Jay's 2015 Mazda 6i Touring build thread

OK. Got some work done on my amp rack. Couldn't find the wrench to change discs on my angle grinder so i cut the tubing with my Milwaukee cordless Sawzall and used a flap disc on my Ryobi angle grinder to clean them up.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps2l6ffwhm.jpg


I'm not a great welder, but I'm a pretty good grinder. lol

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psjq4h55mm.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps9swcpu4d.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psk9sad8sk.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psfm2wqmym.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psleflofly.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psjy2uxcn1.jpg

Ran out of time, probably this weekend I will finish the bracketry to mount the amps, processor and combo distro block.
I have a plan and the amp mounts are made.

The rack will be held in place with 1/4-20 bolts (eventually anti-theft Torx or Allen, I think) and I should get my 1/4-20 rivnuts tomorrow along with BOTH my orders from Wirecare.com I'm thinking of making so pieces so I can bolt the rear deck to the amp rack as well as the front and rear mounts just to keep everything tight, but I don't know if it will be necessary.


Jay

OK. So, where I left off before, I had the basic frame and mounts put together. Today, I added all the brackets/captive nuts/etc. to hold both my PDX-V9's, my 8to12 Aerospace and my Streetwires Combo block. I drilled the holes and test fitted the riv nuts for the combo block.

I fabbed up some brackets, and then made some 1/2" MDF "PDX amps" so I could line everything up and make sure it was going to fit.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps3w2r4dsi.jpg

I double sided taped a piece to the bottom to keep them in place.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psy1my9stm.jpg

Clamped everything in place...

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psuhnri5it.jpg

and welded it up...then hit it with the grinder to knock down the welds some. Hoping to test fit it and then paint it tomorrow or Tuesday.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...pszlrywnmy.jpg

While I had the welder out, I decided to make a mount for my Tsunami compression Fuse Holder.

Fabbed a bracket with captive nuts, and ground a flat spot on top of the battery hold down:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psqjp1y1tq.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...ps0jasfwgr.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psz3nyypoi.jpg

Then welded it to the hold down...

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psvsj5wpm8.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psu7rwvnjd.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psawt3s6b1.jpg

Jay

Took the amp rack to work, cleaned off some weld spatter, hit it with a couple of coats of self etching primer and sprayed it with Duplicolor spray can bed liner.
Pretty happy with the finish. When I got home I installed the rivnuts for the distro block.

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psgai8rlto.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...pscw2xitvw.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...pscynjo4tn.jpg

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psr1uqzlxf.jpg

Will probably do the battery hold down to match.

Jay

The welding and painting looks good. Keep up the good work.

That's looking tops. Can't wait to see all the components fitted.

Dangerous!!! I now now a good welder! Dude that looks great.

"Good Welder" might be a stretch, but my welds got a lot better as I went along. Kinda makes me want to work on my S-10. lol

Jay

So, since Photobucket decided to break the Internet, I think I'm going to have to find another way to host pics. One here, I think I can do them like attachments, but on the other DIY car audio forum, not so much. I think I'm going to pay the $2.95 for a month of ad free use, download anything I don't already have on my computer and cancel my account. I probably won't update older threads. Sucks.

Jay

OK. Woke up this morning a little before 7 to find we had no power. Got up for a while, but was exhausted (for now apparent reason) went back to sleep and woke up around 11am just before the power came back on. Went to Home Depot to get some MDF for my amp trim panel, felt 'off.' I kinda felt warm and clammy even tho the AC was kickin'. Blood sugar was a little high, thought that might have been it. Decided to work on the car again.

Started a trim ring to work from for my trim panel...and it didn't fit. Oops, the "nose" of the center bar on the amp rack stuck out past the front of the amps. That killed my motivation for a while. Went back out a little while ago, removed amps/amp rack from car. Chopped off said offending nose. Misplaced the screws for the processor and distro.

It hasn't been a good day.

I get home from work on Saturday around 6:30, have Sunday and Monday off this week. A replacement router bit I needed arrives tomorrow.
Maybe this weekend will be better.

*sigh*

Jay

OK, thought I'd try Flickr.

I picked up a new Brother label maker. This one can do 1/2 and 3/4" labels.
Went with white on black.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4327/...09e53ab4_k.jpg



So, Wasps keep hanging around my car, and it's been hot, but today the wasps have (mostly) stayed away and it was only about 73 degrees. So, I decided to run my Knu 12ga speaker wire into the door. Things were going about as expected until my Olfa blade broke, knife slipped, caught my thumb (luckily, callusses don't bleed) and slice my leg.

Anyway...

Driver's door:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4320/...48ece2b6_k.jpg

Factory molex-style harness. The door side is a little weird, instead of just going inside the door, it runs along the edge of the door and wraps around the front.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4311/...0b52cb83_k.jpg

There wasn't one spot large enough for the wire to fit through, so I relocated the pink wire (in an otherwise empty 8pin bank of spaces) over to free up that whole area.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4306/...9755fa3d_k.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4300/...dbac4720_k.jpg

I had had to do the same thing in my old Genesis Coupe, but alas, all the pics are gone.

So, I drilled out the 8 (now open) spaces to feed my wire through.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4329/...49d3ac0b_k.jpg

[url=https://flic.kr/p/WNgazt]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4310/...8c831f9e_k.jpg

I added Blue/black techflex tightweave and ran it into position.

I had to cut the center bar out of the yellow piece to make room.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4303/...c868d219_k.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4298/...f921c2d9_k.jpg

Jay