2010 MX-5 / Miata Build

[Hic]

My friend bought MTX home speakers , now they come only with a woofer and tweeter , ideal for hip-hop / rap , etc..,
Must be a 21rst century thing. Once you drop the top , you will wish you had the JL's ! Seriously !

[LumbermanSVO]

Once you drop the top , you will wish you had the JL's ! Seriously !

Only if they pair up with the horns nicely! :-)

[Hic]

JL Infinite baffle subwoofers stretch up to excellent midbass , but you should enjoy those Etons or sumptin similar. As long as top is up and drag coefficient keeps wind noise down.

[LumbermanSVO]

I got home from my first tournament of the year at 3am yesterday, 11 more to go this year!


Today I took a 10mm, 12mm, and 13mm wrench out the the car and adjusted the clutch. It was driving me nuts that it had to be almost at the floor to disengage. I backed the upper stop all the way in, then threaded the master cylinder rod out until I just barely had play in it.


I took the car out for a spin, immediately I was able to back the seat up several notches, making it MUCH more comfortable. Even better is I don;t have to push the clutch nearly as far to change gears! It's made a HUGE difference in shifting, now it's a thoughtless task, and I can shift much quicker!


I then spent some time just driving around with the top down. It's a sunny and chilly day, great for a drive!

[LumbermanSVO]

Just after posting that I got off my bum and did some work. I decided that instead of running my IDQ8's (last of the original run) in Ol Smokey, It would be best to use them in the Miata, and then use something else in Ol Smokey.


So I started with the driver door. After looking at how the wiring was run, I figured it might be easiest to just unplug the wires from the door jamb, then remove the plastic inner door panel with all the wires still attached. This turned out to be a stupid move, getting that plug out is a wild pain in the ass. But to make it worse, getting it back in place, and getting the rubber boot back on is just a terrible task. I wound up removing the whole frickin door so I could do it! Just stupid!


After getting everything back to normal, I removed the plastic inner panel. I brought it in and took the dremel to it, First I had to remove the tabs that (I'm guessing) align the Bose 8's:





Then I cut along the lines for the Bose 8's and mounted the IDQ:





Next up I tried to bolt them back in, but it turns out the IDQ's are too deep. Some time ago I had started making HDPE mounting rings for the IDQ's so I just had to finish them. They turned out looking like crap, but they do the job. Here is one mounted up:





After getting the pair mounted up, I had a listen. They sound good, definitely more low end than the factory speakers, but also a bit of a drop in efficiency. Door rattles will be a problem once I give them some real power.


Tomorrow I'll retune with the APL and have another listen.

[Hic]

Nicely Done !

[LumbermanSVO]

Thanks!

[LumbermanSVO]

I did a couple quick tunes with the APL stuff today, one for the top up, and one for the top down. Here are a couple graphs, the green line is the response, the other is the target.


Top and windows up frequency response:



Top and windows down frequency response:



I'm not sure what is going on at the very top end, but I'm not too worried because I'll be replacing those drivers and going full active when I get home from my next trip. The left tweeter does sound a bit strained at times, so it's a good thing it'll be unplugged soon.


Top and windows up TDA:



Top and windows down TDA:



Here you can REALLY see the effects of reflection in the car! There is quite a bit of difference between the top up and down.


I leave for a long work trip on Tuesday, when I get back I'll have my new horns to install and will switch the 800PRS over to Network Mode. I'll also have the time to install an amp. Then I'll actually be able to dial in TA, set the levels properly and so on. I should be mostly done with the audio stuff on this car and turn my attention back to Ol Smokey.

[Hic]

About 2/3 [ 36 - 24 = 12 ]

[LumbermanSVO]

Today I did something I haven't done in ages, a wash, claybar, and wax. All the cars I've had for the last 15 years had paint that was too far gone to really worry about it. Thank goodness it's a small car!


Also, my new wiper switch showed up, this is the stock one:



And the new one:



For some reason the Miata didn't come with variable intermittent wipers. However, the RX8 did have the option and the switch is compatible with the Miata, no other changes need to be made to get this option functioning. It was $35, including shipping, and took less than 10 minutes to swap out.