# 05 F350 Install (first attempt at SQ)



## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Hey guys, I've been mostly lurking over here but learning quite a bit. This time around I am going much more for a good sounding system versus just getting sound to play and some boom boom. I've tried to pick out good equipment that will let me expand and build something good off of as long as I can install it right and learn how to operate it properly. 

This is what I got installed so far
HU: Alpine 9887
Front Stage: Polk SR6500 currently passive but going active
Front amp: Sundown SAX100.4
Sub Amp: Sundown 1500D
Subs: Waiting on delivery of a pair of the new Stereo Integrity Mag's

I'm looking to do more learning as before I started this install I would have no idea of what a sound stage or imaging and center was at all. I started to notice more in my truck that I could easily pick out the speakers and that the audio was right around my knees (height of the speakers.) Now with things installed and not nearly finished it is soo much better, and I'm sure it could get even better (why I am here.) The audio is right up above the dash just below eye level (I sit pretty high up) and sounds just like you put on a pair of headphones. When I close my eyes the speakers disappear and can't be picked up audibly so I think I have accomplished a little bit. 

Here are some pictures and hopefully you guys have some good feedback and criticism or tips I can use to improve the setup.

Horrible tweeter placement at first but I was shocked by how good it sounded.


















I still don't have a great ear so I had my dad help me a bit with the tuning. He does a lot of live concerts and such and has a pretty good ear for how things are supposed to sound and some good live recordings that he is very familiar with on how they are supposed to sound. We spent about 2 hours tuning stuff and fiddling with things and got it sounding quite good, got the speakers to disappear and and when you got in the truck it just sounded like you put on a pair of headphones, so I was getting pretty excited. Only complaint he had was that some of the upper highs were missing on some of his tracks. I knew the tweeters were mounted badly and had read a lot on here of people saying they sounded best when mounted directly on axis. So this is what I have come up with.



















I haven't had much seat time listening to them, nor had a chance to get my dad in there to see if he can tell that the highs are better. But it should be an improvement. Right now they are pretty much aimed at each headrest, I didn't have a laser pointer to aim them so was just by eye. When I get them aimed where I want them I will wrap the sail panels with some old t-shirt and then glass them and finish them up with some SEM texture spray and paint so they will hopefully look as OEM as possible. 

Currently I have the mids mounted in the factory door opening left by the 5x8 speakers. I had adapter rings made out of 1/2" MDF but it seemed like the speaker was hitting the door panel so for now they are just mounted directly to the door skin. I am hoping to deaden the doors later on down the road but still researching what I want to get to do it right. Thinking it will be second skin damplifier and maybe luxury liner pro but not sure on this, and also a speaker tweaker kit. Just going to try and make a suitable home for these speakers and get the most out of them that I can. I usually have the windows down and the diesel is fairly loud (but I like it that way.) So currently I am thinking I am going to only deaden and seal the doors to get the most out of the speakers and leave the rest of the truck normal so I Can hear some road noise incase something is going wrong and with the windows down plenty will be getting in anyways. 

If you guys have any insight that might help me out with these particular speakers and going active or ways to improve my install I would me more than pleased. I have read through all the posts in Big Red's thread and don't think I will ever get that far with my install but gave me some good ideas. Maybe some day I can graduate to some 8's in the doors and a nice 3-way front stage but thats gonna be a long ways off I think. 

Oh and here is the other parts of the install I have accomplished so far. 

Amp rack.
This holds a Sundown Sax100.4 and a Sundown Saz1500D along with the SR6500 passive crossovers and a carputer setup I am working on. 










Some test fitting









As it sits not pretty much about as finished as it will be










Also in plans for the carputer and mounting a single din HU in a truck that comes factory with a double din opening I made this little pod to relocate some things.

It's not the best pic of it, and the trim ring around the HU is not pushed in all the way but it was my first time working with fiberglass and I think it came out fairly decently.










Here is how it looked before I started messing with it.









Thats what I got so far. Hopefully some of you guys have some tips or tricks for me I can use to get the best sound I can out of this setup. Then maybe as I learn more I can come back and get some ideas for building my own fully active 3-way setup in the future.


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## simplicityinsound (Feb 2, 2007)

i like the way htat rack looks, nice and clean  good job!


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## Cypher07 (Sep 15, 2007)

if you did the carpet your self i know a forum that will love you! (can you do a write up on it?)


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## BigRed (Aug 12, 2007)

knowing that truck, I would suggest you try the tweeters in the a-pillars. I've tried both, and the a-pillars seemed to yield the best staging. 

lookin good.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

simplicityinsound said:


> i like the way htat rack looks, nice and clean  good job!


Thanks  Took me forever to figure out how to get all the stuff in there while maintaining a clean look and hiding the wires and at the same time going above the standard amps on the back wall design.



Cypher07 said:


> if you did the carpet your self i know a forum that will love you! (can you do a write up on it?)


Yup did the carpet myself and I could do a write up, its not perfect and the way its done doesn't really require any seems so there isn't much special but I could most certainly do a write up on how I did it.



BigRed said:


> knowing that truck, I would suggest you try the tweeters in the a-pillars. I've tried both, and the a-pillars seemed to yield the best staging.
> 
> lookin good.


Thanks man, I was hoping you would chime in. Main reason I put them on teh sail panels to start is because I am planning on a 4-gauge a-pillar setup in the short future and not sure where I will be able to put the tweeters other than maybe the very top of the pillars. Would you keep the aiming on axis or fire them across the dash at each other?

I was just talking with another guy about aiming of them and he suggested aiming towards the center of the front seats around ear level. Did you try something like this or did you have another form of aiming that worked best. I would like to have good sound all around for me (driver) and the passengers but I can compromise a bit to make it best for the driver alone.


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## mooch91 (Apr 6, 2008)

Nice start, looks good--I like the amp rack! I've got a similar truck and just completed an install; the thread is in the gallery section. There are some other users with similar trucks that you can reference for more ideas.

I never finished my build log with the "final" pictures, but I'll get them up some day.


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## QtrHorse (Oct 17, 2007)

This install is crap.

Glad to see you started posting over here.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

mooch91 said:


> Nice start, looks good--I like the amp rack! I've got a similar truck and just completed an install; the thread is in the gallery section. There are some other users with similar trucks that you can reference for more ideas.
> 
> I never finished my build log with the "final" pictures, but I'll get them up some day.


Thanks man  I will most certainly check it out. As far as I can remember the only install I have really seen in the super duties is Big Red's. I am always open for ideas thats for sure. 




QtrHorse said:


> This install is crap.
> 
> Glad to see you started posting over here.


Dang it, always raggin on my install lol

Yea figured if I am leaning even the slightest bit towards sound quality on this, then I should be posting over hear. Gonna move the tweeters tomorrow according to Big Red's suggestion. See what I can get up on the A-pillar and do a bit more tuning. Heck I am still learning how to use the 9887 and I haven't even started the active tuning lol.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Been going slow lately due to bunch of other things coming up and such but here are some new pics of my experimenting with tweeter location. I had them mounted on the sail panels directly on axis. With this mounting I had to push the balance 3 clicks to the right to get everything balanced out and even all around.

Figured I would be dumb to not follow the suggestions by BigRed seeing what he has accomplished with his truck. So I got them up on the pillars firing directly across the dash at each other. This seemed to cure the balance problem. Zeroing out the balance brought everything back to a nice and even sound from all around. Obviously I will clean things up but I had to push the mounting rings out a bit from the pillars for the tweeters to clear but in the final install if I go with this spot I will cut the pillars so I can push the tweeters as far back as I can.

On second thought after looking over the pictures again maybe they would be best pushed out like they are since they seem to clean the grab handles pretty well. Only problem I am thinking is that in the future I am planning on a 4-gauge a-pillar pod on the drivers side which will have to get modified to make the drivers side tweeter work but will I guess change the symmetry of the a-pillars. Not quite ready for gauges yet but I am thinking I should probably just go ahead and order the gauge pod so I got a better idea on things before I go ahead and do some fiberglassing.

Before:









After:


















Before:









After:

























So far this is sounding the best even though I have little to no tuning and I am certainly starting to need some, but I think I am getting much closer to finding the right mounting locations to get the most out of this truck that I can. I may try the tweeters up on the dash firing off the glass but I don't think that will show any improvements over what I have now. Hopefully during this week I will get the crossovers bypassed and move onto fully active and start tuning.

So far so good I guess, I'm sure I'll have some questions when I delve into tuning but I am hoping this will be final mounting locations, least until I change things up in the future lol. If ya seen anything I am doing drastically wrong or got an idea to improve things please let me know. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Dang its been a while since I have updated in here. Well I haven't gotten too much accomplished either but finally got some time to get working on the truck again. 

Spent much of saturday trouble shooting and making sure the computer was up and running and running consistently. Ended up that the mobo was bent and bowing directly under the ram chips and causing a no boot condition, so after re seating everything a few times I got it all set and installed firmly into the truck with the mobo nice and flat. I'm thinking this will give me problems in the future though with bumps and jostles 

Oh well onto the pics.









Removed the crossovers on the amp rack to go active and to give me some working room for the computer. Took me nearly 45 minutes before to connect the PSU to the mobo when the seat was bolted in and the crossovers in place  Much better now.

Like I said temporary trouble shooting session lol. I need to get this finished though, this temporary stuff and the tape on the dash is starting to drive me nuts.









Killer monitor holder lol









Mini keyboard and touch pad sitting roughly in their final resting position









I plan on build some sort of a flip open door on the console that will house the keyboard and touch pad. When close they will both be hidden and it will match the rest of the console, then flip open with a piano hinge or so revealing the keyboard and touch pad, as well as uncovering the 2 cupholders if I need them.










My dad has some RTA software he uses for his stage setups that I might be able to install onto this computer, if not I can look into some of the cheap mic and software setups in the tutorial section. Just mostly looking at all the possibilities I can use this computer for more than just a glorified iPod or another hobby. Also should be able to do some engine diagnostics through it which will be cool.



Did some more fiddling with tweeter placement and decided on going with on axis mounting to get the most detail from the tweeters. From what I could tell when listening to some songs and checking on versus off axis there was a bit of the upper most detail that was being lost with them off axis. I would love to nearly copy big reds build since I know I would be near golden (least after I learned how to tune it too) but for now this is where I am going to place them. Also this will be the easiest position to return to stock if I decide to change things up which we all know happens, and quite frequently.

I got both tweeter pods aimed and mounted to the sail panels with some dowels and hot glue. 









I learned a few things from reading on here and other forums and moved ahead with wrapping the panels with some pieces of t-shirt.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

This is only my second time working with fiberglass and first time when wrapping something so it took me a while to get it just right and figure out how to hold it in place. I am still not too sure on how much I like the shape but I will leave my final opinion till I actually finish them and see them installed and painted. 

I'm sure others know this trick, or have even better ways of doing this but I thought it was pretty good. There wasn't really any way of holding the t-shirt material around the plastic and keeping it tight. Then I found I could get it just right and carefully grabbing both sides twist it together and when its tight and just right twist an elastic band around the twisted cloth over and over again until there was no more stretch in the elastic. This worked pretty good and held it nice and tight 



















I only got maybe a layer or 2 of mat on them but they are strong specially with the continually curving and tight shapes. I will most likely add another layer and decent amount of resin after the first sanding I did tonight showed a few air bubbles and some other rough spots. 




















The resin isn't holding onto the plastic tighly. I suspect it would be good enough but I am gonna follow the advice of my dad and drill out some 3/8" holes in the sides and put in some pop rivets then resin/mat and finish over them to give a nice mechanical hold.










Installed on the door where it will finally sit.



















Thats pretty much what I have gotten done lately. Planning on finishing up the tweeter mounts tomorrow night if not saturday and finally have things perminantly mounted so I can really delve into tuning things and getting the best sound I can from it.


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## 93mazdawg (Aug 15, 2008)

looks good! i wanna see that monitor in the dash


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

93mazdawg said:


> looks good! i wanna see that monitor in the dash


Thanks man  Yea I wanna see it in there too, but I gotta finish some other things first. It's getting there though, I think I got my attack plan figured out on how to get the screen in and mounted properly and such. 

Got a little bit of progress done, should be finished up tonight. 




























Its not an exact match to the OEM pieces but there will never be an OEM one to compare to when these are in the truck. I may rework them to try and get them closer and a more even finish. Just still working with the SEM texture spray and the black paint. More than likely further down the road I will put the tweeters up in the a-pillars, specially if I move to a sweet 3-way front stage, but that will be a ways off. 

Teaser pic on the screen progress.










attempting to figure out how I want to mount it all and keep the cables happy and things installed properly. I just found my old dash kit collecting dust at the bottom of a box of install stuff. Going to try using it and a bit of fiberglass to make something that will hold the screen, the screen guts, the cd drive and if I have room a USB hub and mount firmly into the dash.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

well got the little tweeter pods finished up and installed in the truck last night along with a good 1-2 hours of listening/tuning. Sounds great but I can see what BigRed was talking about, seemed nearly impossible to get things sounding good with this, especially sounding good in both seats. Not saying it sounds bad at all cause it most certainly is sweet, but for the few hours I had them in the pillars it was most certainly easier and took less tweaking to get it to sound like it does now. 





































The fiberglassing is starting to get easy, but the finishing with the texture spray and painting I think I could use a bit more practice on. I pretty much finished it with what I had though, and they came out pretty good. I may rework them when I get other more important things finished, and I may later on down the road put the tweeters in the pillars once I get the gauges on the drivers side and maybe some different tweeters. Until then though this is how it will look up front.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Dang double post


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## BigRed (Aug 12, 2007)

looking good man! Keep it up  Make us ford owners proud!! lol


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

BigRed said:


> looking good man! Keep it up  Make us ford owners proud!! lol


Thanks man, and means a lot coming from you and what you've accomplished with your truck. Not really looking forward to tackling the doors, but I'm sure it will all be worth it when they are done.


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## mil81 (Aug 27, 2008)

Hey dude. Didn't know you were kicking around over here too, until I saw the build log for the 350. Who else could it be. LOL. 

This has become my new hang out lately.


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## lyttleviet (Sep 11, 2008)

Everything is looking great. Keep us posted! I want to post mine soon.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

mil81 said:


> Hey dude. Didn't know you were kicking around over here too, until I saw the build log for the 350. Who else could it be. LOL.
> 
> This has become my new hang out lately.


haha yea I been a lurker on here for quite a while but only recently started to post more. Guess I am growing up lol  ca.com will be my Version1 install and with the help of this site I will get Version 2 complete with some good deadener and tech flex and make everything just right. 



lyttleviet said:


> Everything is looking great. Keep us posted! I want to post mine soon.


Thanks man  Post up what ya got pics are always great and I love reading other build logs and getting ideas.


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## txbonds (Mar 10, 2008)

This does look great. Would love to see more pics of the tweeters if you move them to the pillars. The sails look great.

The computer though gives me a head ache. LOL Way too involved for me with my lack of time these days.

Keep up the great work and keep posting pics. I've been watching them progress.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

thanks man 

It will probably be a while down the road before I move them to the pillars, but I did like them when they were up there just seemed to be lacking a bit on the top end which I could probably deal without anyways. 

Yea the computer is a bit involved but its getting easier slowly lol, not soo sure if I would do it over again but I might, just would be in a smaller package and probably mount 100% in the dash. Working on getting the screen and DVD drive mounted into the dash now, has been fun driving around the past few days with the dash opened up lol. 

Hopefully I will have some new pics to post this weekend if I get some good time to mount the LCD screen and such.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Dang its been forever since I did any updates. Well I finally got something. After nearly 3 weeks of driving with no dash I got it finished and installed last weekend. Still got some work to do to it to polish things up and complete things but its up and running and working good.

Onto the pics:

The original dash bezel


























































































Its been running pretty good and honestly for some reason I am thinking the audio sounds better with the aux input and playing audio from the computer instead of a CD or radio. The gapping hole to the right of the screen is going to get filled with a USB hub, audio input jack and maybe some other things that I can fit in there. I need to rerun the 12v power for the LCD since it is giving me a hiss through the speakers, also need to perminantly run the 5v power for the USB hub and DVD drive (the red/black wires coming out of that hole in the dash.) 

Other than that fabrication and install work I still need to do a bunch of software tuning and such and then it should be pretty good. I only have the audio and front end software setup, still need to hook up and install the GPS software and get all the other little addon parts, WiFi, HD radio (cheaper than adding to the alpine), TV Tuner card, as well as various software items and getting all my music and movies transfered over into the truck.

I think ultimate goal for this little side project other than learning and seeing what I can accomplish with my own 2 hands will be for the computer to be able to do absolutely EVERYTHING. I figure if I am gonna go through this work it most certainly do more than a HU/iPod/GPS combo. Hopefully pick up the "$100 RTA" and get it installed on the truck as well as the GPS and whatever other software I want/need including data logging or even tuning on the engine. Heck I could install AutoCad and do some drafting and maybe put a small printer in it and be able to print out detail sheets or excel checklists lol. 


Almost done now with the basic install, still need to finish up the center console to hold the 1 or 2 SI mag's as well as the upper console to hold a USB hub, keyboard, and touch pad. THEN come spring I can rip most all of it out and redo it with some damplifier, techflex and lots finish up some loose ends.


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## capnxtreme (Feb 5, 2008)

Awesome!


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## DaleCarter (Jan 3, 2008)

This makes me want a puter.

Have you considered sanding the pods and painting them to match the interior greay? Seems they would blend better.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

capnxtreme said:


> Awesome!


Thanks man 



DaleCarter said:


> This makes me want a puter.
> 
> Have you considered sanding the pods and painting them to match the interior greay? Seems they would blend better.


Slowly I am enjoying the puter more and more lol, and I don't even have most of the software installed yet. 

It never really crossed my mind when I first made them since the factory ones were black, but I do see how it could blend in a bit better. I may have to try it when I redo them later on. Gotta smooth out a few spots and reshape them a little since I didn't really look at them too good in the truck when I first did them. Also had a suggestion to cover them in grill cloth instead of the texture spray and paint.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

x2 grey paint..... grille clothe would be non cohesive to the surrounding materials IMO.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

CAMSHAFT said:


> x2 grey paint..... grille clothe would be non cohesive to the surrounding materials IMO.


I'll see what I can do about changing them to grey. I wanna do a little more shaping to them anyways to smooth out the lines of them above the tweeters. 

Thanks again on the amazing tuning. I certainly learned a lot and left with a much better sounding truck. 


Small update, got the subs in finally so now I will no longer be lacking on the bottom octaves. 

Here they are, SI Magnums V4. I'm sure most have seen the prototypes already but here are my very own. 





































Ultimate test will be in how they sound but for now I am quite happy to just have them in my hands. Hopefully whip up a small temporary box by the weekend in the spare time between work and sleep, and then I can start working on the other 3 various boxes I wanna build to replace my lower cushion in the center console. 

Gonna try at the least 3 various setups. One using both mags with whatever size box and room it takes in the truck, another for a single sealed hopefully as stealth as possible, and a third will be an isobaric configuration. This idea is very new to me but seems like it would work well for this sort of location and space requirements. 

Quick sketch of the isobaric box, not necessarily what it will finally be but just what I got rolling around in my head. 









Would love to hear ideas on enclosures. I can build stuff pretty easily and such but I am pretty new to the whole car audio thing, at least as a serious hobby. Planning on the subs being downfiring right in in between the 2 front seats while maintaining my upper console. 

Here is the space I got









Here is the gutted console (bottom seat cushion removed)


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## -=PEAKABOO=- (Nov 15, 2008)

Top, any updates??


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## TXwrxWagon (Sep 26, 2008)

Hey JDC... just a thought on the 4-pillar gauge pod... have you seen this??

3-gauge installed:
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294775233+400442+4294908331+115&autoview=sku

4-gauge upside down on a table, not in truck:
http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294775233+400442+4294908331+115&autoview=sku

Its specifically for the SD-Ford trucks. It goes above the rear view mirror, behind the Etched "Super Duty" logo on the windshield. I used on on my F150 & it works AWESOME & leaves the handles to get in the truck or the a-pillar open for audio.

Great work so far.

Rob


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

TXwrxWagon said:


> Hey JDC... just a thought on the 4-pillar gauge pod... have you seen this??
> 
> 3-gauge installed:
> http://store.summitracing.com/partd...4294775233+400442+4294908331+115&autoview=sku
> ...


Hey thanks for the tip, and the compliment . I have seen those and I think thats what I am gonna go for. One of my problems though, is I have always been one of those guys who loves plane cockpits and big trucks with their billion gauges lol. I was hoping some day to have 8 gauges, 4 on the pillar and 4 up top. Pryo, trans temp, boost, voltmeter, fuel pressure, water temp, oil pressure, and HPOP  But 4 overhead would be a good start. I think I could still get away with the tweeter in the pillars with the pillar pod but I will need to actually get ahold of one to truely know, and even then I wonder how the shape of the pod could affect the sound. 

I was just about to add some minor updates to this thread too, so here they are. 

Been driving around and listening to the mags. I don't seem to have any pics of the boxes actually in the truck. I have had the 2 mags downfiring between the seats and now have a single mag downfiring between the seats with the upper console bolted to it. These boxes were just whipped together in no time, and just some 5" rips slapped to the sides to make them downfiring, along with some nuts/bolts/washers to make my speaker wire connections. I had the pair wired to 2ohm and 0.5ohm, and now a single wired to 1ohm all off the 1500D.

Well here are some pics of the single mag box, final build will be much much nicer, probably some fiberglass and mdf. Thinking of maybe building an entire center console from the dash to the back of the front seats but I am trying to stay away from it. I am rather old fashioned with my trucks and like bench seating, but full console build with the pair of mags downfiring would be kinda cool and I could add some other stuff into the top of it. 














































Little bit of for-thought would have made the upper console a little lower and closer to the back of the console, but for now its not bad. In the truck its about 1-2" higher than before and 1-2" more forward. Actually puts it to be perfect position for using the touchscreen in the dash but I will try and get it a little lower with the final build. Thinking some junkyard hopping so I can find a upper console to hack up later on down the road would be nice too.


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Amazing install.... is it really your first attempt at an install, or your first SQ install?? in that you've done spl installs before?...


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## JediMentality (May 7, 2008)

Any listening impressions on the mags?


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

syd-monster said:


> Amazing install.... is it really your first attempt at an install, or your first SQ install?? in that you've done spl installs before?...


Thank you very much 

I would call it my first install that I actually put some for-thought and effort into lol. Only previous experience was a pair of pre-loaded kicker truck boxes a jensen 4-channel amp and a sony HU in my first vehicle (83 F250.) I built a floor leveling board in woodshop and a amp board with my dad. The wires were hidden normally but of course the only pic I have of it shows them just strewn out in the open. Had to read the directions on the back of my walmart amp kit to get it installed lol.









Also had the same amp and Sony HU installed in a plymouth acclaim along with a pair of 12" Infinity subs and 5.25" Infinity coaxials front and rear lol. So this is a pretty big upgrade from my ghetto installs of before. 

This project has been a nice learning project for me, and learning how to do it right. Hopefully in spring if money allows the truck will get deadened and all the wires wrapped, labeled and color coded and fastened down the middle instead of being run down the door sills.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

JediMentality said:


> Any listening impressions on the mags?


They are totally different than anything I have ever heard before. Honestly I don't have nearly as much experience as many of the others on this forum, but...

They blend near perfectly without any tuning, just hooked up with the tuning that was done before and they started playing along very well. They do honestly seem to be getting better over time with some break in. I can crank my volume and never get a single bit of distortion. I have had experience with smelling some glue or something from my components around 24 on the 9887 still without distortion and I can turn it up to 20 or so and still have no distortion. I need to do a bit more level matching with my gains and I don't usually go over 20 since its most certainly loud enough and I don't wanna push the speakers any more. On occasional songs I had the subs bottom out when I had the pair wired to 0.5ohm nominal and the single wired to 1ohm. 

Best way I can think to describe them is that I have bass musically, but no subs. The music is simply full and crystal clear at right up there in volume. Nick helped me with some of the audio related terms to translate my ignorant descriptions lol. Very natural and transparent. 

I see your bout 1.5 hours away from me, if ya want I am willing to drive half way and meet up with ya. You can have a review of them in person. Looks like North Scituate, RI would be a middle ground meeting, along Rt6.


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## Irishfocus06 (Sep 11, 2008)

Lookin' good JDC! This is bigbangtheory from ca.com. 

After tax time if you still are happy with just one of those subs, let me know if you still want to get rid of it.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Irishfocus06 said:


> Lookin' good JDC! This is bigbangtheory from ca.com.
> 
> After tax time if you still are happy with just one of those subs, let me know if you still want to get rid of it.


Hey hey, thanks man 

I will let ya know, still experimenting and all, I gotta see how small of an overall console I can build for the pair. Right now the single is doing pretty good, and certainly much much more stealth like.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

Thanks for the listen jdc!! Your truck is sounding better and better!! Look for a review on the mag shortly!!


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

CAMSHAFT said:


> Thanks for the listen jdc!! Your truck is sounding better and better!! Look for a review on the mag shortly!!


Sweet can't wait to read it. Thanks again for the tuning work. Now I can't wait to get everything wrapped up and actually installed properly.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

jdc753 said:


> Sweet can't wait to read it. Thanks again for the tuning work. Now I can't wait to get everything wrapped up and actually installed properly.


NP! Now about installing properly, think lead shot as well as the decoupling method I mentioned. BTW were you able to find it on BHI?


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

Any new progress?


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Well its been forever and a day since I have updated much of anything. I have been working on it slowly here and there where I get time and waiting to see if things work out before I post anything. Well I am happy to say they have worked out and much better than expected

Here is my own version of a JL audio Stealthbox for the 08 Super Duty center console. The box is 0.93ft^3 before speaker displacement, has 7" of mounting depth, and fully retains about 4" of storage depth at the top, enough to hold the factory coin tray/divider. 

Oh I am still not 100% finished got to finish up the little details that will really make it complete but it works 100% and fits 100% and I am pretty happy with it. Oh and the biggest shock to me, no rattles or anything just some nice solid bass.

Ok, onto the pics...

Nothing out of the ordinary except maybe a little tall (perfect height for an arm rest IMO)









Sadly the amazing amount of storage these consoles have had to be given up, but still enough. The back wall was carpeted but I had to remove it, will be carpeted again (one of those little details to yet finish)









Ok, now onto the construction...

The console actually disassembles quite easily which I was shocked by









I don't have too many pictures of the work on the top storage portion. But what I found was that the bulk of the console (storage container) is in 2 pieces, so I took the top portion and ended up cutting it down by about 2 inches on the sides. From there I cut some 1/4" MDF to make a new floor and used fiberglass to join the two. This gave me about 4" of storage inside and maintained the latch for the cover and mounting points and such.


















Now here is the remaining space I was left to work with. I did a bit of trimming to the sides and such to get rid of some excess.









Now for the actually box itself. I figured I needed about 3 levels inside (top, middle/brace and a bottom) The middle piece is mostly for shaping the fiberglass to conform as tightly as possible to the inside of the enclosure and adds some bracing to stiffen it all up. 










Here is the final frame work with some extra cleats and blocks to space things out properly before getting wrapped in cloth. 









fits nicely into the console










Now where things start to get ugly


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Much of this entire project is about experimenting and seeing what I can do. Since I didn't want the enclosure to sound hollow or just get beat up by the pounding of the sub I wanted it to be extra strong and have as much mass as I could possible get (much of the reason MDF is used normally) So I took the suggestion of another guy of adding some lead shot into the layers of fiberglass. I don't know how much it improved but I added a solid 5-7lbs to the enclosure and only increased the wall thickness but about an 1/8"









Here is the finished product against the temporary box it was replacing








I think I did pretty good since the fiberglass box weighted within 3 pounds of the larger MDF box, fiberglass box came out to be 24lbs. 

Here is a view from the backside to see how it all stacks up inside the console. 









This little factor opening is going to get filled nicely with this speaker terminal and some carpet









And thats it, in the truck and sounding good









Also I finally filled the hole I had in the dash for the longest time. Again with some fiberglass (my new favorite material lol)

Started by taping it all off and making a mold for some resin and 2 layers of matt









I guess I don't have any construction pictures but I cut in the switch panel (wires got extended with some CAT 5) and cut in the USB 4-port hub. Little bondo, little paint and lots of sanding later and here is what I got









Its not quite perfect but that gives me something to work on in the future (maybe ditching the wood grain) it sure beats a hole in the dash with wires and a hub falling out, and having to pull down to back seat to turn the computer on. 









So there is my update and most recent progress. I still have more plans for the truck but gonna have to wait a while, its nice to get it in a semi presentable condition once again.


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## mooch91 (Apr 6, 2008)

Looking good! Continuing to keep me inspired for my F350...
Thanks!


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

Thanks mooch, always good to know I can inspire someone 

Now I still gotta someday rip everything out and make sure I get it wired up nicely like yours.


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## mooch91 (Apr 6, 2008)

If there was a way you could help me tune mine, I could help you wire yours.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

Pretty sweet dude!! I bet it sounds great!!

I have a few more tricks for your to try if you want to make it sound a bit better....


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

mooch91 said:


> If there was a way you could help me tune mine, I could help you wire yours.


I wish I could, I am still learning from my mentor below lol Picking up the basics though



CAMSHAFT said:


> Pretty sweet dude!! I bet it sounds great!!
> 
> I have a few more tricks for your to try if you want to make it sound a bit better....


Thanks Cam. 

Looking forward to hearing/trying to new tricks.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

YGEM!


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## syd-monster (Jan 7, 2008)

Its come out really well!

The leadshot in the fibreglass in much of the reason that the box sound so good, but also you have alot of bracing in there. 
Well constructed and thought out.


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

CAMSHAFT said:


> YGEM!


Thanks Cam, dang lot more work to be put into it lol. I am still shocked that at full tilt I heard no vibrations or anything from the console even with loose washes and pliers inside the storage part. 



syd-monster said:


> Its come out really well!
> 
> The leadshot in the fibreglass in much of the reason that the box sound so good, but also you have alot of bracing in there.
> Well constructed and thought out.


Thanks man 

I wanted to add another layer of the leadshot but definitely happy with the way it came out. This is my first fiberglass enclosure and for the mag I wanted to make sure it was a good solid enclosure.


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## outerlimits (Jul 2, 2009)

Nice


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## 8675309 (Jan 8, 2007)

Have you tried to modify roadrunner yet?
Like the install and love the carputer


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

outerlimits said:


> Nice


Thank ya 



8675309 said:


> Have you tried to modify roadrunner yet?
> Like the install and love the carputer


Thanks  the carputer is fun and comes in handy every now and then too. 

I am one of those hardware greater than software guys so I haven't gotten too deeply into roadrunner other than setting up the embedded software and setting the colors and things like that. This skin has pretty much everything I could ever want so I think its gonna stay as just personalized for a while.


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## gsr22 (Jul 30, 2007)

looks great man, really impressive!


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

gsr22 said:


> looks great man, really impressive!


Thanks man  It looks even better now that I got it perminantly mounted and carpeted and such. Plus with the sub loaded and the mounting brackets the console now weighs just over 78lbs  I think it started out around 10lbs lol

Now we gotta have another meet up and get your car all finished up.


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## CAMSHAFT (Apr 7, 2006)

jdc753 said:


> the console now weighs just over 78lbs


 That's awesome!! Do the rest of the treatments I mentioned and it should tip 100 lbs!!


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

CAMSHAFT said:


> That's awesome!! Do the rest of the treatments I mentioned and it should tip 100 lbs!!


haha yea I was pretty shocked lol

Hoping to going down your list and getting it done, its just nice right now to actually have my truck fully in 1 solid piece and not torn apart in one way or another.


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## tk5075 (Jun 16, 2009)

I'm extremely jealous.. Good stuff, keep up the good work- my first post so be honored


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## jdc753 (Nov 14, 2007)

tk5075 said:


> I'm extremely jealous.. Good stuff, keep up the good work- my first post so be honored


Thanks

and thank you very much for honoring me with your first post 

Welcome to Diyma, look around there are lots of sweet builds and great ideas on this site


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## madweazl (Nov 7, 2010)

Any updates?


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