Meet Ol Smokey! I’m relatively new to this forum, but not new to car audio fomokey

[Hillbilly SQ]

Those 24's really are massive. There's a pic somewhere with a bm12 sitting in it iirc. I was there when they did that, and it looked like a dinky little midrange speaker in comparison.

As for what Chad posted, who's gonna be the first crazy to try to use one of those in a large vehicle?

[LumbermanSVO]

Nick at SI suggested that I do some sweeps with them in their shipping crates. Here are the results on just 60 watts each:



Are throwing a MiniDSP in the mix and tweaking, here are the results:


Not bad for just taking them out of the cardboard box and leaving them in their shipping crates.

[LumbermanSVO]

It's been too cold to do any work on Ol Smokey, so I haven't done anything since being home. While I generally like cold weather more than hot weather, it's just the opposite when wrenching. Nothing hurts quite like banging your knuckles when they are cold. Ouch! And with no heat, and a "breezy" interior, it's too cold to even go for a drive, especially at highway speeds. A working heater would be nice.


The one thing I don't have with Ol Smokey, and will never have, is the ability to toss it around a corner. It's an incredibly versatile and comfortable cruiser, but handles like an '80s truck. I genuinely love driving Ol Smokey in warmer weather, and most of that is due to the soft top. Before the soft top it was just another cheap car I owned.


Speaking of cheap cars, I haven't had a car payment in something like 16-17 years. I've been driving super cheap cars for the last 15 years or so. I bought them all for between $40 and $3000, most in the extreme lower end of that range. Knowing how to do just about anything to a car, and buying incredibly common cars, has lead to incredibly cheap car expenses over the years.


Over that time my income has gone up pretty steadily, and the desire to own a nicer car has been growing and growing, but I can't bring myself to buy something new. As someone who hates debt, and has been debt-free for about 15 years, the prices and depreciation on a new car has just been frightening. To add to that, most new cars are pretty uninspiring. Except one...


Enter, the MX-5/Miata. The simplicity and reliability of these cars has always had my attention, especially after selling my turbocharged Mustang about five years ago. I've kept an eye on the market for them, and scanned the forums on occasion. The desire to own one has been growing and growing, but at the price I like to pay for a car, it's nearly impossible to find a nice one. After looking over my year-end finances, and a bunch of meetings at work about next year, I decided it was time to take a leap.





It's a 2010 Sport(Limited slip rear) with just under 34,000 miles.


I haven't bought it yet, but I did pay for it to be transferred to my local CarMax dealer so I can take a look at it. It should take 7-14 days to arrive at my local dealer and I can make the decision then. I'm approved for their tier 1 financing and can easily pay it off in a year. If I buy it, and I probably will, I will not be selling Ol Smokey. I think both cars will compliment each other quite well.


All the plans for Ol Smokey will stay the same, except I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it drivable as I work. Also, if I buy it then paying it off will be my #1 financial goal, so a much smaller budget for toys. I can still get a lot of work done on Ol Smokey with the stockpile of parts I have, so work wont stop on it.

[BigAl205]

I hope you fit it it better than I would

Good luck with it.

[LumbermanSVO]

Back when I was a car audio installer I fit in them just fine. I'm 5'8", 200lbs and losing weight, so it's just about the right size.

[chefhow]

I could wear it like a shoe!!!

[astrochex]

Congrats on the Miata buy! Now for the manly question: auto or manual?

[LumbermanSVO]

I could wear it like a shoe!!!

It's not the smallest vehicle I've driver (Original Mini) but the smallest I've ever owned!

Congrats on the Miata buy! Now for the manly question: auto or manual?

Thanks!

It's a 5-speed manual, that was a requirement. My last 4 cars, including Ol Smokey, were autos and that's the only thing I never really liked about them. However, they were all either incredible cheap, or a good deal, so it was worth it. This brings my manual/auto ratio to 60% manuals.

At work I drive either a 13 speed, or 18 speed, non-syncronized manual with 13-15 liter engines. This it like a toy compared to those!

[LumbermanSVO]

Tomorrow the Miata goes in the shop for the hail repair, so I tried to start the Bronco today. I found two dead batteries. I can't find my Optima charger, so I had to use my Craftsman, it has never liked the Optima batteries. After trying to get it to stay on all day, I eventually just hooked up the Miata to it with jumper cables.


Then came the next problem, it won't start. It'll crank just fine. I plugged the ECU into my laptop and everything seems fine. Some research says to do a TPS Autoset, but the handheld controller seems to had died, and there is no way to do one without it. My controller is the "old" design and Holley doesn't have anything in place to help people with this bad design to upgrade to the new design. So now I'm out $250+ next day shipping to get a new handheld controller so I can do one simple function that should be included in the desktop software. I'm kinda pissed about that.


Good news though, my new top came in today, this time I opted for the tinted windows. It took about 20 minutes to swap the tops out thanks to Softtopper's brilliant no-tool-needed design.

[LumbermanSVO]

I got it running again yesterday. I re-uploaded the tune to the ECU, but it still refused to start. I started a tune from scratch, but it still wouldn't start, so I re-uploaded the old tune. Then the new handheld was stuck on the new tune screen. Hmmm...


So I disconnected the battery for an hour or so. After reconnecting it, it fired right up as if nothing was ever wrong. Go figure. I then mounted the new handheld to the temporary dash:





It is set to boot to a gauge display when turned on.


Today I sat down and figured out the wipers. Here is the wiring diagrams for the factory motor and the aftermarket switch:





And the pigtails for the motor and switch:





They are ready to install tomorrow. Depending on the weather, I may tackle some other stuff too.