Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic UBL #2

[scooter99]

So here it is. Finally revealing the configuration. Well some of it anyyay The best is still to come, but I'll save that for later.

I put the shell and the panels in for some test fitting and some adjustments etc.

Wasn't really happy with that and the angle so I took it out and did some adjustments outside of the car so I wouldn't have to lean over the trunk. At this point I was starting to think the glass pan wasn't going to work.

That was all I got to on Friday night. I had things going on so I had to pack it up and do some more on saturday.

However, the more I thought about it the more I was tempted to toss the pan. Sux cause it's a lot of material and a lot of work, but that's how things go! Try it and if it doesn't work you learn from it.

So I got up Saturday morning, and had a couple things to do in the morning but I went out with the amps and did some testing, no pics unfortunately, and I was much happier without the pan. It's tight in there anyway, and the pan takes up some of that precious space so the pan just simply had to go. Chalk it up as a good experience. So I moved on.

Started feeling around on the deadener, cause it seemed be lumpy and loose. Well, it was. I pulled it all. The black original Dynomat. The rest was good, the foil stuff, but the black mat was just garbage. No big deal, clean slate now. That wasn't why the pan didn't work btw. Just to clear it up before you guys ask.

So the next order of business was to create a flat floor base. The bottom of the well is just too uneven to get a good base and it just made it too difficult to deal with getting the amps straight etc. So, back out comes the cardboard that I use so much. Helps after you've moved too, you have an abundance of it at your disposal!

Worked it a little bit

and finished up a template

Time to transfer that to a piece of 1/4" ply.

Test fit it.

Sits a little high so I marked it for trimming.

Got it trimmed up and it fits perfectly. Sits on the floor flat. Dropped it about a half inch almost.

[scooter99]

So I had a piece of 1/2" birch that I was hanging onto that got all messed up cause it was left out under my leaky tarp at my old house. But most of it is still good so I didn't want to just trash it. So this is the best time to start using it.

You can see how it's weathered. But thankfully it's all on one end and one side. SO about 70% of it is still usable.

And I have just the use for it! Time to transfer the template to it!

Got all that cut out, now it's time to clean it up!

I didn't have any 2 sided foam tape, gotta get some, so I had to improvise. Took some scrap pieces, and used them for spacers, and then screwed the half inch, to the pieces, to the template.

This allowed me also to use these points as feet and stops so the template sandwich wouldn't move. Not the normal way to do it, but hey, works for me.

Add in one router with one flush trim bit,

and you get a matched up template and final piece.

[scooter99]

So while that was good, there was an issue, that I already knew about. I used 1/4" for my template, so if I just put this in there, then it will raise the floor up an 1/8". SO to keep that down, I got a little creative. I actually didn't do the best job on this, but i'm trying not to think about that. LOL you all know how I am!

Anyway, back to the router. I flipped the template over again, and used the 45* bit to angle the edges on the bottom. This will allow it to sit down and clear the edges of the wheel well. This was probably too big of a bit to use, but it's what i had on me. My other one is in my trim router box, and I was too lazy to go get it. LOL

before

after

You can see there that I had it a little low. It cut right at the edge of the top part, maybe a little into it, but we'll see if it will work, and if not, I'll make another one.

The three steps, Cardboard, to 1/4" ply, to 1/2" ply.

Fit test

Not bad. It's a little loose at the curved side, but the back side is perfect. Sits nice and snug in there. This wheel well is not symmetrical so you, and myself, have to remember that. It's going to really show up in a bit.

So now that that's done, it was time to get those panels made into the 1/2" birch.

then there were two!

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TEST FIT!!!!!

These pics you can really see how non symmetrical the well is. See there's about a 1.5-2" difference on the left side.

So I had to make sure the amps didn't extend up above the floor level. I didn't have anything long enough to go from bump to bump on the trunk of the car, not sure if that makes sense or not, but there are bump that raise up on the trunk floor. The floor base for the trunk will sit on those so I have to stay below that level. So I took the two 1/4" templates and put them together with a square to get a straight line and used that for my guide. Here is the height check!

Right side, within an 1/8"

Left side within an 1/8"

That was what I did on Saturday! Good progress! I took the step backwards, and tuned it into 2 steps forwards. I was very happy on Saturday night!

[scooter99]

So I sat Saturday night thinking of how I was going to brace up the panels for the amps. It was too hard to get a protractor in there, and I needed a way to measure the angle. Apparently all I needed was some rest.

Sunday morning I got up, and it hit me! Problem was I couldn't do anything about it until the afternoon cause I had a 3 hour workout marathon to attend in the morning and then grocery shopping in the mid day. So all that got done and then to my surprise, the kids and wife went to the park. That meant unimpeded me time!!

So I got out a scrap piece of 1/4" ply again. Put the panels in place, and traced the angle.

I cut one side out and then compared it to the other side. There was a difference in angle. Not good for me. So I decided to go with one angle, and then they would match!

Did a little look on the panel, and liked it.

But cutting that was a little bit of a pain in the ass with a hand saw, so I decided to get out the beast of a chop saw!

I love this thing! One of my favorite tools!

So I cut out the size piece I needed from the 1/2" birch, and was ready to chop it down to size.

[scooter99]

Now I must say this:

** I IN NO WAY CONDONE WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DO, OR ENCOURAGE ANYONE ELSE TO DO IT! IT'S A HORRIBLY DANGEROUS THING TO DO AND UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR TOOL YOU'RE WORKING WITH VERY WELL, YOU SHOULD NEVER DO THIS. I KNOW HOW THIS TOOL WORKS, AND I KNOW WHAT CAN AND CANNOT BE DONE WITH IT BECAUSE I'VE WORKED WITH IT FOR NUMEROUS YEARS AND HAVE ALOT OF EXPERIENCE WITH IT!**

Ok, so now if you cut your hand or fingers off you've been warned and you're a dumbass, don't blame me! Moving on!

I got my angle finder out, and figured out the angle that I needed for these and transferred it to the saw and locked it in place.

Next I measured out the placement of the blocks, so I could get 2 out of each one, and it was time to get busy!

A short time later, I had neat little braces!! WOOT!

I measured the panels out to get them pretty equal.

Then I got out the counter sink bit and also transferred the lines to the top so I could see what I was doing. Started with the outside two braces.

Then slide the middle two under watching the lines and pre-drilled and attached those.

Then I did the next one. Here they are side by side. Perfect match!

End view, nice and straight and perfectly angled and matched!

[scooter99]

Then I went and did a test fit to see, and had a minor issue. The last braces were hitting the sides of the well preventing them from sitting in place correctly. So I cut a 45 off the bottom back edge and we were golden!

Sit's beautifully!

Now comes the good part! Test fitting the amps once more! WOOT!

Now the final configuration will have the power side at the back, and the signal and adjustment side on the front. Well that's back meaning back of the well (front side of the car), and front of the well (back side of the car). Confusing isn't it! LOL.

Time for a check on height! Perfect!!

NOW, SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL!! Well sort of anyway!

Look who we have here!!

Where's it going to go???

Right here!!!

Well maybe! I did a little look, and there isn't much room to play with to the floor level. This is with it sitting on the amps. No panel holding it up or anything. So this may not work! But I have some things to try first!

So I shimmed it up, about a half inch, giving me a 1/4" to play with above the amps, and then have a platform for it to sit on and anchor to.

Then I put some pieces on the bumps to simulate approx 3/4" to raise the floor up that much.

And then remeasured! Looks good. Got about a half inch to play with! WOOT!

So here is what I'm thinking. I have plans for this, and I can get it in there by raising the floor up. The question is, do I wanna do that. I have another plan that I may do also, but I'll have to think on that a bit before my final decision.

So now that the braces and angles of the panels are set and decided. I needed to anchor those down to the base. I just did some measurements and then did the counter sink and put screws in. SO now they're anchored to the base plate. This is what it looks like outside of the trunk.

Half pipe anyone!?! LOL

So now I have to decide a couple of things. First being these panels. I'm thinking I may do new panels that come out to the ends of the wells and then another piece that goes all the way to the top or just short of the top, or even just flatten out and over. I have reasons for this, that I don't want to reveal yet. But these are those areas. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome as always.

So that's it. Full weekend of working. I have some decisions to make before I continue on, but that will be hopefully very soon.

Thanks for checking in.

If you want to leave comments or suggestions or ideas, or even just shoot the shit about the build, feel free to check out my build log which is linked in my signature! Thanks!

[scooter99]

Got some goodies in the other day. Some for this build, some old friends back with me for the truck. But I'll post them up here too cause they do relate for now.

First some sexy Sky High Car Audio 1/0 ga heat shrink

Also got the first two of four of these beauties! I still have to buy the second two but I was just waiting for paypal to clear my bank account to pay a credit card bill. Should be buying this week or next. Not in a huge hurry at this point.

Box 1 of 2, 5 of the soundstream 6.5's, 2 Soundstream Bullet Tweets, and a pair of Soundstream Soft Dome Tweets. This relates cause until I can get my Crescendo's built into my doors, I need to do something for some better sound. I think I may have blown my coaxials in the car. So I'll probably put a pair of the 6.5's and the soft domes in there for now.

Box 2 of 2, 3 more Soundstream 6.5's, and some techflex and heatshrink. Gonna need plenty of this stuff!

This is the placement I'm looking at for the batteries. Two on each side. Plenty of space for them and stay out of the space between the wheel wells for the enclosure etc. Also plenty to put a front cover on them and dress them up!

I am trying to decide, however, if I want to straight stack them, or leave them staggered stacked like this. If I straight stack them, I need to cut a wing off the wheel well, to straighten them up. If I leave them staggered stacked, then I can just do a fiberglass back and then do a front cover. If straight stacked, they'll get buss bars, if they get staggered stacked then one cable off each post and they'll be dressed up nicely. I have a big plan for a fuse block down on the floor. Open to discussion on this.

So that's it for today. Got some things that will be starting up soon. I need to get back to the amp rack, but the house has been taking up all my time. Literally about every time I cross one thing off the list, something else is breaking! So it's been hard to get any free time. But things will pick up again soon.

Thanks for checking in. Feel free to comment, and discuss in my build log or you can visit the Loud and Low Facebook page. Both are linked in my signature. More to come soon!

[scooter99]

So I took some measurements this weekend on the new batts. These are right out of the box floating measurements.

Battery 1

Battery 2

So after that I put them on the charger for full days, Batt 1 on Saturday, and it charged up to 14.5v. Took it off the charger and put the charger on the second battery and again charged up to 14.5v. Checked the first battery after a full day of rest and it was sitting at 13.3v FTMFW!! Checked the second battery this morning and it was resting at 13.2v. That's bad ass!!!

Didn't get pics, but I will. Not sure it'll stay that high, but that's nice for resting voltage. I should be able to buy the second two this week, and I've also designed a nice way to hold them in place. But I'll reveal that when it's time. Thanks Wicks!!

Also, in case you didn't see this on my facebook page, I had an accident this weekend. You all know I've been working on both my houses, the old to get it listed, and the new cause shit keeps breaking! Well I swapped out my dishwasher and microwave last week but still needed to take the ones from my current house over to replace the better ones I took out of the other house. Anyway, I had to move the car, to put the truck in the driveway, and I had a big run in with a curb drain by my house. It was completely a brain dead moment on my part. I can only attribute it to being sick and working as well this weekend so I was pretty foggy headed Saturday morning when it happened. But here is the damage.

Doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's about a 2 1/2" gouge in the rim and it sticks out like a sore thumb on this black wheel. I'm so upset about it. But on the other hand this may have helped me make my decision on getting new wheels. I have been thinking about it for the last few months, but I wasn't really ready to do that just yet. But I think after this I may be forced to. Not because these wheels don't work anymore, it's just the fact that this one is so messed up. These are the one's I've been looking at:

Falken RT-7M

or these

Falken RT-6SS

Both of those would be in 18x9's. I have the tires already and they're still in great shape. The only problem I have is, money as usual. I've been sitting on a pair of truck wheels and my original car wheels (SVT Sabbotini's) for years now and I simply have not been able to sell them. If I could somehow get those sold it would help me tremendously, and then of course I'd have to sell the Varrstoen's that I have on there now. Both of these new wheels are about $200 each. So I'm sure it'll be a while until that happens.

So that's about it. I'm about 80% done with the old house and it should be ready to list by this weekend. After that, hopefully next week, I'll be able to start taking a couple hours here and there on the weeknights to start working on the build again. Stay tuned, stay patient, it's coming. Not as quickly as I'd like yet, but it's coming!

if you have any suggestions, comments, or otherwise, please visit my build log and join in the conversation. If you want updates quicker, go like my Facebook page and get the updates before anyone else.

Thanks.

[scooter99]

Nothing big, just thought I'd share the floating voltage on my XP950's.

Battery #1, sitting for 12 hours off the charger. 13.18v

Battery #2, sitting for about 24 hours off the charger. 13.15v

I ordered the second 2 XP950's but it's gonna be a couple weeks before they get here. Jon had one, but the second has to be ordered. I'm in no rush, I'm not going to be at that point for a while. Things are coming together.

I have a couple meetings tonight for some tool sales, and if those go through I'll be buying my RCA stuff tomorrow as well. Did I mention I'm going to be building my own RCA's folks? I have some twisted pair that I need to build this week, or soon anyway, so I'll do a tutorial on those. I'm going ot be doing some coax for my stuff later down the road, so I'll do a second tutorial on those as well.

Stay tuned folks, gonna start getting real up in here very very soon!

For behind the scenes chatter or if you want to comment, check out my build log which is linked in my signature. If you wanna get updates before anyone else, check out my facebook page, also linked in my signature. Thanks!

[scooter99]

So I was never able to get to the RCA's guys, my apologizes!! But today I did something that is going to be very beneficial to my build. I cleaned out half the shop and built one of two large workbenches! Here are the pics. Not much to explain, I think they're pretty self explanatory. Have some questions just ask! Here we go!

Not a great pic, not even a bad pic it's terrible, but half of it is carpeted. Why carpet? For a couple of reasons. I won't be doing much cutting or sanding etc on this bench. I will have a drill press on it, but other than that, this will be for wiring panels, soldering, and stuff like that. It's much easier to find screws, and keep screws in one place etc, when working on things like that as well. How do I clean it? Shop vac or a handy vac. Pretty simple.

Round over came out well. Another little detail. A squared off corner gets hard on the forearms when working for a while.

And I was really happy with the seam!