Blue Notch

Like this?

BoogieNights

edumspeed

Check the edited post

BoogieNights

I did. After I posted the last one. So you got upgraded a lil bit.

edumspeed

I'm actually viewing it, and I love it! But don't be mistaken, around here there are a few of those in Suzuki trim that are really bad ***. One was silver w a turbo 1.3 DOHC that could spin it's tires in the first three gears , and there was another one with a turbocharged 2.3L Aerio engine in the low 10's The guy is currently building a street version of that one. I'll try to find the link.
Yep

mustangGT90210

I just cracked up at the title, going back to watch now

mustangGT90210

Alright, over the past couple days I've made my finger tips raw, got wire nuts to work properly, found out that wiring is a pain in the ***, learned that my radio is on a different electrical circuit than stock, installed door speakers and proceeded to watch my mirrors shake , installed 6x9s and was unimpressed, found a nice EQ, and then modified my old speaker boxes by prying them apart, gutting them, cleaning off all the excess wood, going out and buying a new saw, mutilated the mounting "plate" for my own selfish needs, proceeded to inhale an assload of sawdust that still has me coughing a little, and now have almost professional-ish speakers in boxes! That is my story, and these are my pictures:

For starters, I had to undo the old wiring harness, which wasn't as straight forward as it should have been, mostly 'cause this is my first foray into anything real serious on the stereo



After I got that all sorted out, I moved on to installing my door speakers. This should have been easy, but of course the templates that came with the speakers were off, to say the least. I got smart on the second door and just marked out the holes straight the speakers. I don't need no stinkin' templates!



Then after that, I moved on to my temporary placement of the rear 6x9s. This was before I had boxes made up. It worked alright, but there was no low end coming out of these speakers at all because they were stuck in the open air. Personally, I like this picture. It strikes me as artsy



After all that was over, I found out the hard way I blew a fuse... This was followed by a lot of cursing, a short burst of absolute hate for my truck, then as I cooled off I realized what was wrong. Which led to a complete hate of using wirenuts behind the dash before I got everything figured out on making them stick, 'cause they're retarded and stuff... Now I present to you, my working Sony CDX-GT09HP 45x4ch CD/AUX/Radio, in all it's overexposed, but lit up pretty goodness (the backlight is blue, the numbers are white)



After this, I went on for a few days seeing how the stereo was, driftin' in the dirt, and overall learning I have a lot to learn about powerslide But that led me to my final inspiration to modify my old boxes from my previous set up, of a 3 speaker home theatre system. I used the 2 supporting speakers, and I'm gonna put the center channel in my room Here's the boxes I modified



After tearing in the box, prying the 2 parts of it apart, this is what I saw



I was extremely surprised when opening the box up to find a little speaker, no bigger than 5 inches across was what was giving me very noticeable, albeit very muddy and distorted, bass.



At this point I stopped taking pictures... I blame the sawdust inhalation What happened next was I used the 6x9 template to trace out the size of opening I needed for the speakers to fit, and then the where I needed to drill, simply for reference, as the holes weren't in the exact right places. This is when I learned I had to go out and buy a Coping Saw (hooray for building up my collection of tools). After I got it I set about cutting out the hole I needed. Also learned that my bed rails make for passable parts of vise grips, with my arm on top. After I (made my left shoulder really sore 'cause it was a weird angle to clamp down on something out) finished cutting on the holes, I had to go at it with a dremmel to sand off the last 1/4 inch I needed to make the speaker flush enough to sound good, but not to go through the sides of the top piece of wood. I've got maybe half an inch on each side of the hole to the end of the wood at every side. Then I drilled the 4 pilot holes for the screws on each "mounting plate" and then mounted my 6x9s with guards



After I got both speakers screwed in and ready to go, I set about sealing the top plate to the box itself. I ended up going with some non silicone based adhesive caulk. It should do the trick nicely... And before anyone asks, the guard is what hangs over the box, the speaker is nice and in it like it should be. This is a pretty decieving picture

Here's a picture of the finished boxes, with speakers mounted, on our freezer, 'cause the work bench is currently a big box shelf, like it's been since we moved in... 7 years ago




I can honestly say I now have more than just sweat, but now blood to add into the mixture. I just hope there's no tears! Final review comes in tommorow when I install the boxes in the truck and test em out. I mocked it up already before I sealed the boxes, and there should be a very noticeable difference in my low end

edumspeed

Nice job Sean!

BoogieNights

Looks good Sean!!!

GottaHaveIt

Arggg my Sub amp quit today ? on way into work it was all honky dory then when I got in started up the car sound was differnt ? checked & no power to my amp ? main fuse good amp fuse's good humm has to be the remote turn on wire for it ?

mustangGT90210

I don't have a clue about that stuff...

2k7gtcs

Good job Sean.

I'm hoping you unhooked the negative on your battery while you did all this work. Anytime you work on the cars electrical just unhook the negative post on the battery and set it safely out of the way. Then you can do what you want. I wish I would have learned that early on in life. I was the guy always wiring the car with hot wires and blowing fuses.

Also. You can run power directly to you battery for the receiver and just put a proper size in line fuse on the wire. That way your not sharing the circuit with anything you don't know about. 1 fuse to check no questions.

Also you should not use your factory black wire ground if you did. you should ground the receiver to the metal floor pan area hidden by the dash. I guarantee it will be a better ground.

FWIW

__________________________


Ed-What brand amp was it?

Blue Notch

Nice job Sean! Are those boxes ported?

2k7gtcs

No. That's the back of the speaker wire terminals.

Remember I used to have speakers like that.

They are 1/2" mdf. Sealed. But not tight.

Blue Notch

Ya, make sure the ground is nice and tight!! I had trouble with a loose ground, and just about drove myself nuts til I finally figured it out.

2k7gtcs

And make sure its touching bare metal. Trucks are even harder than cars because a car is a unibody while a truck is a body on a frame. Usually the floor is the best bet. And its also best to make your own ground. In other words don't use some bolt in the floor like the seat mounts. These can have loc-tite on them or just about anything and not be a good metal to metal path back to the battery. Also you should scrape away any paint under that ground ring so that its touching metal to metal.

The body of you entire truck is grounded and all this is tied back to the battery. Some places are better grounded that others. Metal to metal is better than paint to paint for decreasing resistance od the return path of the circuit.

Again. FWIW.

mustangGT90210

I used the factory ground simply because I could splice right into the wire and I haven't noticed anything ground related before or after.

No, I left the battery connected. I thought about disconnecting, but my parents said I didn't need to... And me being me, I listened to them

Later down the road when adding the sub/amp I'll probably do what you said and connect the reciever straight to the battery. I don't wanna overload the current circuit...
Nope, not ported. Well slightly... Because the speaker sticks out of it just a tiny bit because I didn't wanna make the sides too flimsy. That's like 1/8th of an inch max though. I don't think I'd want to port those speakers. I need the sound going straight up to get to my ears

mustangGT90210

Good information

Like I said just up above, when the system gets more advanced, I'll look into that stuff. For now, it's doing just fine

GottaHaveIt

let me get this straight you got your nuts firmly planted in the tight ground ? does that about some it up

BoogieNights

Ummm Sean I dont think you should connect the reciever straight to the battery. The amp should get connected to the battery. If I am wrong I think Gary will correct me.