reedal's '03 Tahoe build

[reedal]

Well, newest item is now a TORK2 relay kit from Tony C (aka snafu). Also bought one of his books to give to my cousin for Christmas.

And now all of my money is going into supplies to build a new enclosure. I intend to use some birch-ply. I'm off all week, and the temps aren't that bad, so I'll probably have it done by end of day Christmas (wife works Christmas Day, so we won't be driving to see family until saturday). I've got a pretty good idea for my amp/batt rack IMO. Or maybe simple is a better word... I'm gonna buy everything I need tonight, and get started tomorrow. Tomorrow will be all about that rack, and depending on how long that takes, I may get started on the enclosure as well. Measure eight times, cut once, cause i can't afford a whole lot of wood.

The amp/batt rack is going to hold my XS Power D4700, SoundQubed 3500, both AQ two-channels, AQ 4-channel, TORK2, and cockbox. Until I buy more wire and redo my doors/A-pillars, the two-channels and cockbox won't be used. Stay tuned

 

[reedal]

so, $267.56 later, i have two sheets of 3/4" birch-ply, two sawhorses, a new porter-cable sander (****** black & decker sander attachment for the matrix started separating from the velcro that holds the sandpaper on it), lots of sandpaper from 80-2000 grit (gonna make some things really shiny hopefully

), wood screws, six tubes of liquid nails, and four 1" X 36" wooden dowels for bracing and legs.

Tomorrow I will get started, and hopefully don't get shit for doing this on the patio of my apartment. Pictures will be taken as I go. And sound deadening the rear hatch and under the carpet of course

 

[reedal]

Here is the enclosure details for my three year old SoundQubed HDS312D2's (thank you to Triticum Agricolam after I was having issues getting my design to show response the way I wanted):

What it will look like

Torres specs (actual tuning is 28hz)

Cone excursion

And lastly, frequency response

 

[reedal]

Who wants some pictures?

Everyone wants pictures, that's who!

No pictures of the woodwork yet (because who cares about seeing wood being cut?) but I started the day off with taking the amps, battery, and subs and the pre-fab enclosure out. It's like there's a whole bunch of space hiding back there. It was very solemn to do this though.
Old amp rack I designed to fit in the not-as-wide-assed-as-the-Tahoe-Explorer. Monoblock, 4-channel, and battery with some olddddd no-name wires laying about.

I believe I have found the reason for the loss in output I experienced over the weekend. I had two broken screws, and the glue joints on the baffle next to that same sub had separated. After almost four years of having that enclosure, not bad results from that little prefab

My subs are a little dirty, the surrounds are scuffed, but overall I feel like they're in pretty good shape for the abuse I have put them through in three years.

And this will be my arsenal (excluding mids and highs)

Thank you to n8 and dollarbilz for the AQ amps, priced very well(cheap) for their good condition imo.

That's all I have picture-wise. I made a mistake and wasted some wood by measuring and making the same cuts twice. So I think I'll just make use of the extra port wall and cut it into shape for my battery.

Tomorrow should be the last day for cuts, then it's all sand, glue, and screw.

 

[reedal]

Slowly coming together. My cuts aren't perfect, so I'm going to have to do some filling in some places, but being this is only the second time I've tried making my own enclosure, first time in 5 years, I'm not too upset about it.

Only cuts left are the sub cutouts on the double baffle. Will the .75" difference between counter sinking the subs and not counter sinking make any kind of difference?

 

[reedal]

Update time!

Let's get all of those loose boards glued, clamped, and screwed together

Andddd my port walls

And now to test fit the double baffle

I was a little concerned about bracing it, and with more help from Triticum, I decided on this

It looks rough, but it was cleaned up a lot

Baffle glued and screwed

Some body filler where it's needed

 

[reedal]

For subwoofer installation and removal, I decided to go with some barbed threaded-inserts and machine screws. It required drilling the mounting holes in the sub larger, but no big deal

 

[reedal]

For my amp and battery mounting plans, I made a floor out of the plywood that takes up the entire cargo area, and made a little fence for the battery

I'm going to attach the 3500 to the rear of the sub enclosure, and I felt like the vents on the bottom of the amplifiers don't get enough air flow, so I took some of my scraps/screw-ups and made some raised platforms to mount all of my amps onto.

And my two 200.2's

Still need to finish the rack for the 90.4, paint it all, and install it. Got some stuff on the way from sky high, and maybe I'll be done by next weekend

 

[reedal]

And the "amp rack" is built. Now I need to paint it. But I don't want to, because I'm terrible at it.

Thank you to those watching

 

[reedal]

Alright, so I decided to go with green for the port and amp risers

but after painting the port, I decided that it's too damn cold for painting on my patio right now, and I'm going to wait until spring, and I'll just bump in my plain color for now. Plans are either black paint, or maybe a carbon fiber wrap. We'll see.

Here is what the back side of it all will look like (minus some amps and color

)

This shows how much distance between the port and the hatch door (8.75 inches)

And lastly, I decided to use the threaded inserts and some threaded rod in between the subwoofers for terminal posts. A positive and negative for each sub

 

[reedal]

Here's a few videos from a little riding around tonight. Sound quality of my iPhone mic isn't the best, not that any phone recording allows for judgement in sound (let alone the losses it gets from being processed onto YouTube). But the new enclosure is louder, lower, makes me feel the pressure in my ears, and puts a shit-eatin-grin on my face

 

[reedal]

Have today off so I went and picked up the thinnest weather stripping I could (~1/4 inch) and laid it around the bottom plate of the amp

And voila, I can't hear it rattling anymore. Still a lot of other rattles though from panels and things, so we'll take care of that one step at a time

 

[reedal]

I received my PAC LC-1 today. Still haven't received the stuff from SHCA yet (next day shipping, expected delivery date still shows January 5th, but nothing yet from good ole USPS

) I decided that even though I'm going to redo my doors and put the tweets in the A-pillars, I'll mess with my T/A and EQ some so I can enjoy it a little better before I make those changes. An hour and change later I think I'm happy with it. The 80PRS has two "custom" EQ settings to personalize, so I made one that is meant for max volume level and one for lower volume with less bass (AKA my version of "SQ"). It sounds good to me. Unfortunately during the process of this I discovered that my passenger side tweeter is damaged. It's a little scratchy on some notes, no matter the volume. But oh well, it'll be replaced one day.

 

[reedal]

So I got the stuff in from SHCA. Wire reducers, speaker wire, primary wire, some lugs and heat shrink, and RCAs.

Also bought an LC-1 so I can adjust the subs more simply than using the 80prs controls three menus in.

And I figured what better place to mount that eyesore than somewhere the entire thing will not be seen, but just the potentiometer? Don't mind how dirty the plate looks.

I think it looks alright inbetween the VM-1 and OM-1

Haven't done any wiring runs or anything like that yet, it's just too cold. I'm trying to fight through the cold in order to replace my brake fluid, fuel filter, and fix my hydro boost, but the struggle is real.

 

[reedal]

And here are my new 8" babies

Hybrid Audio Technologies Legatia L8v1's

 

[reedal]

Alright. Here is the USB female extension getting mounted onto the SMD bezel.

First, I cut the tape to the size of the end that will be in the bezel

Then, I horizontally centered it underneath of the LC-1

i used a blade to mark the outside of the tape, then removed the tape, drilled a hole inside of the lines, then started filing

6475930262538263638392 strokes from 4 different files later (trying to find the one I felt was best suited) it's almost there!!

The finished filed hole

And what it looks like with the LC-1

I like it. I'm happy. Now to get started with the dash piece.....

Oh, here's where the double-pocketed dash piece sits scooter, for reference of how much space I have available to cut and flush the bezel. Maybe 6 inches at the top and 8-9 at the bottom?

Don't mind the dirt. I don't do any cleaning of the vehicles during winter. It's pointless. I don't understand the people at the car wash the day of and after the snow has melted off of the roads, because all the sand on the roads is just going right back on your car when you leave there. Ok. Sorry. End of the "oh look, a squirrel" moment.


Stay tuned.....

 

[reedal]

Here is the "finished" product

I don't know what pressed against it when I was installing and wiring up the RCA's for the LC-1, but something pressed against it to put that dent on it, and I saw it once I put everything back together. So I'll pull it back out when it's warmer and can redo my doors. I plan to pull all the seats and carpet out to rerun the wiring, and wire up the meters. But until then, I have it in, and can use the LC-1 when I need to. It was such an achievement and then I screwed it up.

 

[reedal]

HAT L4's

Only the L6's and L1pro's are left, which should be here tomorrow, and then my HAT front stage will be complete (minus grilles and thermal protectors for the tweeters, which will be next payday). It feels shameful to put all of these great speakers in a closet to sit until I have the time and weather to get to work on their placement.

But today is mid 50's, just "warm" enough to make me want to go outside and pull out some seating and carpet and run my wiring for the SMD meters. Hopefully I'll have some completed pictures of that later

 

[reedal]

And the collection for my front stage is complete

Four way active front stage, five way active including subwoofers. L1 pros and L4's in the A-pillars, L6's in the doors, L8's in the kicks is the plan, but I may change the L8's to the doors as well depending on space available for the drivers side kick. Still deciding on crossover points to start with, but that will come whenever I get everything fabricated and ready to play. Until then, it's time to buy some deadener. Time to do my doors the right way

 

[reedal]

Good temperature today

got the meters wired up!!

Edit: and I just realized something... I forgot to adjust the OM-1 before mounting it. Soooooooooo that will be tomorrow's project. It will require my dremel and a cutting disc, so I can cut out the back side of the pocket that the meters are mounted over. Damn. Oh well.