# Got the new front satge in....



## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

I pretty much got everything done I wanted to this weekend, I have not done any acoustic treatment with the exception of a Deflex panel behind the cone, which does wonders BTW! I am waiting on me doing research and I need to get the car in for a warranty repair on a window track rattle that's driving me nuts. When the weather gets nicer and I can drive the truck to work I'll schedule an appointment for that. There still needs to be a lot of work done!

Here we go. I chose the Morel MDT12 Neo tweet. It had to fit in a stock location but in order to do so I had to take it from square to round. This was done with a bench grinder for the rough cuts and a grinding bit in a drill press. It took patience and I ordered 3 tweets in case I flubbed up, I still have a spare  Here’s some pics if the tweets the quarter and phone are for size comparison. 





After this I pulled one door card off to figure out how I was going to fit a Seas CA18RNX in there. It was TIGHT, the magnet clears the window by about a quarter inch and at full excursion the cone clears the door card by about the same if not less. Here's the Seas driver:






I made extension rings out of 2 chunks of 3/4" and ended up having to trim them back on a table saw by 1/2". So If I had 1" stock I would have been set. Not many pics of the ring build but here's one of my Get-er Dun paint booth, drying station 



Here's the Seas in the door: 



This project seemed to take FOREVER. I started at around Noon of Friday and finished about 5-6 on Saturday. I slept from 1AM till 7AM Saturday morning and took a Lowes trip when I woke up. It was solid work! BUT this was the first time I have had the door cards off this car and was going into the whole project blind for the most part. But here's the finished product....




Sorry I did not get to vacuum the carpet 

Here's a couple pics under the hood of the power wiring, pretty lackluster and simple. I still need to add some good grounding and possibly a different battery terminal. IT's welding cable and the fuse holder was bought at Wal Mart!!!! Spare no expense 







So there you have it. I cannot comment yet on the sound because I am still tuning, But I must admit the drive to work today was much more pleasurable  The Morel's are a different tweet! Damn snappy and will break your eye if you are not careful with tuning, they will get quite loud quite quick. Right now they are crossed at around 2.5K and the Seas at 2.2K. This will probably change tonight when I start messing some more.


Chad


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

In this pic, those three screws do what? If they allow you to remove the faceplate, then consider filling in the gap in from the faceplate and the sail panel with liquid plastic to make it smooth and uniform, almost like OEM. Then you can install the tweet from the rear via those 3 screws. Not that it looks bad, cause it looks pretty sweet now, just my suggestion only...


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

The screws hold the faceplate, dome, and VC onto the magnet, the whole works is hot glued in. I may experiment with filling the gap, I was not wanting to couple the faceplate to the housing for possible acoustic reasons, There is airspace between the minimal "waveguide" and the car panel.. Before doing anything permanent I plan to experiment with modeling clay to see if it changes the sound. It may help them out too. Or I could find balck modeling clay and call it a day 

Chad


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## carter (Aug 20, 2005)

Nice install

You kind of scaring me saying that you only have a quarter inch of free space because I bought the G18's that are a quarter inch deeper and have the same car...

Didn't know they had tweeters in the SI version, might consider buying those to have a nicer install. Do you know what they retail for?


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

carter said:


> Didn't know they had tweeters in the SI version, might consider buying those to have a nicer install. Do you know what they retail for?


Best bet would be to find an online salvage yard or one in your area. Usually they sell those things fairly cheap....There are even a few Ebay Salvage yards...I have bought Chevy door panels from there to use as mock up purposes before for like $20 a panel (in great shape too)


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## ocuriel (Oct 7, 2005)

Well done!


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

What year Civic do you have? The EP3 Civic iasMUCH diferent than the other Civics, Built in England also. Kinda the bastard child of the Civic line  So what works for you may not work for me and vice versa. The stock tweeters SUCK! The pods are around 15 bucks each but again door geometry plays quite a role here.

Chad


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

Nice job, Chad! Was that a stock tweeter pod or did you have to make that?

I think a lot of people got some work done with the uncharacteristic weather that hit much of the US on Saturday. This weekend, I finally got a chance to rebuild my trunk rack from scratch (the old one I posted a pic of on here was a temp) and installing a hinged false wall in front of it and the sub box. There also seemed to be a ton of cars at the car audio shops on Saturday.


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

nice work chad especailly on the tweet/sail panel intergration,looks stock


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## racerraul (Jun 8, 2005)

Very nice indeed... must post a review of the tweets & mids in the review section when you are done...


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## carter (Aug 20, 2005)

... I have a 2001 Civic... the normal one that everyone has...

I'll check at the dealer first.


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## npdang (Jul 29, 2005)

That sail panel looks amazing, if not stock.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Thank you all for your kind words. 

The panel is stock, there was a polymide dome in there about 3/4" Crossed over at dog whistle freq's, HiHat came out of it barely. I have a blurry pic of before and after, I don't have any idea what the camera was trying to focus on. So as much as I wish I could say I had the talent to fab those sail panels up I did not. I had the grand plan of milling the tweets down on a Lathe but after having them in my hand I got spooked and did it the hard way.

So far they sound good, a little light on the tippy top and they are quite proud of the fact that they can be crossed low, a little EQ went a long way. They mate SEAMLESSLY with the CA18RNX. I'll post a review after tuning. If it's a bad recording it will let you know, they are not forgiving tweets OR mids, which is what I'm used to in day to day life.

Weather was OK, not too cold, in the mid 40's. The work was done in a heated garage. The job seemed to take FOREVER but I'm happy with the results thus far. I have another set of sail panels in case I change my mind and go with something else.

Chad


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## Ocelaris (Jun 23, 2005)

Excellent job on the tweets, I wish I could make some like that! This man is a genius when it comes to fabbing things... lathe this, who has a lathe handy!?! none the less know how to use it on a tweeter!

Just watch out for tiny fingers, although I'm sure he's a coniseur already  

Do you worry at all about the sun on the tweet at all? Just curious... not that a grill would to much to stop sunlight... 

Have any pics of the amp under the seat? That is the real magic...


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Under the seat.... HAHAHA You can't fit a sandwich under that seat. I tried it there, It would kinda fit but I got nervous having the power under there and change falling out of my pocket. Thus far I plan on doing the spare tire sub box like yours and the amp in the floor OR a side well enclosure and the amp in the spare area and trying to squeeze in a DEQ2496. It's really needed in those cars  I don't worry much about the sun, I am in a parcking garage at work and a garage at home, it gets less sunlight than most cars. They were cheap anyway. Heck 1 panel and 1 tweet is 40 bucks. The boy knows the no touchy rule, and I don't worry much about passengers because it's hard to reach if you think about it. If I decide to show it there would be problems!

So here's a pic of the "amp under the seat"  




Who hasn't been there, my moral is that you have to make a mess to get it right!

Chad


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

chad said:


> Chad


Nice, got any build pics of that amp rack?


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

AzGrower said:


> Nice, got any build pics of that amp rack?


I'll get a pic with the ugly box in there with full build details  I would recommend practicing the art form of cable routing with nylon rope slathered in rubber cement 

Come on spring, Daddy wants to do some fiberglass work!!!

Chad


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## MiniVanMan (Jun 28, 2005)

Here, here on the welding cable. Super flexible and will handle a good amount of current. Plus, it's CHEAP. At least for me it was free. I can get spools of the stuff, for nothing. Spare no expense. 

Great job on those tweets. They really look awesome. Keep us posted on your tuning.


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

MiniVanMan said:


> I can get spools of the stuff, for nothing. Spare no expense.


Really? I need about 50 feet or so of 10-3 welding power cable to make an extension length for my Millermatic 175 MIG welder. Building a new shop and would like to have moveability for my welder. I just finished building a new welding cart too...


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

AzGrower said:


> Really? I need about 50 feet or so of 10-3 welding power cable to make an extension length for my Millermatic 175 MIG welder. Building a new shop and would like to have moveability for my welder. I just finished building a new welding cart too...


At 50' you will probably want to go larger than 10/3. What's it capable of pulling and at what voltage. I need to look for my killer little spreadsheet, It may have gone with the hard drive last year. If I have it I'll PM you and get it to you. It's WAAAYYYY cool for calculating wire diamater for different load duties! A/C, D/C, and Speaker including program duty cycle!

Chad


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

chad said:


> I have not done any acoustic treatment with the exception of a Deflex panel behind the cone, which does wonders BTW!


How did you adhere this contraption to inside of the door?

Geez, I drive around with my windows down a lot -- maybe I should stick it to the bottom of the window instead?


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## Ocelaris (Jun 23, 2005)

wait until summer  luckily it's a white car... but the interior is still black... my hot glue melted


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

That same darn messy polyester glue I used to put the box together... Titebond.... It ain't going anywhere. 

The Deflex is Dope. I hollered in the hole before and after the panel. Before it rang like crazy, After, it was dead as hell. MUCH more than I expected. I may buy a couple more to treat the inside of the door in different places then skin it over with Asphault based stuff then the foam (ensolite?) PE has some other stuff that's still dirt cheap, does not stink, is much lighter and works as well (they say) I always liked the idea of using mass though. 

Ocelaris, Why to we have that chunk-o-foam sticking off of our door card into the door cavity? Is that to kill a standing wave of some sort? That will be another summer project, that stuff is WAY easier to work with when it's warm 

Mark, the window covers half of it but I'm thinking the window does more good than harm when down to break up and chamber the inside. If it's down I ain't worried about SQ 

Chad


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## 03blueSI (Feb 5, 2006)

Dude, you have the same king of car as I do. I will have to post up some pics of mine when I finish my install. Looking good though


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## Ocelaris (Jun 23, 2005)

That makes 3  

What actual "Deflex" pads did you use?


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

uhhhhh the cheaper ones from Madisound. I can get a number... Found some in PE too...

Chad


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

I would not call it "King Of Car" but it's a nice daily driver!!!!!


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Some new pics. 

Here are some pics to get an idea of the tweet in relation to the dash so you can get an idea of the ER problem I was having.


I also did a little grounding work hoping it would alleviate some headlight dimming and fuel pump noise problems. I replaced the stock battery terminals, grounded the alternator, the firewall, and transmission to the battery. Amp seems to get better (cleaner) power. As you can see in previous pics I only had a couple wimpy 8Ga ground wires (one for engine one for body) Now everything seems much better. My headlight problem got worse so I'm thinking a new battery is in order. But it also means that the amp is ALLOWED to pull more and I have noticed the amp doing noticably better in a dynamic sense.



So there was my Saturday night in a nutshell


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## 03blueSI (Feb 5, 2006)

Looks good. I have a 2003 SI and it took me forever to get my door speakers in. I still have some work to do since I decided to put 8s in them


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

Daym... the door won't be much of a problem itself, if you build it out you can fit a big ass driver in there BUT watch the curves of the door card. My 7's are a tad off center due to the card curving in a bit early. First door seemed to take forever, the second was a snap, isn't that the way it is 

Good luck, I'd love to see it when you are done!

Chad


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## Dichotomous (Nov 2, 2006)

that makes 4 of us. My install will be waiting for the spring for money and heat to return to me. but I'll take pics and post


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