Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic UBL #2

[scooter99]

So next I started getting the back plate fitted in there the best way I thought I could. Good angle, and hidden away well etc. This is what I ended up with. Only hot glued in, but I'll epoxy it when I get more time and more definitive placement. It's close but needs to be adjusted a bit to be completely square.

Here we go! This is basically how it will be! The square part is at the front and the rounder part is facing the rear of the car. Just for reference.

Back side, or underside, so to speak.

Face plate removes, and functions very well. Folds down etc.

Saved the screw holes.

Now I just need to fill it all in, resin or body fill it in, and sand it all. Then I can sand it and paint it. Shouldn't take that long, hopefully!

More another time! Time to go party!

Thanks for checking it out. Join my build log for comments, suggestions, or just see the behind the scenes talk etc.

[scooter99]

Ok so I tried to do a few things last night and it just wasn't my night. On top of being sick, we went out and got a christmas tree. But then when we got home and the wife started dinner while I started my daughters baths, I was able to sneak out thinking I could do a couple things here and there, while all that went on.

So I last left off with this,

Last night i trimmed it up a little bit and started sanding the upper transition. Remember this is the main portion that I was worried about looking good and getting pretty much finished before I get the front put on.

Came out pretty smooth. I picked up some body filler at Depot while we were out, and I'll get that on there and smoothed out and completed, with exception of the paint. Then I can put the outer frame on, and then start finishing it all together.

So I needed to make sure that the tablet still fit in there ok. Looks damn good, I think!

This is about as far down as I could get it, but I'm perfectly ok with this. I think when it's done, it'll look very good and not stick out like a sore thumb! I can see it in my head, I just have to show you guys in the physical!

As you could see from that last picture I need to trim up all the edges, and get those squared away so I can start the finishing process.

I've been working via one of those yellow shop lights outside, and I left it on and came in side to get all this tapped up and ready to trim.

So the top of the blue tape on the bottom, is the line I'm going to cut with the dremel. This will give me a definitive line to smooth from and not ruin the raised areas for the HVAC controls.

Then the outside, left, of this tape line, is where the dash over the steering wheel ties into this dash piece . So I have to get it nice and straight and square so it sits in there smooth and nice!

HOWEVER, when I went back outside to trim this up, the light was dead! That was the third one that's gone out now. SO, now I have to go and get replacements tonight. Why am I doing this outside you ask? Well cause I don't want fiberglass dust all over everything. So I was trying to do it out there to keep things clean. So I'll get the light replacements tonight, and get them back in and get back to work.

If I don't work on that, I may work on getting the face plate extension tested, before I get too much further with the mount on it. Cause if it won't work, I have a new idea for it!

I did get another part yesterday btw. I got a new center console piece that will, at this point, house my volt meters, temp meters, and switches. If I can get it to fit, I'll do the head unit brain as well, but I think I'm going to be limited on space behind it. But, we'll see!!

I CANNOT WAIT, to get in my new house and in my new shop! It's going to be so nice! I'm going to put a shit ton of lights in there so I have plenty of light to work with!

So that's all for now! More tonight I hope!

If you want to comment, or see the behind the scenes chatter on the project, check out my build log which is linked in my signature! Thanks for checking it out!

[scooter99]

Ok so I got the lights fixed tonight and got a couple little things done on the tablet build.

First I taped up the connector. If I get anything in that, might as well scrap the whole deal! So that has to be protected!

Next I trimmed off everything I was going to do last night.

Sanded the plastic of the dock.

And did a quick sand job on the resin etc.

Time to do some filling. Some of the spots I wanted to get filled before the face frame goes on are the gaps between the dock and the back panel, and the back panel and the dash bezel on top. Then also there's a big dip on the left side upper and side that I wanted to get some filler on. But I wanted to do all this and get it finished so that I could not have to fight it after the face panel goes on.

So, filler, spreaders, putty knife, gloves, and an old cutting board for mixing. Here we go!

Left side

Now then, the bottom needs sanding as well, to blend it in, and smooth down where I cut the line at. But that will all wait until I'm ready for the face frame. More tomorrow I hope! Thanks for checking in!

Feel free to comment in my build log, or just simply check out the behind the scenes chatter. Linked in my signature.

[scooter99]

Well we'll see what happens. I'll talk to em. Otherwise, insurance will pay for it. Either way I'm not!

So I got some work done today. Nothing to do with the tablet, or head unit, or anything like that. I started working on the box. I have quite a few pics, and I have some other pics of it, and at the end of the day I'm left frustrated and trying to figure out what to do. But I'll get to that. Let's get started with what was done!

So if you will recall I figured out that I had to put the enclosure together in the trunk. There just was no other way to do it. So I decided that I had to cut some strips to make it work. The sides and the port inside wall are the ones that need to strips. The front and back walls attach to the whole frame and will tie it all together. However, the problem I have, is that I don't want to have any strips in the port itself. So what I decided to do was extend the side wall, so that it connects to the side of the top and bottom, thus allowing me to not have to use strips in the port. Not sure if that makes sense but, you'll see. So to the strips.

3/4 x 3/4" strips on the table saw.

Then I got out the chop saw

Sitting in place on the inner port. The strips and the 45 will be on the enclosure side, not the port side

Now I still can't find my glue bottle so I'll go to the way I did it before. Brush it on.

Port

45's on the port.

Strips

[scooter99]

Next was the outside wall on the sub side.

Then I decided to get a little creative.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to do port orange, crescendo orange or as close as I can get to it, and the rest of the box in black. I don't have the right color orange but I wanted to see what it would look like.

[scooter99]

Here's where i started to get frustrated. I decided to get things thrown in and test fitted in the trunk.

So this looks like it's good, but it's not. I have to remove the rear speakers,. and that's why I didn't put the top plate on, but the problem is going to be, that I can't slide it up as far as I wanted to. I'm about 2.5 - 3 inches back from where I wanted to be.

So then I slide the back panel in, and it's about 1/8" tall. It's actually my fault. I measured on the metal in the center and the outer metal overlaps that and that's where I loose the 1/8". However, I also have deadener on the floor so I can remove that, I'll have that room.

So here's my issue. On each corner, I have about a 1" x 1" x 1" wedge I need to cut out of each corner. That will allow it to slide in the extra inches I thought I had. The problem with that is that the port is on the left side. So I'm very stumped as far as what to do here. can I take the wedge out of the upper corner of my port without causing port issues? I need to do it from front to back to make it smooth, or can I just take the wedge out of the front? Just not sure.

I also thought about dropping the whole box down about an inch, but I loose too much air space for that.

So taking this into account, I wanted to see where I could go with the amp placement. I was going to go on the floor, but with it this far back I just can't. So I did some playing with the amps. This is what that looks like.

Batteries would go in the well, cause I could never get the spare out of there anyway.

I have some ideas for this

and the other side too

You can see here I'm still behind the trunk line but not by much.

So that's about it. I'm in for suggestions. I'm going to think about it some more too. That's it for tonight. GO NINERS!!!

[scooter99]

So I managed to get a little progress done on the tablet dash bezel today. Had a half day off cause of the holiday, so I decided to utilize it! Since the head unit thing didn't work out, and while I have another idea on how to get the head unit in, I have to figure out how to get the lower dash trim off. Apparently that's going to be an absolute bitch to do. But I'm up for the challenge!

So here we go. First layer went on the last time I posted about this. So today I sanded that down to see where we stood. Bought 4 different grits of paper at Depot last night. This should get me through the project. I hope anyway!

Here's what it looked like before sanding

That's not an actual baseball game in the background btw. It's "Trouble With The Curve". Had to have some entertainment while I sanded!

And after sanding!

So there were still some issue areas that needed addressing. The upper left area, where the drop down was before, still needed some filling. The sides needed addressing as well. And some other areas of course!

[scooter99]

So, layer 2 here we go! I picked up some more cream hardener the other day at Lowes, cause I don't know who the genius was that decided WHITE hardener for white filler was a good idea, but it wasn't working for me! Can't even see if it's properly mixed or not! So I had to get some red. Anyway, here we go.

So I did layers on the inside sides, to put a bigger radius on the edges. Filled the upper left hand corner, and then filled the side as well. Basically went over all of it.

Let that dry for a while, then sanded!

Hard to see, I was trying to get a close up of the upper side there. it still has a little indent there that needs some filling and rounding.

[scooter99]

Then I test fitted the tablet!

I like the fit against the back, but it does indent in the middle there. Not sure exactly how to fix that, but I have some ideas.

You can see my S3 there, that's what I'm having to use for picture taking! Someone wanna donate a good camera to me!?!

Little closer.

Overall I'm happy with how it's turning out. I have some pin holes in there, and I want to fix that indent. When those are done, and fixed, I can primer it, and sand it again. After that's done, I'll get the front on. Then I can start finishing the outside part of it. It's coming along, slowly, but it's coming along. Hoping to have more time for it this weekend.

Thanks for checking it out!

If you want to comment, or give suggestions, or just read the behind the scenes talk, please visit my build thread which is linked in my signature!

[scooter99]

Also got some parts in this week.

I have the rest for what I'm doing with this already here.

Then this was what I was thinking for the new head unit install. I couldn't decide, if I wanted the HVAC controls here, and the head unit where the hvac controls were. I found out that I can fit a single din unit there, from another 8th civic owner. But then I took a set of controls I bought a while ago to customize things, and I'm not sure if I like the way it looks.

Then I tried the Alpine face plate down there, and I think I like that better. What do you guys think?

Comment in my build thread please! Linked below in my signature.