Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic - Time to say good bye to her.

[scooter99]

It kind of hit me when I was looking at the oem grommet, That if i cut the middle out, it'd be a tight fit, but it may just work! So I did it.

And it worked!!! Now unfortunately, if I'd have used a little smaller bit for the other holes, like you see on the right there, I'd have been able to use it in the front and back. But because this is the oem hole, where the grommet came from, it fits here, but not in the back. I'll have to get creative.

So I techflexed it, and added some shrink, which I need more of. Now it's time to attach it.

I have these metal holders, but I didn't want the metal on the cable. So I had a thought.

Metal bracket, meet heatshrink.

Heatshrink and metal bracket hook up

Heat was added and now they're one! This will do me nicely!

So I routed the cable up and around.

Finding a spot to screw to was a biotch. I was having all sorts of problems. Turns out, the corner was the best place to go. None of this will be seen, but i'll go ahead an fill it with silicone and clean it up before I cover it up.

Here it is, shrinked up and in the holder.

Got the holes cleaned up, and painted the new hole to prevent rust. I'm going to have to see if I can find a grommet of some sort to fill it.

Front of the well. Now I had to remove the top of the wheel well because of how the tires sit, with it lowered, and big wheels. I had some rubbing issues up front. So I cut them out. I had the intention of fiberglassing a new one up there that I could screw to the metal, but I never did it. So you can see a bit of the cable on the upper right. But it's all good and out of the way. NO chance of getting hit by the wheel, and is sitting behind metal all the way around so it's pretty blocked and protected.

[scooter99]

Moving on to the back. I had to get creative. I didn't have a grommet, nothing soft that I could use anyway. Although I may redo this, and use some carlon flex tubing. A piece of 3/4" pvc fits nice and snug around the cable and flex. Not shrink on top though. SO I shrinked behind it, so it wouldn't slide back, and then over shrinked in front in case it did slide in the hole. Although I don't anticipate it being able to once the bracket is on it.

Then I slide a longer one on, and more shrink in front of it to prevent sliding.

Bent it up into place through the hole, and then secured it with another bracket.

Painted it black to hide it a bit.

Here's where it comes through. The PVC sticks up about a half inch. Protected from each hole. This side is covered up with the deadener.

Then back to the back where it will go on the buss bar for the battery rack.

So there it is. Passenger side all done, and as you can see, the 4" in the back where it goes up into the cabin, is the only spot where it's exposed. I can live with that. Now, I have to tackle the driver side tomorrow. This was a bear!!

Next I stripped everything out that needed to be painted. I did remove that one on the right there, cable, and I think I'll go ahead and replace that one. I tried to solder that one, and not thinking, with it soldered, the set screw doesn't sink all the way down beyond flush, so the top cover won't go on now. SO I'll probably just make a new one and call it good.

Got all the aluminum pieces set up and ready to primer.

For this I'm using some self etching primer. Partly because it's what I have, but it's made to stick to metal.

First of a few coats.

Battery tray.

Oem battery tray

Cross member rail, and fuse holders. So I'll let these dry tonight, then I'll paint them in the morning. I don't need them in the car now to do the driver side. I know where that cable goes, and quite frankly, I can't get the cable in there with that holder in place anyway.

So that's about it today. More tomorrow. I still have grounds to do in the back, and the driver side front to back run.

I also got in the dash kit for the tablet install. Not sure when I'll start that.

I also took that last part out today, the radiator part that was cracked. They sent me the wrong damn gasket, so I'm gonna have to figure something out. This car has to be on the road no later than Wednesday night.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day I think. We'll see what it brings.

[Wicks]

Love the wiring!

Great attention to detail

Looks like the ball is rolling.......keep it coming!!!

[elflako17]

this is fucking nuts bro, loved what you did with that wire i might do it on my ride

[Twostrokeking]

I want that workshop

[scooter99]

Thanks buddy. Wish it were clean. It's harder than I thought to keep clean. I'm sure it'd be easier if I had more time.

[scooter99]

First things first, Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2014 brings joy, happiness and db's to everyone!

Ok onto the work!!

Today started off with painting the parts. Primed them with 3 coats of self etching last night. Today everything was dry, so I hit it with a coat of color match (to my car exterior) first thing this morning.

New battery tray

Oem Tray

Fuse holders and brackets.

Also did a couple of other pieces too. Just to dress things up a bit.

No, I didn't put hydraulics in, I got the driver side jacked up and ready for the front to back run.

She's sittin pretty high.

Got the wheels off.

Then pulled all the grommets.

I didn't have my daughter today, so I had to do this on my own. Driver side was trickier than the passenger side I did yesterday. But at the end, I managed.

I did have to drill one extra hole. Oh well, i can fill that in. I had to because there's a brace in there that wasn't on the other side. I was going off of what I did on the passenger side. Looked in the grommet hole, the one on the bottom left, and it was solid so I couldnt see anything. So I drilled the right side, only to see a bracket there. Then I had to drill the upper left side to get a good view. I'll figure out how to fix it all up. No worries.

Instead of the roamex, i decided to use some Paracord today. It's thin, slick, and should work out much better. For $3, why not.

So I taped that to the stick.

And pulled it through. It slid through sooooo much easier than the roamex. Thankfully cause like I said I didn't have any extra hands.

I got so busy with getting it ready, I didn't take a before pic of the cable. But you get the idea. I taped it up a bit differently this time. I stripped about 3" of outer shield off, and then put the cord through the middle of the strands. So it was centered on the cable. Then taped it really tight, and then wrapped the left overs on the end around the area that I stripped and taped it. This made it 10000 x's better because where the cord went, the cable went. One of the issues I had yesterday pulling the cable through, was that the roamex was taped on one side of the outside shield. Not in the middle. SO it got hung up on the insides of the rail. This went so smoothly I can't even tell you.

Here's the front.

[scooter99]

This is the spot under the rear seat, on the sides. There's a ton of room under there, so I knew that I could have some slack through and make a good bend without being too sharp.

Got my hole drilled.

I went to Depot this morning before I got started, and picked up some carlon flex tubing. I'm considering changing the other side to this instead of what I made with the PVC. But I'll have to see if I have time for that. I think the pvc will work fine, but I think this will work so much better and protect it better. This is thick stuff.

So in order to get the cable through this, it's 3/4" and almost an exact ID width, I sprayed some lubricant in there. Slid right through.

Here you can see there's quite a bit inside the rail so there's plenty of protection.

There's also about 1/2" sticking through the cabin.

Bought this little organizer this morning as well for the lugs and shrink etc. This makes life so much easier.

Got the cable all flexed up and shrunk at the entrance point. The end I taped up because I'm not 100% sure where I need it to be just yet.

Flexed and shrunk and ready to go.

Put a couple brackets on it to secure it.

And like the other side, I painted it black.

[scooter99]

Time for the front. Found about the only decent spot for entrance. It's right next to the brake line, and there's plenty of space back there. So I drilled it out.

Cut the flex where I needed.

Got the cable slid in there and we're ready to flex and shrink it and be done.

Threw some brackets on it to secure it down.

See how it comes through. Good spot. SO much under there that is mechanical and turns and moves I was afraid to bring it up from the bottom.

Then painted it all black.

Next it's time to get the fuse holders all ready to mount. God damn those are sexy!!

First of the brackets getting prepped and ready to go in.

Color matched. Doesn't have clear on it, so it's not as shiny as the car, but it matches.

You can see it's hooked up and ready for the power feed.

Mounted up and tight. . I added a third rivet on the bottom of the bracket. That did the trick. It was a little loosey goosey before!

Ground down the paint under the bracket, and put the ground on, and tightened the oem tray down.

Added the new tray. This thing is nice and stout and flat now. Very happy with how this came out. Only thing that might have been better would've been if I knew how to weld and welded it together instead of riveted it together. But it came out beautifully in my opinion considering what I had to work with.

Now the battery is in. Ready to get wired up tomorrow.

So I had a pretty productive day all in all. I'm happy with progress for half a day.

Tomorrow, I'll have to remake a cable, not a problem, and then put the pieces back together up front here. I'm going to also see about doing the grounds while I have her up in the air, although I forgot to do the passenger side yesterday. But I'm down to about a foot of 2/0 left. So I can either do the driver side, while it's in the air, and order 10 - 15 more feet, or I can just use double 1/0 instead. I'll have to decide that. If I have to wait to do them, I'll just order 2/0. Jon usually gets it to me pretty fast.

That's it for now folks thanks for tuning in. After tomorrow, I'll be back on the trunk and the enclosure. But tomorrow is my last day of vacation. Thursday I go start the new job, and things are going to slow way down. I think. I'm going to try and get an hour here and an hour there in every day, but it's just going to depend on the house needs.

MORE TO COME!!!

[Herokight]

I can dig it man. I've been keeping up on the UBL, but that last update just had to be commented on. It's looking better and better.