My full-on custom build

[AF_Hemi]

I started this build about 10 days ago and have been posting daily updates in another forum, so i'll just copy and paste each days progress on here. Enjoy! Any questions about ANYTHING please ask. I've done a lot of homework, so i know what I'm talkin about

without further adieu,

Spent the day guttin it! All the metal you see will be covered with RAAMaudio's BXT/BXT II, and their dead cell foam. The next time this truck sees daylight it'll have a whole new sound let the full custom build begin

 

[ramhunter9]

lets see the fiberglass work .....that is going to sound awesome bud

 

[AF_Hemi]

little update. no pics. deal with it

Last night I finished pulling out the old system. Much to my surprise, the MB Quart speakers up front were components! I was very confused when i found the crossovers, but not the tweeters. Apparently they replaced the 3.5" on the dash with the tweeter. Since I'll be putting my tweeter on the door (triangle piece that covers the mirror bolts), I bought the best 3.5" i could find. Boston Acoustic S35. Although this had no weight in my decision, they will compliment the rears which are Boston S65 6.5" coaxials.

This afternoon I worked on repairing some wiring and prepping for the new wiring install. Just had to solder back together a couple wires and reconfigure the head unit a little bit. Nothing major. The hardest part is the planning -- gettin thoughts organized.

I also put in the first round of RaamAudio BXT II sound deadener which went on the back wall and inside the doors. Im working all day tomorrow and monday, so monday evening is my next chance to work on it. Plans for monday evening:

1) Seal all door holes with aluminum panels and self tapping screws (thought about riveting them, but want access if needed later on.
2) Cover all 4 doors with remaining BXT II.
3) Start covering the floor with BXT

 

[AF_Hemi]

Todays update:

finished doing the prep wiring for the new speakers and then put down all the sound damplifier on the floor. Tomorrow will be sealing the doors with aluminum sheet metal/screws, dampening the doors, putting in the closed cell foam and putting the carpet back on. If im able to finish all that, i'll start making custom speaker brackets (using 6.5" instead of 6x9) and starting the subwoofer box frame

 

[AF_Hemi]

Todays Update:

All the doors are completely sealed up now with 26 gauge aluminum covering all the holes. They are also completely dampened using the BXT II. I still have to do the ensolite (closed cell foam), but i got tired of doing this portion of the project so i moved on.

I fabbed up the brackets for the speakers and installed the woofers for the components. No clearance issues whatsoever.

I decided to move on towards the amps. Got curious so i took the back plate off one of the amps and found this:



I made the amp rack out of 1/2" MDF. Its strong enough to hold everything no problem, but not so thick it'll interfere with clearance issues with the amps and seats. Every 1/4" matters back there. I wrapped it with black speaker box carpet.



I positioned the amps how i wanted them and screwed them in using 1/2" screws. Nothing pokes out the back and they're on there very solid. The whole thing weighs about 30lbs (just a guess)

 

[AF_Hemi]

Last night i realized i didnt leave a spot for the center seatbelt spool. DOH!! So i had to rearrange the amps. Heres the new layout. I actually like it better.



The 3.5" speakers came today. Boston Acoustic S35. They literally took 10 minutes to install. Piece of cake. Note the size of the magnet (2.5"!!!)





Next I built the frame for the sub box (forgot to take pics, but you'll see it later). I laid all the tape and its ready for fiberglass!!

 

[AF_Hemi]

As mentioned before, I laid the fleece and did the first coat of resin. After that dried (about 5 hrs), I started the first layer of fiberglass mat and resin. This stuff is NOT easy to work with. If anyone has any tips or pointers to make it easier, let me know. I think its turning out pretty good for my first time ever touching fiberglass. I used up the entire gallon of resin for the fleece and half the box's first 2 layers. Im gonna pick up another gallon and hopefully that will be enough.

 

[AF_Hemi]

Went and got another gallon of resin and a few other various parts for the build, including talking to the embroidery guy who is gonna do the embroidery on the cover. I'll leave that as a surprise for another day.

I got home and worked on more 'glassing. I did 3 thick layers on each side before I ran out of resin again. Hopefully its enough, cause i aint gonna spend another $75 on resin lol. Its gotta be close to 1/4" so we'll see.

When doing each layer, i cut all the fiberglass peices and laid them in place with as few gaps as possible, also trying to be careful not to overlap too much because the resin has trouble soaking through two layers of cloth at a time. Each layer got staggered, so there werent any horribly weak spots. This was the 3rd layer by the way.



While that was all drying (in between layers) I got to work on the back door speaker install. I finished running the wires through the rubber boot in the door but in my haste, forgot to snap pics of it and now its all hidden. I'll make sure to take pics of the front ones while they're still apart. For the speaker itself, i had to cut the opening bigger. Just used a dremel with a metal cutting disk (took 3 disks per door). Good thing I got a pack of 20 of em for about $5.



Here is the speaker installed. Notice no wires showing, so it looks completely stock.



Finally, after all the resin had dried, I pulled out the box. It came out WAY cleaner than i expected. i had just a little bit of resin left over and I noticed it hadnt soaked through the fleece all the way in a few small areas (total of about 20% of it wasnt all the way soaked) so I mixed up the last of the resin and coated the backside for additional strength.

 

[AF_Hemi]

well folks, im in the home stretch. Today I finished wiring the front speakers. I couldnt get the pins inside the clip for the old wires out, so i just ran the wire through the rubber boot and between the two connectors. I also added quick connects there so the door can still come off if ever needed.



For the next couple hours I spent putting the ensolite (closed cell foam) down on all the panels. First I did the floor, then all 4 doors.






The list of whats left:

-mount the crossovers on the door, install the tweeters, and run all it's wiring
- figure out where the holes are for the door panels and install the door panels
- trim the fiberglass off the sub box frame, cut and install the top of the box (3/4 mdf)
- mount the amp rack
- run all the wiring
- install carpeting, all interior trim, and sets

If all goes as planned, I should be done by Monday night (about 10 hrs of work left)

 

[AF_Hemi]

The question was how much did i spend on the sub box?

$150 - resin
$30 - fiberglass mat
$10 - fleece
$30 - wood (frame/MDF top)

= $220 for the box
$50 covering/custom stitching

I'll have about $275 wrapped up in this box. So about the same as a nice prefab

 

[AF_Hemi]

well todays update wont have any pictures, cause i started freakin out before i took any... i'll explain towards the end.

not really thinking ahead, i covered all the door panel tabs that hold the door on when i sealed the door, so i had to locate them so i could put the panels on. I rolled up a sticky ball and put it on the door tab and placed the panel on the door, then used a dremel with metal cutting disk to cut the squares out. I got all 4 door panels installed. when shutting the door its VERY noticeable how dead the doors are. No rattle whatsoever when shutting them. its just a solid thud. I also mounted the crossovers on the doors and those will all get wired up tomorrow.

Heres where i went crazy... being the complete idiotic moron that i am, i was wearing a tshirt and shorts (cause it was 80 degrees and MUGGY). I decided to trim all the fiberglass from the top of the sub box so i would get a good seal with the MDF. I used the dremel for it, and fiberglass got EVERYWHERE. Not to mention the mosquitos... its a famous quote up here that "the mosquitoes are so big they could screw a turkey flatfooted". Its no joke. They're like the size of horseflys almost. Anyway, since it was so hot, I was sweating while fiberglass pieces were getting stuck to me all while gettin eaten alive by mosquitoes. I started freaking out cause it itched so bad, i ran inside and took a cold shower. Got most of the itch gone, with the exception of the 37 mosquito bites (that i could count).

Moral of the story... when working with fiberglass, wear double layer long sleeve shirts and pants. Even with single layer you'll still get itchy cause the fiberglass gets between the fibers of the clothing and scratches the skin.

Finally, it looks like i COULD be on schedule to finish this thing up tomorrow. All thats left is installing tweeters (1 hr), running all the wiring (2 hrs), mounting the amp rack (5 min), cutting and mounting the top plate of the woofer box (2 hrs), and putting back together the interior (1 hr). Hopefully the next update will have completed pictures Thanks for ridin along

 

[OklaHemi]

nice build. i wish i had the **** to do something that big. ill post a few pics of some of what i habe done that you are doing, if you dont mind af. if you do ill remove them bud

 

[AF_Hemi]

nice i had to get creative with my crossover. the Type X crossovers are NOT small at roughly 4"x6" and just over 1" thick

 

[OklaHemi]

i got the pdx-4.100 and put it in the lower part of the center consol. fits like a dream and ill put the pdx-1.1000 right on top of it.


so are the 3" running off an amp and you are running another set of tweets for the components? i have been thinking of getting a set of type-r crossovers off of ebay for like 26.00 and wiring the dash tweets in. may just upgrade to the ones you are using. alpine makes a plug and play 50w rms amp that requires no additional wiring so i may get that to push the 3" and maybe a set of coaxils( mounting location to be determined). looking to upgrade to a double din sometime soon as well.

 

[OklaHemi]

nice i had to get creative with my crossover. the Type X crossovers are NOT small at roughly 4"x6" and just over 1" thick

those barely fit had to move the passenger side like three times. af do you do this for a living or a hobby

 

[AF_Hemi]

haha the question in itself is quite a compliment! i honestly wouldnt even call it a hobby. it started with a quest for a better sound system and my usual refusal to pay someone else to do it. i spent a while reading how-to's and doing a LOT of research on the build and decided to just go for broke. I'm pretty happy with it

 

[AF_Hemi]

so are the 3" running off an amp and you are running another set of tweets for the components? i have been thinking of getting a set of type-r crossovers off of ebay for like 26.00 and wiring the dash tweets in. may just upgrade to the ones you are using. alpine makes a plug and play 50w rms amp that requires no additional wiring so i may get that to push the 3" and maybe a set of coaxils( mounting location to be determined). looking to upgrade to a double din sometime soon as well.

my 3.5's are running off the headunit and they are obviously mounted in the dash. i have one amp powering the front components, and another amp powering the rear coaxials. the components' tweeters are right where you have yours... in the triangle plate that covers the mirror bolts.

 

[OklaHemi]

thats awesome bud, i enlisted dirtdog and weedahoe for a lot of my technical info the both used to be installers. also

Car Alarm, Car Stereo, Mobile Video, and Cruise Control Info for Installers

its a great site for diyers. again that is an epic job maybe one day i can hear it in person

 

[OklaHemi]

i will wire my 3" up tomorrow what the hell they are just sitting there anyway

 

[AF_Hemi]

I'll be in enid for a few days visiting my best friend at Vance AFB in october (8-12) on my way to Dallas for Nick's cam install. You're only 2 hrs away. let me know if you wanna meet up