1st build log ever. 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE

Sound deadening the floor and front seat area:

So instead of doing the front doors I decided to take the car completely apart and pull out the carpet. I have new black carpet going in there.

Here's some before pictures it was pretty nasty under there:

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Once I took the carpet out the first thing that I realized is that I needed to rerun all of the wiring to the trunk. It would have been much easier to run the wire along the floor instead of trying to fit it underneath all of the trim pieces. So I'm going to buy some more test tape wrap the wires up entirely and do exactly that before I put the new carpet in.

Here are the pictures after I completed the sound deadening:

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I didn't cover every single surface completely but I think I got enough to significantly reduce noise from every surface.

I'm also going to cover it with a layer of CCF because I have a lot of it and I'm unable to use it inside the doors because of panel tolerances. It may or may not help but it certainly can't hurt.

If anyone has any suggestions before I replace the carpet I would really appreciate it.

Heck I would even appreciate any suggestions on how to cut the carpet to fit inside the car correctly. My current plan is to wing it and go with the flow.

Lewis King
 
Finishing the passenger side door:

Today my door adapters finally arrived so instead of putting the carpet in like I was supposed to I decided to sound deaden and mount the speakers into the passenger side door.

Here's some pictures of the Hertz mid bass compared to the factory one that came out of the door:

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I can tell that they're going to make a huge difference in the quality and the loudness of the front stage.

This time I remembered to add sound deadening to the inside sheet metal as well as the actual door frame. I didn't cover the entire door as I did with the passengers. What I actually did this time was I made sure to address any flat areas without any bends that would create vibration.

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I also remembered to add sound deadening around the mounting point for the speaker adapter and the speaker gaskets to prevent unnecessary noise.

When I put the door back together and found that everything fit perfectly with no issue I was pretty stoked. It's kind of nice to see a 6 month plan begin to coalesce into the final product and have it come out super close to what your original vision was.
 
Completing wiring and the driver side door:

I completed the sound deadening on the driver side door and the component set fit perfectly on that side as well

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I also ran RCA cables beneath the center console to the back of the car as well

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Once I was done I realized that I messed up pretty badly because I did not label the RCA jacks at all. But it took me 2 hours to run down as neatly as I did and to make them fit perfectly beneath the console so I'm definitely not going to undo that to figure out which one is which.

I am however very open to options as to how I can sort them out without having to redo everything over again. Right now I'm going with plug one into the receiver and test them for signal one by one.

Any better ideas?

Lewis King
 
So with the little deductive reasoning I was able to figure all of them out by only testing two out of the total. Once I thought about it it only took 5 minutes.
 
Mocking up kick panels for the 3 and 1/2 coaxials:

Today I figured out another thing that had stumped me for a couple of weeks. I couldn't figure out how to mock up the kick panel pods for the three and a half inch speakers that I have from Hertz.

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In the pictures I have two different angles marked up but I'm honestly not sure which one would be the best or how to figure that out. Because once I do the fiberglass it's going to be permanent.

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That's what it'll look like once the speaker is inside the pod. Then I'll cover it with a metal grill to protect from shoes.

So I guess I'm going to have to give it a few more days so I can figure that out but at least I have the problem solved.
 
A quick update:

I'm still working on a build I'm just kind of in this in between state where I'm deciding which way is going to be the best way to go next. I've done some cosmetics upgrades that are completely independent of the sound system.

The next big steps that I need to take are to fiberglass the kick panels for the three and a half speakers, figure out the amp rack, build the box, and a thousand little things that go into those that I'm forgetting.

I won't lie. I feel like I've reached a brick wall in the system design and I'm having a difficult time figuring out how to get around it. But that's part of the learning process.

I've been asking questions about other parts of the system, getting input from others. But today I realized that it's just a delay tactic so that I can justify not facing the real problems that I've run into.

The biggest issue is the amp rack. Because it has to be mounted vertically behind the subwoofer box so that when I open the trunk of the car is the first thing that I see. There isn't enough room in the trunk behind the box to mount everything horizontally.

It's going to have a false bottom so that the wiring can be run below it to the battery and the box.

Instead of being a single piece of wood it has to be a box measuring 30" wide x 16" tall x 4-5" deep. The plan is to secure it to the spare tire cover with bolts to keep it in place since there's not a way to bolt it directly to the back of the subwoofer box. It's always become a real problem.

But once I get it figured out I'll give you a guys an update on the progress and continue on to the finish.

Lewis King
 
So I have bipolar disorder and I've missed 4 of the last 6 weeks of work from either being manic or depressive. Which has caused me to go through my savings to the point where I'm going to have to put this build on hold. Because of the financial situation I'm in I'm guessing it's going to take me until December or so until I'm able to recover to the point where I'm able to justify working on the build again.

To the site administrators please do not close his thread. As soon as I am able to I will continue and complete the build.

Thank You,

Lewis King
 
Update:

I realized that even though I couldn't complete the installation of the sound system, there are other things that I can work on. I managed to complete the installation of the carpet and roof liner as well.

First I sound deadened the entire roof. Here's a few pics:View attachment 17809View attachment 17810

Here's the finished product once I replaced the roof liner:
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The finished carpet:
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I began to paint the panels for the center console as well.
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I still need to paint the actual center console the panel below the steering wheel and the glove compartment. Once I'm done with those I should be able to put the car back together completely, minus the sound system, for the first time since I began the project.

I originally was pretty upset because of the way that things went, but setbacks don't necessarily mean defeat unless you let them. I should be able to post pictures of the completed car within the next week.

It does feel really good to be still making progress despite the situation. I think that I enjoy the process I'm working on the build and that it's much more therapeutic than I originally assumed it would be.

Lewis King
 
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Quick update:

Finally found all of the missing brackets needed to mount the head unit and the Clarion EQ. Ignore the Dual mechless it is definitely not a part of the final build it's just a placeholder for the eventual mechless that I plan on purchasing.

Plus the body kit finally came in. Took me several months to find the pieces because they're not being manufactured anymore. I like the fit though. The plan is to paint the mesh gold and the car black so it matches the interior. I purchased a roll of what looks like metal fencing and the plan is to cut and mount it diagonally to match the diamond shape. It'll look nice in the bottom cutouts that are open.

Still saving for the subwoofers. Probably going to end up getting a Helix dsp since it seems to be a crime against manhood to purchase anything less. So that means at least another 6 months of saving and finishing everything else piecemeal during the wait.

Lewis King
 
Update:

I fabricated some fabric glass kick panels. I've never done anything like that before ever in life so I'm going to show you some pictures of how it went.

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So I took some pods, glued them to the kick panels, then covered them in 3 dollar Walmart polyester. I then proceeded to paint them with waaaaaaay too much fiberglass because rookies make mistakes.

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This is day two of me trying to sand down way too much fiberglass and not being successful.

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Day 3 I came up with the idea of buying primer and I covered the entire thing in like 10 coats. Took 2 days to dry. Days 5-6 I sanded everything until it was smooth. I used 60, 80, 220, 400, 600, and 1000 grit. That seemed to work.

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10 coats of paint and 10 coats of clear enamel later, I was ready to do the cutouts.

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Final form.

What do you think? Any advice on what I could've done better?

Next update will hopefully be the subwoofer box build.

Lewis King
 
Next time, use body filler and spot putty to smooth em out. While they look a little rough, kick panels are not an "in your face" item. As long as they are rigid, should work :)
 
For the $800 that I'm going to spend on cells I could get a Taramps smart 3 and 4 12" CT Sounds 800 RMS Ozone subwoofer s. And it'll run on my current electrical, 250 alt and 100 ah AGM. Be ridiculously loud with just that in an 01 Sentra.

I've been a year without music and right now that's looking really good. I might have to save up and do the bigger system later. I can add a Dsp later on as well as electrical, and subwoofer upgrades.

Really looking like it's worth it just to have music.

Lewis King
 
Update:

Found DC Audio level 1 12s for $89 each. I have 4.
Found a Taramps Bass 1200 for $119.
My brother's sending me a Dayton DSP!

I'm getting so close to the finished product... Looking for a box builder and amps to power the mids and highs.

Lewis King
 
This is a good one for a chuckle. This was my original build before some of you awesome people talked sense into me.

My eternal thanks to you all. You were so patient with teaching me while talking me down from the ledge. I would've wasted so much money.

But thanks to you all, I learned and applied. Thank you. You all rock.

So I've done a lot of research and have learned a lot during this process but before I press the buy button I wanted to see if anyone can see anything wrong with this build.

Enclosure:
Box size: 33 X 15.75 X 25
Up firing, port to the back
Yield: 4.5 cube
Tune: 32 Hz
Material: 3/4 birch
Number of Baffles: 2
Port area: 4 * 13.5 or 54sq in.
Port area per foot: 11.95 sq in.
Port Length: 23

Subwoofers:
4 X 10" Sundown E10 V3 D2
Power rating 500 RMS per sub
TS:
Resistance (Re): 4.0 Ω
Resonance Frequency (Fs): 32.2 Hz
Equivalent Volume (Vas): 19.4 L
Electrical Q Factor (Qes): 0.38
Mechanical Q Factor (Qms): 4.76
Total Q Factor (Qts):0.35
Force Factor (BL): 20.2 NA
Moving Mass (incl. Air Load) (Mms): 192.0 g
Suspension Compliance (Cms): 0.13 mm/N
Sensitivity: 84.2 dB 1w / 1m
Xmax: 14mm
Weight: 19 lb. each

Box Recommendations:
Ported: 1.0 cu ft
Displacement: 0.11 ft^3
Cutout Diameter: 8-7/8"
Outside Diameter: 10"
Depth: 5 5/8"
Recommended Tuning: 32hz
Recommended Port Area: 16 in^2

Power: Taramps Smart 3
Wiring: 1 ohm load

Electrical:
(It's overkill but I'll be prepared if/ when I want to go bigger.)
Alternator: Singer 320 amp, 200 amp at resting
Big 4 1/0 upgrade
Xs power D2400
2/0 run from front to rear around 17 - 20 ft (to prevent power loss during the transfer from front to back)
1/0 ground to engine block from alternator
1/0 ground to chassis for both batteries and amp each

Of course Ofc or nothing
300 amp fuses in the following places:
Alternator to battery
Battery to rear (5 inches from terminal)
Battery to rear (5 inches from rear AGM)
200 amp fuse from busbars to amp

Here's my mid/voice/highs or whatever build.

4 Power Acoustics NB4 1.5 in tweeters. Yeah I know, I never thought either but they sound fantastic.

Taramp's TS 400 X 4 at 4ohms, 60 watts per channel to match tweeters.

4 Rockford Fosgate Punch 6175 3 way coaxials.

Taramps 440 X 4 at 4 ohms, 69 watts per channel.

My thoughts are that the Fosgate coaxials will fill the mid bass and voice, leaving the Power Acoustics to overlap and fill in the highs. I know comps are the thing nowadays but I think these should serve the same purpose

I have a Clarion 7 band knob 1/2 din EQ so I can tune while in traffic on the fly.

I'm getting a DSP as well but I don't see a reason to pay like 800 for one 10 channel when Taramps 6 channel is 129. Even Dayton Audio has an 8 channel for 159. I'm just not familiar with the brand.
 
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