96 4Runner with 2 Fi Q 18s (lots of pics)

[RossGo]

Wrapped the rear beauty board

Realized you would still see some wood, since the baskets had some play in the notches, and the beauty board was not intended to fit tightly. Solved that with some black paint

I also added some angle brackets to hold the enclosure down. I hadn’t originally because I didn’t think it could move. I was wrong. I think that is why my amp bracket broke the second time. I hit a ghost speed bump at full speed and definitely caught some air haha. Now it can’t go forward, back, or tilt. I could have added more in some places, but I went more for looks than safety here, when I usually go way overkill. The box is built in that spot. It can only really move up or back like 2”, which these brackets and the added weight should prevent now.

[RossGo]

Time to wrap the top.

I used the same leather I used on my Boston enclosures a few pages back. I really like this color and feel, and I plan to use it more throughout the car later on.

Something about this is so pretty to me

[RossGo]

I had my dad help me wrap the top, since it is not a one man job. He stuck around when I was mounting the rear beauty panel, and suggested I brad nail it in place. I figured four or so would do the trick, but he just started going to town and added like 40. I didn’t need that many, and they aren’t exactly invisible, but you just don’t stop a man with a nail gun haha.

I absolutely love it!

I wish the carpet was one shade darker because it looks like bare wood in pictures, but the contrast in person is great. I definitely kept the 90s styling of brown haha.

[RossGo]

Before I added the front beauty panel, I had to remake my sub wiring terminals. I was switching to all copper SHCA terminals, so I was jumping to a 3/8” bolt. Since there wasn’t really anything that fit my needs, I decided to go with threaded rod, which honestly works better for my application. Beats the bolt setup I had last time, which would be a pain when I go to direct lead sub wires (push terminals are a pain with 8 gauge). I took the advice of some and went stainless for the rod and top nut. The rest is basic zinc coated hardware. (I ran all zinc coated last time without issues)

Here is my layout schematic

Drilled out to fit 3/8” rod

Installed

With beauty board on

Neat view of the radiator

[RossGo]

Started playing with amp layout, but decided to move to mounting the subs, just to have some part actually complete

Started by wiring the front side of the box, and playing with my new hydraulic crimper

Sharpie labels on the terminals

Crimper worked pretty well by hand, but was so much easier in a vice. Since I do most work alone, this essentially gave me another hand, and made every crimp a lot more consistent.

I can’t recommend going to hydraulic crimping enough. I have done some manual crimps and vice crimps, with poor results, so I usually do solder connections. While I haven’t had any direct issues with solder joints, this is a much better solution. I had thought I made some pretty solder joints (seen a few pages back), but this is so much simpler and cleaner, it is a clear winner.

[RossGo]

Wired the subs up inside the box

The bracing is super tight to the magnet (by design) but this is definitely a limiting factor in switching subs in the future

And poly

Radiators make loading the subs so much easier. They were tight before, but with a surround of leather, they are crazy tight. I don’t think I would ever be able to get them out after this if I didn’t have access through the radiator holes.

Did I mention they were tight? I had to use a bottle jack to hold the sub while I aligned the holes properly and then slowly dropped it into place, then hammer around the edge until the bolts could grab and pull it tight. I don’t expect any leaks………

Wired to terminals

Added more poly. I am now at around 9 pounds total (8.8 cube enclosure)

All done from this view (minus top side trim panels)

[RossGo]

Now to the batteries.

Here was my initial plan

I ditched the 4 wire jumpers to the center batteries, as there was no way to connect the 4^th wire without arching to the adjacent battery. 3 is plenty anyway. I also had to ditch the inner terminal on the outer batteries having wires leave out the bottom, since the d3100 posts are not centered, and thus there was not enough room for the wire to bend before hitting the floor.

Uh oh

I really wanted to get terminals pictured below on the right, but nobody made them, so I went with the next best option, what is picture on the left.

Sadly, this was not going to work as it was. I contacted Kevin from CNF Distribution (Kevosinn) and we talked over a few options.

Flipping the middle one…

Also didn’t work. Oh well, these things happen. It’s my fault for having such a crazy battery orientation. Kevin was great about working to find me a solution, even though it was no fault of his own. I would definitely recommend him and his products to anyone looking, as long as you don’t need 3 d3100s laying flat with 8 post terminal blocks haha.

Time to customize my blocks

That should be enough

Taped the negative

While it cleared plenty, I wanted to be safe, so I added some dynaliner (foam) to the positive

There we go!

[RossGo]

I’m glad I was able to make this orientation work
I think the layout just looks cool, and the batteries fit so perfectly.

I got to break in my new crimper here as well. I guess the SHCA lugs are oversized like the rest of their gear (what is Jon compensating for? Haha) so it didn’t like the 70mm^2 die that should work with 1/0 lugs. Since the 70 was the biggest I have, it had to work. Just made it extra tight. Why not? Everything else in the build is overly tight tolerance. Luckily, the pinches are hidden completely by heat shrink.

And to show off the SHCA lugs

They really are nice lugs. While I had no issues with the ones I used before, if I were going to buy more, I might as well buy ones that are substantially higher quality for similar price.

You can’t really go wrong with any of the SHCA products, or at least from what I have seen from personal experience. I would have run their power wire as well, but I couldn’t justify ripping out the rest of my perfectly fine Kicker/NVX 1/0 to make everything match, so I just bought a few more feet of what I already had. Also, the grey and blue are very sharp looking casings. Worth more? No, but when you already have it…

[RossGo]

Started with the center to right battery grounds

Then center to right battery positives

I was also able to squeeze in one of the positives from the front battery bank underneath there to the same terminal, in an orientation that wouldn’t touch the terminal VERY close to it. The two fused wires seen in this picture go to the front bank

Added the other front bank wire to the right battery. Then linked the center and left battery grounds. I also have an interconnect ground that connects all batteries in the car that can be seen going to the left battery below. This worked out perfectly for symmetry, without being really planned.

Planning my next move

All tied up

[RossGo]

Well that is all I have for now
I will elaborate a lot more on radiators and the science behind them once I get everything finished.

I have a lot of testing and data from them, but have exponential amounts left to do before I am satisfied.

Sadly, I am at a stopping point until next weekend at the earliest. I finished the wiring above at 5am, when I had class 100 miles away a few hours after. It was a good stopping point. I was able to throw my Rockford amp back in sitting on my back seat, so I do still have some sound in the rig, just no bass.

If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know.

I hope I didn't crash anyone’s internet with the excessive amount of pictures. I tried to break them up between posts a little. Pictures do the best talking in my opinion, so I hope they didn't disappoint.

I'll leave you with one final picture.

I think it shows a pretty strong improvement on the horizon…

Thanks for tuning in!

~RossGo