97 Dodge Caravan Sport *new vehicle*/ Malibu build PGS 1-22

[TylerO]

Nice Door panel work there!

[Kevin M]

Thx Buddy. I wish I had better wheather to work on them. The temps today were pretty cold today. Tomorrow will be near fifty so I plan to do a coat on them then... and I will take some pics. After I get a strong shell I can bring them inside and trim them for the driver and put the expanding foam in the naughty bits.

I ran a new remote from the HU back to match the color scheme. (Will be changing the interior to black) Ran the speaker wire for the midbass/mids/highs. Need a location for the crossovers. Maybe the kick panel? The power wire will be run externally through a piece of conduit and clamped to the chassis every 6 inches or so. This will be done when I do the big 3 upgrade. Also, a cable was attached to the back of the HU for the Ipod. works great. Got it for 25, Clarion wanted close to 80$ for the same cable. Pays to shop around.

The vents on either side of the dash were cut to accomadate the 2 6.5" mids I am placing there. Incidentally there is actually two of them on either side. One directs air to the window while the other forward. I am going to try to integrate the smaller ones for the windows into the enclosures for the mids.

Here is a picture to give you an idea of how I am mounting them. Their final position will be spaced from the window slightly at a 45 degree off axis position. Should make for a potent soundstage. I wouldn't dare doing this if I didn't have 1/3 octave eq though. I forsee a great deal of tuning in my future. lol

Yes I understand I am losing a small amount of visibility. It is not enough for me to reconsider the relocation. The tweeter will be an alpine from the component set but I think I will replace them with Neo3's. They sound much brighter and airy. The alpines are a little harsh despite attenuation of the crossover and fall short at around 18k. The tweeter will sit suspended in between the two to create a "point source" feeling and to prevent lobing issues.

That's all I got for you today. I appreciate the views even if you don't respond. More tomorrow...

[jconnway]

tuned in bud i like how this is shaping up

[IH8PunkRok]

very interested in how your drivers will work for you. its not often that you see Dayton in a car

[Kevin M]

Didnt get a chance to work on the doors. Instead I dove head first into the trunk. I had a lot of surface rust to manage.

I hit it with my sander and layed down a layer of primer where I needed it. It would've been much faster if I had a grinder. lol I borrowed a heat gun to speed up the drying. After that dried I put a layer of the V block spray on deadener I showed before over the entire trunk.

Should be fully cured tomorrow. I will use the other 2 cans I have to put another coat on.

Saturday I will start on the box. I have removed the back seat. Apperently there was no disclosure when I bought the car. It looked like a gummy bear massacre back there. So much fun to clean up. I also found 2 dollars in US and a ton of coins from mexico. The seat will not be going back in. I was going to build something over the enclosure so the back seat was usable but I rarely have anyone but my brother in my car so I said F#%& it. Incidentally, I have the width for 3 18" so I think we will do that. That's right not two, but three 18" subwoofers. All without losing my ability to see out the window. No back seat though. hahaha

Here is my plan. I am going to build a box 1 1/4" thick minus the baffle. This will sit in the opening of the trunk to the cabin. A trim piece will be glassed into the car. The baffle for the 3 18" will attach to this. The baffle itself will be 2" thick and the subs will be flush mount. The amps will be mounted on the bottom. Not sure of the config. yet. I still have to buy an amp for the subs and another sub.

I also need a ton of resin and matte.

I'm doin my best to keep you guys updated but they may be fewer and far between in the next couple weeks. It's a payday thing lol. I should have another update tomorrow so see ya then; and thx again for checking out the thread.

[kryptonite]

Really like the attention to detail, makes me want to rethink my entire build, can't wait to see what's next

[Kevin M]

Hello again... I have made some progress today. I cut the wood for the box. Didn't take any pictures. We all know what mdf squares look like lol. The walls of the box are doubled up so they have been glued together. I didn't have any clamps so I used my weights. 60 lbs should be adequate. I will put it together tomorrow and put it in the car to give you an idea of what we are doing. The dimensions of it are 37x17x12. Just shy of 4.4 cu. feet. It is only the first part of the box. The finished box will be closer to 9+or- losing around 2.25 cu. feet from woofer displacement. Since I no longer have a back seat the box will have a fiberglass extension that increases the box size. The second section of the box will be 56x20x8ish. The baffle will attach to this.

I had a coat of resin on one of the doors, and added some expanding foam around the corners. Still about two days and 100$ left of work to do on them.

In the meantime will the glue is setting and the foam is curing I started to mount the Clarion eq. Here are a few more pics of what we have done so far.

I took out the panel and cleaned it with some hot soap and water.

Here is the plan

The hazard button

When I pulled out the vents I saw that it was a single piece(vent shroud and button.) I scored and snapped the other piece so only the hazard was still attached. Roughed up the surface with a little 150 grit and applied some contact cement around the entire thing.

Here is a simple trim piece that I made out of 1/2" mdf.. It's not as pretty as I would like but I just needed to add a little strength to the panel. This was set in the trim piece after I sanded it as well and added a generous amount of contact cement to hold the panel in place.

That; more or less, stopped me in my tracks until tommorow. The front of the panel has a gap which I will fill with expanding foam and cover that in bondo and dynaglass for a smooth finish. I will be finishing that. I have got to finish at least one project this weekend. I don't like things that aren't finished...

See ya tommorow

[Kevin M]

been a while since I have updated the thread. Sadly, all I have is a video of how far I have come with the doors. Which is to say not much. Go easy on me as they are the first ones I have done. They still need a ton of work (reinforcement, sanding.) I am confident that I will like the end product.

I have decided to dial back the build going with my original plan of putting the subs in an infinite baffe config. I want to research a bit more before I decide to build a wall. In a way it is a good thing as far as power that will be required. The subs will only need 150-250 watts. Extremely modest by your standards. lol The sound should be adequate for now as they are 18's and I do have 10" as midbass. I have taken out the backseat as I want to create an amprack and a mount for my 1/3 octave eq. The baffle will be built this weekend (something I don't need good wheather for.) along with effort to seal the trunk from the cabin. I am sorry about the constant change in plans. Not like me to be so wishy-washy.

Which brings me to part 2 of the switch up. The two alpine component sets are going in the kicks. I am going to get cutting for those this weekend as well. It seems the more I read the more I change plans. Paralysis of analysis I guess. In any case no more shit is going to be changed. I have got to get on the f#^%*ng ball and get this thing built.

Look for some fresh pics this weekend.

[Kevin M]

Got alittle more done today. I got the first part of the baffle built for the 18's. First I cut a piece of wood to roughly match the space where the backseat was.

Behind this sheet are a couple reinforcement strips attached to other side of the strut towers. It was important to me to NOT cut the the rear deck sheet metal. It is 44w x 21h

After i cut that piece I layed on top of the second part of the baffle and traced it out.

I used the inner part of the box the subs came in to trace the holes for the 17" cutouts in the baffle I had to make.

Had to redo one of the as it was a little higher than the other.

Here is a pic with the holes cut. I have the screws in it temp to hold the panels together for another test fit in the car.

As you can see the spare tire well still needs to be soundproofed. The Cascade stuff helped but to really make a difference I will have to use some audio technix deadener. The entire trunk of the car will be covered in the stuff(along with the doors)The trunk is the enclosure so it has got to be as rigid as possible.

The baffle is only 1 1/4" but it is only the first piece. There will be a larger 1 1/2" baffle/beauty panel that the subs will attach to and be flush mounted. This will span the entire distace of the rear and will be one piece. I have to find some way of mounting the three amps back there as well. Don't even have the third one yet.lol I can pull the measurements up online so it's all good.

I would like to know what you guys think about having the eq back there. I worry about the vibration either moving the sliders or damaging the internal components.

Once the glue dries and it warms up outside I can permanently mount the baffle into the car and get buck wild with some spray foam and fiberglass and truly seperate the cabin from the trunk. I still have three pages worth of stuff to do and will continue to take pics. If it ever gets above sixty this build is going into overdrive. I am going nuts without any music in my car. For future ref. don't let me start a project in the middle of winter...

[Lbox88]

The only problem I see with having the EQ back there is adjusting it. You would have to climb back there to get to it whenever you wanted to make any changes at all, big or small. What about in the center console underneath the arm rest where cd's normally go?