Kevin M Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 Here is a build log of my Bu'. I had a "system" in the car before but it had problems. This new system should repair some of those things: Lack of midbass, soundstage and low freq. extension.I have spent the last 3 months reading and learning about component placement, acoustics, amps, power dist. etc... I realize that I don't know jack about car audio(or jill for that matter lol) I think I have come up with an thoughtful system in regards to these issues and how to amend them. I still have a ton of questions, which I will try to find the answers for before assaulting you with them. I would like to say that this will be a sound quality system but I don't want to get wrapped up in that argument as with the exception of a handful of vehicles is mostly based on personal preference. What I am hoping to create is a stereo that is clear and accurate from low-moderate-high volume levels without causing listening fatigue. (My approximation or definition of sound quality) Yes the soundstage, depth of field, tonal balance are important and I'm not omitting those. Just giving you my take on it. In any case; I have a bunch of pics to show ya to get this ball rolling so let's get started. All the equipment you are about to see is the same in my sig. The wheather here in Chicago and family problems have caused me to push the build back but I will be building the door panels this weekend. Here are some pics to give you a closer look at the components... The HU: Clarion Vz 409 is already installed in the car. Here is a mock system diagram laid out in components for a better visulazation. Clarion EQ/Line driver Eqs746 Behringer Fbq3102 I need to have this converted to a dc power supply. Don't think an inverter would be good for the noise floor in the system. Two MB Quart onyx4.60's One will run bridged/2 channel providing 240 watts to the midbass speakers. The second will run the two pairs of Alpine components. here are a couple shots of the unboxing, goodies inside, etc. Sorry about the glare Midbass: Goldwood GW-10PC Component sets Alpine Spr-17s 6 1/2" I have two pair. One was removed from the car, the other new. I think I will replace the ones harvested from the car eventually. I thought they were a great deal at $125 bones Couple close-ups of the crossover. Subwoofers: Dayton DCS450-4 18" I got these for 115 bux a piece. The pictures are fail and I apologize for that. I can take a few more upon request. I love paper cone drivers. They have a great sound. As you can probably tell I have no amplifier(s) for them yet. It is on my wishlist. I do have an old school mtx RT-A2110 that I can use in the clutch. Here is my girl in desperate need of some rust repair and a paint job. I show you now because with the exception of the new paint job I probably wont be doing much more to her; exterior wise. This car is going to be about the stereo and getting me from point a to b. I am saving money for a Land Rover Discovery that will be pure "flash" rofl. The door panels I built for the car have been scrapped as I have deemed them "weak sauce" In their place a single 10 will go in it's place. The Alpine components will be in the "A" pillars in a terraced formation with one sitting above the other 45 degrees off axis facing the oppositte passenger. Pretty ambitious I know. If I have to build them ten times thats what I'll do. I'll try to have more for you tommorrow. 2005 Ford Focus zx4 AMT's and Planars 18" Infinite baffle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EpicenterDesigns Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 Get to work. I am starting on some door panels for this style car today. Two 10's, a horn and 4 ome tweeters. Building The Best.....Repairing The Rest The bitter after-taste of a poor quality job will last far longer than the sweetness of that cheap price! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Lightning Posted March 5, 2011 Report Share Posted March 5, 2011 Awesome ... I'm tuned in ... Kenwood / HELIX / Linear Power (For The Love Of Music) / Brutal Sounds / OverKill Electric Co Questions About Sound Quality ?? Try Here ... Sound Quality, What does it REALLY mean ?? SMD SOTM Winner "White Lightning" 1997 GMT400 Chevy Silverado "The Green Dickle" 1994 GMT400 Chevy "Phantom Dually" Randal's 2007 Chevy Avalanche (we haven't named this one yet) Dylan's "Brutal" 17 Chevy Cruze RS Hatch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin M Posted March 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 Don't have much to show you guys today. The new door panels have been started but they are going to take a while. I have the old hole for the ten that will be sealed and reinforced along with the previous tweeter location. One of the problems I had with the old stereo. (Low stage height) The baffles I built are made out of 3/4" and 1/2" mdf. The baffle the ten will attach to is the 3/4" The 1/2" is to give it a flush look. Still working on grille ideas but it will be something simple. You can see I haven't removed any more material from the door, yet. I may need to add another baffle to increase the distance between the rear of the driver and that ridiculous hard plastic mount for the window motor that travels the distance of the inner door. That is turning into a tremendous pain in the ass. The larger the baffle, the less asthetic look. The trade-offs of car audio. Should only take 5 minutes to make a couple more baffles so I should quit bitchin" I guess. The door panel is getting covered with grill fabric to start us off. It will be stretched and stapled to the panel, resin, then matte and resin, bondo, and dynaglass for a smooth finish. The rear of the door panel is getting a couple layers of chop matte, and a coat of... Since the door has no inner skin to speak of the rear of the outer part of the door will be coated with the above material and acoustic foam with sandwhiched vinyl insert will be placed on the upper and lower parts of the inner door. (There is a metal reinforcing strut in the center of each door) I wish I had more for ya. Couldn't test fit the panels and speaker depth due to the BS rain and snow. If it was April or May the stereo would've been done by now. I have no garage and the neighbors would raise hell about the smell of bondo, resin. Personally, I love that smell, but I am crazy I guess. The panels will be ready for glass tomorrow, stapled; the whole 9. So...uh; yeah, I'll see you then. lol 2005 Ford Focus zx4 AMT's and Planars 18" Infinite baffle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin M Posted March 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Here is another small update. Need some better wheather before I can finish them. As you can see it is pretty tight around the door handles. Still trying to work the bugs out. On the rear of the panels all the staples were flattend out. Took a while but worth it. Really wish I had an air compressor. My hands feel like shredded beef using that hand-held stapler. I forgot to mention I added another 3/4 baffle so our mounting depth is good now. I was worried that they would look oversived, but after they were wrapped I kind of like em' Got some family stuff to tend to tomorrow but until it gets warmer they will stay like this. Shitty I know. I am going to set them aside and start working on the baffle for the 2 18" subs. I'll be taking pictures of the isolation to seperate the passenger cabin from the trunk. More in a few days. 2005 Ford Focus zx4 AMT's and Planars 18" Infinite baffle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin M Posted March 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Ok I had a talk with my girl maryjane and she gave me an idea. It occurred to me that the IB idea for my 18" is good but I would like to take it up a notch and I need some people to bouce ideas off of. The original idea was to build a baffle 2-3" thick to place the subs in. They would fire directly into the seat. This caused me concern due to the fact there is a metal plate built into the back of the seat. Even with 18" drivers you can see that I am going to lose some energy transmission through the seat. Afetr all I was only going to run 150 watts to each sub (half of RMS.) The new idea is to remove the rear seat entirely and rebuild it so the subs are actually part of the rear seat. Let me explain: A template of the rear seat will be made and that will act as the front baffle for a large sealed enclosure. This "baffle" will run the width of the backseat. I plan on sinking them into the new rear seat back and using a series of ribs spaced out across the span of the seat back to allow people to sit there but the subs will still be visible through the gaps between the ribs. Looking in the trunk towards the cabin you would see the rear of the box. I really didnt want to lose the ability to have a full size tire in the trunk. That was reaaly the only reason for the IB in the first place. The baffle would be built in 2 pieces. The first part would be the one that consists of the long ribs that are used to rest your back on. This would made from 3/4" mdf with 1 inch spacers between the ribs so the subs can easily be viewed. This would mimic the curvature of the original seat as best as possible. It will be sanded smooth and covered with a layer of foam and and fabric. The rear of this panel would have a trim piece on the ribs to hide the fabric being stapled to it. Not the most comfortable but I never have anyone in the backseats anyway. A wall is not a possibility. I would like to keep my view out the rear window and my 1/3 octave eq is goin on the rear deck. The other portion of the baffle that the subs actually attach to will be recessed around 1-3 inches to achieve the "well" or "bowl" effect. On this recessed baffle they will be flush mounted for a clean look like I am trying to get with my door panels. With this idea I should acheive a couple things. Seperation between the trunk and the cabin, access and ability to have a spare tire, larger power handling, and oh yeah...A helluva lot more output. Which of course is the goal. Better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it. Naw I mean lol If you're read this far you are a good sport and I appreciate it. I am going to take a couple pics tomorrow and try to use the Microsoft paint program to show you guys what the hell I am talking about. haha 2005 Ford Focus zx4 AMT's and Planars 18" Infinite baffle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbox88 Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Your question about the cushion inserts got me curious, so I went to a junk yard today and wandered around looking at different models of malibu's to only conclude that you must have a fold down seat where as I have the regular non-folding seats. If so, there should be a bolt holding the bottom of the insert on, and when that comes off you should slide the insert straight up and then pull it to you. There is a small T shaped plate molded into the foam that slides into the body of the rear deck. UBL | Build Log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbox88 Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 If you haven't upgraded your alternator yet btw, Advanced Auto parts online sells a 150A Powermaster for $215 and you can knock $50 off by using the promo code "BIG50". UBL | Build Log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin M Posted March 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 Yeah I have the folding seats. No wonder i was confused looking at the pics of your car. I didn't know there were different style seats. lol I haven't purchased a new alt as of yet but 150 amp should be more than adequate for my needs. The price sounds pretty great too. How was the install? Looks plug and play. Any tricks or tips before I put it in. I figured I would put in the new alt when I did my big 3 upgrade. Right now I am rolling with no stereo in my car. Fu@$ing hurting. lol Put the first coat of resin on today. Had to dip in and out according to the rain. Since my trunk is gutted I set the panel in there and let the car warm up. Caught a wicked head rush when I went to check on it but it was dry. They say don't do it under 70 degrees but a little extra catalyst(Mekp) goes a long way. There is going to be 3 or more coats w/chop matte anyway so no biggie. Ran out of resin and running out of money. haha. The way I see it I will need two more containers and I should be good. Then it's on to the rear of the door. Got the spray deadener and a couple cans of great stuff to fill in the naughty bits. We have momentum on the project just not enough. I may get a wild hair up my ass and build the enclosure for the 18" this weekend or mount the Clarion EQ. I have a gaggle of bondo and mdf and that job should be relatively simpler. I plan on putting the eq in the place where the vents are above the head unit. Cut and seal those off and use a couple pieces of mdf to attach to the trim panel and bondo it up. Never use those anyway. cant stand that air blowing in my face. It makes my eyes water something fierce. I will be keeping the hazard button as well. The eq will be offset yes but the dash bezel that holds the radio, I think; would be a bigger pain to modify. I would have to mount it under the CC and that doesnt feel right to me. It will be my main volume control so I want it at a higher level. I am tired of worries about theft guiding my placement of components. Once they see the 2 6.5" on either side of the dash, or the 10" in the doors, people will know whats up anyway... 2005 Ford Focus zx4 AMT's and Planars 18" Infinite baffle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbox88 Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 I only ran into 2 problems when I put mine on. The first was space. There's 3 bolts holding it on and then the 1 power wire. I have somewhat larger hands, so the power wire took me a good deal of time to unbolt and remove. The 2nd was that Powermaster chose not to tap on of the mounting holes, or the original nut and bolt weren't long enough, I don't remember. I do remember that it's on the under side of the alt closest to the front of the car. I just found a close enough sized bolt and lock nut and it worked like a champ. This is all on a 3.1L motor, so it may be slightly different if you have the 2.4L. If you don't have one, a Haynes Repair Manual can be a lifesaver when all the shops are closed and the internet is down when you need to find something out. Was just checking out Advance auto and it looks like they no longer carry that HO alt anymore. It's weird because I only JUST bought mine about a month and a half ago. UBL | Build Log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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