LittlemissGTO's 2006 GTO

[Salami]

Glenn did a great job one the door speaker adapters, but they didn't like our wet climate, and swelled a little. So I figured while I was in here, I'd make some new ones out of 1/2" PVC and fiberglass reinforced body filler.



Jay

I hope you don't mind but I am stealing your pictures for reference. I've been trying to wrap my head around an easy way to do this and now I know how!! Thanks!

[JayinMI]

So, I made some progress on Shauna's car...

I added some deadener behind the speaker before installing the FAST rings. Installed the new speaker adapters, and then the Fast Rings.







Since I didn't have small enough terminals to fit the 12ga speaker wire and the terminals on the woofer, I soldered 12ga directly on to the speaker and used Dean's connectors.



Then I moved on to a new amp rack...









The distro now supplies power and ground to the HU, Processor and both amps.



Jay

[JayinMI]

Used my hydraulic crimper to put ends on all the wires.











I recarpeted the box and made a trim ring to hide the screws, haven't had a chance to vinyl wrap it yet.



I made a new trunk floor (the factory piece was warped...I seem to remember Shauna saying something about hauling a transmission in the trunk, or something. )

and I made a trim panel to hide the amps and wiring. But I am going to redo it, I don't really like how it turned out. I liked the proportions before I carpeted it, but after I carpeted it, I didn't like it, so I'm going to change it up.



Jay

[littlemissGTO]

OMG those are the classic Pontiac kidney grills in the trunk! That's sweet. Man I can hardly wait to get the car back and see how it sounds. I need to do something about those damned battery terminals. LOL

[Babs]

Lookin' good.. You mention the Deans connectors.. I just picked up a bag each of Powerpoles (15amp for 16awg and 30 amp for 12awg). Those things are nice nice nice. I can see why Chad (who turned me onto them) is such a fan.

[JayinMI]

I've used Deans and Anderson Power Poles on my RC cars in the past. I always felt like the Deans made a tighter connection than the Power Poles. Good for something that rarely gets plugged/unplugged, but not if you are constantly taking batteries off to be charged. I have Deans connectors in my own car and haven't had any issues. I had a few leftover after I finished Justin's Civic, so I put them to use.

Jay

[JayinMI]

OK, so I got everything working in the GTO. I was starting to get it to sound pretty good with the GZ processor...but whenever I shut the car off and came back to it, it sounded different. And it made a "pffffft" sound on start up and popped when you shut it off or changed discs. So we upgraded to a Mosconi 4 to 6.

But while I still had the GZ processor in, I was listening to the demo disc Shauna left in the car, and suddenly noticed a thick puff of smoke above the driver's side tweeter grille. No warning, no audible distortion, nothing. Just smoke. I had the GZ tweeters crossed over at 2500Hz 24/dB/oct...according to the specs on the box they should have a resonant freq of 750Hz and a freq range of 2Khz on up, so I should have been OK.

After swapping the 4to6 in, the engine noise is gone. The pffffft and popping noises are gone and so is the alternator whine.
I swapped in some Focal Polyglas tweeters we had at the shop so we could get it in and tuned until we can get the GZ's swapped, and they sound pretty good.

So I went in yesterday and started tuning Shauna's car. I went in on a Saturday so I didn't have to compete with the table saw, router table and dust collector. lol

I had intended to use my Netbook RTA setup, but switching windows was a pain, and it seemed to have some odd peaks that were there in REW, but not in True RTA or SynRTA...so I got out the trusty AC 3050A RTA the shop has and went to work.

First, here's Shauna's Exhaust...



I had already had the TA and levels set pretty well using a tape measure and the "1 to 25 counting track" I got from Richard, I think.

So I started tuning the left side, and then figured I'd do the right side to try and get as close as possible, and go from there.
I was following the "JBL Target Curve" from Pionkej's thread on the other car audio site.

Thought this looked pretty good, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.

(This was playing Pink noise at the time, so there was a little fluctuation)



http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...psgto7a9rn.mp4

But when I got in, I felt the bass was kind of weak. I had to attenuate the subs ALOT to get this curve, so I plan to bump it back up and retune the transition.

Hoping I can get it to sound pretty good for her. But it's Orthodox Easter today so I won't get to play with it until tomorrow. My coworker has a bunch of vinyl work to do so he's going to wrap some of the trim pieces I built and it should be ready soon.

Jay

[captainobvious]

I find the JBL curve can sound a little thin in sub bass as well. I just worked on tuning mine to that curve and felt the same. It was also slightly bright. I'd bring up the sub 50hz content a few db. Try going from +2db at 50hz up to +4.5db at 20hz and see if that makes a positive difference.

[JayinMI]

I find the JBL curve can sound a little thin in sub bass as well. I just worked on tuning mine to that curve and felt the same. It was also slightly bright. I'd bring up the sub 50hz content a few db. Try going from +2db at 50hz up to +4.5db at 20hz and see if that makes a positive difference.

Seemed like a good starting place and I'd make some changes by ear. In your opinion, does the curve look about right? First time I've used this RTA, so I want to make sure I understand it right.

Thanks.

Jay

[littlemissGTO]

So I picked up the car from Jay today, and I am very happy with how everything turned out.