Project "SQL Monte Carlo v4" *Updated 1.26.12*

[sudisdicmotorsports]

nice HU housing is sexy

[davewms9605]

Really, really nice HU kit!!!

[SQMonte]

Thanks guys.

It's coming along slowly but surely. I'll be working on finishing up the amp rack by Wednesday, on Wednesday I'll be getting my Knukonceptz speaker wire and my Damplifier Pro door pack so that'll be my project to finish by the weekend, we'll see how that works out.

So does anybody have any feedback on my question?

"Because the material i'm using is 3/8" particle board (because that's as big as I could get in behind the back seat), it seems as though screws aren't a terribly good idea so I was going to use either Gorilla glue or Titebond and then reinforce the joints with fiberglass. Does that sound alright or should I do it another way? "

[SQMonte]

The UPS man showed up today!

I haven't been able to make it to Home Depot yet to pickup the fiberglass/resin/glue/nails that I need to get the amp rack done but I have Friday off, and no basketball tourney this weekend so I should be able to get it knocked out, as well as running the speaker wire and installing the Damplifier Pro. I just hope I don't run into any unexpected issues with this amp rack cause i'm liable to say eff it and just do a simple simon install and keep it movin'.

[99vic]

do work!!

[SQMonte]

Thanks to Ant from Second Skin and his generous promotion, I was one of the members who lucked out and was given a door pack of Damplifier Pro a couple weeks ago. I finally got around to installing it today, here's how it went down.

The first thing to do, of course, was remove the door panels and check out the door to see how much of a pain this was going to be. It was already going to be kind of a pain cause I had never before used or applied sound deadening so today was a very special day for me as I got my deadening material virginity popped In the process of removing the panels I ran into a slight issue, the geniuses at Chevy decided to put the plugs in with the release mechanism in the worst possible spot so when I was removing the passenger side panel the window switch broke apart while I was trying to flip the panel upside down so I could gain access to the release mechanism. When I say split apart, I mean just that, the internal pins were exposed and all. I just knew I'd have to pony up for a new switch but I was able to get it back together securely with no issues. Whew, dodged one there.

So I get the panels off and this is what is staring at me

Not too bad, I suppose. Before I go any further I decide to look for the culprit of this nasty sticky stuff thats on the inside of my window. It's horrible stuff. I detail cars and have lots of products in my garage but none of them could do any damage to this stuff so I had to resort to using a brillo pad. It got the stuff off but if you look hard enough you can see some fine scratches. Not a big deal, but a deal none the less. So this is the nastiness that's on my inner window, again.

Close inspection of the door panel and wiring revealed the cause:

Again, the geniuses at Chevy came up with a great idea and decided using duct tape on the inner door wiring was the thing to do. The adhesive melted and the tape unraveled, getting that sticky mess on my window http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif

So the first order of the day was to remove the plastic lining from the door panel and handle that issue with the tape. You see what the wiring looked like before, this is what it looks like now:

Now I can rest assured that I'll no longer have to worry about the sticky shit getting on my window and can move on to the real job, should be fun.

I pop open the box of Damplifier Pro and notice the deadener is sticking to the sides, not a big deal, rather an observation. I pulled a little harder and it opened right up. It was a little warm out today so I set a sheet of deadener on my dash board so it can warm up a little and hopefully be a little easier to work with and stick a little better. Worked like a charm! I pulled up a milk crate and began to proceed. Like everybody else who won this via the promotion, I got the Fury blade, but I found myself using a pair of scissors to cut the sheets of material and the knife for cutting the more intricate cuts when the material was on the door; for things like holes for bolts, clips, etc. Worked out well. The Fury blade looks pretty sick but when I first picked it up it didn't scream "high quality" or "heavy duty", my first impression was "Wow, this thing is pretty lightweight, I hope it holds up." At the end of the day, it did what I needed it to do and with no issues at all.

My goal was to use as many large, solid pieces as possible, but that didn't work out too well. Far too many ridges, angles, and curves for me to do so. Either that, or I just don't have the technique to do so. I'm thinking a combo of both. In any case, I was able to get the driver side door done with no major issues. It took me about 2-3 hrs to get it done, including a 30 minute lunch break, and about 30 minutes to clean/organize my garage/tools and to reinstall my subs and box which I had removed last weekend after a little technical issue. It felt like it took longer than it really did and i'm sure it should have been done faster but I was taking my sweet time since it was all new to me. The product was easy to work with, although cutting with scissors probably wasn't the best way to go even though it did prevent me from having to get up and go to my work bench every time I needed to cut a sheet. I think i'm going to have to devise a better way to locate screw holes and the like because this stuff is pretty thick so it makes locating the holes beneath a bit of a task if the holes are small. It was very pliable and conformed to the angles and curves of the panel with ease (I think setting it on the dash to get warm prior to using was a good idea). So this is what my first door came out like:

I think it came out alright, could be better, but not bad for a noob.

So I move on to the passenger side, and aside from the issue I had with the window switch as stated above, it went rather smooth. I got this one done in about an hour to hour and a half. I hadn't had any issues with the wiring getting adhesive on the window but I noticed this side also had duct tape on it which was loose a sloppy so I handled that before I started the deadening.

Before:

After:

And this is how this door came out

Once I was done and had removed all tools and what not from inside my car, I closed the door and heard a solid "thud", it put a smile on my face. It sounded far less hollow and more solid than before...the sound was so impressive that after cleaning up my mess and locking everything up, I watered my lawn and once I was done with that I went over to my car and opened and closed the doors again just to hear it. LOL.

My car is a two door, but the doors are pretty damn big, but even still I had a sheet and a quarter left over!

I had planned on running my speaker wire and installing my fronts today as well but my cousins had come up from the Bay Area and stopped by so we were shootin' the shit for a while and I pretty much lost my drive to go any further with it today.

Once again, big ups to Ant for the promotion, the product is easy to work with and even though I haven't been able to confirm yet how much of a difference it made when playing music, the sound of my doors closing has me feeling very optimistic about it. The freebie folding knife looks cool as hell and came in handy during the install. So far, I give it two thumbs up, I'll report back once I get my speakers in and powered up.

Tomorrow I need to figure out what i'm going to do about my speaker pods...when I installed my Rainbows I had to trim the pod so the mid would fit so there are holes in the pod now. Not sure if this is something I need to worry about, if it is then I'll have to get some fiberglass and handle it. If not, then tomorrow I will install mids/highs/run speaker wire and run power lead/install distro block/install grounding lug.

Today I tried installing the CDT tweets into the hole in my door panel but it's a fraction of an inch bigger than my Rainbows, and they're gray (my interior is black) so since the oem speaker pod has a spot for a tweeter right above the mid i'm going to try to get the CDT tweet installed there. That way the tweet is close to the mid like it should be and I have a stealth install since the Rainbow tweet blends in so well. I think I'd leave it there in the door panel for obvious reasons, am contemplating if I should power them or not. I will ohm them out to see what my options are, might run them in series with the CDT tweets if possible.

Any input on that idea? Just a FYI, I'll be running front stage only with each speaker on it's own channel. My components are rated at 150 watts rms, i'm assuming that's grand total and not per side. That being said, i'm going to run each speaker with 85 watts rms, paying attention to the gain for my tweets so I don't blow them. Let me know what you think.

[Lowroll]

I know what you mean about the geniuses at chevrolet. Some of the trim in my truck and the door panels really suck. I hate taking it apart.

[SQMonte]

I know what you mean about the geniuses at chevrolet. Some of the trim in my truck and the door panels really suck. I hate taking it apart.

I feel your pain. Because of the issue I had with the switch, I won't be putting the door panels back on until I get speaker wire ran and speakers installed. Hopefully I won't need to take the panel off again anytime soon.

[Lowroll]

Yeah I took my door panels off when I put my newest set of door speakers in and the trim piece around the door handle broke, I went to the chevy dealer only to find that its been discontinued. So, I have to order it from another dealer or take this opportunity to make entirely new panels and use aftermarket handles i bought. it would be a good time to glass some pods in too.

[SQMonte]

Yeah I took my door panels off when I put my newest set of door speakers in and the trim piece around the door handle broke, I went to the chevy dealer only to find that its been discontinued. So, I have to order it from another dealer or take this opportunity to make entirely new panels and use aftermarket handles i bought. it would be a good time to glass some pods in too.

Might as well

I got my passenger side has speaker wire run, components installed with tweeter in stock location directly above the mid, door panel test fit and all is well! Now I won't have to have the grey CDT tweeter flush mounted onto my black door panel. The cool thing about the speaker pods in my car too is that they are angled towards the opposite passenger.

I'll be running an active 3 way setup via my deck, but since i'm rataining my Rainbow tweet in my door panels I'd like for them to be utilized for more than a fancy hole plug. I can't run my tweets together because I'd be giving them 170 watts each side and i'm thinking that'd be a bit much. So, would it be possible to run the Rainbows off the deck or am I SOL since i'm running 3 way active?