Astro Build - 12 Cerwin-Vega 12"s in a Clamshell C-Pillar Wall

[Colin - STAPUFT]

I've been waiting to see what you were gonna do with those LED's!! Looking damn good sir!

I thank you good sir! More to come once I get the rest of them.

Haven't seen white underglow on a vehicle since mine in high school lol looks good. Can't wait till I get started on my van

Thanks mann. Do you have any pictures of yours? You aren't kidding on not seeing any white under-body kits. I've never seen one down here and I looked online and couldn't find SQUAT. I was afraid I wouldn't like it. TBH, I've never been a fan of under-body kits at all, but in white on this van- I like it pretty good.

[tctdh11]

Sure don't. Bought a set of white tubes off a kid for 20 bucks and threw them on the grand am I had for shits and giggles.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Yeah- so I filled up the van the other day when it was pretty empty. I forgot how much that sucks:

And I got another toy!

^ Not the cat. It is in the box. I just had to throw this in there. This cat thinks she runs this house. She is just sitting there- looking at me like "WHAT!?"

It is cherry too. One little scratch, screws aren't marred up at all, the Iso-Feet are cherry, and it still has the original fuse in it (still turned the right way too).

Problem is- I have nowhere to put it. Really. Nowhere. Maybe it gets hidden somewhere... I'm not sure. I plan on using it for some tweets that are currently running with some mids. Keep the mids on their own amp and put the tweets just on this amp. ...it will give me a bit more flexibility in tuning.

And lastly:

Put a small line of paint on the tops of my lights. The tops of the lights were diffusing light out and up... no sense in giving the trees light and needlessly blinding people. (before these lights were cutting off street lamps at night). Now the cut-off is legit.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Just got another spool of cool white from HYPER LEDs. Mike hand delivered them!

I also got some stupid tag bolts that have lights in them. When my work phone started blowing up, Mike stepped in and hooked everything up. LOL!

Soon I mean to have the LEDs installed and wired up all around the van.

[COLTON94]

Ur van knows nothing of modern stereo gear... And i love it lol ever have and ideas for subs last time i was in here you were having problems with some of the vega's. But anyways keep it going iv always loved this build for the orgniality(sp)

[TechSys]

Hey Colin, with all the LEDs you're putting in there have you thought about wiring some up to your alarm system? Basically to come on only when the alarm is set off.

There are a couple ways that this can be done. 1) A lot of alarms come with 1 or 2 light output wires. You could wire them to the LEDs. The other is using relays and wiring to the positive on the alarm siren. I got this idea from my strobe lights and I am working on (slowly) getting a video of how to wire everything together.

The van is looking real good. I bet it's sounding awesome. Probably one of the best "budget" systems there is.

Now for the diodes. Which wire on the alternator did you install them to? I tried looking this up, but got lazy. Pretty sure this would work for me as my van is right around the same generation as yours.

Keep up the work brotha.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Ur van knows nothing of modern stereo gear... And i love it lol ever have and ideas for subs last time i was in here you were having problems with some of the vega's. But anyways keep it going iv always loved this build for the orgniality(sp)

The Vegas are getting older no doubt. Some are more worse for their age than others, but they are still going. If these were all new or if I went with a comparable sub that was new I'm sure it would be a bit louder and cleaner. Thanks for the props and for checking in.

Hey Colin, with all the LEDs you're putting in there have you thought about wiring some up to your alarm system? Basically to come on only when the alarm is set off.

There are a couple ways that this can be done. 1) A lot of alarms come with 1 or 2 light output wires. You could wire them to the LEDs. The other is using relays and wiring to the positive on the alarm siren. I got this idea from my strobe lights and I am working on (slowly) getting a video of how to wire everything together.

The van is looking real good. I bet it's sounding awesome. Probably one of the best "budget" systems there is.

Now for the diodes. Which wire on the alternator did you install them to? I tried looking this up, but got lazy. Pretty sure this would work for me as my van is right around the same generation as yours.

Keep up the work brotha.

That's a great Idea on tying the lights into the alarm! I hadn't thought of that. It would be a mad house if it was tripped. lol!

The Diode goes on the "Sense" wire. In short- it should be the wire that measures closest to your battery voltage. If I'm not mistaken, some vehicles adjust the voltage of this as they go- so it isn't like it is always a direct wire to the battery. ...that way the vehicle and the computer can adjust what voltage to charge at. So, with the ignition on, I got my multimeter and tested wires to find the one closest to my battery's voltage. Cut that wire and put in the diode. It makes the alternator think it needs to put out a bit more voltage. Cheap and easy. Not adjustable though. It should work on your van too. ...can't be that much difference. Thanks much!

[TechSys]

It actually wouldn't be any different. lol. I just realized we both have '89 Astros. (I thought yours was newer).

I've been thinking about the LED and alarm thing for quite a while. My thought is to light the van up like a christmas tree. Make it very visible and put the thieves in the spot light. Thieves hate being in the spotlight, from what I understand.

Thanks for the info and keep up with the good work.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Let's shed some light on a few things.... shall we?

And again, let me say: HYPER LEDs!!!!!!

For now, the Cool-White Hyper LED under-body lights are wired to the same switch as the Blue Interior LEDs. There is so much blue interior light that it can be seen from some distance at night- even with the doors closed and headlights on, so I figured why not put them both on the same switch. If I would get in trouble for one of them, I would get in trouble for both, so...

I'm not quite sure how many amps the under-body lights pull, but just for a bit of redundancy, they are run off of their own fused power and have a relay. ...I know they don't pull much, but during initial testing, they would make a small spark when I connected the Positive & Negative up. I am guessing this is around 25' or so under the van.

As you guys can see, they are bright. Crazy bright. LOL. I mean seriously- look at how bright they are in comparison to the HIDs! I mean- even when looking the HIDs straight on, you can still see the LEDs under the van. Madness! haha

Thanks for looking guys.

[Colin - STAPUFT]

Been tinkering around with some stuff.

Bits of wire I have hoarded up. This is what you find when you actually clean up and put everything in one place I guess:


This guy was hanging on the side of my charger:


The new OLD toy:

Installed:

^ Old School Cerwin-Vega DB-10c "Bass Turbocharger" lol. I like it- it has its old school charm and I got it for nearly free. From what I can find, this thing is late 80s, early 90s. It is very hard to find any paperwork on it online, but I believe it is a Bass Box of sorts that has a Butterworth Filter. It has a 5db and 10db boost setting that I believe is centered at 30 hz. Back in the day when tape decks ruled, bass could get pretty washed out. This was designed to bring it back. Well, thank goodness for O-Scopes, because this thing is dangerous. LOL.
Anyway, I hooked it up and adjusted everything down stream where there was no clipping even with it set to 10db- then did some listening. Pretty cool little box, especially considering when it was made (it only has a power and ground wire, no remote turn on). It works very well when everything is set properly- all the regular bass is still there (and clean- I was afraid it would make it sound baaaad) but subsonics just woke up! And the strange thing is- the subs aren't flopping around any more than they were before. Strange for as much low end extension this thing adds.

And:

^ Le Battery Box.

FINALLY! I have the batteries installed too. It pretty much sucked because I had to re-wire everything from the fuses back. But now I have a pretty battery box that is secured to the enclosure. More batteries meant more fuses, more wire, new circuit breakers, bla bla bla.