Bought the Civic Hatch lease out, so rebooting the install thread

[geolemon]

In today's episode of "unrealistic expectations and too tight tolerances"...

...this is going to be fun routing 4 gauge wire and 4 channels of speaker wire into this amp.
Swearing will be involved.

Although I can't wait to tackle that, because I can't wait to see how this will look with the lid on and lit up.

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[geolemon]

Before that swearing, this swearing -
Totally forgot about my Epicenter.

It's not pretty, has somebut I've had it for a couple decades so what do you want? [emoji38]
Actual plan is to replace it with an Epicenter Mini, but that hasn't been released yet so for the short term - why not?

So I'll have to make another set of interconnects. And those took forever. My hands just healed up from the friction burns. Oh well.

And I'll have to reroute slightly under the DSP.

After I smooth out those new holes and get more bed liner sprayed on there.

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[geolemon]

On a different note -
I love my Focal TN52s, but also never imagined I'd be so blown away by Bohlender Graebner magnetic planar speakers.

So Parts Express had a buyout deal on some Foster planar ribbon tweeters - I impulse bought two, to see if they could compete in the same way the relatively inexpensive planar mids do:

And while I was at it - what's theoretically better at high frequency detail than magnetic planar ribbons? Air motion transformers.

I bumped into a pair of compact sized Dayton AMT tweets that were also impulse priced - so, let's see if the quality sound is fundamental in the tech, because neither of these are exotics:

So I tied all the negatives and used alligator clip test leads on each positive so I could really quick-swap them.
I even listened with my head inches from the tweeters, almost wearing the tweeters as headphones - first going back and forth between the Foster and the Focal... Then between the Dayton AMT and Focal TN52.

In the end, no surprises. Those TN52s are legendary for a reason. These all sounded good, but the detail and realism from the Focal are just next level compared to these.

If I were going to rank them, of the ones I have considered now:
1) Focal TN5s
2) Pro Tech Time Lense
3) Dayton AMT
4) Foster magnetic planar
5) Focal TN45

So - sticking with the TN52s. Love them, still.

 

[geolemon]

So my old Epicenter is epic old, scratched up. Maybe on the chopping block for replacement with a new one.

What the hell - waiting for some supplies to arrive. Let's repaint it crazy style.
Turns out I have to de-solder 3 wires - no biggie.

Sand...

Prime...

And since this metallic isn't metallic enough...

Oh yeah [emoji38]

Now for sure I'll have to add lighting to the lower chamber for this disco ball to rise up from! [emoji38]

Hey - maybe I won't replace it after all. [emoji38]

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[geolemon]

Still waiting on some supplies so I pulled all my door panels to do some damping.

Made my two extra RCAs.

Also made some arrangements with a buddy who runs a vinyl graphics shop to make me some stencils to paint the Epicenter logo back on. Why not, right?

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[BigAl205]

Is that Fleck-stone? :nuts:

 

[geolemon]

Is that Fleck-stone? :nuts:

No, I left fleck stone back in the 90s...
Did LOTS of those though, that and faux marble... Oh man.

It's hard to capture the effect on camera, even this video doesn't quite:
[video]https://photos.app.goo.gl/3r8hqWVDvNwbA8Xv8[/video]

It's a base using the same grey metallic as my window frame, and massive silver reflective flake over the top.
It's a big disco ball now, so it'll be reflecting the light from below as it opens.

My buddy is making some stencils out of vinyl - I'm going to spray an Epicenter logo back onto it. It would also be fun having an unmarked magic mystery box with one lone red power LED on the surface but... It'll be cool with the logo.

 

[geolemon]

Did some speaker wiring down below and ready to jump into the power wiring...

Realize now that I picked up some nice white NVX OFC 4 gauge for this side of the distribution block in the amp rack - and apparently I didn't order any blue.

I guess we'll see if I have enough scraps from my leftovers bin. Otherwise I guess I'm ordering some blue...

Would be nice to have more than an hour or two a night to get it done... Adulting sucks.

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[geolemon]

I decided to not use my blue - or any blue at all. I ordered some NVX red, overnight, mainly because I used a spool of 20 gauge red wire for my remote wire, and also a spool of 14ga. red/black wire that I'm using both as speaker wire from that little Banda rear-fill amp, as well as power/ground wire to it and the DSP.

I originally wanted to wire it up all vertical/horizontal, pretty and separated, crossing at right angles - but I can't for a few reasons... including where the wires pass through the amp rack floor:

The tape lines correspond to the lower chamber, which is smaller. The speaker wiring terminal blocks will hang outside the chamber, with the power and ground distribution inside the lower chamber.

On the vertical tape line I've marked the cutout that I made for wiring to pass over the wall, which you can see here (right below the can of sanding sealer):

You can see that's where all the wiring is crossing the tape.

I might still consider splitting the power and speaker wiring into two tiers, but I don't think I'll have room below, since I'm already fitting two caps down there as well - also a reason I'm not too worried about the power/ground in such close proximity.
I'll look with fresh eyes tomorrow, though.

From a cosmetic standpoint it will be fine - here's a simulated view of the amp rack lifted by the actuator:

 

[geolemon]

Here's a better preview of that:
View attachment 16473
And can see how it's going to rest into the spare tire well:
View attachment 16474
Power distribution down below and I'm pretty close to install time.

Here's a pic with the carpet glued and caps mounted, actuator mounted,fused distro block where it will live, and ground distro MIA. Had to order a new one. Oh well.
View attachment 16475

 

[geolemon]

Still a couple days out on the new wire to show up, and my ground distro, and the drag chain cable carrier.

Realizing now I forgot I need to make a small trim piece to hide the back of the hinge.

Still - I should break from this for now, to get those pillars done.

 

[geolemon]

Drag chain installed for the power wire.

Protects the wires as it motors close the amp rack:

A little tidying of the power and grounds - built a small ramp to tilt the power over the grounds:

One detail is a bit of an experiment.
I had a thought to direct connect the ground distribution block to to the cap bus bar and main ground, but the bolt size for attaching the ground ring terminal to the bus bar was smaller than the ground block, and clamping down on a bolt is less than ideal.

I took a 2/0 ferrule (who uses that that size anyway [emoji38] ) and split a couple sections of 4 gauge, to loosely stuff the ferrule.

Then I fitted the ferrule/OFC strands around the 1" protruding portion of the bolt and tightened that into the ground block's 1/0 port.
End result is having ALL the grounds tied to one block, securely.

Also you might notice that I bent the bus bars - I did that for safety. Lock washers or not, IF a bolt loosens, it hinges down and you have the mainline 12v power touching the ground - yikes.

With the bends, that won't happen. Safer.

Thinking about maybe fabbing up an acrylic shield so I don't have an energized 12v rail sitting unshielded, but I do have this sealed inside a motorized chamber so I'm taking that out of the "must have" column and putting it in the "maybe" column.

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[geolemon]

Making the door panels heavier.
I think I'll make a run to my storage unit to get a bunch of CCF, to fill some or even all voids - I have a ridiculous amount in storage. Might as well.

Something odd with these door panels...
On the lower rear of each (center, bottom in the photo) is a hinged plastic box - you can see the plastic joints that allow a little movement, you can't see a small foam strip that the other side rests on.

It's literally an empty plastic box, with some slots in it, a funny shape backside, and it's designed to slightly move, on a piece of foam.
I suspect it's some sort of vibration dampener - but I really don't know.

I expect tech to trickle down, but I've had BMW 7-series and Mercedes apart - and even with all the engineering wonder in their doors, I haven't seen this.

I don't want to remove them - maybe a down-the-road experiment - because they might actually function. Now that I have taken the speakers out of the doors, I can't believe how reasonably decent the bass response was, for how crappy these tiny speakers are.

Could be one reason why midbass didn't totally suck, even - maybe breaking up reflections in this cavity, between door and panel?
Regardless - it's an artifact, it's making me ask "why is it here?" and making me think there might have been an acoustic issue in here - so filling the voids with CCF is probably wise.

Fingers are sore today - there's so much that a roller can't fit into in here... Ugh.

 

[geolemon]

The door panels are all now killmatted and pretty much filled with CCF - with the thought there might be a little absorbing of the bazillion stray sound waves in this cavity where the midbass drivers are actually playing. The CCF does surround them to try to prevent that and I have sets of foam rings as well, but overkill isn't weird, right? Haven't you always dreamt of foam speaker rings the size of your entire door panels? [emoji38]

I've never owned a plastic welder before, so I picked one up and - pretty cool actually.
I decided I'd do all the structural work in my pillars and sail panel in ABS... Why not.

I'm sure the cosmetic layer will just be old school fiberglass and Bondo bodywork, with a texture finish.

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[geolemon]

The speakers mount in plastic spacers that in turn hook to the door on the bottom, secured by a single bolt each at the top. Clever, but insufficient for my new midbasses - plus the magnets on the Anarchy's won't even fit past those two bumps.

So I made a template with two ring terminals bent to hook the holes, and mount by the bolt hole.

I drilled pilot holes, then the larger holes for the rivnuts.

Cut off the tabs with snips.

And installed the rivnuts. Nice solid base for mounting these XBL^2 high excursion, low IMD/THD little monsters in all four doors.

In a Civic.

Oh the fun I'll have chasing internal door rattles after the initial install. [emoji38]

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[geolemon]

Not much progress lately since my 20-something nephew bought his first house, and that's higher priority...

...but shared a little time on a boring "all employee" meeting to ensure I'm ready to stretch.

One of the reasons people don't usually stretch is because of all the complex curves that have to be thought through - especially in my case where I have 3 speakers in each A pillar.

So, like I did to ensure I had enough physical clearance in my upper sub box chamber, i built some midrange and tweeter analogs:

In the case of the midrange, it will hang low enough that the cloth needs to stretch around it. The mid has it's own sealed enclosure, so this is simply a physical accommodation.

In the case of the tweeter, this is to make sure that the cloth is flat with enough distance around the mounting hole to accommodate the flange on the TN52.

In the case of the BG flat panel, I don't believe I'll need one if I can pull the cloth tight enough. If not, I can cut a simple rectangle.

Here's the two analogs, and on the right A pillar I stuck them in place to show:

I'll get close enough with this that I should only need body filler to perfect the shapes.

 

[geolemon]

Repainted my nephew's first house last week.
Company merger goes official with the reorg this month.
It's Xmas week. Still being the family provider - yet not yet done with the shopping.
Next week is new years - resolution: FINISH

But i snuck a little progress in amid all the distractions.

Basically - wrapped with a t shirt material, installed my driver analogs to hold the cloth and ensure depths, then saturated with epoxy. When dry, I used a little tiger hair on the cloth overwrap area. Used a detail sander with 50 grit to rough shape it, then a couple coats of a new high-bond Bondo I'm trying out.


I didn't capture any sanded-state pics, but I'm still dialing in the curves.

I'm close, this should be the last rough sand before I can start the really tedious sanding to make it paintable.

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[Stycker]

You have taken this hobby to the next level. Who's having more fun than geolemon? The answer is nobody or maybe dumdum. Kudos and keep going.

 

[geolemon]

You have taken this hobby to the next level. Who's having more fun than geolemon? The answer is nobody or maybe dumdum. Kudos and keep going.

That's a big compliment - much appreciated.
It's all about fun!
Like Lego blocks - building - with components, the toys - but also playing with the ideas.

I don't look it these days, but I grew up in the punk rock world and the minitruck scene...
Maybe that's why I hate the conformance of competition. I wish it would be more like the old lowrider shows - where quality AND innovation are rewarded.

No rules - whatever gets you to the end goal best, your way, your ideas, your execution, your achievement.

Like they used to say in that scene-
"Built not bought"
To me - that's what makes it fun.

Definitely will keep going - progress is slow (especially this time of year) but the finish line is in sight.

It's too cold and humid to spray, but I'm at the point where I'm ready to spray primer and texture coat - but the cold and humidity will be a challenge, since I'm 3 months past where I wanted to be...

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[geolemon]

Sprayed them outside, on the deck.
Pulled them inside to cure.
Then Xmas rounds began so I really haven't gotten a good look yet. Hopefully just a finish sand and I can texture it, but it's never quite that simple.

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