Black Beauty Project Build - 06 Ford F-250 Super Duty **1/27/18 - New pics starting on page 41**

[kryptonite]

Build looks killer so far!! If you're looking for the dual alt bracket for the truck, and you haven't searched it already, check for the snow plow prep package bracket. That'll usually be the part you need for duals.

[scooter99]

Your work is insane. Looks great man. Remember if you need any diagrams or anything hit me up on fb

Thank you. I think I'm good for now with the ideas I have. I don't think I'll need to re route anything.

Build looks killer so far!! If you're looking for the dual alt bracket for the truck, and you haven't searched it already, check for the snow plow prep package bracket. That'll usually be the part you need for duals.

Thank you. i'm not sure yet if I'm going to do duals or not. I probably will down the line, but it's not high on the priority list. No money for amps or batteries at the moment so I'm a long way from there. And with this alt and the power I have, I'll be fine for the current projects. I will look though because I want to make sure the option is there. They're just kind of hard to find is all.

Thanks for the heads up.

I have more pics from last nights work. I had an idea on the way home from work, and it took off like wildfire!! Very excited about this. Of course I'm easily excitable if that tells you anything. HAHA. I'll post pics in a little bit.

[scooter99]

Ok let's get this party train rollin!

There are a few mix ins here. I needed to get an idea about sizing on the ends and the back panel for the SDU.

So I decided to do some R&D on the AA2000.1.

Checking out how the panels are put together and on. Would love to take these off and use them to make a template, but I don't want to risk messing anything up on this thing. So I'll make it from scratch.

A couple of screws, and the rca nuts holding the panel together. Notice the two tapped screw holes on the top. Those are for the back panel screws.

Thickness of the end panel. The back panel isn't as thick as this. I'm guessing maybe around .6mm or even .5mm. So the end panels need to be pretty stout to hold the back panel and board etc. In the amps case anyway, probably not the case with the SDU.

I found a scrap piece of 1/4" mdf for the end panels template.

Ready to trace the interior of the unit. I'll trace this out to give me an exact cutting mark.

After I did this, I realized I need room on the bottom of it to have the bend for the back panel. With the rest of it, I can just add a half inch where I need it longer and draw it out.

With the measuring and testing and such done, I decided to throw some paint on one of the cut off pieces to see if I can get a decent match.

Here it is wet. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it looks like dried. The edges are a bit rougher than I thought they'd be, but I probably won't worry about it. I'll try to leave it be. I could use some filler primer, and that may smooth it out a bit. I'm guessing I'm not gonna get too smooth without some serious work.

That was all I did Sunday. Recall I said I have a few pics, but nothing special. There they are. I forgot to check the case last night. I'll make sure to do it tonight and see what it looks like.

Last night my mind was on something far more interesting having to do with this project!!

[scooter99]

Time to check out the remote part of this project. I was on my way home from work yesterday and I was thinking, as I always do stuck in rush hour traffic. And then it hit me!! We'll get back to that part. But here are the tools I'll be needing tonight.

First, the volume knobs. These are Axxess volume knobs, much like the LC-1. These are what I'll be using to do this project.

But this is what hit me. A couple of years ago I bought two of these SMSL headphone amplifiers. Nice units. Cheap at the time, I think I paid $25 each or for both I can't recall. Anyway, it is real close to the perfect size. So we're going to gut it and see what happens.

Rear. RCA input, speaker connection outputs, and a power port.

Let's take it apart. Start with the volume knob, just slides off, and then loosen and remove the 4 screws.

Next remove the nut and washer.

Then pull it off.

The rear is a little different. Smaller headed screws. Also a screw on the rca jacks.

[scooter99]

Remove the speaker terminal tops. In hind sight this didn't have to be done, but I was trying to figure out how they came apart. So I did it.

Then the 4 outer screws.

Slide it out and you have the board.

Unfortunately I had to kind of get a little rough with it. The bottom speaker terminals are soldered directly to the board. The upper speaker terminals are soldered to a separate board, and then wire soldered to the main board. So those will have to be removed in order to get the speaker terminals off of the end piece.

Now this is all I'll use for this project. The rest is pretty much trash.

Now I need to take these apart. Obviously they won't fit in here with the shells on them.

Remove the knob

Nut and washer

There are a couple of tabs that hold it all together. One on top and bottom for each the front and back panel.

Push the tab and pull it out.

Apart and ready to move on.

[scooter99]

A little peak at the board.

First I removed the hot glue. Now I can see it much better. There's an in side and out side. It's labeled as well as the wire spots so these can all come off.

Grounds on the outside, left and right in and left and right out on the inside. Well why did I cut the wires off if I'm going to need them you might ask. Because I need to solder hard wires on so that I can also solder them to the connector for the cable that will run from the remote to the SDU. The RCA's were too big to be used. The holes need to be cleaned up on the boards, but I didn't have my soldering gun so I'll be sure to address that later.

The leftovers. 1 down 3 more to go.

Here are the four knobs and boards, naked and ready to be put in their place.

I put the boards side by side to get an idea of the width and put the case in behind them to see about the fit. It really fits well as far as I'm concerned. After I get the layout just right, I may ca glue them together so they'll be one board, even though they're really 4 separate ones. It'll make things easier when I go to put it all together.

That is gonna work out real nice. I was originally going to put a power led in here, just so if there was a problem with power I could see it up front. But I don't really think I'll need it. Plus it looks like it'll be a little tight in there at this point. I'm actually a little concerned with the fit. I can bring the boards off of the bottom of the case and I'll also be wrapping them in foam tape. However, where I'm concerned is the top of the knob housing itself. It's metal, and then has two boards sandwiching it, see picture above. My concern is that metal part touching other metal. Not sure what issues that might cause. I may have to hook it up and see what happens. Maybe I can tape some thin plastic over them like you see in amps and other electronics.

Side view.

[scooter99]

Here is a little look at the amount of room in the case. Lots of it. Probably don't need half of this. But we'll see. Knobs were there just to hold them down, they kept tilting forward.

Now I need to tape it up and do some measuring and marking to figure out where to cut this thing at.

I'm using the original face plate on this. It's nice and thick, but I have some plate this thick or there about so it will give me a good idea of depth.

That should be about it, to the end of the boards.

Then I measured the total depth of it. Took half and that's where the line is at to cut. Should be plenty of room.

Next I'll have to explore a couple of things with the boards, put them together, get some wires soldered on and see where I'm at. I may also have a connector that I can use, so I could get the whole thing wired up and get an idea of how much depth I actually need before cutting the case.

So that's what I did last night. I'm not sure how much more I'll be doing this week. I have to get ready to go on vacation for a few days, leaving Thursday Night. I may not get anything else done before then.

That's all for now. Thanks for checking this out.

[tboorn]

very very interesting. Love seeing parts taken apart and seeing the internals. Neat little project, should be really cool when its done

[kryptonite]

If you want to pm me your entire VIN with year make and model, I'll contact my buddy at the ford dealer we service and see what would fit exactly, if anything. That way you can have the exact ford part number

[scooter99]

Thanks. I'll grab it when I get home.