Project "SQL Monte Carlo v4" *Updated 1.26.12*

[SQMonte]

doin good work mang. was wondering where i could check out audioQ and pricing?

Appreciate it bro, I got some work done night before last and plan on finishing that up tonight so more pics coming soon.

AQ products can be found and purchased at the link below

AudioQue website

[SQMonte]

Alright guys, i've made a little bit of progress....

Since last time I have finished fabricating the amp rack and wrapped it, ran the main power lead/RCA's/remote lead, rerouted the speaker wires/power lead/RCA's/remote lead so they don't interfere with the amp rack, now I am laying fresh beads of glue in all the joints inside my box. Once that's done I can wire up and mount the subs and then all that'll be left is to install the amp rack, plug in the amps and mount them to the rack, install the deck and then the real fun begins......tuning. This is going to be my first active setup so it should be a joy, I have a feeling i'm going to have quite a few questions for you guys.

Let me finish uploading them then I'll come back and post up pics....

[Hotdog]

Definitely.. We need Pics

I really want to see what you have done

[SQMonte]

Alright, first thing I did since the last update was finished up with the amp housing. I sanded as much of the resin drips as I could and glued and screwed into place a 1x1 block which serves a couple purposes...first it will add another layer lateral support for the housing and it'll give me a solid foundation to screw into when I glue and screw them into the face of the amp rack.

My $9 Chicago Electric hook and loop palm sander (this thing works like a champ!)

I countersunk the screw holes since my amp will be mounted in there, I filled in the opening with wood putting and sanded it down to a smooth finish. I also grinded down the tips of the screws that were sticking out in the first pic, everything is flush and smooth now.

After finishing up with that, it was time to run my main power lead/RCA's/remote lead/bass knob and while I was doing that I decided to reroute the speaker wire in the back because where it was originally ran it was going to interfere with the amp rack. Here's how the wire was run before

Running the power lead was a huge pain in the ass. The only was I could see to get it into the engine bay from the cabin was through a super thick factory grommet on the passenger side. Judging from the way the wires were routed from the inside and from what I could tell in the engine bay, it looked like the lower right side of the grommet was free and clear so that's where I decided to go for it. About 45 minutes later and having used lots of lube, I finally got my 2ga through the hole. Bad choice of words

Then came the task of routing it under the carpet into the trunk, no big deal right? Ha! Chevy used a thick, dense foam on the underside of the carpet so not only was it pretty much stuck to the floor, but once I got it separated it was so damn sticky that it made not only getting my arm in there a task, but pulling the wire under it was pretty damn difficult too. This was easily the hardest part of the built so far, but I got it done.

I wrapped a section of the lead w/loom to protect it from the metal it runs next to up by the gearshifter

Did the same for the RCA's/bass knob wire/remote/power lead, in the back part of the center console area

This is how the final run looks under the center console. I hadn't yet done anything with the wire in the rear of the car at this point so even though it looks like the wires are turned in towards each other when they go under the carpet, they don't. The power wires split to the driver side, signal cables split to the passenger side.

[SQMonte]

Once I got all the wire into the back of the car it was smooth sailing. This is what the end result was:

RCA's/speaker wire/bass knob wire on the left

Power lead/remote wire on the right

The green wire is the current remote wire, the new remote wire is blue and zip tied to the power lead. The power lead was too big to go under the side trim panel so that's why that little bit of it is exposed. I just ran it right through the backseat insulation material and into the trunk. Obviously my foam seat will be covering it so no worries.

Once that was done it was on to the bass knob installation. I sat in the driver seat and figured where I wanted it, laid some tape down to mark the area I wanted it to be, drilled a few holes, installed a grommet, bolted it up, connected the wire and it was done.

Can't even tell it's there!

Then it was on to deciding what material to use to wrap the amp rack. I ordered some samples from www.distinctivefabric.com and these were the 3 finalists.

Grey Suede

Grey Ostrich

Black Ostrich

[SQMonte]

With the help from some of you, I decided to go with the Black Ostrich since it would be more of a contrast when the back seats are folded down. I didn't take any progress pics while I was wrapping it cause my batteries were charging up but it was pretty simple. The hardest part was the cutouts for the amps, the corners in particular, but I worked it out and it came out pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Keep in mind that this is my first time working with wood and wrapping so i'm pretty happy with how it came out.

The only part that's gonna suck is having to mess up the sexiness of it by running screws through it down into the amp housings. Yes, the screws are going to be black and yes I did predrill and countersink the holes, but still. I really wish I had given this much more thought so I wouldn't have to do that but live and learn, right?

That pretty much brings me current. I'm now in the process of running a bead of glue in every joint inside my box, damn this takes a long time. But i'm almost done with that. I have precut and stripped the wire to wire up my subs in the box so once i'm done with the box i'm going to mount and wire up the subs. Then i'm going to make a run to the hardware store to get some bolts/spacers/nuts to mount the amp rack, but I won't be able to mount the amp housings to the rack until I get the amps dialed in, another flaw with my design. But once I get the amp rack mounted I just need to install the deck and start tuning. I have today and tomorrow to get this done so i'm hoping the procrastination bug doesn't kick in like it does so often for me.

[tacomabanga1986]

good job on the system man, ima be redoin mine soon and was wondering, mountin the tweet that close to mid an u still hear it through the grill n what knot? i might do mine like that i dnt really want to cut a hole in my door, but i unno if i will be switchin my kickers out with my polk db's or not, but ima make my own pannel for my mids tho, the factory one is for a 6&3/4 mid n mine are 6&1/2 n i made a adapter ring out of 1/8 but thats not good enough so ima build a new pannel out of 1/2'' birch, unno if i will seal the mid off or let it ib in the door, i deadned my doors a little with some roofing tape (almost the same stuff as dynamat) and it made a big diff

im with u tho, if i just run fronts instead of rear fill i will have more room for my sub box n amps n what knot, but i already tried just my front comps n there not able to keep up with the 2 15's by themselfs so ima try my polks first n see how they work n then go from there

but good luck on ur system man

[tacomabanga1986]

use brad nails to attach it, wont see the brads as much as u could the screws, n u can spray paint the heads of the brad nails to blend it in a lil better

[SQMonte]

good job on the system man, ima be redoin mine soon and was wondering, mountin the tweet that close to mid an u still hear it through the grill n what knot?

use brad nails to attach it, wont see the brads as much as u could the screws, n u can spray paint the heads of the brad nails to blend it in a lil better

Yep, comes through just fine and is actually better for imaging.

I think i'm just gonna stick with the drywall screws bro, much stronger of a connection. If it's that bad then I'll just glue some ostrich material on top of the screws.

[Hotdog]

Thanks for the good pics.. I am going to be installing a stereo in our 2000 Chevy Monte Carlo.. and it looks exactly like yours... even the type of interior is the same. I like how clean you did everything and it will pay off in the end. How hard is the center counsel to take out?