Four Memphis M3's & a T2500-1bd Build Log

[scooter99]

Hell ya we wanna see it! Get it up here!

[rickyfromthe407]

Here you guys go!

Just installed it, figured a few hours would be fine for the pieces to dry, the clear coat was hard to get without running, but with some 2,000 grit sandpaper and quite a bit of time I finally got it smooth as baby skin!

It is REALLY hard to show just how glossy the pieces are, with flash on the pieces look kinda yellow and with flash off they just dont show gloss.

Let me tell you though, they're GLOSSY! I used color match paint so they are the same color as my civic!

Looks REALLY clean. Can't wait to get the center console part where the headunit goes. That'll be next!

On a side note...I REALLY need to vacuum out the car! Gonna have to work on that tomorrow!

[scooter99]

Came out really nice man!

[rickyfromthe407]

Came out really nice man!

Thanks man! Appreciate it.

[ThatGuyWithAJetta]

Wow just read through the whole build, you did an amazing job and the console looks great this makes me want to start my own build.

[zxsonnyxz]

Wow just read through the whole build, you did an amazing job and the console looks great this makes me want to start my own build.

DO! I want to see a Jetta build

[ThatGuyWithAJetta]

Yah i need to do something I only have seen two third gen jetta's with subs, i'm hoping too save up enough to get two low end twelves too run off my old school pioneer 4 channel before winter and than save up to do something bigger next summer.

[sidthasloth]

Nice build man you have put alot of hard work in it. Advice, the JVC deck is nice, but if you can still get them get a pioneer 7800mp or a premier 780mp also the 980mp or 9800mp they have bluetooth built in. Any way I have used my 7800mp for 5 years now, replaced the ribbon cable once and the harness once. its well worth it. Mine has I believe a 16 band eq, sound time correction, its nice man, but then you can get this with seperate eqs and sound processors. But its a sweet deck for its age lol. I am just now getting back into car audio, I got burned out when I was manager for the road shop at CC. Your system looks good man

[rickyfromthe407]

Nice build man you have put alot of hard work in it. Advice, the JVC deck is nice, but if you can still get them get a pioneer 7800mp or a premier 780mp also the 980mp or 9800mp they have bluetooth built in. Any way I have used my 7800mp for 5 years now, replaced the ribbon cable once and the harness once. its well worth it. Mine has I believe a 16 band eq, sound time correction, its nice man, but then you can get this with seperate eqs and sound processors. But its a sweet deck for its age lol. I am just now getting back into car audio, I got burned out when I was manager for the road shop at CC. Your system looks good man

Thanks man, Yeah I am in the market for a new head unit. The boss is good. But not for what I need it for. It's good for somebody who maybe just upgrades their highs and is satisfied and just wants a new head unit other than stock.

I thought it was good when I first bought it, but after a few months of using it I keep discovering flaws in it. But for listening to the radio and plugging my iphone in through the 3.5mm port it does fine. I just want something that has better preout's so I can get the most out of my amp, as well as something that will have better support for the 30pin iphone cable and bluetooth would be nice.

Just don't have the money for it right now. To be honest, I am highly thinking about selling the 4 10"s setup and going with a single 15" mayhem. I don't think it would be able to keep up with the double bass in some hard rock songs like my 10s do, but I think it wouldn't do to bad, I havn't had a chance to hear it yet. But my 10s will hit everything! I love em man.

When i get my new headunit, system is going to be nice.

But selling my subs locally is a chore, since I live in a more of a "retiree" part of florida. There's not too many people into car audio around me. So we will see how it pans out...

I put A LOT of time into this, about two weeks for the build and another week for the center console. Which to me is quite a bit of time, i know some people spend months on it. But I was working long days and going to bed at 1am and waking up at 7am to get more parts. So selling it so quick is quite upsetting, but I think Id like to move on to a bit more power.

Its all up in the air right now...

But thanks for the compliments man. I appreciate it.

[rickyfromthe407]

Well, I was going through some pics, and I came across some build pics of that center console. I think some of you guys might be a bit interested in it if you had ideas of doing it yourself, or wanted to know how it was done. To be honest with you, I just kinda went off my own will and did what I thought would turn out good. And IMO it turned out GREAT.

I don't have THAT many pics, cuz I didnt plan on making a build log for it. But I wanted to help fellow members out instead of just not posting anything..

So lets get started.

I first took the trip to my local Advance Discount Auto Parts, and picked up some supplies in which I felt would be good, that I didn't have.

Figured some Terry Towels, Filler Primer, Color match Paint , clear coat, and a bit of rubbing compound to add some shine. You will also need sandpaper from around eighty-2000grit.

You dont NEED eighty, but it saves a LOT of work in the beginning!

If your piece is textured, like mine was, you are going to see the texture through the paint, if your fine with that and like the look. Then skip the next few sanding steps.

Once again I apologize for not having too many pics, I don't have any pics of the primer stages! But I just wanted to give you guys a general overview, I am sure there are much better tutorials around here somewhere.

With some eighty-150grit sandpaper, your going to want to sand off all the texture on the piece, it will take a lot to sand THROUGH it, so don't worry about that. I chose to hand sand it, since it was a curvy piece, i didn't want to flatten the round edges by using a palm sander. You can also pay more attention to detail by hand sanding, but mind you SANDING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART TO MAKE THESE TURN OUT GOOD! THE MORE TIME SPENT SANDING, THE BETTER THE FINAL PRODUCT WILL LOOK!

I don't have any before pictures, but you can see where I sanded with the eighty grit paper. This looks like I was about halfway through the eighty grit. You want to sand ALL the texture out so its rough.

You can tell how rough it is & was, after the eighty grit! But once you get the texture out, if you choose to use eighty grit, you wanna jump up to around 150-200. You wanna sand it all as smooth as you can with this.

Next I wiped it down with some Denatured Alcohol just to get all the sandings off.

I then sanded more with some 300grit till it was extremely smooth.

Sorry, no pics I plan to do my dash in a few weeks. So I will make a awesome build log for it. So you guys can see the whole process.

When you are finished sanding with 300 grit and feel it is smooth as your going to get with the 300 grit. What i did was wipe it down with another splash of Denatured Alcohol ( you'll be using it a LOT in this )

This is where the filler primer comes in, now if your not familiar with filler primer, basically it is just a VERY thick primer compared to such as automotive primer. Filler primer will fill in these 300grit scratches in a few coats with NO problem!

So next I primed it, you want to do light coats, and around 2-3 sanding with 300 grit in between. Also you want to allow yourself about 15-20 minutes between coat. if you get a bit running you can drop down a size or two to get the runs out. but don't drop too far.

After your 3rd or 4th coat, it should be getting QUITE smooth compared to the scratches. But you will still feel a rough surface because the particles in the filler primer.

You are going to want to sand this down with either 300-400grit. Till it is smooth.

You should feel NO ripples or anything in the primer coat, anything you feel in the primer coat WILL SHOW UP IN THE END RESULT. so sand sand sand till it is smooth. Dont short yourself here, I spent many hours doing this.

After this I wiped it down with denatured alcohol just to make sure there was NO sawdust or hair or anything remaining on it before I painted it ( stuff works well )

What I like to do when I paint, is hang it on a coat hanger off my saw horses. It works great and is not too tall or too short.

Just don't let the wind hit it right after you paint and have it fall into the dirt. Hehe, I speak from personal experience. IF you are unlucky and this happens to you, you can usually get it out with 250 - 300 grit. Don't drop too much lower, you don't want to sand through the paint or primer!

Your going to want to do the same with the paint as you did with the primer. The paint is much thinner and will run MUCH easier. So be careful with it!

Spray 1 light coat on, you don't have to soak it all in the first swig! Wait about 15 minutes, and spray another light coat on. the second coat you want to use to distribute paint evenly so it is all one color. but don't go too heavy that it runs! I ended up doing 4 coats of paint.

The 4th coat I went a bit heavy on, but not too heavy that it runs. If you spray too much, and it runs, you will want to use some 600 grit sandpaper. I would NOT drop down any lower than 600. If you mess this part up you gotta go back to the primer stage. So just tough it out and sand slowly with 600 to get the run out. It will come out.

After your 4th coat, the piece should look all one color and will probably not be too glossy. More of a matte color if you will.

The next step will take care of this..

Once the paint dries ( I let it dry overnight ) you will want to sand the WHOLE piece with between 600-800 grit sandpaper. Don't sand too fast to where you burn the paint, but you want to make sure that the surface is extremely smooth. If you see any lumps or uneven parts, you either want to sand them out or go back to the painting step and make it even.

Once you sand with the 600-800grit you are going to have a BUNCH of tiny particles of paint that you can not see. So to make sure they're all gone, you guessed it, some more denatured alcohol!

Clean it off, and it should be shiny after you wipe it!

After you finished sanding and cleaning the piece, now comes the clear coat stage. To me this was the hardest part.

Clear Coat paint is EXTREMELY thin, thinner than regular paint, and will run with just the slight hesitation. So be cautious when clear coating. I did MANY coats of clear on the piece. About 6.

The clear coat is there so the paint will not chip or crack. It also allows you to clean it easily.

Go easy with the clear coat and do light coats, many light coats is the key to all rattle can painting!

Once the clear coat is nice and thick, the piece should actually be fairly shiny.

But for me, it wasn't enough. After I put the clear coat on, I grabbed my can of rubbing compound and my terry towels, and cleaned it right up. After a few hours, paying attention to EVERY last detail of it, the piece shined up pretty nice and I was 110% satisfied with this.

It is a great way to make things stand out in your car, and I plan to do the dash in a different color in due time.

I apologize again for not having pics of all this, but like I said, I figured I would stop some questions and try to give you guys a brief explanation of it. If you want to know the whole process, try searching the "Interior paint" section of the forum it has a lot of useful information, and I believe there are full picture tutorials on how to do this.

I will upload pics of my dash to the build log when I get around to it, I might also start a UBL if i do anything major.

Thanks for staying tuned guys, I hope you guys enjoyed my build! If you have any questions Ill be glad to answer them!