# 1999 Chevrolet Blazer



## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, moving my build log over here. This is very picture-heavy. I have literally 80 or so posts, so please bear with me until I'm done to post. I'll let you know 

Here’s a brief rundown of the notable pieces:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS – Head unit
Vifa NE25VTS-04 - Tweeters
Exodus Anarchy – Mids
Custom 3HP 15” – Subs
PSI 18” passive radiator – Passive Radiators
DC Power Inc 270XP – Alternator
Sears Diehard Platinum – Batteries
KnuKonceptz and Sky High Car Audio – Wiring

Goal for this build is basically the definition of SQL. Don’t plan on seeing a meter other than to just see where I am once or twice, haven't yet. I wanted it to sound great first and foremost, and it does that.

I will just be copying and pasting, so most posts will be in present-tense, but all this is done. There's a LOT of pictures incoming, so be patient with the posts.

Here’s the ride when I bought it. I have since taken off the roof rack:










First up, Pioneer DEH-80PRS. This was in my last ride, love this HU. Will be the first time running it active. Planning to cross at 63Hz and 2kHz. Will be using an iPod/iPhone via USB most of the time, don’t really use CD’s.






























For my tweeters, I’m using Vifa NE25VTS-04’s. Frequency charts look good, usable down to 1.5kHz with a fairly flat response. In the A pillars, aimed at opposite headrests. Guess I never really took good photos of these. Not a huge loss, they’re not that special. You’ll see them more later on.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

This 90 seconds thing between posts is really gonna suck.

A pair of Exodus Anarchy’s will be used for mids. 125W RMS @ 8ohms, XBL^2 underhung design, they be some beefy guys. These will be going in the stock location in the doors, but some work will have to be done to fit them. 

Thread found here: Exodus Anarchy









































































Compared to some Polk dB651's I have:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

For my subs, I have a pair of custom built 3HP 15” subs, built by Zeuslicious. Modded 3hp tall top plate and 3-1" magnet slugs instead the regular .75", dual 1 ohms big ww and 8 layer fw aluminum coil, dual spaced TC spiders and DD 8" Carbon Fiber cap. Rated at 1800W RMS. I polished the magnets. Will be mounting these inverted.

Thread found here: My new custom 3HP's









































































Here is a before/after comparison:



















They turned out well. Just need to clear coat them now, and I'll be done with them.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

For this build I will be using passive radiators. Was gonna go ported, but @neo_styles talked me into it. These are 18” PR’s built by Dave at PSI. He’s a good dude, can’t say enough about the customer service over there. And these are beautiful. 3.5” p-p travel, carbon fiber caps, dual spiders to handle the power, green logo. 

Plan on playing around with tuning quite a bit. My first tune will be at 23Hz, and I’ll go from there.

Thread found here: PSI 18" Passive Radiators


















































































Here is the box design:










9 cubes gross, with displacements should bring me down to right around 8.5 net. I'm going to mount inverted, and being a bit bigger leaves me room to mount normally if I need/want to. It also will fit right in between the wheel wells, no building over the wells ********. About 6" from the hatch.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

For power up front, I’ll be running a Zed Audio Leviathan III. Channels 1 and 2 will be tweets, and channels 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 will be bridged for a Anarchy for each pair of channels. So I have 190W RMS @ 4ohms for each tweeter, and 380W RMS @ 8ohms for each mid. Power is not an issue 

Got this through @Vertex Audio's trade-in program. Traded in my DC 175.4 and pair of DC Level 3 10's, and I paid very little cash.

Thread is here: Zed Audio Leviathan III


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

For sub power, I’ll be using a DC 5.0k. Will be mounted upside-down. I made a plexi back and am showing off those guts.









































































Compared to a 2.0k:










Plexi:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Now for pretty much the only work I have done, my A pillars. I Bondo’d in some PVC, flocked them, and installed them in the vehicle. They look pretty good and the finish is holding up pretty well so far.

Thread: A Pillars - Flocked!!

First, I cut the PVC to where they would sit semi-flush, and aim at the opposite headrests. This was done with a dremel. I had originally planned on using a flush-mount baffle, but @keep_hope_alive recommended against it, due to the lip on the flush-mount.










Then, took them down to the car and aimed them. Tacked them with superglue.










Added some Bondo. Decided not to use fiberglass because of the relatively small amount I needed here.










This was after a little filling and sanding work, maybe like 4 sessions with Bondo. There were a few pits in it, and I was pretty fed up with Bondo at that point lol, so I just used wood glue to dab on and fill those pits, then sanded it smooth.










After some coats of paint/primer and some sanding, I had this.



















Not horrible, but still some imperfections. But, if I was just going to keep it a spray paint, I could have worked those out.

But I decided to try flocking them. Flock is finely ground material, can be a bunch of things like ribbon, fabric, PVC, feather, a lot of things. Not a whole lot of prep work needs to be done besides getting the surface fairly smooth. You also need to paint it the color of the flock, the end goal color, if you want it a solid color. I used clear glue, so that shows through. You may also get colored glue, or paint the surface a separate color for an effect.

Anyway, here are the products I used. Found them at Michael's, it's called "embossing powder". They looked at me like I was speaking Thai when I said "flock".










So here I tried a test patch on the back of the pillars. The process is simple: you brush on the glue, then sprinkle on the powder. They sell a kind of shooter for the powder, and I also think you can spray it on with an airbrush, which would probably yield better results. But I just sprinkled it on.










Then just tapped it off the next day.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Worked the small panel where my tape player is. Tape player will be coming out.










That panel pops right off, and I cut a small piece of plastic and worked some Bondo in there. 



















This is where I will be putting my meters, the USB connection for the 80PRS, my PAC LC-1, and possibly other switches/electronic stuff. 

Also ordered a dual ammeter/voltmeter gauge and shunt. Going to try it out, see if I can make it work. Ordered these ones:

DC 0 100V 0 500A Dual LED Digital Volt Meter Ammeter Voltage Amp Power F 12V Car | eBay
500A 75mV DC Current Shunt Resistor for Amp Panel Meter | eBay


Dat wire



















KnuKonceptz Kolossus Fleks Kandy cable. 50ft of 1/0ga, 10ft of 4ga, and 16ft of 8ga, all OFC. 4ga for my Levi, 8ga from sub amp to box, 1/0 for everything else to include 2 positive runs front to rear. This is half of the wire I need, this is all my positive. Need an equal amount in black for negative. Will be getting Sky High Car Audio wire from Jim.

Also determined I need to make the amp rack myself, so I'll be picking up a few hand saws this weekend. May end up making my box too depending on how the amp rack goes. Anyone try the Craftsman bolt-on kit (http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00916496000P)? Gonna try it out, gonna get the drill, router, jigsaw, and sander attachments. Going to get a seperate 20V trim saw that will cut 45's as well.


Got some work done on the amp rack/battery box:










Both Lowe's and Home Depot didn't have full sheets of birch, which I find odd. They did have 2'x4' sheets of 3/4", which I used, and BARELY had enough with what I had leftover from the last box. Anyway, still need to measure and cut the two side pieces over the wheel well, because I changed the dimensions a little so the cardboard template won't work. Also need the $150 worth of fans I want to measure and do the cooling the way I want it.


Shell is done.










Not fond of this corner, but needed to be done to get over the wheel well










Need clean up some of the cuts and edges. Need to add some fans in there somehow, not quite sure how yet. Also need to add supports in the bottom, because the floor isn't exactly even.

Cut the top piece. Here's how it should look:










The amps will be mounted about .5-.75" off the board. Gonna have to use threaded rod and washers/nuts for the 5k because the mounting tabs are so far off the board. Threaded rod and washers/nuts are so ugly though. Anyone have any ideas?

But I am going to be drilling holes for all wires, routing all edges, then staining it. Will be on hinges so the long edge close to the 5k opens upward.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Just got this in today:










Combination ammeter/voltage meter and 500A 75mV shunt. Should allow me to see both voltage and current draw from my amps. Hopefully I can wire it up correctly and not fry it. Got the manufacturer (Chinese) to provide me a translated wiring diagram, so I should be alright. Has anyone used something like this before?


Made some standoffs from some material I got at Lowe's. Amps are 1.25" from the board.





























Got tint done all around today. Done by a 3M authorized installer so it's guaranteed for life (as long as I don't lose the card). Got 35% on the front two windows, and 20% on all windows behind the driver in addition to the factory tint, so around 10% in the back.










Been workin on the amp rack/batt box a little, but nothin worth posting yet.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, been working on the amp rack. Got both amps figured out, mounting holes drilled and test-mounted, power wire holes drilled and routed, just waiting on fans now to measure and cut holes for before I start to stain the top piece. 










Also got it mounted on hinges and latches. Used butterfly latches, pretty much the only latches I know of that I trust not to eventually rattle loose.





































Thinkin about getting some hood or trunk gas springs, not sure yet. Probably will just use a strap or something to keep it from going too far over.

I'm positive I'm staining the top a nice dark brown, still undecided on the bottom, will probably just carpet.

Got my $100 worth of fans in from Newegg. 140mm fans, top will be pulling, side will be pushing out from box. Sorry, the pictures are a bit shoddy, it's da iPhone.



















I think the top is ready for stain after some light sanding. I was thinking about putting a voltage meter and the switches for the fans up there, but I think I'm going to keep it clean and put them on the sides. I think it would ruin the classic stained look.

Also, I LOVE this Craftsman Bolt-on kit. I've done all of this with the driver, jigsaw, and router attachments (besides the side cuts with a trim saw).


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, been working on the amp rack. Got both amps figured out, mounting holes drilled and test-mounted, power wire holes drilled and routed, just waiting on fans now to measure and cut holes for before I start to stain the top piece. 










Also got it mounted on hinges and latches. Used butterfly latches, pretty much the only latches I know of that I trust not to eventually rattle loose.





































Thinkin about getting some hood or trunk gas springs, not sure yet. Probably will just use a strap or something to keep it from going too far over.

I'm positive I'm staining the top a nice dark brown, still undecided on the bottom, will probably just carpet.

Got my $100 worth of fans in from Newegg. 140mm fans, top will be pulling, side will be pushing out from box. Sorry, the pictures are a bit shoddy, it's da iPhone.



















I think the top is ready for stain after some light sanding. I was thinking about putting a voltage meter and the switches for the fans up there, but I think I'm going to keep it clean and put them on the sides. I think it would ruin the classic stained look.

Also, I LOVE this Craftsman Bolt-on kit. I've done all of this with the driver, jigsaw, and router attachments (besides the side cuts with a trim saw).


So here's what I'm gonna do: I made 3/4" birch rings. Still need an inch of depth, so I'm going to prop this up with dowels, stretch some fleece, and fiberglass it to the blue plastic piece. Then I'll add some chop mat to the whole thing for strength, and mount directly to the door metal. Then I will need to cut the grill off the door card, and fiberglass that higher as well. I do want to use it, because I don't trust passengers and I tend to rest my leg against it.












Also figured out the possible amp stand-off problem. I was apprehensive about using the plastic pieces, but I liked the look of them, so I snagged some brass pipe and cut it to fit inside, pounded it in, and voila, no more problems. @keep_hope_alive and @audiobaun led me to this.





















Stained the top piece too. I'ts not the most even stain, but I like it


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, haven't done a whole lot. Just worked on this POS speaker baffle and my amp rack/batt box some.

Mid baffle first. Pretty embarrassed to show this, but whatever. It turned out looking like a 4th grader made it. But, you won't be able to see them once I get the door panels reworked, and they seem pretty strong, so I'm not too concerned with it. I'm sticking to bondo from now on.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Made a few pieces for the bottom of the rack so it will sit level and has support for the batteries:










Should be almost ready for carpet. Also got the top done. One coat of stain, two coats of polyurethane. Got amps mounted and fans installed and wired up. 









































































Should be my final wiring schematic. Will be using terminal strips because of all the connections:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got the outer panels of my front doors done. Using AT 80mil for the doors, I have 60mil for everything else. I did as much of the panel as I could reach.










Also made covers for the bigger holes on the bottom out of sheet metal. Covered both sides with deadener.










Wanted to do more, but my body is just not having it. Got food poisoning from a couple eggs I cooked here this morning and threw up a couple times and have been on the toilet all day. No es bueno. I'm gonna try to get back out there tomorrow while the weather is decent.


More work on the front doors. First screwed on that piece of sheet metal covering the large hole:










Then ran the wire through the stock boot and fished it through a hole that was already there:










Then cleaned and deadened the rest of the door. After that was done, then mounted on the speaker baffle:










Threw the mids in there:










And wired them into the stock HU, just to get some music back in there:










So almost done. Need to make sheet metal covers for the holes that are left, but there are going to be some holes that I can't cover, like around the window assembly. Then I need to work the door panel, cut out around the speaker baffle and try to make that pretty. Done for today, it's time for steak and fireworks.


Cut some more sheet metal, and got the last two holes covered as much as I could. There's still a couple holes left, but there's not a whole lot I can do about them. These are finished.










Got the grills cut off the panel. Just need to cut the hole on the panel so the speaker baffle will fit through, then make some sort of raised grill to cover the speaker. I'll attach it to the door panel. I'm open to ideas on this.










Worked a little on my tailgate too. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this after the subs are in, but this is fine for now. It's hot as **** outside, I just wanted to get it done.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got my alternator back from DC Power today. I had this alt on my last car, and I sent it back to them to get recased for this vehicle. They recase for $150 (I got a bit cheaper, they do military discounts ). My, and others, only complaint about DC was the wait times. Well, I got this done really quick. I shipped it to them, and they received it on the 25th. They called me on Monday, the 1st, and told me it was ready. I paid, and they shipped and I got tracking that night. Received it tonight, the 5th. So either this was fast because it was only a recase, and it does actually take the couple months people normally wait to build a whole new one, or they have finally caught up on orders. Either way I'm happy. Now for pics!


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Threw some deadener on both my rear doors. Might come back later and cover the holes with sheet metal, but it's fine for now:










Tried to take everything off to get the headliner off too. Got all the oh **** handles off, visor, that gay roof-mounted console, and couldn't get the headliner out because I don't have the tools to get the seatbelt bolts off, which hold on side panels, which hold up the headliner. So this is all I got done:










So, bought a T47 torx bit, and tried to take my seatbelt bolts out. Here is what happened:










This POS just crumbled after a couple turns. 

Had an interview and open house with Guide Dogs of Texas tonight too. Going to volunteer with them, work at the kennel and run a couple booths, and board a dog at my place on the weekends. They mentioned a couple things about their network and getting that set up, so might be getting involved in that too. They have a pretty good program down there.

Anyway, stopped at Sears on the way home, here's the replacement:










Worked my seatbelt bolts out, popped off a couple panels, and got the headliner out:










Deadener and foam will hopefully happen tomorrow. Bought Great Stuff to put under those braces so the roof doesn't slap against it. This is gonna be a ***** to put back in by myself.

Also, don't flock anything! Or atleast, use real good materials. Here's what mine now look like:










Apparently the oils on my fingers from putting it in (and I mean the natural oils, my hands weren't dirty) made the flock material and/or glue discolor. Might just spray over them with something.


Got out of work early today, got some work done on the roof. Got two sheets of deadener on each section, a little more on the front section. Also added foam (Great Stuff) in between the roof braces and the roof, so that they didn't smack against each other. Worked really well, I would highly suggest that for anyone have a problem with their roof. 










Put the headliner and all panels back on, was actually much easier than I expected. Was actually easier than taking it out, which makes no sense.

Got some goodies in the mail too:



















Went to Sears as well, need some terminals if anyone has any:










These will be used for all my wiring. Love these things:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Wrapped!










Got some wiring done:




























Dem switches:










And just a peek at what it will look like in the vehicle:











Got this piece done. This will go where the stock tape player was:



















Two USB ports for my 80PRS, a PAC LC-1 for the sub amp, and a voltage meter/ammeter. The dremel slipped when I was cutting the lower USB port, so I had to shift the whole block over, pisses me off. But, I think it still turned out ok.

This is where it will go, once I remove the tape player:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

got SHCA wire from Jim this week, 50ft. of OFC. Also got this loom:










Gave in and bought a torch and vice so I can solder everything:










Actually, this was my first time soldering these big lugs. I won't not solder again. **** that crimper! Lol.

Cut my front to rear runs of wire. I measured with rope and gave myself extra, so I'm just praying I have enough once I actually get it in the car. Shouldn't have done it this way, but I am bored. Put the loom on, soldered on one side of terminals:





































Also found the best spot ever for my ground:










Aaaaaaand just a picture for fun:











Got my Vampire Wires RCA's. These will be used from HU to PAC LC-1:










Took out the tape player and got this in:










Haven't done a whole lot, due to the heat around here and being a bit busy. Waiting on cash flow too so I can get my rear batts, bus bars, and sub box wood. But I'm putting in the HU this weekend, so I'll be without music for a couple weeks. I'm ok with it, I want this **** done.


Got this shirt free at the strip club Saturday night with the purchase of a private dance during some special hour they had going on:










On to the vehicle. Installed my HU and ran the RCA's yesterday:










So no music right now :/

Did my alternator and front battery today. Was a bit of a hassle putting it in, I needed a bigger belt than what was on there and didn't find out until I was trying to put it on. Had to put the old alt back in and run to Autozone. Here are some comparison pics:



















Engine bay before:



















Engine bay after:










And did my Big 2 as well:



















I'm really proud of that ground. Got a little happy with the torch when I was doing the heatshrink and toasted the loom a little on the one end. Oh well.

So, just waiting on cash. Rear batts and sub box is about what's left. Door panels still need work too, but I've kinda pushed those aside.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

And so it's begun, the part that anyone really cares about (which is sad lol):










Was a ***** getting that wood up to my 3rd floor apartment in the 102 degree heat.

Here's the design for reference:










I do have a question here though. Would it be better to have separate chambers and leave that middle brace whole with no cutouts, or one combined chamber and cut out the windows? @TaylorFade @dcarcustoms @tantric sounds @Double 07 @Buck @ssteele18 you guys got anything for me?

Got the basics assembled:










Now I'm going to be cutting out all 4 baffles, then staining the outer 2 baffles. Should match the amp rack well.


A couple teasers 




















Replaced the belt with a smaller one. Went from 967 to 960. Before:










After:










Worked on the box some more:



















Cut one of the flush baffles. This is it just placed on top:










Will be cutting the top flush baffle tomorrow. Still haven't decided what order I want to stain, carpet the box, and glue the baffles on in. I think I might glue the baffles on, carpet the box, and then stain the baffles last. I think that might work the best.


Got the two baffles cut and routed with a 1/8" roundover:











More work on muh box. Dcar, I wish I would have seen your post earlier. I seen it after I glued and was going through this thread. I then added screws from the inside, can't believe I didn't think of that. Thanks though man! Here it is being glued down:



















Next day:










I'll be using these binding posts. I really like these, used them on my last two boxes too.










Final mockup before stain and carpet. And of course, I had to snap a few extra pics 














































I'm really happy with this. Hope I don't screw it up in the finishing stage :/


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

WOW, horrible picture. Don't worry, more to come after polyurethane 


1 coat of stain, 2 coats of polyurethane. Let it dry 24 hours before this:










Prepping for carpet.










Behold!

































































SO happy I didn't screw it up. The carpet cuts along the bottom aren't the cleanest but most of those are hidden. Very happy with this.


Wiring done
























































I'm just gonna leave these right here:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Also picked these up on my way home from the airport:



And this was waiting on my doorstep:




Was outside literally the whole day. Got my wire ran, soldered a few remaining terminals, got the amp rack in, amps wired up temporarily. This is what under my hood looks like now:










Lololololololololololol, here's the inside of my amp rack:










That's only temporary. PapaGeno21 is making me buss bars right now, should have them by next weekend, and everything will get cleaned up then.

But here's a quick, blurry pic of how it looks:










Didn't get speakers or anything wired in yet, that will be tomorrow. Got a dude coming over to help me get the sub box downstairs too. 

The voltage meter/ammeter lights up too. I didn't fry it KHA 
Will just have to see if it's actually reading amperage once I get some music going. The voltage is accurate, measured with my DMM.










14.8V cold idle, fell to 14.6V warm idle. I'm good with that 

She lives today. She breathes tomorrow.


So, ran into some issues. Leviathan took a dump 
Good news is that Vertex Audio is amazing, and gonna work with Zed and get the amp fixed with no costs to me. They are awesome, if you haven't checked them out, do it now.

Anyway, I found an old MTX 50Wx4 @ 4ohm amp, so my mids are very underpowered, but I have a front stage. 

Here's a pic of the amp rack with the Zed still hooked up. I love it!



And the 5.0k wiring. It's so smexy!



Here's the temp amp in the battery box:



And a wider view of the clusterfuck of wiring. Can anyone see why I have engine whine????? Lmao!



And suddenly, I haz da bass!







Now, I don't know if it's just because I haven't had music in here for like a month, or if I just haven't been in loud vehicles, or it's just because it's mine, or what it is, but this is the loudest vehicle I've been in. Here are some vids:











Vids don't really show much, I did a decent job deadening I guess. It's much more impressive inside the vehicle.

Voltage is rock steady with only one additional G31. The ammeter does work keep_hope_alive! But I think for some reason the scale is way off, seems as though a reading of 010 means one hundred. Not sure, I'll watch it more, but I don't think I seen a reading of over like 025, so that makes sense based on where my gains are and the size of the amp.

Right now, the PR's have no additional weight. Haven't found the tuning right now, haven't done any testing like that yet. Gain was also set by hand, so it's not tuned at all. This was day 1, it's only getting better from here 

I'm not worrying about my front stage right now until the Zed gets back.


Got a box in the mail from PapaGeno21 today. Here's what was inside the box:



Didn't even have the decency to spell it out -_-

And inside that were these:



Gonna do these this weekend. Also gonna visit Lowe's and snag some washers for my PR's. Gonna tune it down, and actually set my gains.

Also sent out the Levi today.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, first thing I did after work was tune this box down. Added 20 washers to each PR. Don't know the weight of each washer, but I know the count, so it's not super important right now.



Did the cone resonance test again, and found my tuning to now be at 27Hz.

Next thing I did was set the gain on my 5.0k. Used a 50Hz -5dB tone. First I found what I was at, then I adjusted gain until I was at my target voltage of 65V, which is about 4200W RMS. Here's my findings:

Before adjusting gain:
A/C Voltage: 36V
Wattage: ~1300W

After adjusting gain:
A/C Voltage: 65V
Wattage: ~4200W

Yep, all those videos above (and what you heard @FamousMassacre and @myjaja) are with these two subs on 1300W, so roughly 650W to each sub. Tuning was at 35Hz.

This tuning is much better. I'm not missing notes down below, and I can hear the peak that was around 36-45 flatten out a little. Playing 27Hz at 4200W, my PR's are crying. Just screaming for mercy. These things are moving a LOT. Thinkin about tuning down just so I can have a little leeway in their movement. On the other hand, part of me just says **** it, if they shred I'll have PSI build them better next time. 

More to come, haven't played it barely at all. Need to find somewhere to go where I won't piss everyone off lol. But things are moving around on my vehicle much more now.


Got my buss bars installed this morning.



Kudos to @PapaGeno21, he made these, and they were perfect, dropped right on to the terminals without me having to move the batteries at all. Wiring still isn't real clean, but better. Can't really do TOO much with that temp amp in there. I'll be doing cable management once the Levi gets back and I can get that MTX out of there.

Really the only thing left to do is figure out how I'm gonna cover the mids.

By the way this tuning is so much better for my tastes.

Finally vacuumed and cleaned the truck too. Gonna head down to the weekly car meet tonight, we'll see what happens.


So, retuned gain tonight. Went from ~4200W with a -5dB tone to ~3800W with a -3dB tone. Also bumped my tuning up from 27Hz to 30Hz. No more noise from the PR's, so that's good. I'll slowly tweak from here. I'm gonna keep power here for a little while until I know my subs will take it, then I might bump that up. Might go to ~4kW at the -3dB, but I'm gonna stick with the -3dB tone. Fronts will be set with a 0dB tone.

Not sure if it was the tuning raise or the power decrease that helped the problem. Tuning these things is a delicate balance. If I go too low, they're too heavy and it takes a lot to stop them. But if I tune too high, it sounds like poo (to me) and much more music hits tuning frequency, which is where the PR's are moving the most. And then factor in power, both in relation to the PR movement and the 3HP's handling, and I've got a lot to test.

I honestly can't really tell a huge musical difference from 27Hz tuning. I'll have to listen more. 

Here are two videos I took today:











If someone knows wtf I can do to keep my hatch glass from rattling off, I'm all ears.


Couple photos from tonight:










Aaaaalright, pretty big update. Finally got all my tools to test and tune, including this guy:



So I scoped my HU first. Did all three pre-outs. Got some weird things on the high (tweeter) channel. It wasn't clipping, but above 52/62, I got distortion at the peaks of the waves. I can't figure out how to get pictures on the scope off of it yet, but it looked like this:

View attachment 6504

@keep_hope_alive can you help me interpret that?

But the mid channel never clipped or got distorted. The sub channel had no clipping at 60/62, but hard clipping at 61/62. I set all gains at 51/62 because of the distortion I was seeing on the tweeter channels.

So then I set my gains. EQ was flat, so I sent 110W to each mid, and 70W to each tweeter. I'm sending about 4500W at 0dB (which is about 2300W at -3dB) to the subs. Then I ran the auto T/A and EQ on the 80PRS. It does a couple things that you have to go back and look for, like sub LPF and mid HPF and slopes.

When you're looking at these RTA graphs, pay attention to the blue top lines. those are the peaks, and the results from the sweep. I took these pictures after the sweep was done, at volume 0, which is why the red bars are so low.

So, first I RTA'd the low end, ran a 20-250Hz sweep. Got this:



Kinda don't know why I did that. I then ran a 2 minute 20-20kHz sweep. This is the result:



Determined that the sweep was way too fast for the mic/software to pick up on the lower end. So then I cleared the RTA, broke it down, and ran a 90 second 20-1500Hz sweep. Then I kept the results, and ran a 90 second 1000-20000Hz sweep. This gave me accurate results across the whole range, that look like this:



I just need to cut at 1kHz and 2kHz, and I should be sounding pretty good. It already sounds great, and the cool thing is I can hear the peaks at 1k and 2k.

Here's a quick video:






Gonna clean the wires tomorrow.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got the Levi back tonight. No pics, but it looks the same. This was written on the contact info page I sent with the amp:



Installed it, functionally it seems fine so far. Got my fingers crossed, because if I have to take this out again, it's getting replaced with a Zapco. 

Got it tuned up a bit, had to run the auto-EQ twice because the first time was complete booger. Here's what I am getting on the RTA (and again, pay attention to the blue lines):

This was my first full-range sweep after the auto-EQ:



Sub was too high, and there's a bunch of things to fix.

Then I did a 20-1500Hz sweep. Sub was too high, but ignore that for now. This first sweep was at 80Hz crossover point:



Compare that to the same sweep, same volume, only crossed at 63Hz this time:



Much smoother transition between the drivers. Looks like my sub falls off quick after around 65Hz or so. Gonna confirm this tomorrow and run a sweep with the sub running without a LPF. Either way, I like crossing at 63Hz right now. Smoother transition, my mids can handle it, and I can get a little more punch out of the subs before localization kicks in.

After about an hour of tuning and playing around, I am left with this today:



Pretty sure I'm just gonna bump up the level on the tweeters one notch and see how that does.

One thing I did notice when setting gain with a 0dB track is that it started to clip around 36V on a bridged channel, which is around 160W at 8ohms, which is much less than what I should be getting. It's possible I was screwing something up, so I'm not blaming the amp, and it's really not even an issue right now as my mids are really moving set at around 110W, but it's something I want to test.


Played with T/A tonight! Kinda embarrassed to admit, was my first time actually adjusting T/A. And I think I got it adjusted pretty damn well actually. The auto-T/A on the HU really screwed it up, my driver mid was set at 75" for example. So, I just played around a little, used the distance it set for my driver tweeter as a distance, and just kinda measured the rest with my arm. Played with the distance around where I thought it should be, and eventually nailed it down pretty decent IMO. I really wished I had a dude into SQ here so I could bounce ideas off of him and get feedback.

Then I moved to my EQ. Used pink noise this time. I played around for a few minutes, and found a lul at around 100Hz. So, turned off my subs, and here's the graph I have:



Turned my subs back up to SQ level (which is a twat hair above 1/4 on my PAC LC-1), and here is my graph as it stands:



I see three problems: 
- There is a lull at 100Hz
- Spike at 150Hz
- Spike at 1kHz

I'm pretty sure this is all due to installation. There's not a whole lot I can do right now (that I know of). I should be getting my door panels back soon, so hopefully that will solve one or both of the lower frequency anomalies.

All in all I'm very happy with it after tonight.


Looks pretty good at night 







It's kinda bright though. Might hit the LEDs with some dark blue nail polish and dim them a bit.


So, enough of how it measures, how does it SOUND???? Well there Sonny Jim, I'll show ya:

Down in a Hole (Acoustic). This one is more for simply listening.






Maggie's Farm. Some midbass excursion towards the end
.





I use a Dayton iMM-6 mic. It's more detailed, but the threshold is lower. It also sounds the best when recording with the mic facing forward, which means the camera is pointed up, so that's why you were looking at the roof for a lot of it.

For the record, I don't like these "SQ" videos. Extremely dependent on mic used, location in vehicle, processing, there's just too many variables for it to be any kind of accurate. I digress. Enjoy!


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Changes are coming. 10 cubes net, tuned at 24Hz. Bracing may change slightly, but this is close to final.










SHD has been ordered 

Now the waiting game begins 


Went and got the wood for the box. All 4 sheets 



I will be taking my time on the box, it's gonna be slow, just warning you guys. I won't have the sub for a while, so I'm just going to leisurely build the box so I have something to do while I wait.

What I am doing now though is build a fiberglass housing for my two new meters. Got the basic wood face down, and some outside supports for the fiberglass:





Will hopefully sit in there just like this when I'm done:



Going to do a fiberglass template over the console tomorrow, and then stretch some fabric over that and see where it goes. My last fiberglass project failed pretty miserably (my what were supposed to be temporary speaker pods), so I'm hopin I can make this better. I'm scared.

For tonight, I'll be drinking some of this and then passing out. Didn't get much sleep with the girl being here the last week.




So, did some work on this meter panel.

Taped up and covered the area I was working with. I covered the whole thing because I wasn't sure how much I was actually going to use.



Then I laid down one layer of glass, and figured out after an hour I didn't use enough hardener. So I just mixed up another and threw it on top. Don't remember if this was my first or second:



One or two more layers, and I popped it off:



Decided I'm just going to use the top section, not going down the sides. Cut it up:



Then cut the meter baffle, placed it on and marked the fiberglass where I want it:





Then just tacked it on with hot glue:



And that's where I stopped for the day. Tomorrow I'll throw some bondo on so the baffle will be a bit sturdier, then stretch some cloth. 

Car show and boozin time!


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

More work on the meter panel. 

Threw some bondo on the bottom for strength so I could stretch the cloth without worrying:



Then wrapped the thing with some shammy cloth I had laying around. It was soft cotton not microfiber. Used hot glue to tack it. Not perfect, but good enough to where I can fix with Bondo.



Just resin, coat #1:



Added another coat of resin, then checked for fitment:



Cut the excess cloth and a quick sand, and here it is:



Made sure the meters still fit:



Cut out an access hole:



Added mat for strength:



That's where I stopped for today. Got some work left yet, but it's going well. I work slow, and that's fine with me.

Also, ordered a board of 3/4" plexi for the window on the box 


Bondo coat #1:



A wee bit o' sandin:



After sanding Bondo coat #2:



Gettin there. Just got some small stuff to fill in, sides to sand down, and it's almost ready for primer.


Taken with a potato, but last coat of Bondo:



Shot it with a clear primer, it's all I had. Need to get some black tomorrow.



The plexi also came in! This stuff is hard as a rock, I have no worries about this flexing.



Also just ordered some UV LEDs 

I am debating on where I should put "Tantric Sounds" on the box. Originally I was going to seal the letters in the back of the box before I stain it so it would be much lighter. But now I'm thinking I will simply frost the plexiglass. Thoughts?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Just some primer and sanding. Alternating between grey and white coats so I know how deep I'm sanding:







This is the point where I start getting annoyed with sanding and my mistakes and just start accepting imperfections lol. It's not too bad right now, some stuff will be noticeable though. Gonna plasti-dip for the finishing coats.

Still want opinions on where to put "Tantric Sounds"! Either in the stain on the wood in the back, or on the plexi window.


I'm done with sanding, fed up! I'm fine with the mistakes at this point.



Plastidip coats 1 and 2:





Didn't get much done because I've been getting everything together to sell the current subs. Thread here: Two 15" Custom Subs/Box/18" Passive Radiators


So it's done after like 5 coats of plastidip:



I'm letting it dry overnight to harden a little before I clean out the holes for the meters.

The UV LEDs also got in. Have 4 of these:



And bought a Harley today. Been a good day.

Still selling the subs! Thread here: Two 15" Custom Subs/Box/18" Passive Radiators


Looks pretty good








Well it's not wired in yet, but I like the way it looks.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, this upsets me:



My guess is it was cooler in the house where I sprayed it, and now out in this heat the fiberglass expanded and caused the plastidip to tear. Guess I'll have to take a sharpie to it.

But got them wired in. The ammeters are working correctly, but the voltage is off, I'll explain that later. First, two videos:











Notice how little my Levi draws.

The voltage is off. I wired it all together, ran off a single wire from my daisy chain in the back. Didn't start dropping like that until I wired those two in. I know it's off, because if I turn the fans on in the amp rack it drops to 14.4V and stays there, and that ain't right. I'll have to run some more wires and hopefully that will solve it.

Also, Texas is already unbearable:



Or for those of you in the US:




So here's part of the knock-down kit. Still missing the three biggest panels, haven't cut those yet. Been battling with my saw, keeps curving to the left, so there's some shoddy cuts. Need a new blade, hopefully that will fix it. Then I'll cut those panels, because they're the outer face panels I'm gonna be staining so they need to be good. This is gonna be a fun jigsaw puzzle.



Just an idea, quick dry-fit:




Murphy sent this to me today. Little sneak peak 



Oh, and that's 11" 


Ohhhhhhh mama




Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme?


Been going pretty slow, been doing alot on the new bike lately. Here's all I have done:



Need to order the paint for the port to match the basket and figure out the best way to put this together.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Already messed up. Put the upper side panel on before I put the port section in, so I can't screw the side of the port into the upper port section. Shouldn't be a _huge_ deal, I'll just shove some wood in there while the glue dries so it's tight.

Ordered the paint for the port and inside the box, and ordered some white LEDs as well for inside the box. Turns out the basket paint probably doesn't glow under UV, so going with white instead.


Remember when I said it would _barely_ fit? Well, I wasn't joking:





This port is freakin' huge. Glued the inside pieces together and dropped them in, but I will be taking them out to throw some bondo in the port corners.



Dry fit with the back:




Got the back glued on:



Took the port back out to do the roundover on the port edges, both inside and outside:



Can't do 45's, so I'm just putting a block in to fill space. I will be doing a smooth round corner with Bondo.



I envy you guys that have shops or even garages. Doing all this in my spare room lol.




It's a sad day:



Sold.


First coat of Bondo:



Second coat:



Not gonna worry about getting the curve perfect, just want it smooth. This is almost a gallon of Bondo already lol.

Also picked up some 1.25" dowels. Should keep it fairly stiff.




Someone say plexi?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got a bunch done tonight.

Did some sanding. I HATE sanding.



Shot it with primer to see what it will look like. I'm saying F it, I'm leaving it like this, I don't even care. I HATE sanding!



1.25" dowels for support:



Put the plexi mounting ring in:





Put the port back in just to fit for the top pieces.



First baffle:



Second baffle:



Still got a bunch left to do actually. Turning out to be more work than I expected in order to finish it the way I want. Oh well, should turn out good, and it's not like I've got the SHD yet.

Also got the paint. Green for the port, white for the inside:



And the lights for the inside as well. Yep, they're vehicle fog lights lol. I figured they'd be strong enough to hold up for a little while.




Got all the exposed edges routed:



Made these braces:



Took it all apart to paint the port. White first, then the Power Green:







Finally glued the port in there:



Ordered one pair, salvaged another from an old box. LOVE these binding posts, I do and will use them on all my boxes:



It's comin along. SHD is still like 2-3 weeks out, so I've got time. Grossly underestimated the amount of paint I'd need, only ordered one can and used it all on the port. Got more ordered today, but the paint portion is on hold for now.


Spent most of my day literally watching glue dry. When I put the port in I wasn't able to get glue in between the port wall and the side wall, so I've had to go back and glue it all. Had to do a couple passes, and drying time is long when you're trying to fill gaps.

Besides glue, threw in a couple dowels:



That's all the bracing I'm doing. Should be fine.

And I cut the baffle. This is enormous. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's huge. Got a spray paint can there for some reference:





I REALLY wanted to do a flush baffle, but I think I need the strength of the double baffle, and I can't add a third baffle. Thoughts?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So drilling through plexiglass is tedious. Took me more than an hour to do just these 16 holes. Can't let the bit get too warm or it will melt it, can't spin it too fast or push too hard or you won't get anywhere before it melts, and you have to be careful when exiting the other side to not chip it. Went out and bought a glass/tile bit, was about halfway through and this happened:



Shoot. So, went with what I heard was the next best option, a standard spade bit. Worked well, no issues.





Shot it with one can of white. That's all I have for now, got two more in the mail. Don't mind the top, had tape there to block the port.



First baffle goes on tomorrow. Then I'm waiting on paint.

Considering doing a multicolor splatter on the inside. Should I, and if so, what colors?


Had the bike in the shop for the 1000 mile scheduled maintenance today. Really annoyed right now, just got done waxing/polishing and I was fighting mosquitoes the ENTIRE time. Like an hour and a half. Have 7 new bites. Dafuq!! She looks really good now though.

Before that, while I was waiting for both the bike and the weather to cool down, I got the first baffle put on:





Not sure if I'm gonna wait for paint to get here so I can spray without worrying about getting any paint on the top where I'm staining, or just go ahead and put the top baffle on and just tape off the top really well when I spray the inside. Will probably go with the latter just because I'm impatient.


Sealed and prepped the inside for paint.




Paint still isn't here, so on goes the top baffle. Just going to top mount.

I think I have enough glue on there. I think. Don't mind the different colors, I was almost empty on a couple different wood glues lol.



So I don't have clamps. And it turns out that I don't really have much heavy stuff. Here's what I came up with to weigh it down:





It's gonna stay like that until tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, those cutouts are for 10's. You can't really see the SHD cutout to compare, but you can get an idea.


Took the Pile O' **** off, here's where it's at:





This bish is heavy.

And a pic for size reference, this was a box for a pair of 10's:



Still got some stuff left to do. Gonna have to wait though, riding up to Austin tonight for 6th Street and then the X Games tomorrow.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, paint still isn't here. Wanted to get something done, so bam! Stain.




Probably can't tell, but first coat of polyurethane. Also painted the window edges black.




Probably can't tell once again, but second and final coat of polyurethane:



Paint came in:



I'll be spraying tomorrow after the poly dries. Should be carpeting by the weekend. Carpeting is my least favorite part of this whole thing.


Prepped for paint:



Aaaaand holy Santa Claus ****, this is hawt!










Huuuuuuuuge update:

I drilled the holes for binding posts and light connection bolts.



Lol, been doin other stuff lately.

Oh, I also rewired the voltage meters, and made no difference. I think I'm taxing the relay? I don't know. I need to figure it out though. I may end up running another relay.

Who wants to carpet for me? I *hate* carpeting, and that's basically why I haven't finished yet lol.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Finally got around to carpeting. I hate spray glue -_-








Tomorrow should be plexi, binding posts, and maybe some hi-res photos 






I used black RTV liquid gasket, didn't spread out super evenly 

Oh well though, not a huge issue to me. Also didn't notice how crooked the binding post holes were until I put them in. I'm OCD like that.

Now just have to mount the lights and this bish will be done. Then it's just a waiting game for the sub. Hopefully I'll have it in time for Heat Wave :/


So, gonna finally refinish these ugly bishes:



The sun and cheap materials I guess really did a number on them. Yep, those are fingerprints. No idea what happened there, must have been the oils on my fingers? Sweat? Who knows. Cheap stuff was used, so here I am. Just gonna plasti-dip I think.

Also, headliner came out. No idea what to do here:



I need to brace it. I thought I had more room between the roof braces and the roof, was gonna add wood in there, but I don't. I might be able to put a block in the middle between two roof braces because of the lip on the roof brace, might fit well. But I don't know what to do on the rear side, which is where I really need it.

Anyone have any ideas? I want to be able to get the headliner back in there.


Just sprayed over it. Not perfect, but much better, and good enough for me.



Still no ideas for the roof. Only thing I got is to replace the AT with Tantric Vibraflex, it's supposed to dry really freakin hard. Like, concrete hard. May be my only option. Got a week or two to think about it.


So, found the AT starting to peel:



Was still very stuck to the roof though. No issues there.

So my first idea was to cut wood strips and glue them into the ribs of the roof. So I cut the deadener in prep for that:



But after I cut them, they were extremely flimsy. Like, I was scared they would just crack and/or not give support at all. So here's what I ended up doing:



Shoved some wood pieces in between the braces and the roof. Should give some decent support. Before the braces weren't in contact with the roof, so it still had room to move. I think this was a decent move.

Then, I found some extra AT laying around. It's 3-4 layers in the back now. Figured I'd try to at least lower the resonating frequency.



I'm done with this. Could have done some more, but I'm annoyed at this point and tired of spending money on it right now. I did look back at some videos and it was moving a lot, but less than I thought. With what I just did, should be about the same after the extra cone area, port direction, and closer proximity to the roof. I hope.


**** **** ****!!!!



Friggin socket set fell on them. Sooooo pissed. That's the left one. The dust cap was punched in, I was able to suck it back out luckily (I'll leave that open for you guys). Here's the right one:



The grill just broke on this one thankfully. This blows. They still function the same, so I can live with it for now. Not getting another pair for a little while though, probably not until next month. 

On the plus side, the A pillars look much better.





And just because:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Phew! Done. That's how it currently stands.

Tantric finally started shipping out subs, so not sure where I stand on the backorder list, but the end is in sight.


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## onebadmonte (Sep 4, 2008)

Welcome to the neighborhood, you'll fit right in.  Looking forward to seeing you monster sub in action.


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## beerdrnkr (Apr 18, 2007)

Wow, tons of work but it looks good. What made you get rid of the sub/passive radiator combo?


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Wish you would have posted some pictures so I could see what you were doing.





JK


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

onebadmonte said:


> Welcome to the neighborhood, you'll fit right in.  Looking forward to seeing you monster sub in action.


I've been here for a bit, just never posted my build log for some reason. And yeah, you and me both man!



beerdrnkr said:


> Wow, tons of work but it looks good. What made you get rid of the sub/passive radiator combo?


Ya know, I LOVED that setup. I think it sounded really good, PRs have a distinctive sound IMO. Just smooth as hell. Was really nice on music. Onebadmonte heard it, he can tell you what he thought.

But my design had its limits. I didn't have enough Vd in my PRs, so I couldn't push it to where I wanted to. I was also getting the itch to be a little louder, but I was fairly content. Tantric came out with the 24", and I had to have it.

The 24" SHD should be better for both SPL and/or SQ. SPL, with the ported box I built for it, should be about 5dB louder, maybe more. SQ will be better than the 3HPs in a sealed box for sure (with about the same output), and should be better in the ported box as well due to shorting rings in the SHD (the 3HP didn't have any). Regular ported will sound different than the PRs, so I may go sealed, but I won't know until I get it in and listen to it.



LaserSVT said:


> Wish you would have posted some pictures so I could see what you were doing.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Lol, I like to take pictures. I've got a gallery on another car audio forum, and also have a bunch of product and event pictures here: Car Audio - Gilbert Kless Photography


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

I love pics of installs. tells the story much better than just words. 

Great job. Love the stained wood. Havent seen that used much since the 80's and early 90;'s but always liked that look.


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## jpeezy (Feb 5, 2012)

I really enjoyed this thank you for sharing, I think you couldve used just about any choice of materials and it still wouldve turned out nice.This was very well laid out and planned, it gave me a slight steam-punk feeling, or you couldve gone that route. the stained wood would look hot with copper trimming around the edges(you can use aluminum and spray it with a copper paint from dupli-color copper plate coating), love the analog meters, but once again trim them in some kind of metal brushed or polished, wow.Very cool, and it looks like it is a fun install, those subs look like they could pound a hole in your chest. Keep sharing.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

LaserSVT said:


> I love pics of installs. tells the story much better than just words.
> 
> Great job. Love the stained wood. Havent seen that used much since the 80's and early 90;'s but always liked that look.


Yeah, pictures sure tell the story well. Plus, who wants to see a build log with no pictures?



jpeezy said:


> I really enjoyed this thank you for sharing, I think you couldve used just about any choice of materials and it still wouldve turned out nice.This was very well laid out and planned, it gave me a slight steam-punk feeling, or you couldve gone that route. the stained wood would look hot with copper trimming around the edges(you can use aluminum and spray it with a copper paint from dupli-color copper plate coating), love the analog meters, but once again trim them in some kind of metal brushed or polished, wow.Very cool, and it looks like it is a fun install, those subs look like they could pound a hole in your chest. Keep sharing.


Thanks man. Yeah you're right, the trim pieces and some extra work could have made it look really nice. I didn't want to do _too_ much work, didn't know how long I'd be keeping it like this. Still not really sure, I haven't decided if I'm going to wall it or scale down in the future.

In any event, this will stay updated. Thanks for looking!


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Just talked to Murphy, he said he should be building mine sometime next week. With any luck, I'll have it by the time October rolls around.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Illumination!








Figured it was time to finish this box up. They are some fog lights from eBay. Aiming is generally across the motor, but should light up everything pretty well. I hope. Held the wires down with hot glue.

Box is done now, just gotta drop in the sub. Would be really cool if I didn't have to wrestle it back out to adjust the mounting hole diameter, but I'm doubtful. Murphy told me to take a video of me putting the sub in the box. I told him I didn't need that embarrassment in my life.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got these from Murphy today:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

More from Tantric HQ:








That's an 11" CF cap btw. I love the color on this. I *really* like the colored surround clamps, makes it look awesome! Makes me not flush mounting totally fine.


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Nice thing is with a sub like that I don't have to leave Waco to hear you down in San An. LOL


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Tantric looks like they could make some awesome subs, but w/o having some kind of ballpark on the t/s to know how they're going to model or price it's hard to put a lot of faith in them. Strange way to sell just like the 5w amps from zuki.

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

LaserSVT said:


> Nice thing is with a sub like that I don't have to leave Waco to hear you down in San An. LOL


Nahhhhh. Should only be around 150dB.



JoshHefnerX said:


> Tantric looks like they could make some awesome subs, but w/o having some kind of ballpark on the t/s to know how they're going to model or price it's hard to put a lot of faith in them. Strange way to sell just like the 5w amps from zuki.
> 
> Josh


I hear ya. They generally don't publish since T/S changes, but they have them available. Price isn't that bad, but I'm with you, I never understood the not publishing. Might be because they try to tailor them for each application. They're solid subs for sure though.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

SHD has been shipped! Scheduled for Tuesday arrival 

At the mercy of UPS now, hopefully they don't drop it


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Hopefully they're crating those and not just using cardboard.. I imagine it's heavy as hell. Back when I bought my Brahmas they were crated in 2x4's and osb. That's how it should be done. UPS can be rough on packages. The last couple I received looked like they had been kicked the whole way here lol

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Couple teasers, more and better pics coming within the next couple days. Wanna get it in. Lol, I had to stand on the box to load the bish in there.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

You're gonna need a forklift to get that in your truck.. LOL


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> You're gonna need a forklift to get that in your truck.. LOL


Nah, just another dude. Was heavy though.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bifgx2FfQtQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6e97AWy8Ec


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

It's crazy when you see this thing moving in person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo1_CeO01so

A little ammeter action, no big deal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLquRuD7mr4


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Some pics of the beast:



























More can be found here: Tantric Sounds 24" SHD

Higher resolution can be found here: Product Shots - Gilbert Kless Photography


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Looks like it moves some air. What's the xmax on that? How does it sound?

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> Looks like it moves some air. What's the xmax on that? How does it sound?
> 
> Josh


Xmax is 42mm, Xmech is 105mm p-p.

I haven't had enough time with it to say for sure, but so far I've noticed that it kills in the 30's. I know it rolls off a bit above that, but I'm pretty sure that's mostly my enclosure, as it's a little on the small side. Plays into the 20's decent, only had some songs down to 27-28. I noticed a slight dropoff there, but not as bad as above 40. Need more time with it to accurately say.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

15-80Hz sweep. Pay attention to the top blue lines, those were the peaks, not the red bars.

Sealed, at headrest:



Driver's door open, in passenger kick:



Knew I heard that rolloff. Seems to fall flat above 43Hz or so, probably a product of small enclosure and vehicle.

Also still trying to learn the limits. Was playing decaf pretty decently at full tilt for about a minute at a time, then put on a couple tracks I have verified clean in Audacity that are damn loud and started smelling coil. Cap was hot. I'm even at -1 on the sub level (set gain at 0). Talking with Murphy and TFade, might be low electrical even though I was above 13.8V the whole time, might also be the small box. Could be fighting with box resonance.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So it's known that Tantric subs have a certain smell. Ok, I could look past that, IF my coil wasn't also heating up. Something is wrong here, and pretty damn sure it's past the speaker wires going to the box.

Idea right now is that the high moving mass, in combination with my small box and proximity to the roof, isn't allowing the coil to cool properly. Murphy has offered to build me a drop-in with one less spider and simply swap it out with the one I have, which is pretty awesome. I told him to wait, I'm still thinking about a C pillar wall. Have to measure and see what I can do. Don't have the spare cash to move the amps/batteries/etc to the back right now, so amp rack has to stay, which means it might not work yet. The amp rack is basically as far back as the seats though, so I would have had to clear that anyway, so I think I have to work around that regardless.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

What's your tuning freq on that box? May be a couple of hz low. What do you think you're smelling? glue from the vc?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Did this today. Didn't have the USACi CD or any tones for that matter, so just played that same song that was heating up the coil before. Pretty sure it's right at or damn near my peak anyway:



This is what it was with the sub level at -2 (where the coil doesn't get super hot):


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> What's your tuning freq on that box? May be a couple of hz low. What do you think you're smelling? glue from the vc?


It's 24Hz. Kinda needs to be this low though, a sub this size needs it to tame the response.

Right now it's just glue. Which isn't a huge problem by itself, but the coil is also heating up, which is a problem.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

You're not going to get any output at 50hz (relatively speaking) if you're tuned at 24.

What led you to believe you needed to be tuned that low? Was it modeled out in an enclosure program? 

What kind of bump are you getting at tuning freq?

What note peaks are playing on the song that gets hot. If they're hitting at tuning your cones not going to get movement which is needed for cooling.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> You're not going to get any output at 50hz (relatively speaking) if you're tuned at 24.
> 
> What led you to believe you needed to be tuned that low? Was it modeled out in an enclosure program?
> 
> ...


This is tuned at 25Hz IIRC:



You'll see my RTA graph above. It's not the most detailed RTA, but it works for this.

That song is at 39Hz. Cone is definitely moving a lot there.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

wow, that's some crazy cabin gain if that box is tuned at 25, 10 db gain at 35. Do you have a subsonic on? Have you tried eq'ing down 35 and raising the gain?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> wow, that's some crazy cabin gain if that box is tuned at 25, 10 db gain at 35. Do you have a subsonic on? Have you tried eq'ing down 35 and raising the gain?


Yeah exactly man, that's why a low tuning with this is necessary. This isn't your standard sub. Gets crazy peaky if you tune above 26-27.

No subsonic right now, but that doesn't really matter. People have run these IB with no subsonic lol.

EQ and a couple other tricks are the next step. I've got one or two things I can try, but outside of that, it will be coming out. Simply not enough space.

I've already got another setup in mind


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Gonna do the trade for a pair of 15" blacktop TRF/SHD hybrids. Sub up/port passenger side. Not for another month and a half though, so I've got a little time.

Trying to plan for the new box for the TRFs. Port side, going to use a 12" Sonotube. What I don't know is what flares to use.

I think I wanna test out some theories in the white paper here: Port compression and sizing

And if so, a large radius flare on the inside and a small radius on the outside is what I'll be doing. What exact sizes, I don't know. I'm thinking 3" radius minimum for the inside, up to 6". For the outside, maybe 1"?

Any thoughts?


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Was looking at that rta you posted again and it looks like when you model the box too small.. so you may be right that it's just not enough airspace. 

Your talk of flaring the ports reminded me of this thread. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...generate-more-spl-without-spending-penny.html

If you haven't seen it is interesting reading also.

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So, TRFs aren't happening anymore. Other guy cancelled the trade, which is ok since we didn't really have anything firm. I've got other threads about sub/amount choices, but the end game is a pair of the new Sundowns that will be coming out (New bun in the oven - I need some info! - Sundown Audio - GREAT Amps/Subs! GREAT Customer Service! - SMD Forum). It will be a while before those are released though, so I've got to find something in the meantime. Two top choices right now:

- Four 12" Creative Sounds SDX12s. They should sound really good.
- Two 15" Tantric Sounds HDDs. These would be very custom, with linear spiders, an underhung coil, and possibly full CF cone. Would sound really good too. AND, I wouldn't have to build a new box for the Sundowns, which is a huge plus in my mind right now.

SHD is on CL right now, so I've got some time to decide until that sells.

Outside of that, my left tweeter has been cutting out. I know it's the amp, because I can tap the amp or crank the bass and it will come back on, then randomly cut off again. It's been going out more and more though, I'll have to pull it soon and send it back in for repair. Sucks, but **** happens.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Going to build a sealed box mid-January if this bish don't sell. Should get pretty close to the same curve on it actually.

Might be looking for a new vehicle soon though, and it won't be anything that will fit this thing.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Still haven't sold that monster? May have better luck after Christmas. People not having to buy gifts and getting gift money... Good luck.

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Yeah, that's true. To be fair I've only had it on Craigslist until recently.

But it should do well in a sealed box. Just worried about if I switch vehicles.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Let's see how rowdy a sealed box can get.

Dry mockup and fitting, no glue yet.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Bracing! Whole lotta glue too. Gonna snag some fiberglass batt and line a lot of the walls.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got the first baffle on. You'll also notice I added more bracing to the bottom. I looked at my last picture and went "how could I forget to brace the largest face?"



Then the top baffle. Screwed from bottom. No visible screws on this, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go ahead with full stain.



Had some Acousta-Stuf laying around, and also picked up the fiberglass. Don't know how much it is, but I'm gonna toss it in and see what happens.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Not much today, prepping for the girl's visit. She said she wants to stain it; I'm scared. Bolted the dowels together.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Finishing wood is a big choice. But if you don't like it you can sand it off.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Roundover. All that's left is sanding and should be ready for stain and poly.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Been busy lately, girl was here and this happened:



Love this knot:




Aaaanyway, got it all sanded down and just threw the stain on.



Was much darker than I hoped, but it's alright I guess. A little blotchy too.

Still don't know what I'm gonna do with my front stage amp situation. My choices are these:

1) Keep the Levi for now. Send it in to get fixed and possibly modded somehow (maybe higher power on channels 5-6 but stable at 8ohms or something). 
2) Gladen XL250.4
3) Soundstream REF2.640 and REF4.920. This is a deal that's going to expire VERY soon, like within the next couple days.
4) Ground Zero GZHA 2400XII and 4200XII, but those won't be available for a couple months.


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## Greg B (Jun 2, 2007)

Congrats on the Engagement!!!!

NOW GET BACK TO THE BUILD!!!!!! LOL~~

greg zts


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

gckless said:


> Been busy lately, girl was here and this happened:


****, how'd that happen!?!?! 

seriously congratz. Just celebrated 20 years w/ my wife.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Greg B said:


> Congrats on the Engagement!!!!
> 
> NOW GET BACK TO THE BUILD!!!!!! LOL~~
> 
> greg zts


Thanks! And yeah lol, I'm back at it. About to throw some poly on!



JoshHefnerX said:


> ****, how'd that happen!?!?!
> 
> seriously congratz. Just celebrated 20 years w/ my wife.


No clue man 

But thank you, and congrats to you too. That's a long time nowadays.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Wasn't super fond of the color, but after poly it brightened up. This is the first coat:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Couple things.

First up, box is done. Not going to stuff it I've decided. Going to try to get someone over here to help me drop it in this week.









Next up, I pre-ordered SI's TM6.5. Should be solid, and I can use stock door panels without mods. Pretty sure I'm gonna stay with 2-way.
TM65 6.5″ Woofer | Stereo Integrity



For my amp situation, I am going to keep the Levi for now and get it fixed. I am going to wait for either @West's creations or new Ground Zero Hydrogen amps (Ground Zero GZHA 2400XII and Ground Zero GZHA 4200XII), or maybe figure something better out. Gonna stay with 2-way, but still need 100Wx2 at 4ohms and 150W+x2 at 8ohms, so it's tough to find in one four channel amp. Very open to options.



I also plan on changing my substage. Thinking about a pair of nice 12's with PRs. I don't need to be as loud (I'm attributing mechanical vehicle problems to that too) and I will gain space back, which will allow me to throw my amps and everything in the rear. The CSS SDX12's really stand out to me right now, but again, open to options.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

Does look better w/ the poly on there. Wonder if you used a dewaxed shellac then poly'd over it if you'd get a bit more depth in the finish. Have you ever considered ebonizing it leaving several coats of stain on?

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Levi is up for sale, SHD is up for sale, DC is going to be listed shortly. Going with Ground Zero amps, subs TBD.

Bad pic, will probably get more tomorrow.





Here is a 10-150Hz sweep, no LPF on sub:





Here is pink noise, 63Hz LPF:





Don't pay attention to overall SPL level in relation to one another, they weren't done at the same time.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So took the Levi out, sending it to get fixed tomorrow. 

About to hurt my resale value, but people should know:

Now, I've always had noise in this Blazer since I put everything in. High pitched whine that would vary frequency, like alt whine but would be there even with the car off and wasn't consistent with alt speed. Just figured it was the wires being so close to batteries, or possibly some bad ground, or maybe the HU. So I uninstalled the Levi, and here's my temp setup (don't worry about the wires, I know, it's only temporary):



Amp leaning literally ON the battery. And guess what? ZERO noise.

Now, it's possible that a stray solder could have both caused the noise and led to the channel cutting out. Honestly, based on other reports I've seen, I'm hesitant to believe that.


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## JoshHefnerX (Jun 13, 2008)

This thread details the amp going back 3 times and still coming back with noise. Good luck - don't let him get out fixing it.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...verado-z71-lt-non-bose-no-center-console.html

Josh


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

JoshHefnerX said:


> This thread details the amp going back 3 times and still coming back with noise. Good luck - don't let him get out fixing it.
> 
> http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...verado-z71-lt-non-bose-no-center-console.html
> 
> Josh


Yes sir, been watching that actually.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So new setup will be:

1x Ground Zero GZHA 2400XII
1x Ground Zero GZHA 4200XII
2x Ground Zero GZHA 1.1850DXII
3x Dayton Audio HO 12"
2x Stereo Integrity TM65 (going to compare to Exodus Anarchy and decide which to run)

Of course, that's if anyone will buy the Zed, DC, or SHD. Buy my amps people!


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Alright, where to start. Been a lot of changes.

- Leviathan was sold.
- DC 5k was sold.
- SHD was removed.
- Exodus Anarchys were removed.

Bought a new Soundstream REF2.370 and REF2.640. Pics!














Also bought two Ground Zero amps, a GZHA 4200XII and 2400XII.
Ground Zero GZHA 4200XII
Ground Zero GZHA 2400XII

Went back and forth with Scott from GZ USA for months (literally months, since last summer) and was finally able to swing a couple amps. Really excited to try these. Only thing is, he just told me yesterday that during shipping, the pallet the amps on broke on the truck and the amps slid all over. He's reviewing now, so hopefully there will be a couple good ones in the bunch and I won't have to wait for another shipment from Germany. I have absolutely no doubt he will make things right, even if I get them and there are problems.

So, for amps, I will be running the SS REF2.370 for tweeters, the GZHA 4200XII bridged to each mid at 8 ohms, and the GZHA 2400XII at 2 ohms for subs. So, all class AB. I was all class D before, so I'll be able to see if there really is a difference. I don't think there is, for the record.

The amp rack is going to be a two level deal, just waiting on the GZ amps to get here so I can measure to start building.



For mids, my Exodus Anarchy's came out today. They were replaced with Stereo Integrity TM65's. First, some photos:







Stereo Integrity TM65 by Gilbert Kless, on Flickr


I put mine in today, and my initial impression was one of slight disappointment. There was a hollow sound and I found myself reaching for EQ. Vocals sounded a bit odd. Quick RTA showed 500Hz was down, but I'm not totally sure at this point it's solely the drivers themselves. Might be the way they're playing with the truck. I also noticed that they don't seem as efficient as the Anarchy's I took out, seems like they both handle more and require more power to get loud. Seemed like the snap of a snare drum was more in your face though, I did like that.

Regardless, I only have about 45 minutes on them, so I will definitely give them some time. Both of the symptoms I've described will almost definitely subside after break in. I also only have them on like 30W or so, temp amp right now until my Ground Zero amps get here. I'm excited to see what they hold in store. I will be revisiting the Anarchy's in another month or two, and do a true side-by-side with both broken in well.

Here's another review where the initial symptoms were also seen, and disappeared after some listening: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...average-joe-review-stereo-integrity-tm65.html



For subs, I plan on running a pair of Dayton HO 15's sealed. 

I think that's it for now.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Great news! The Ground Zero amps weren't damaged in the shipping mishap, and will be on their way to me tomorrow.

Here is a rough sketch of what the sub box/amp rack will look like. The SS REF2.370 is up above centered, the two GZ amps are down below. Wiring and everything else under the GZ amps.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

I'm open to any other ideas for the amp configuration as well.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

SHD is sold! Ordered a pair of Dayton Audio HO 15's. Got them from Vertex Audio, they are cheaper than Parts Express and are awesome guys so make sure you order from there!

Ground Zero amps should be here Wednesday. I'm actually really excited for those. 

Still open to ideas for the amp rack.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got back from Japan a couple weeks ago, and now it begins:


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

I think I have all materials now, so that's good. Chopped off the top, cut things a bit more. Fitted the front wall and glued that in.



Here's what it will look like.



Going to just screw down the bottom amp board. All wiring and everything is going to be beneath that so I need access to it.

Also made the shelf for the SS above the GZ's, but I'll wait until that's mounted to show.

Also also, I'm not caring a _whole_ lot about how this looks, because this might all be temporary. Not sure how long this car is going to last. Going to drive it until I can't though.


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## onebadmonte (Sep 4, 2008)

Kudos on salvaging the old box. Might not be as loud as your pr setup but I'm sure it'll still get down when needed.


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Excellent quality pics man! I need a better camera. LOL


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

onebadmonte said:


> Kudos on salvaging the old box. Might not be as loud as your pr setup but I'm sure it'll still get down when needed.


Thanks, figured it's the same size as I need and that's a lot of wood so I would try to use as much as I could. It won't be what I was used to, but yeah it should be pretty decent. Easily enough to feel. I hope lol.



LaserSVT said:


> Excellent quality pics man! I need a better camera. LOL


Thank you sir. It's another hobby of mine. Lately it's taken priority over car audio actually.

But you don't always need better stuff, usually it's all about lighting and technique.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Got a bunch more done today. Dry mockup without amps:



Dry mockup with amps:





Going to be drilling holes through the dowels and running the wires up through there. Kinda nervous about that shelf holding the amp to be honest, but a lot of glue, and I have 4 screws each side from the back. Should be ok. I guess I'll find out if it doesn't lol.

Subs will be on their way this week I hope. Shooting for install over the long weekend.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, I just ****ed it all up! Lol. Well, mostly. I guess I was going too fast drilling through the dowels and the holes are all uneven and the wood is all split around the holes. Blecht. But, this is what I'm doing. I'll be making cuts on the board behind the GZ amps to run everything up.



Also glued on the shelf and the two sub baffles. Should be ready for stain after a couple more cuts and a quick edge routing.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Box is done. Got all holes drilled and everything sanded down. Doesn't look the cleanest but oh well. Stain will go on tomorrow, to be followed by poly.

Subs also shipped, will be here Friday.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, stain is on. Doesn't look spectacular, and you can tell where the glue is, but it's progress. Poly should bring the color out a little too.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Two coats of poly:



Done with that. Now I need to work on wiring, which is going to be harder than I thought. Not sure how I'm going to distribute power. I think I have enough stuff, just need to sit down and figure out how with the stuff I have. Have to remove one each power and ground run from the truck, I have two from front to back now. Need to extend my speaker wires. Need to go and buy an RCA extension for the SS amp which I totally forgot about. Subs should be here tomorrow. Might not be able to get it done this weekend, and I'll be in San Diego next week. Hopefully next weekend if not this.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Well, woke up and removed two of the front-to-back runs in the truck and brought the two G31's back in this morning while it was still somewhat cool. I'm going to roll with only the underhood battery. If I need more I'll be getting a bank of caps.

Figured out what I'm doing for wiring too. Got done what I could while it's still inside:





That buss bar was one of two across the batteries before, just cut it and reused it. Those fuse holders I just cut the end off of and screwed 'em down in place. Terminal strips are awesome, as always. The wiring looks all neat right now, but once I get the other stuff in there that's still in the truck it won't be so pretty lol.

Waiting on delivery of the subs literally any minute now. Have to buy RCA extensions. Anyone think I'll lose a lot of fidelity with barrel connectors?

It will be in this weekend.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

My fingers are tender. Back is shot. Think I have some strands of wire in random places in my skin. Shed about 5 pounds in this heat. But 4 hours this morning, and she's in:





Love it when things go well the first time! Quick shot of the mess below I told you it would turn into:



Only played for about 5 minutes, but initial impressions are very good. Granted, I had _maybe_ 25W on each mid with the amp before, so I want to give it some time to get used to before I make any decisions. I will write a full update later though here: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...-ground-zero-gzha-2400xii-4200xii-review.html


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

The power LEDs on these GZ amps are extremely bright. They light up the whole cabin at night. Anyone know a good way to tame them? I figured I'd just take a sharpie to them.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Uh oh.



Thermal protect on the two channel. She was cooking. Like, burn my hand hot. This has cooling fans on the inside, but they never spun at all. Not sure why. This amp's side panels were a little damaged when it arrived, but nothing looked wrong at all, so I'm not sure that's the reason.

Regardless, talked to Scott immediately to see if he's seen this before. He said no. He said that he could ship another out Tuesday, if I could pull this one and get it back to him next weekend. I was like you, sir, are awesome! Not too many companies work that quick, nor will ship you a replacement before they receive the broken item. Just another testament to GZ USA's customer service.

GZ is awesome.

On the other hand, the truck is louder and sounds better than it ever has. TM65's are definitely louder, at least to me right now. Again though, I had that temp amp for a couple months so I might just not remember correctly. Either way, I'm happy right now. The SS amp stayed cool, the GZ 4 channel did get pretty warm, but not like the GZ 2 channel did. Even sealed, there is a good amount of output from these Daytons, I'm pretty happy with them right now. Blends very well with the front. Really happy with this so far, and right now I'm just guesstimating amp gain level by eye and ear. Gonna let things break in and then bust out the scope.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

So I’ve got some things to do here, and I need some ideas.

Scott from GZ USA was awesome enough to ship me out a new amp. I can’t speak highly enough of the customer service from both him and Brandon. They make well sure that whatever you need, you have, until you’re happy. They’ve done more at this point than any other company has for me.

Beyond that, I found out that the fans on the inside of the amp are not enough to overcome the hundred-degree Texas heat. So, I need to figure out the best way to add fans. I would like to keep it to two fans, I have 140mm fans now, one under each amp. I would like to put them underneath the amp, with the bottom covers removed, so that way I keep the clean look on top of the amp rack. With them below you will never know they are there. This may not resolve it, because most of the heat exchange is handled through the fins on the top of the heatsink (the case), but I’m hoping it’s going to be enough. I will be removing the bottom covers of both amps, and I am also able to remove the side panels from both amps. When I say remove the side panels in my options below, I mean the right panel of the left amp, and the left panel of the right amp, so the ones inside. I’ll be keeping the panels in place on the outside so the amps look normal. Now the way my amp rack is, I think I have a couple options:

1.	Keep the side panels on, have both fans pushing (blowing up into amp).
2.	Remove side panels, have both fans pushing.
3.	Remove side panels, have one fan pushing and one fan pulling.

What do you think? I’m open to other ideas as well.

Or do you guys think I will _need_ to put airflow across the top of the amps, that just under won’t suffice?


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

Finally got some time and was able to pull it out and do some work.

First pulled the whole board out and took the bottom covers and inside side panels off. Here's what I was talking about before if any of you couldn't visualize it (probably because of my terrible explanation):





Then cut out holes for the 140mm fans and routed the edges. These are very sloppy but I was just trying to get it done fast and no one is going to see them:





Then I threw the amps back on there. This actually worked out really well because the way the amps are designed the side panels are raised a little bit. I'm getting good airflow out the fan holes and out of the bottom of the side panels:





Wired the fans to a switch, then to the relay for everything. This way, I can either leave the switch on all the time and the amps will only come on when the amps are on, or I can turn them completely off:





And can't notice anything was done from the outside:





I have high hopes for this. I haven't went and pushed the amps and tried to get 'em to heat up, but I'm going to assume all is well now.

Now that I have some logistics out of the way, I can move forward with final tuning and reviews. It's been beautiful here lately (just hot as hell), so I've been riding my bike almost every day, so not sure when I'm going to get around to it.


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## gckless (Oct 11, 2012)

And this marks the conclusion of the Blazer saga:



Buying a new car, so had to rip everything out. Sooooo much easier coming out than it is going in (you know what I'm talkin' about ). Took about 5 hours total.

I never tuned this, never really brought the TM65s, the GZ amps, or the Daytons to the edge, never compared the TM65s to the Anarchies, few things I didn't get around to. But, this thing is becoming a hassle. Buying a 2011 Impala. This stuff will be going in there sooner or later. 

....Until then!


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## Lymen (Aug 9, 2011)

Wow, all that work! Well you'll be well experienced when you get to the impala.


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## asnatlas (Apr 4, 2021)

Awesome build @gckless


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