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Thread: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

  1. Back To Top    #121

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    Quote Originally Posted by Hic View Post
    the sub/bass/midbass in a "hardtop" -vs- "ragtop" always is noticeable !

    The enclosing of underdash may help with "suckout" @ midbass/midrange !
    I'm very curious how much of a difference fixing the under dash will make.

    I haven't even started a tune with the top down, it sounds wildly different. Once I install a top up/down switch I'll do a tune for top down driving.

  2. Back To Top    #122
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    Exclamation Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    It will help with correlation of lower end output in a convertible -Vs- hardtop. A graph will give a visual reference to go with audio reference (lack there of).
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  3. Back To Top    #123
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    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    Quote Originally Posted by LumbermanSVO View Post
    I'm very curious how much of a difference fixing the under dash will make.

    I haven't even started a tune with the top down, it sounds wildly different. Once I install a top up/down switch I'll do a tune for top down driving.
    Make any mods yet?
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  4. Back To Top    #124

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    Nothing yet, I've been busy working on the Bronco and other projects around the house.

  5. Back To Top    #125

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    This weekend I was washing the car and the rear spoiler lifted a little, I gave it a few gentle tubs and it came right off with no damage! There was three broken clips and tape holding it on. Now I get to track down the right clips and tape to reattach it. In the meantime, it looks stupid:





    After the car wash I went out to retune it, I made a few mistakes on the initial tune and wanted to fix them. Instead I wound up removing the sub box and built a trunk baffle, stupid hobbies...


    I had been thinking about doing this for awhile for a few reasons. The biggest is that the top sometimes takes effort to go down because the way the glass sits on the box. over time it developed a bunch of rattles where the rear fo the box sat on the sheet metal and there was no real way to fix it without modding the body itself. There were also rattles from all the plastic bits behind the seats.


    I started by removing the rear firewall and drilled out the spot welds that were holding the three pieces together.





    Next up, I used the center piece as a template to make the base of the baffle. Most of the mounting points are on the same plane, so this worked quite well.








    I bolted up the end pieces of the firewall and the baffle:





    Next was to trim the gas filler protector to fit with the baffle. A test fitting:





    After some more trimming, with the uncut trunk panel in place:





    Next up I made the second baffle piece with the sub cutouts and notches for the fuel filler:





    With the subs:







    Continued...

  6. Back To Top    #126

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    From the front:







    I will replace the factory roll bar with a much better looking aftermarket one to really clean up the looks back there. I'm ditching most of the plastic behind the seats to get rid of rattles too. I'll be going with a clean carpeted look back there. the fuel door opener is in the center storage bin, so I moved it. The location is temporary until the new roll bar goes in:









    Obviously, I still need to seal it up properly and make it pretty again. The top now goes down effortlessly, I lost zero trunk space too.


    I did wire it up and turned it on. I set all the sub EQ's flat and gave it a listen. So far it plays deeper than the box did, and gets a little louder. The few rattles I have are FAR more wicked than before, but they shouldn't be too hard to fix, some butyl rope should take care of it. Well worth the few hours I have into it, and the old box is now by the curb for the trash man to pick up tomorrow.


    I built the underdash panel for the driver side. It wound up being about 16x16", that was a big hole to fill!




    Just some simple ABS plastic cut and bent into the right shape:









    And I threw some CLD on it for good measure:









    A crappy pic of it in place:









    It bolts to a couple factory studs in the firewall, and sandwiches between the dash frame and under dash trim panel. If I need to I can screw it to the dash frame later.




    I REALLY hope this makes the dip on my left side go away, as seen here on the blue trace:




    [/QUOTE]


    I also worked on the driver seat, it's hard to show in pictures. Fortunately, because the car is so small, tall people are constantly trying to get more headroom, so all the info I needed to do this was already online.







    The seat bottom bolts to the top of that L bracket. I unbolted it, trimmed the seat pan some, the bolted up back up to the underside of the L bracket. In total, this lowered the seat by about an inch. The seat tray now almost slides on the floor.




    It feels better while sitting in the driveway, I'll see tomorrow on the drive to work how it feels while driving. Of course, the stage should appear to be a little higher. Also, It'll be easier to see traffic lights!

  7. Back To Top    #127
    Senior Member chithead's Avatar
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    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    That's some impressive work and upgrades my friend! Excellent stuff!
    Are you not entertained?!?!


  8. Back To Top    #128

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    Quote Originally Posted by chithead View Post
    That's some impressive work and upgrades my friend! Excellent stuff!
    Thanks! I should have this round of changes mostly wrapped up this weekend.

    Tuning from scratch should be fun, I kniw of one mistake I made on the initial tune. Not making that same mistake, combined with aa better response everywhere should be a great combo.

  9. Back To Top    #129

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    I got a bunch done today!


    I started by ripping out the trunk baffle, then I chucked half of it in the trash, I kinda wish I had tossed the whole thing, but oh well. The baffle was made up of two pieces of 1/2” birch. Because what I did last week was mostly a proof of concept, the trunk side piece was originally cut very crudely, especially the subwoofer holes. I tossed it and made a new one with much tighter tolerances. I also glued the two pieces together instead of screwing them together.


    Speaking of screws, one of the steps was to add mounting studs to secure it instead of the wood screws.





    I wrapped the other side, so I needed to countersink the bolt heads. I filled in the area around the bolt heads with silicone so they don’t spin if I have to remove this piece.





    I sprayed the interior side with truck bed liner to make it look better until I cover it up.





    I forgot to take pictures on the bench, but this is the trunk side after wrapping with black vinyl.





    In that picture you can see that I also sprayed the fuel filler cover in bedliner too. Now I just need to figure out the best way to fill in that gap and cover the fuel filler tube.


    I did plug that hole there so no air get through. I removed the original fuel tank access cover from the original firewall by drilling out the spot welds. I then added a piece of CLD to it, put some butyl tape under it, and remounted it. here it is with most of the spot welds drilled out.





    While bedliner and silicone was drying, I covered the subwoofer wires with split loom and zip tied them to a factory loom.





    Next up I needed to seal the sides of the firewall. One goal was to avoid using spray foam if I could, I just don’t like how permanent and ugly it is. I had a few sheets of Kolosus around, so I used those. This is what the area looked like to start with:





    After the Kolosus:





    The trim panel fit back into place perfectly, this is important because it directs water from any potential leaks from the top into a drain that is built into the chassis so the water drips out under the car. it’s kinda brilliant actually.

    Continued...

  10. Back To Top    #130

    Re: 2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

    I tossed a scrap piece of Ensolite over the rear area to cover up the mess until I do the proper treatment back there.





    What it looks like right, with the baffle and subs in place. This is a higher res picture, if you click on it you can see some of what I did to seal it.





    When I ordered the soft top for Ol Smokey it came with this cool 1/2 thick foam with a sticky side, it sticks REALLY well. It’s also squishy, kinda like the Ensolite. Every surface with a bigger gap was treated with this foam. I put butyl tape on the surfaces that mate directly to the firewall.


    At this point I fired it up and was immediately disappointed that it still rattled! I I got out with it playing and heard the rattle outside too, it was coming from under the trunk. I climbed under and pressed on a heat shield directly under the trunk and the rattle went away. The only way to fix this would requiring dropping the exhaust behind the axle, ugh.


    I opened the truck to look at the sub s playing, because we all like to do that on occasion, and then I saw it. I hadn’t reassembled the trunk yet, and the screws that hold the fuel filler tube guard were rattling on the trunk floor. I reassembled everything and gave it another listen, no rattles!


    I listened to a few songs and am VERY happy with how it sounds. This was a HUGE improvement over the sealed box. Not only is the bass much louder, but it’s significantly more accurate. You can hear the difference in songs with acoustic instruments.


    There are two annoying problems with the doors, so I fixed them while I was going. One was the left tweeter. it rattles in the door in just the right way that it sounds like the tweeter is blown. I nearly had a heart attack the first time I heard it! But if I push on the tweeter area in the door, the rattle goes away. This is how I originally mounted them:





    I don’t like to cut things up if I can avoid it, but I suspect the rattle is from the extended tabs, so I cut them off:





    I haven’t verified if this solved the problem yet.


    The other problem is the passenger door. It’s a VERY tight fit with all the CLD, Ensolite, and MLV in the door. because of the tight fit, the screw mount for the handle keeps popping out. When it pops out, the door card just flops around. While I was modding the tweeter mount, I investigated why this was happening. This this is what kept popping out:





    See those tabs on the side? Those were folded over. I gently pried them back up and popped it back into place. Everything went together well, and the door feels tight now.




    Next I went to tune it and I couldn’t find the analog input cable in my glovebox, hmmm. I dug a round and bunch and was able to reach my hand far enough into the dash to feel that I had removed the analog cables from the APL1. I don’t remember doing that. So I pulled the center console and radio housing to add the cable. While it was out I went ahead and modded the factory AUX input so it now plugs into the APL1.





    After cutting off the pigtail I added RCA connectors to it:





    Before taping everything up and grabbed my meter and check for continuity to verify that I got everything correct. I didn’t, so I had to de-solder it and start over. After I fixed it:





    I put it back together, but had no sound, hmmm. The APL1 was showing signal for both analog and digital, so I moved on to the amp. I fired up TüN and it showed NO tuned at all, strange. There was also a firmware update available, so I did that, the reloaded the tune. Still no sound, but it was telling me there was no digital signal. I must have accidentally unplugged it when I had the radio housing out. It was getting dark so I just closed up the car, and am now wring this.


    Tomorrow I’ll get it working again, and start tuning from scratch.

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