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Scheduled to be tuned this Monday. I'll get some vid and keep you all posted.

Many of you know that I'm working on a 2nd book - Automotive Electrical Performance Projects. One of the more involved projects is the conversion from carburetion to fuel injection. So . . . I pulled the trusty Edelbrock carbs off the Olds' and installed a complete Holley TBI System. Engine is a 461 CI BBC with numbers matching LS-6 rectangular port heads and some positive atmosphere . . . 13 PSI worth. This project involves upgrading the fuel system, the ignition system, installing the TBI system, and tuning it on the chassis dyno. Everything is step by step. So far, I have taken over 300 pictures of this alone, so I'll have to reduce that down to about 125 - 150 for the chapter. This will be a BIG chapter. For now, here's a teaser pic. I fired it up for the first time last night and it fired right up. Trust me, if you're into high performance electrical, a gear-head, or both, you will absolutely enjoy this book! There is something here for everybody. Oh and Matt . . . you better get that Turbo 'stang ready . . .

Man, you just gotta' stay tuned in this forum! More killer deals from Jacob!!

You know, I'm tired reading stuff like this. There are plenty of other forums out there that condone mud slinging and product bashing. SMD IS NOT ONE OF THEM! Your reply is laden with it. Guess what? There is no product offered by any company in any category that is the best fit for every need. Many companies, including those that are not our partners, make fine products. I have been in car audio since 1986 and I can tell you with great certainty that 95% of the product failures I have seen over the years have come as a direct result of incorrect installation or application. Now, who's interested in helping the OP?

Obviously Ant has already posted that he sold Second Skin to Ken and Sue Kanefield. I met Ken a few weeks ago. He is full of energy and has his hands full running the business. His phone NEVER stopped ringing the entire time we met - over an hour! Either he or his son Max will be administrating the SS forum here - give them a little time as they are relocating the business to Tucson, AZ currently and are somewhat overwhelmed. In the meantime, take a moment and introduce yourself to the Kanefields and tell them why you choose to run Second Skin. Let's give them a BIG welcome here at SMD! So . . . who has input for Ken & Sue on system design for their vehicles? Sue has a 2004 Honda Odyssey. She wants to keep things simple, preserve all cargo space, and improve the sound of the factory audio system. Ken has a 2009 Lexus RX-350 and he intends to do the same AND he wants to retain the factory source unit. Tell them what you'd install. What Second Skin products would you use in the installations? WELCOME TO SMD!

Nice ride Steve. I wouldn't even know how to act driving something like that . . . way too uptown for a guy like me!

A friend of mine just purchased a mid 80s Monte Carlo with T-tops . . . he wants to build a vintage 80s BOOM system. Bass will be (4) 18s in some kind of groovy wall (pac-man?) Perfect woofers for this project would be: Punch Pro 18s Punch 18s M&M 18s Kicker Comp 18s (Gold lettering, no stitched surround) Cerwin Vega LE 18s Who has what? We need four in really good shape. And . . . that's all I can say about the build at this time.

You better get me a mug shot! And soon . . . LOL!

The Vas of this woofer is 19.96 cubic feet. Install it in any enclosure (or area where the front and rear sound waves are isolated) and it is by definition in infinite baffle. It's low Q suggests that it would work GREAT in vented enclosures. The typical rule of thumb is that you shouldn't tune an enclosure below the Fs of the woofer, so 31Hz may be as low as you might want to go with it. But, in a vehicle that would be maybe a little TOO low - 32 or 33Hz tuning would probably be better. Vented enclosures have a 4th order roll-off - this means that they roll-off at 24dB/octave below the tuning frequency. So, in an enclosure tuned at 32 Hz, the system would have 24db less output one octave down, which would be 16Hz. Given the typical cabin gain offered by an auto, this would have pretty remarkable output. I no longer have access to enclosure modeling software so I really can't speculate on optimimum enlcousre sizes, but I'd guess BIG. Sometimes it pays to march to a different tune. Steve has helped to popularize the 18" woofer again and I NEVER thought I'd see that, but here we are. In the mid 1980s, Wayne Harris build a Cadillac Hearse with the most insane audio system of the time. Bottom end? Three Fane 24" Bass Colossus woofers. Who will be the NEXT trendsetter? Oh crap . . . now I'm gonna' have to dig out that song by Ron C' . . . lol . . .

Actually, they're used for pro audio and they are recognized by the best in the business as being best in class. This driver was used in the infamous TurboSound TSW124 bottom. If you've ever been to see Pink Floyd live, 50 or 100 of those dish out the lows. They were also used in no expense spared night clubs. The TSW124s have a full sound like no other bottom I know of. Using a pro driver in an auto application has many challenges . . . but 30 years ago, that is exactly what the very first car audio enthusiasts did. You guys are a wee bit spoiled with all of the GREAT gear readily available. Back in the early 1980s, there were ZERO car audio specific "subwoofers" . . . Cerwin Vega was probably the first on the scene with a real line geared towards mobile use. Kicker and Rockford soon followed. Back on topic, I still think this would be an impressive project!

I'd like to see a build with some of these . . . http://www.precision-devices.com/showdetails.asp?id=17 Anyone?

Steve: That shit is BAD-ASS! I love the color! That thing POPS in the sunlight! Makes me wanna' get my hot rod painted the EXACT same color!

Wow, am I late in answering some questions or WHAT!?! Mounting the baffle board of an IB system is usually pretty easy. In most cases, you just use as many screws as you possibly can to secure the baffle to the metal behind the seat back. NEVER cut the metal out or you risk having your car fold in half should it have to be towed! Once the baffle is mounted, then you have to spend a ton of time sealing it up so that you can prevent cancellation. In the case of my car, the baffle is made of two pieces of 3/4" Baltic birch sandwiched together. It mounts to the car via 1/8" thick aluminum plates we affixed to the top and bottom of it. Correct, I no longer work for Rockford. I started my own company in February of last year - www.candela-sales.com to learn more about it. I still own the Mustang and drive it everyday, but I'm ready to freshen up the woofers . . .

velvetdreams: I outline the exact way to achieve a perfect solder connection, as well as how to properly make every other conceivable connection in my book - Automotive Wiring and Electrical Systems. You can pick up a copy at your local Barnes and noble or order one from Darvex, Mobile Solutions, Amazon.com, Jegs, Summit Racing, etc. Best of luck.

Actually, a friend of mine sent me a craigslist ad for this car months ago. A URL of the vid was linked in the ad. He was quite serious. I thought you guys would enjoy this. MSD . . . MSD . . . HIDs . . . I'm really not sure if someone could set out to install equipment in a vehicle more poorly! Notice the splice job in the boot by the passenger hinge . . . GAUGES . . . now, can you read those when you're driving? Just priceless . . .

Ummm . . . so, where do I start? He def needs a copy of my book! Nice alt bracket . . . custom. Robbie / Dom - is that gonna' fly? Sittin above da' caprice . . .

ANT, Man . . . what a GREAT IDEA man! IMHO, you got three great vids to choose from. I voted . . . but I'm not tellin' for who. SMD Members - HOW COOL IS THAT!?! One of these vids is gonna' help someone get their name out there!!!

Sometimes I sit and think . . . sometimes I just sit . . .

Thanks guys! I was just notified by my publisher that the book has gone to reprint. That's excellent news given it's only been out for 5 months. Thanks Steve!!

This is an excellent question. I began using deadening material when it was first introduced in the early 1990s. As Ant has said repeatedly, the objective of this stuff is to lower the resonance of the metal surface it is applied to. Let's think about that for a second . . . if we could mount the speakers in our door panels in the ideal enclosure I can assure you it wouldn't be made of tinny metal! After years and years of installing sound deadening materials of all types, I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as too much in the door panels. In my 2003 Mustang GT, the deadening material in my door panels is about 1/2" thick on the outer skin of the door (inside of exterior sheet metal) within about 18" of the midbass driver itself. From there, its probably 1/4" thick all the way to the rear of the door (from top to bottom). The deadening material on the inner sheet metal surface (directly behind door panel) is about 1/4" thick within 18" of the midbass, and 1/8" or so all the way over the rest of the metal. This means a BUNCH of layers of sound deadening and about a full day of work. My midbass drivers are mounted to 1.5 inch thick baltic birch panels, bolted to the doors with nutserts and 1/4-20 bolts, which are siliconed to the door to prevent energy from the rear of the speaker from cancelling with that of the energy from the front of the cone. The drivers themselves have 1/8" x 1/8" weatherstripping on their baskets to seal them to the baffles and 1.5" wood screws holding them firmly in place. The speakers in the front of my car are MB Quart QSD-216s and they are powered by a RF T8004 bridged into 2 channels ( a bunch of power ). I cross them over at 75 Hz with a 24 db/octave slope, but they can play down to at least 40 Hz or so with ease in this arrangement - just can't use full power of the amp at 40Hz without bottoming them! With the 75 Hz crossover point, I have no need for any boost (only minor cuts) from about 60 Hz to over 300 Hz. This allows me to play the system at very high levels with incredible midbass without worrying about damaging the speakers. The result? Outstanding mid-bass response that most comment they have never heard the likes of in an automobile. Now, I've been by Ant's place and I gotta tell you - when it comes to sound deadening materials, Second Skin offers some of the best products I've personally seen.

Cool - I have a perfect vehicle for this! It's downright uncomfortable in it in the summer because it gets SO HOT inside. Ant, let me know when the product is ready and I'll buy some from you.

ANT - Welcome to SMD! It's great to have you on board! Guys & Gals - ANT is REALLY excited to be part of the community. For example, Second Skin will be the VERY FIRST SMD Partner to sponsor the System of the Month - more details to follow in the SOTM forum. He will be one of those guys that you will want to follow closely to see what he's up to next!

Well, to my surprise Steve uploaded pics of this in the new members build section - thanks bro! I have a bunch of behind the scenes pics I took of the construction of the 'stang, some on 35mm film and others digitally. There's a bunch of stuff behind the scenes in this car that I think many would enjoy seeing. When we originally built the system, we designed it so that I could come in at a later time and do some custom door panels to get more top end. We pre-wired it for back-lit RF logos in the doors and trunklid, but I lost interest in that. About two years ago, I put in some MB Quart QSD-216s - let's just say that additional output on the top end is no longer required. I also replaced the Rockford deck with a Pioneer Premier 700BT. I'm an iPod guy, and this is a killer radio for that purpose. Plus, it has bluetooth for my phone, etc. I still have two RFX-9420s in the closet that I may sell at some point. To answer the above question about the dash kit, I made that from 3/8" thick 6061 aluminum. I took a metra dash kit, used it as a template, and converted that to a 1/4" MDF wooden template via a pin router. I then used the wooden template to make the aluminum mounting kit in the same fashion. This took about a day but it came out really well. And . . . it would appear that there is still some interest in seeing the Mustang flex and bellow at 23Hz. Maybe I can get my butt out there this weekend and video this - trust me, it's worth seeing. Thanks for the many kind comments! I have gotten 6 years of enjoyment from this system and the car has been PAID OFF since Jan of '08! I just drive it and enjoy it.

Steve, It's gotta' be a relief to be nearly done with it - kudos to you for your perseverance in seeing this one through! I'd also like to commend you for your continual efforts in sharing your secrets with enthusiasts of all kinds. Your website is one of the best archives I know of for our industry. I'm proud to say that I had a chance to experience this one in person, although long before it was finished. It's mental. Looks like you're the man to beat currently for a street bass system on the West Coast (more like West of the Mississippi). So . . . what did Chicken think? I'm sure it exceeded his expectations by a long shot.