ground the paint down to the steel, and bolted down thusly:
M8x20mm stainless steel bolt > flange > stainless steel star washer > knurled & flanged M8 nut > terminal > terminal > knurled & flanged M8 nut.
Inverting one of the terminals makes for a really neat mounting.








I rearranged the wiring for the temporary install (the subwoofer box and amp mounting, hopefully, will be permanent whereas the system will be re-wired in the new year and the wiring can be changed with the box in place)








Finally I put some flanges on the flanges, to butt the ports into, and seal them to the shelf. This is actually a cut up plant pot, and sealed on with silicone, to cope with high temperatures on the shelf in 40+ degree C days.









Needless to say I am exceedingly excited about getting this installed, and tomorrow I have the following on the list:

-Re-work ports (I may be trying PVC if I can find a nearby store to sell it cheap - 6/half dozen...)
-Get proper black mushroom head screws to put the woofers in
-Amp mounting
-Box installation & brackets
-Temporary wiring
-Cut, trim & install dress panel

Sounds simple but there's a lot of work involved. I can't wait


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Time for an update... it's been christmas so I've been doing SFA, including my install - because I'm 250km away from home on the river. Fantastic 
Before I left though, I looked after the amplifier mounting, box mounting and a dress panel so it's all good for luggage on the trip.
Amplifiers mounted (finally got some black panheads) and dress panel cut. It's tight enough to be a push fit.

















It's worth noting too that the box is bolted into the car. Because of the tight fit, I could put two large coach bolts through the edge of the underlying metal parcel shelf frame, straight into the top of the front face of the box. This means stealing my subs or my box now involves taking the base of the back seat out, the two seat backs, folding the ski port down, undoing the clips holding the parcel shelf in including the seatbelt and baby seat bolt, removing the shelf, uncoupling the ports from the shelf, and undoing the coach bolts!!! And it also means the whole bloody thing isn't sliding around any more, doing damage to my amplifiers.

The system temporarily wired and some standoffs for the dress panels. They're about 45mm high so the amps poke through slightly. Yes I do get a touch of noise in the system by routing the cables so badly!









With the dress panel in place. I'm glad I didn't make a full-width panel as to me it looks a little "flat," and making holes for the boot arms is, to me, an ugly part of a full-width install. There is a little excess room at the bottom to show off the cabling. I may make some small changes in the new year to this panel but I am fairly happy with it.









Yes the wiring does look poxy at the moment, but it will be shmick before long 









It's increasingly hard to get a good photo of the shelf but it's back in and I'm very happy with the fit. Porting through the parcel shelf has reduced shelf rattles immensely, there are no percievable rattles now. The massively thick carpet would have helped too.









And the grilles in place. It's hard to see the ports with the grilles on, and there is no excess noise due to the grille area being easily twice the area of the port. At the moment the grilles are just sitting there but I am planning some velcro for them. The ports are not coupled to the flares either but sound ok at this stage.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I think it's worth putting in some purely subjective descriptions of the parcel shelf porting now too, as many people were interested in the idea when I first asked for opinions.
Aside from the obvious advantages that porting would give me; the 3dB extra efficiency along with extra transient speed, I was also hoping to achieve bass that was deeper than the sealed box specs would give me, even more efficiency by facing all of the radiating outputs (woofer faces and ports) into the cabin of the car instead of into the boot, and less dependency on having the ski port open to achieve smooth, powerful bass. I often have 5 people in the car or a stack of gear, and I find opening and closing the ski port every time I use my car a little silly just to achieve bass. So by porting through the parcel shelf (large openings and room for factory grilles) I was hoping to have big bass without having to open the ski port.

Possible problems I had in mind was phase difference by putting the ports and the woofer faces perpendicular to each other, as well as overall timing and phase with the front speakers, as well as exactly how big the difference will be with the ski port open and closed.

Keep in mind that it isn't completely finished. I am still working on the ports to make them a little quieter, and coupling them properly to the flares on the parcel shelf. But for tuning and initial listening purposes the system is set up properly.

As a "summary" of the sound, doing this setup has allowed me to set the subwoofers up as dedicated very low frequency production, and they are as good as invisible in natural music, just making deep bass and adding to heavy kick, and in R&B and electronic music they come out of nowhere to beat me around the head with bass as heavy as the gains dictate, whilst still appearing "up front."

I can tell you straightaway that the efficiency and transient speed is improved greatly. These woofers were no slouch at 500 watts in a sealed box. I connected the system at the same gain as I had in my sealed box and it just about took my head off, I was running about a quarter gain on the 500/1 and am now running less than half that. The speed of the woofers are now a blessing and a curse; they are fabulously sharp and kick is heavy but also tidy and powerful, but on some music the kick from the subs, just a couple of milliseconds later than the front speakers, can confuse the location of bass, but only on a small selection of naturally produced music, with sharp kick and no reverberation on the track. I can only imagine how tightly integrated these woofers would be with some slight TA in the future, and it made me realise that the kick was such a non-event in the sealed box that their lack of transient response was effectively "masked." For most music the speed is very welcome and moves the bass to the front of the car in a way I didn't think possible. Depth is amazing - I don't have a signal generator with me but with the sinewaves I have on my ipod it's very solid down around 30Hz, but I'm not sure where it drops off after that. 20Hz is well below the tuning point but can still be achieved (albeit with unloaded woofers at 20Hz one must be careful with the volume... I really should set the subsonic filter up.)

At first power-up it was evident that a lot more midbass gets into the cabin with this setup. I had a fairly lax LP setup on them in the sealed box but it made it sound horrible. I am now running around 45Hz at 24db/octave, the extra slope is needed to roll it off quickly and keep midbass out of it and blends with my midbass drivers well (they are ridiculously strong performers and regularly abuse my doors around the 50Hz range.)

My phase concerns were without substance; the bass is very conveniently focussed at the listening position. Perhaps strangely the bass is better focussed at the listening position than right up at the windscreen.

The only problem at this stage is that the ports are very light and despite being fastened at both ends still move and rattle in the box with R&B music or LF burps. I have plans for this though and will take care of it in the new year.


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## strong*I*bumpin (Oct 3, 2005)

why not use the Precision ports or even some PVC.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Thanks for your POV on your set up. Sounds like your happy overall, but & I agree with you, need to take care of the physical mounting of the ports. Great work!!!
What is next for this set-up? (plans?)


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

Big_Valven said:


> Lowpoke, you're right, we might be the only two! Good to see you on here though!
> 
> TODAY'S PROGRESS
> I made a circle jig for my jigsaw (a jig jig!)...


YO DAWG We heard you like jigs so we put a jig in yo' jig so you can saw while you saw


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

HondAudio said:


> YO DAWG We heard you like jigs so we put a jig in yo' jig so you can saw while you saw


ROFL!!!

Honestly I'm not sure how to approach the ports... PVC is probably the most stable straightforward solution, but I need 125mm (5") PVC which is hard to find, as well as the elbows, I could heat it up and squash it behind the woofers, but the mismatch between the ports and the flares might catch me out.

Fibreglass is an option as is building a square wood inner port and bringing it on in a tube, but nothing's gonna be easy.

Thinking hats on!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Okay people, 
the visors were giving me the sh*ts. The paint I had used goes soft on hot days and sticks to the roof lining. Plus it's gone glossy and doesn't match the rooflining at all. So I am re-trimming them by hand. I'm putting the procedure up here, anyone ballsy enough to take this on and get it right deserves the help. It took me a whole day (beer and TV included) to do this properly. I also had a warm-up by banging together a small pouch for the often-lost allen key, screwdrivers, spare fuses etc from some headlining material.









After removing the visor from the car, the two rods pull out, then I sliced the vinyl off with a scalpel around the seam and pulled it apart. The inside of the visor is plastic, and luckily black for the slightly see-through headlining material. The mirror and slide assembly is separate.









After carefully checking out a visor trimmed from the factory, I carefully cut a slot in the inside edge of the plastic frame.









I then used the old vinyl to make a template. I used several trials to make sure I could sew and fit the fabric properly and tightly.









The fabric from the failed parcel shelf retrim was perfect despite having ruined backing foam. So I steamed it off with the iron.









The outline was traced and folded inside out, then pinned and sewn.

















I can't post any more photos in this post so more pics once someone replies!

Long update I know... but I am also lost as to what to build the ports from. IDEAS PLEASE!
You cannot buy 125mm (5 inch) PVC anywhere in Australia, 6 inch is too big to fit through the shelf, and 4 inch is way too small for the subs. How should I build 5" ports for minimal turbulence & maximum strength?


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## baggedbirds (Sep 21, 2008)

5" dia. is a common size for electrical conduit from tranformers (at least here), its gray in color and also made of PVC I believe. How about a store that is more of a commerical construction supplier.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Hey, that's an idea... Vinidex among others does indeed list conduit and fittings in 125mm, thanks a heap baggedbirds! Sounds like I'm off to Rexel/some other electrical supplier next week, even if I have to order the stuff in...

--- VISOR RETRIMMING CONTINUED ---

You will notice the fold is at the bottom of the visor and there is a seam at the top. I ironed the hems over so the seam sits flat and straight, then test fitted it and cut the hole for the mirror. I cut exactly at the mirror line to allow for stretching when it is attached to the mirror frame.








Which is done with some strong glue, with the fabric inside out. When glued, the cover flap (driver's side) and the mirror glass need to be reinserted before the whole lot is turned the right way round. It's hard work and a bit of a stretch. I made a black cover flap from a DVD case to replace the beige one.

















I lightly sprayed the plastic frame with adhesive so the fabric doesn't slide around and slide it on. The beige slider assembly shows in this photo but not in real life.








Finally, I used a flat-blade screwdriver to push the fabric in the end, which then looks like a seam.








I then sliced the holes for the rods with a scalpel and fitted them back in.

















And compared with a factory-trimmed one, the fit of mine is much tighter.









My Dad bought a Canon 450D... so I finally have some good finished interior shots!


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

Hey, nice work on the visors. They look way better than the originals!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I've got updates... they are only minor but I'm back at work now and have other bigger updates coming 
First of all, the rear grab handle lights. Instead of brand new at nearly $40 a pop, Just Commodore Spares wanted $10 each. Done 
A photo of an original light (rear) with a hacked LED one in front:








They work just like the originals with the 3 position switch; off, door, or on.

I cut a slot where the light fits, and secured the earth for the "on" position of the switch to one of the handle's screws. The permanent +12v supply and controlled GND from my dimmer module are fed up through light-duty figure 8 cable that I installed when I was re-trimming.









After that it was simply a matter of slotting them in and giving them a try!

















I haven't connected footwell lights in the back yet, as that will come with the re-wire, but I finally have light in the back! As you may have guessed the LCD console didn't do much for the rear, but now it's all lit up like daylight  and my lighting controller works perfectly...

I wired a simple circuit with two small PIC chips putting their own PWM drives out through transistor switches. One is slow (footwell lights) and the other quicker (roof lights.) If getting in and starting the engine quickly (or the opposite,) the lights fade in about 1 1/2 seconds. After about 20 seconds when the factory light timer turns off, they fade a lot slower (about 10 seconds.) because of the different fade times this results in the COOLEST interior lighting you have seen, like a luxury european car but even classier because of the stepped timing. It really is impressive and something hard to describe in words... I will try and get vids when I can find a capable camera!

Another small bit of progress... I was just waiting to scratch the amps again and even with the dress panel I knew I needed something in there. But I had to be able to adjust the amp settings easily. So I got some mesh folded at either end, and the matt black treatment:









It was then edged and installed, resulting in this:









The top tucks right in and the bottom sits out. The bend holds everything in quite strongly with friction. It's not how it's going to stay but let's just say a sign of things to come


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Some small updates; I am continuing the build of my headunit tomorrow. Not sure how far I'll get but I'm hoping it's a long way. One of the problems in my way is the Ipod's lead... I'm not having separate data / AV leads, but I can't get multicore leads in South Australia with separated shielded leads.

I managed to rip the coach bolts out of my box whilst doing prolonged spirited driving... so I will need new brackets to hold them in.

Still considering options for ports... I have worked out the box is tuned too low, so I'll be fixing that at the same time.

I am also planning to re-wire the system on the weekend but it depends if the weather is good... it's been 40 deg C + here lately, which incidentally has been a good test for the interior... nothing has melted, peeled, stuck together or otherwise been destroyed so that's good. But the interior work is far from done, because at this stage I can ascertain the following rattles whilst achieving mild VBA situations:
LCD console on roof (worse if it's opened)
Both front window winder handles
front and back passenger side and rear driver's side lock snibs
something behind the air vents on the dash
about 4 different rattles on bits of the parcel shelf (on balance it isn't actually clipped in)
and of course the horrendous port noise.

Much work ahead, but getting there!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

An update on the build of the headunit...
IPOD LEAD

This may seem like a very minor part of the system but to me is almost as challenging as the rest of the headunit build, because of the requirements:
-Combined data, power and AV lines in 1 cable
-Cable must be flexible and small-diameter
-Must be easily removed from headunit and Ipod end
-Must fit through existing wiring holes in centre console and behind dash
-Must be solid (eg cable entry into Ipod plug)
-Must look acceptable

The interference issues are paramount... I have spent a long time chasing interference issues in the lead in my current prototype and it's not straightforward to get rid of. I usually isolate the charging power when I want to really listen to music, and that's not acceptable to me. It's also an ugly cable and really awkward to use.

After some time of searching I just had to go out and get something to try. I ended up with 3m of VGA monitor lead from MSY computers for $6. This originally seemed like a silly idea but now it's done I couldn't have chosen better. Take a closeup look at the cross-section:
















(From my USB microscope. Comes in handy for these things!)

It has a PVC outer sheath, tinned copper braid & foil outer shield, 5 PVC-insulated inner copper control wires, and then 3 separate polypropylene insulated conductors, with a copper shield wire, wrapped in foil shield and mylar insulation. A mouthful! BUT it is absolutely ideal for this application, because the whole cable can be shielded, there are enough control/power wires, and then I can have Left, Right and Video all individually shielded to audio ground instead of chassis ground, minimising not only interference but also channel crosstalk.

As you can see the sheath is thick and very inflexible. I have a fix for that, in the same way I techflexed the RCA - 3.5mm lead shown earlier in the build.









I then carefully stripped and attached the lead to the bare ipod connector. This is very time consuming and fiddly, I had to take a break in the middle because I got the compulsive shakes from working with such fine stuff. I had also techflexed and heatshrank the lead at this stage.









I inspected all the solder joints with the microscope for shorts or bad joints before testing. The Ipod connector has 0.4mm or less clearance between some parts of the pins so solder bridges can form very easily.
I also tested the cable repetitively and in detail on my home theatre setup, both for audio and video whilst being charged. I am happy to say that charging interference is completely absent on the audio and video lines, to the limit of my HT's volume control. The last test will be in-situ.









And the final cable. The headunit end has an 8-pin S-Video style plug and chassis socket, with the inner headunit loom also shown. The small flying lead on the headunit end is to change the accessory resistor, to tell the ipod what sort of accessory is plugged into. Usually I set it as a standard serial remote control, but I need to be able to experiment with Iphones and the like.









I know it's a long writeup on a cable, but all up the process was the best part of a day's work, simply because it's so fiddly and detailed, and testing and verification is so time consuming. It's not something I wish to repeat soon, but for now I have myself a quality Ipod lead.
The rest of the headunit build is now well underway!


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## Luke352 (Jul 24, 2006)

3M 76 adhesive can't handle high heat that's why it would've failed you need to use 3M 77, it's about the same price and you don't get anywhere hear as much coverage per can but it will handle the heat inside a car without a problem.


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## capnxtreme (Feb 5, 2008)

Very cool work on the cable. Thanks for sharing.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Luke352 said:


> 3M 76 adhesive can't handle high heat that's why it would've failed you need to use 3M 77, it's about the same price and you don't get anywhere hear as much coverage per can but it will handle the heat inside a car without a problem.


FYI, none of the adhesives failed at all... my problem in the past was the paint on the sunvisors softening and sticking to my roof lining. Fixed now as you can see (but it was good to know it could get through the hottest day of the year without problems  )


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## Luke352 (Jul 24, 2006)

Ah, yeah that could be messy lol. I like the way you've integrated the install, although the HU is not really my thing, (i'm an anti factory HU type of guy) but I will say I admire the work you've put into the HU it's an incredible piece of kit and what you've managed to make it do is impressive. I can imagine if you can make it a kit or swap over type of deal it will be have lots of demand in the marketplace.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks for the kind words Luke352. There's more on the way 

More slow progress on the headunit build. It's giving me the sh*ts because I've had Friday and all weekend to work on it and I've actually done stuff all. But pics nonetheless:

The galvanised case was oxidised, so I thought I'd make it a little special by giving it the lightly brushed look. Oh, yes, it is completely disassembled.









I prepped the extra cable entries / socket mounts on the back panel









And prepared the main system board with all the wiring needed by my controller.









Pretty hopeless, I would have liked to at least have it assembled and a test program running in it. I can only hope tomorrow night is productive!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

UPDATE
The headunit is just about ready for some sound quality testing in the car tomorrow with the final controller, switching and buffer board in place. I honestly don't know what to expect sound wise, whether the charging noise will still be there, and if the whole thing is going to **** itself 500m down the road.
A few more tweaks comms-wise and we'll see. The whole thing needs new firmware because the stuff I've had running in it for the last year is getting quite buggy. (I just notice it more now.)
It's painful having worked on it for 5 days and I am pretty much where I was when I took it out of the car... but perseverance will pay off, oh dammit I'm hoping it pays off. Because working 14 hours a day isn't my idea of fun anymore.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

As per your MEA thread... keep going mate. We wan't to see where you end up with this!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

News on the prototype... things are going well, but slightly unpredictably. Somehow serial comms didn't work in the car this morning but a hard reset and it's all good. Not sure why, but all in all it's working 100% on the bench right now, and tomorrow a final test before going back in the car again to drive to work.

Preouts are working brilliantly (even though they are only running from 5v allowing an absolute maximum just below 2v RMS. I will ultimately run them from 12v.

Charging noise is minimal (well below the noise floor of most recordings) but there is a ~2KHz whine whenever the hard drive spins up. This could be high frequency noise on the audio lines causing the mixer chip to oscillate somehow... I am hijacking the oscilloscope at work tomorrow and I'll find out where it's coming from.

It's getting very close to what I'm happy with hardware-wise. New firmware will follow on the weekend smile.gif Hopefully with a re-wire, it's going to be a 4 day weekend!!! w00t!


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## junglejuice72 (Oct 2, 2008)

Nice work there mate, I would love to know how you did the iPod integration.

"Splits
I picked up some brand new Orion P6.2 splits from the car audio shop I used to install for. Orion is fairly unheard of in Oz but these speakers are very solid and midbass performance is mind-blowing down to around 50Hz and treble, for titanium vapour deposit tweeters, is a lot smoother than I expected."

I have used Orion gear on and off for around 15yrs, with my current subs a pair of 2NT10dvc's for about 10 years now and they are brilliant.
Here is Brisbane Orion was very popular about 10-15 yrs back but these days they are made in asia so they are well down on the popularity stakes....


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## junglejuice72 (Oct 2, 2008)

capnxtreme said:


> I'm anxiously watching this one. Looks good so far.
> 
> That grille really just needs a giant Pontiac badge, though.


WHY would he want a Pontiac badge on a Holden????????


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Sorry mate, the holden badge stays (being built here 'n all)

OK well the fronts amp seems to have shat itself slightly... a brief in-car diagnosis suggests a mechanical fault so hopefully it will be a connection between the main board and the xover board (identical to the one the 500/1 had during bench testing, easy fixed.) I'll crack it open and have a look tomorrow.

On another note, the source of noise has been tracked down - 10KHz at about 400mV on the charging line whenever the ipod hdd spins up... filtering will be installed shortly


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Well folks, I have the amp open and it's not looking good... photos speak a thousand words...
Keen eyes will notice something awry straight away:









That's right... the two big inductors in the power supply have broken their glued mounts and shorted against each other...

















The cause of this is a hard one... I had always been a believer that amplifiers don't get harmed when mounted on sub boxes (because they're just as likely to receive a stack of vibration anywhere else in the car,) but at least one obvious factor was that the amplifiers are mounted vertically. BUT it's not as straightforward as that because the inductors have shifted towards the TOP of the amplifier, against gravity???

My car accident could have affected it because at the time the amplifier was mounted flat pointing towards the front of the car, and overall my amps haven't had an easy life physically. If I had pulled power to the amp when it first happened I would have been fine but had also just installed new preouts on the headunit and suspected the headunit instead, so I only pulled the RCAs.

I'll definitely be inspecting the other amplifier carefully but for now this one will have to sit on the sidelines, while a Soundstream USA-100 goes temporarily in its place. The inductors themselves will be fine but I suspect they have done damage to the power supply as it stinks of death and while the amp still lives, anything above very moderate volume has MASSIVE distortion, although voltage levels seem to stay stable and on the money (+- 53v within 1/2 a volt, +- 15v within two volts, bigger difference but surely not critical.)

JL guards their circuits rigidly so I'll be flying blind too... but that's the way it goes sometimes...


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

I would have thought the winding would have been varnished. So is the copper on them straight exposed? Or when they colided the insulation gave and thus the short?

Either way don't give in. You system has quite a few interested.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

OK, I have more photos of blown up amp guts!
These are MOSFETS in the power supply regulation circuit:








And their associated scorch marks on the heatsink:









My amp's an early one! PCB number probably indicates this is board #9 off the production line...









So far damage appears to be limited to the MOSFETS (all six,) their associated gate resistors, and their drivers. Hopefully none of the proprietary circuitry is damaged 

My headunit is doing well... it no longer refuses to control the Ipod when it's above 40 deg C + air temperature, and the preamp output muting is working like it never did before. CHARGING NOISE IS ALSO FIXED! FINALLY! So I can charge my Ipod while it plays, without interference! (sounds like a small issue but I've lived with it for over a year now.)

Things are slowly moving. Yay!


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

You sound pretty happy for a guy who just blew up an amp ... I suppose that's the difference between someone who can fix it themselves ... and me


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Well I've been slack and I'm ordering replacement parts for the amplifier later today... And this is the other reason I've been so busy (built from scratch) :

























Total cost: $5 for melamine edging  I have "contacts..."

I FINALLY have a decent workspace for electronics. The dining table and kitchen bench just weren't cutting it anymore.


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## tusk (Feb 20, 2008)

^^^ Pretty cool


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## orangelss (Dec 20, 2008)

Nice car, here in the states were finally getting the "El Cameno" version you all have had for years. Beautiful work on the wiring and general install.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Good news everyone - all of the parts required for the first stage of repairs to my 300/2 amplifier have arrived, and hopefully I can get started on rebuilding the power supply section tonight 

I will post news as it happens


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Nice work...can't wait to see more progress.


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## DazzaVTS (Feb 17, 2009)

nice work on the install. i recently put 6x9's in my parcel shelf but now i wish i thought of your idea. may change later on.

i love the how to on the head-lining i want to do the same thing go all black inteior. i already have some vynil paint for my doors and have organised leather paint. One question tho. Rand J trimmers at Findon or Redwook Park. i am a fellow adelaideian.

One more thing before i forget its only a little thing but where does your ipod connection come out of? did you drill a hole in the cup holder??

thanks for the great how to.

daz


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Dazza... R & J are the ones at Findon, and I drilled a hole in the cup holder, makes it very stealthy and holds the ipod ideally!

Now...
Here begins the repair process for the amplifier...
The MOSFETs in the power supply were ungraciously hacked off, then their legs removed from the board, then the solder sucked out of the holes. Their gate protection resistors were removed too, as were the two inductors originally responsible for the mess.









The glue from the inductors and the burn marks from the FETs were scrubbed off with alcohol and the entire are cleaned up for re-working. I was surprised how well it cleaned up!









I then wanted to make extra sure the F&%&ing inductors didn't move again. I *very carefully* drilled four holes in the circuit board and cable tied them down. They don't budge now and there's no glue to give way when it gets hot.

















To make sure they never had the chance to short out again, I then heatshrinked them. It will be a bad day when it manages to wear through all this!









I then went out to the garden and picked myself a fresh set of MOSFETs. This stage gets tricky because static can destroy them, so ESD safe wristband and bench mat!









The new FETs in place. If you look back at the photo of the initial damage, it's a lot tidier now!









I then did a quick bench test before re-assembling. Because it had no heatsink I couldn't be long, but it is now working! Stacks of volume and no distortion. It seems as though it's mission accomplished! The next step would be to put it back together to give it an extended test!

I cleaned the scorch marks from the heatsink (compare to the photo of the damage) and layered on some more thermal grease.









The (annoying) clips that hold the devices down to the heatsink go into place nicely when hammered gently at the right angle.









I did a quick test with the heatsink on and the amplifier went into protection... it turns out I had gouged the heatsink slightly when removing the clips and this pierced the very thin mica washer which electrically isolates the FETs from the heatsink, shorting them out. The protection circuit ensured no damage was done, but the mica washer has seen better days:









I removed the heatsink and it still works as expected, so tomorrow I shall buy some new mica washers and the repair should be complete by the end of the night!

(PS. It's a freaking good feeling knowing this fantastic amplifier won't end up in the rubbish.)


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I've now fitted silicone washers and clipped the FETs back down, the amplifier is working wonderfully and is having an extended soak test on the workbench. In about half an hour I'll put it back together and throw it in the car


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## IBcivic (Jan 6, 2009)

a small blob of epoxy right in between the 2 inductors could of also been a viable option .... beautiful repair job , none the less....


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Why didn't I think of that?! Hopefully they won't be going anywhere for some time...

Power
Dynamics
Subtlety
Linearity
Nuance
...Two working channels

These are things I finally have again in the car! The amplifier is holding up brilliantly and I realised just how much I missed the sound of this amplifier... the SS USA-100 was a very harsh amp to listen to and very overdone treble without much extension, coming back to the JL it is almost understated in comparison, but you realise you're suddenly hearing so much more music than noise 

I think it's "case closed" on this one, time to go back to what I enjoy most: Making teh car audioz!


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

As per MEA thread, great work and patience to see this through.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I managed to get a fair few little annoying jobs out of the way despite having lots on this weekend... First of all was hard-wiring the screens in a more permanent configuration, and testing the video output of the headunit. Not much to see here... at the moment I have split the video signal out the back of the headunit with a heap of adapters and stuff, it needs a purpose-built splitter that I'll get around to before my full system re-wire. The screens are wired into accessory power and the roof screen's cable runs behind the fuse panel under the driver's side - almost invisible. The rear screen cable is simply tucked under the centre console for now. All of the connections are made under the HU, behind the sunglasses pocket. Nice and roomy 

The rear screen is mounted temporarily (Camera flash makes my interior look putrid, it's actually pretty clean









This all served very well for the bushfire appeal cruise that Bobo333 and I went on yesterday. My friend and I were watching Top Gear on the cruise out to Murray Bridge, and we all sat back to "that 70's show" whilst lunching on snags and coke once we got there  My ipod seems more agreeable driving two screens directly than my laptop (image quality suffered when both screens were plugged in, not so with the Ipod.)

Later on that evening I wired my reversing camera. I didn't think the RCA video lead they supplied would make it all the way to the boot and snake along the boot arm to the back of the bootlid... but it did comfortably. It's just running along the RHS of my car at the moment along with interior lighting wires, waiting for my full re-wire. I connected power for the camera from the RHS tail light socket, light green being positive, black / blue stripe being negative:








And snaked the power wire back along the quarter panel behind the carpet, then across and up the boot lid arm.

I also connected the dedicated trigger for my roof mounted screen (turns screen on to AV2 when reverse is selected.)
The light green reverse wire was tapped into above the right kick panel on the upper main body harness connector (thank goodness for service manuals!) It was a fiddly job because the cable is so far behind the dash.








And the harness plugged back in. You can just spot the green wire which travelled along behind the fuse box and connected to the screen harness.








And finally, a dodgy shot of the temporary wiring on the boot lid. I have some minor work on reducing rattles with the numberplate and rear garnish, then I can put this in permanently and finally affix my Calais boot carpet liner 









This week? Finishing with the boot lid, making a trigger circuit to turn my screens on automatically, and maybe even some work on the headunit firmware!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

FOTERS:
Boot lid carpet in place








Loom tubing all the wiring up the boot arm:








Tube in place. It's only a simple thing but trust me it looks SO DAMN GOOD in real life, it's so neat, like it's meant to be there:








Absolute stealth factor, snaking behind the carpet in the boot








And I have put a line socket on the headunit so the ipod lead plug doesn't foul on the airconditioning duct behind it.








And finally, the "beerzooka." a pneumatic beer bong invented by my mate. I would have taken video of it in action, but I wasn't in the appropriate capacity to operate a camera  It can empty a stubby, forcefully, into your throat in less than a second.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Hello all,
I am still considering my options for porting my box. I am happy with the overall sound of the box however the ports are not holding up. I suppose I have a couple of options:
1. Find materials to build the ports as intended... anything I have found so far has either cost about 100 million dollars or involved a massive amount of custom work - meaning it may turn out just as badly as it is right now.
2. Rebuild the box - this means I could build a kind of hybrid slot / tube port, ie putting a folded slot port in the box and connecting it through the shelf with tube.

The problem is that any other options would mean I lose the benefit of the shelf-porting... which I am very happy with (so many rattles have disappeared and efficiency is incredible.)

Oh, and no, I'm not going sealed  I enjoy the transient response too much to swap it for linearity


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

OK, I'm no expert on this, but could you wrap your existing ports in fibreglass for rigidity?


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

+1 on the fibreglassing the existing ports and deadning them as in, wrapping them in stickon-deadner. This is somethign Im sure you could pull off.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Quick post... I threw the woofer specs into winISD and tried a 4 inch diameter port. I came up with a mach of 0.12 (below 0.16, just.) It's a long way up from 0.07 for a 5 inch port but it has a couple of advantages:
1. The port will be short enough to avoid a bend to fit in the box, reducing turbulence over a bent port. I can also flare the port better.
2. I can actually make it (PVC.)

For the ease and cheapness that I can try this, it's worth a try. We'll soon find out if it's any good...

Opinions welcome!


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Im no vented box tuner, (see what happens when your used to IB or sealed) so yeah, if you can make it simply a straight port into the box, then thats a better idead again.

ps, been watching your MEA thread too..


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I have tried the 100mm ports in the box, at 440mm long (a little bit longer once installed.) First I removed the box and the drivers, and the cheap bunnings glue has not held on.








It is clear that the W3s have taken their toll on the ports








I set up a jig for flaring the ports, with an upended bowl and the heat gun pointed at the edge of the tube. I set the heat gun on 300 degrees and slowly heated the tube whilst rotating and pushing down.
















Repeat a few times and you get this








I then installed them with some panels to cover the larger 125mm holes and slid the box in (amplifiers are not mounted at the moment) and put the short flared end in through the parcel shelf.









The sound is... better. I haven't got the fronts connected at the moment so proper comparisons are not really possible. On R&B tracks chuffing is evident although not bad in the front, and better than the old rattly corrugated tube. With proper length tube the bass is a lot deeper and better composed, and not compromised at high volume, although the tube is probably about 20mm longer than it should be because the flares are not inserted fully.

I need to do more listening especially with the front speakers connected, but I'm happy with it compared to the old ports and I want to finish the boot install and let it be for a while


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## IBcivic (Jan 6, 2009)

diy flaring....impressive results!


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## jsgvup (Mar 6, 2009)

loving the setup especially taking that good old stocky to task and giving it some massive mods from an ex-radelaidian... kudos to you... my vt will be up here soon when i get some hardcore $$$ together. although i might just make a blog for it as its going to be a complete exterior / interior rebuild... will defs link it in though


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## lowpoke (Jun 1, 2008)

Hey man, those flared ports look very sexy indeed!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks guys, Lowpoke I suppose it was just one of those simple things that I fluked! It's definitely going in the arsenal for DIYing knowledge 

MAJOR UPDATE
I am happy with the parcel shelf porting now and I think I have taken it as far as I can as a concept, and I also feel as though I'm now using the W3s to their full potential, so I'm quite satisfied. With properly tuned ports as I have now, windscreen, roof and side window flex is now quite easy , although not as big or impressive as some of the SPL guys, but I think from 500 watts it's not a bad effort at all! Transient response is further improved from the previous ports and audibly the response seems to be in line with what I expected from the WinISD plot (+2.5dB hump around 48Hz IIRC.) I definitely want to play with the frankly quite excellent bass eq on the 500/1 just to make things a little more linear as well as finally setting up the subsonic filter.

With the successful testing of the 100mm ports I was looking forward to really getting the install to a point where I can leave it be and enjoy it until I get the itch again, so I have been working hard this week to bring it all together. On with the photos - and I think it's most appropriate to start with the finished product, thanks to a loan of a Canon 450D.

Because the vinyl peeled so badly I decided it was time for a change. The woofers and amplifiers are now backed with gathered satin polyester to match the car's paint colour. A unique look!









































The 100mm (4in) port flanges seem to fit with the 5" holes in my shelf flares well. They are staying white for a while whilst I experiment with colours.









The whole system has been re-wired with my custom RCAs, 12 gauge speaker wire, two runs of 4 gauge power wire, upgraded fuseholders, upgraded grounds, and techflex all round.

























More photos and updates tomorrow!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

CONTINUED:-
Both screens are hardwired and working brilliantly, the rear screen is still semi-temporarily mounted but looks good in place... we watched several episodes of _That 70's Show _on a recent long trip and the system worked flawlessly.









The interior cabin lighting is now finished including all the footwells and roof lights being properly connected to the fader circuitry and permanently wired. No more tripping over temporary wiring on my driver's side sill! I still don't have videos of the fading action because LEDs are extremely hard to photograph let alone video.



























And onto some construction photos!
The wiring along the driver's side was hideous (this isn't even all of it!)








But tidied up well. you can see where the crossover is squashed, along with the blue lighting controller, and where the 4 gauge snakes along from under the carpet. The wiring, particularly for the lighting controller, cleaned up very well, I was very impressed with the result, it was well worth putting the hours into really getting it right!









All cabling is labelled appropriately









The power cable entred through the typical clutch grommet hole (people trying to find a hole for wiring, please take note!) and I prefer to run it straight under the carpet rather than above the pedals for safety and neatness.









The mounting location for the driver's side footwell light. The others are mounted in similar ways. I also aim to put some types of lighting on the boot install but it wasn't a priority right now. Hopefully this week sometime.









Finally (for this update) the RCAs were run down the middle of the car and slack was allowed so the headunit can be easily pulled out. Looks very classy in-situ.









More to follow!


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

NICE! Very impressive and we can see you took some time with that photography too. Fantastic, you should be proud.

ps, was in Belair on the w/end, brilliant roads in that area of SA!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks Syd, I feel like it's really coming together now. Really only tweaks left at this stage:
Headunit programming
Rattle-proofing
Boot install lighting
... That's about it.

Pity I wasn't near the city on the weekend, I would have liked to meet up and give you a look! (And show you some of the best roads at breakneck speed!!!)


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

all good mang, had little if no time at all for socialising though. Was there for important matters. But can assure you I know of the roads well, infact i miss the ol' devils elbow!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Now as we all know it's all about the music. We can type about technicalities, numbers, designs, theories etc until our fingers are bloody and raw but at the end of the day it's about the music and how it sounds  Now that I am used to the new ports etc, I have had a critical-style listen to Moby's album 18 and thought I'd post some comments. The system has not been re-tuned since I changed the ports and re-wired.

This album, whether you love or hate Moby, is a nice test of a system, natural and electronic sounds, all sorts of dynamics, some demanding synth & keyboard, deep basslines and delicate midbass transients.

I start with the system "zeroed" eg subwoofer gain at nominal levels & bass & treble controls on the factrory headunit zeroed.

Track 2, In This World was my first point of call. The vocals on this track can easily become screechy due to their slightly fuzzy, distorted nature, and will easily drown out the sharp but subtle electronic high-hats as well as the slightly more prominent sampled high-hat lifts. I quickly found about 90% of normal treble setting really settles this down around 6-8KHz whilst bringing out the higher end treble slightly (the treble control doesn't seem to be open-ended and usually doesn't do much to high-end treble.) Later on the track gets quite loud, with a lot of broad synth. Keeping the treble down slightly makes these very present but not dominating, the snappy but fuzzy snare and texture of the effects on vocals don't get lost, lose the treble cut and it all turns into a mess.

5, Signs Of Love was next. This has some nice high-hat and warm, surging synth to start and some smooth vocals. It's quite laid back, but still has a deep bassline that needs good response but even moreso, a good blend with the fronts. I took the subwoofer gain down to around 40% below zero, and boosted the bass control 10%. This really only affects midbass so I could bolster the bass coming from the front and move the deep bassline forward. This resulted in an authoritative and extended bass response without getting confused or lost. Later on, the tremolo guitar samples came out with impressive dynamics and a surprisingly high position on the windscreen.

7, Another Woman, Has a deep, rolling bassline, more natural than the previous tracks. This is then joined by a sharp, fairly deep kick. My previous boost to midbass and cut to sub-bass meant the kick was right in front, and the rolling bassline didn't get in the way, but hovered somewhere around the middle of the car.

9, Extreme Ways has demanding lows, as it has multiple kicks interleaved with a mid-level bassline. Not many systems can really do this impressively and convey the urge needed by the low frequencies. I was pretty happy with this one; the kicks weren't lost but they didn't impact the bassline either. It did slide towards the back a little though.

10, Jam For The Ladies is a fun track with an infectious, deep bassline. This bassline happened to be right between my subs and mids, and I further reduced the subs a little for a smooth transition. Then the only real giveaway of the subs was the stronger LF vibrations than the mids could do, but it did give a very "present" and powerful feel. Stereo imaging here was great, high-hats to the left, and vocal solos popping up all over the place. I feel more and more often that the titanium tweeters are very capable but much more subtle than I ever expect. Very friendly. This track really benefits with some solid volume, the system just sounds a little to laid back at talking volume and the strength of the snare and bassline really jumps out with some decent power.

Also worth of mention is 17, The Rafters, which has a lovely snare that makes hair stand on end. With enough volume it slaps right through the chest without getting in the way or detracting from the rest of the song.

Overall I am even more confident of the new sub setup. Initially I was disappointed with the blend with the fronts compared to the sealed box, but with some effort it definitely blends well. It think I am still getting used to the sensitivity of the ported box and it's response curve, which will definitely need some taming at the lower end, along with a subsonic filter for r&b etc. But at the end of the day this album and the system has impressed me


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

thats what its alll about a happy owner!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

SOUND RELATED UPDATE

I thought I'd better let you all know how the system is going.
My headunit has been subject to all range of extended prototyping but is nearing a point where it will be left in the car for good.

I had a bit of a moment (Like bobo did) where I blew up an ipod, but it's all good now 
Basically, a 12v backup wire shorted to the ground lead of the Ipod. The ipod still worked but it damaged the ground connection in the dock connector, and damaged my circuitry.
Result = free upgrade from 80GB 4th gen video, to a 120GB classic video, for my friend. Should have blown up mine 
I had to change one of the interfacing wires on my pcb and in programming as that port had been damaged from the accident, and it didn't seem worth replacing the whole board.
I also rebuilt the Ipod lead to correct minor damage.
















The accessory resistor, changeable for reasons only I (don't) know, is now tucked in out of the way.

I have plans to add keyless play for the system and this may be added and programmed as early as tomorrow, along with a proper REM switch for my amplifiers (finally!)

As for the rest of the system, I felt it important to run the system in for a while to allow all the rattles to appear before I worked on them. Well they have well and truly reared their ugly heads. A shortlist includes:
parcel shelf against rear window, against steel shelf, against seatbelt reel, against ski port, against middle of tray, rear roofliner retainer, front left upper A pillar, underside of passenger seat, LCD console against roof and against LCD screen casing, rear of centre console, lower centre console fascia, upper centre console fascia, front right kick panel, rear door snibs, outer door handles, front window winders, shelf grilles, shelf flap cover, port flare ends, box against shelf, rear garnish, boot latch, and the list goes on. This is just off the top of my head.

I also managed to rip out one of the bolts holding the box in too, AGAIN. I am going to try attaching it to the back of the seat, and possibly sealing the front of the woofers to the ski port. It'll take some experimentation.

It's a never ending list though, as you will all know.


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## nz02vx (Feb 25, 2010)

nice car  ive got one in the same colour but HSV kitted. You say in your thread that the "phase 2 integration" has been released for commercial production..... where can i look to acquire this for my holden ( and get it to NZ as well!) ive got a mate who is an electronics engineer, but he didnt want to stand on any toes and said to talk to you rather than get him to try and copy your designs ( one of the few good guys left ay)
pm or email me with any help as i desperately want an ipod running like this in my car - beats 16 tracks on a cd


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## vwtoby (Oct 28, 2005)

wow...amazing log mate....any updates?


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Why yes, I do have an update 
Some photos from the Old School & New Age auto show on the 27th March. This is the first show I have entered and it was a lot of fun. The car attracted it's fair share of attention and I received several complements about the tidy & understated approach to the entire car, as well as the clean sound.  Fantastic day.

The entire car was detailed the day before the show over about 4 hours. I use mainly Meguiars and Autoglym because it's easy to get a hold of.
Megs next gen car wash
Megs quik clay kit & quik detailing spray
Megs crystal system polish (old as)
Megs tech wax 2.0 (much easier to use than the original stuff, can be used more sparingly.)
Autoglym fast glass
Cheapo export tyre spray.

It was the first time I've clayed the car; it makes an incredible difference. A polished car is smooth, a clayed and polished car is smooth like glass. Fantastic. As you use it you can hear it scraping crud off the paint, it sounds smoother and smoother as you go.










Clean engine bay (the hood didn't stay up all day; a standard ecotec and two stinger fuse holders really isn't that amazing to look at 









Boot install and rear. This is one of the last times you'll see the boot install like this. :cool









Brake caliper and wheel, showing off my new slotted rotors & pads, with painted calipers. Gotta love the EBC greenstuff pads.









Smooth paint. It was well worth the effort to detail it to this level.


















The car ended up doing a 136.6 at 44Hz, which fell well short of my goal of 139, but I suppose tuned so low it's not a terrible result for the woofers. This was with a 1.5KW Jaycar monoblock running at 2 ohms (800w RMS.)

I also have some new tools & other assorted goodies that I will upload some photos of soon.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

It's been a long time since I've given this thread some attention, but I have recently changed nearly all my gear - only the headunit and front speakers remain.

Old equipment:

Orion P6.2 Splits
JL Audio 500/1 amplifier
JL Audio 300/2 amplifier
JL Audio 12W3V3 subwoofers (3.2 cubic foot box)

New equipment:

Orion P6.2 Splits
Phoenix Gold Xenon 200.2 (200 watts x2, 1-4ohm)
Phoenix Gold Xenon 1200.1 (1,200 watts, 1-4 ohm)
Mach5 IXL18 18" Subwoofer (Currently 5 cubic foot box)

I have gone for much more grunt, much more cone area, and less distortion than my last system iteration. Let me just say that this system is capable of unbelievable low frequency bass. It is just as loud at 20Hz as it is at 50Hz.

The installation is temporary at the moment. A full install will be coming soon with the subwoofer running in 3 cubic feet, sealed. With any luck, and some tricky design, the 18" will take up less space than the 2x 12"s did.




























I also have the beginnings of a new power system to feed it all; the old Century battery and 4 gauge no longer cuts it.





































Stay tuned for photos of the power system as it progresses.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I had a pretty crummy day today. Two things made it just a little better:

A litre and a bit of duty-free bombay.









The former made me even more excited about the latter (once opened









That's right, Marty has helped me out with a miscellany of parts to complete my power system.
Stinger HPM 4 gauge, and Audison fuses (300A, 150A x2, and 80A x2.)









Mmm flexy.

__
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content










That makes up the full power setup:









Fastener range.









Just need to get some time to do some machning and it'll be full steam ahead.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I've been busy today!



















I've cut the battery plate again so it fits properly... still a fair bit of work to get it smooth in the cutouts, but the outside is just right.
At the moment it's got a nice matte edge finish.










Here's a mock up of the battery setup, as it would be viewed from under the bonnet. On the left we have three ground terminals for engine & alternator grounds etc; these will run across the top of the battery into the engine bay. and on the right the uppermost spot will be for all the factory electrics to attach to, and the fused spot will be for a new alternator charge run.
Why fused? Because the original VX wiring has a fusible link on it, that's enough reasoning for me to keep it fused, even if it's not liable to failure.










All of the solid parts need to be drilled & tapped yet, hence the rather basic mockup.



















A basic mockup of the fused terminal posts. 10mm aluminium rod, drilled, tapped and parted on the lathe. They will mount with countersunk M6 screws from the acrylic plate underneath, and the Audison MIDI fuses and lugs mount with M6 cap screws from the top.










It's just a start, but I'm happy with how it's looking. There's plenty of finishing work to be done once they're drilled & tapped 

Any feedback, comments (ANYTHING at all!) would be awesome!


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## SirNemesis (Sep 4, 2008)

I've been watching this thread for awhile and its given me plenty of good ideas!

Keep up the good work


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

BV, i really like the focus, customised & one-off work your doing with this Battery install.
(I cheated & bought the Audison terminals that do more or less what your building!)


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## sinister-kustoms (Jul 22, 2009)

Wow, that's some really nice work on the terminals mate. Keep up the good work!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

It's been a while since I've updated the thread... 
Been to busy working on the car! Some good things happened, some bad things happened. Among the bad; my front strut bearings are worn out rather badly so it's handling like a sack of crap. And my Phoenix Gold Xenon 1200.1 died spectacularly. I have sat down with it a few times and drawn blanks, there is no one in Australia to repair them, and even the Phoenix Phorum is fairly unhelpful.

That said, I have also ticked a LOT of jobs off the list and I have a new install too. I'm happy to say the car is sounding the best it's sounded.
I'll go back to where I left off though and continue on the terminals. With a 10-image-per-post limit, it'll take a while.

I cleaned up and linished the terminals.



























I then cut and etched my own design into a plexiglass battery cover plate, which also mounts my terminals.



















Around that time, some over-zealous brake use resulted in some pretty epic damage.










New rotors under warranty luckily.










Then onto the rest of the power installation.










Factory terminals needed a cleanup.



















More photos to come!


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

well... c'mon BV! D)


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

I then crimped lugs onto some blue 4 gauge for my big 3. I have a nice new 7 ton hydraulic hex crimper, it really is the only way to go. No more hammering split ring terminals for me!

The grounds were run to the underside of the coil packs on the left hand head, the ground on the block near the right hand head, and to the body of the alternator.










A new charge run was also added to the alternator. Fused at the battery.










I then installed my chassis ground. This is in the driver's side chassis rail, not far from the battery and is a pre-drilled hole. It's a little tricky to get the bolt up from the bottom but the results speak for themselves.



















Stainless steel hardware used where possible, of course.











The battery tray was repainted and stainless steel bolts added to secure the Optima battery without getting in the way of the top.



















With a cover and a fuseholder made in a similar way to the battery plate, it completes my under-bonnet setup.


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## Blazemore (Dec 1, 2006)

What brand of slotted rotors?


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## Ziggy (Nov 29, 2007)

Big_Valven said:


> The battery tray was repainted and stainless steel bolts added to secure the Optima battery without getting in the way of the top.



I see what you did there... I like the idea for (xtra securing) my yellow top in the truck.
I've got the big blue top as well, but it found it's way to the tractor when the big dual batts crapped out...
I guess you had to stick with the blue theme!... Hell, even your wrench set holder is blue 
Curious as to what you replaced the Xenon 1200.1 with -or have you?


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Blazemore said:


> What brand of slotted rotors?


They're RDA with EBC greenstuff pads. I do like to punish my car so it's understandable. (glowing rotors regularly)



Ziggy said:


> I see what you did there... I like the idea for (xtra securing) my yellow top in the truck.
> I've got the big blue top as well, but it found it's way to the tractor when the big dual batts crapped out...
> I guess you had to stick with the blue theme!... Hell, even your wrench set holder is blue
> Curious as to what you replaced the Xenon 1200.1 with -or have you?


It's not so much replaced as substituted at the moment. I'm using my beater SPL amp, an Atomic 1800.1D, feeding it with 1.8KW @ 1 ohm daily. In reality gains are on 1/8 and it doesn't really see that much. Still working on repairing the Xenon as it's a very nice amplifier. There's not many others that can make 1200w at 4 ohms.

The following work takes place over just three days, last Wednesday to Friday night.

Moving onto the boot, I re painted my boot arms which have copped many sliding subwoofer boxes and the like over the years.



















Next, I stripped the boot out, gave it a clean up, and painted my quarter panel jack storage areas flat black to tidy them up.










And begins my new subwoofer box.



















The wheel well remains as you see - no fibreglass or substantial reinforcing. It's working very well as is.



















Due to the trim panel at the rear of the boot, I had to create a step down.










Sealing and reinforcement of the baffle. It is actually a very well sealed box now.










Then came some trim panels from 6mm MDF.


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## bawward (Jan 30, 2010)

totally want to see more on this thread! The terminal contact plates you made were sick!


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

Thanks! I need more close-ups of them once I detail my engine bay.
Here are some others I made for another forum member who noticed the handiwork. They take MIDI fuses.




























Moving on with my install on Thursday morning, I had trim panels ready to carpet:










I then set to work running the HPM 0 gauge through the car.










Three M6 taps (6mm) were run straight into the chassis rail for my grounds. These copped some galvanised spray paint and stainless steel fasteners later on. The Xenon 1200.1 takes two four gauge power runs so that's what I'm jamming into the Atomic for the time being.










I have a "photo hole" where I did the frantic run to the finish line, but I have photos of the completed boot. 

Work however included trimming the false floor in carpet and suede, installing my power distro, HPM 4 gauge and fusing, and mounting the gear.










The Atomic amplifier wears the PG cover at the moment to keep the looks nice.










The rear garnish panel was quite hacked up and was also retrimmed in carpet and suede. This really lifts the look of the boot.










And at night.


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## bawward (Jan 30, 2010)

really nice looking man. dude, what does that thing RMS? And what are you using for those fuse holders/etc? That is pretty sick. Im jealous now and totally will have to figure this out.


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## Big_Valven (Aug 20, 2008)

The sub is getting a possible 1,800w from the Atomic, it's thermally rated at 1000w but I doubt I'd ever be pushing more than 800-900 watts through it.

The distro is also my own work 










The results of all my work, only a few hours after I had finished it, was to place second in Advanced 1 SQ, second in Show, and the Judges Choice Award at MEASQ's (Australian official SQ series) first South Australian SQ competition in many, many years. It was my first time competing!










Very pleased with the unexpected result, and inspired to keep working on and improving my setup!


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## FLYONWALL9 (Nov 8, 2009)

I've been struggling with the design of my distro which is very
close to yours. Seeing how you did yours helps greatly, thanks
for sharing with us. Really stellar install!

Congrats on the comp results.


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## boogeyman (Jul 1, 2008)

I absolutely love the distrubution blocks you made. Nice install.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

those distribution blocks ROCK! wow...if you were here i would be asking you to build me stuff all the time, really really cool, great overall clean setup!


btw, i am suffering V8 supercars withdraw, when does the summer break end and the enduros begin!!!???


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