'66 Chevelle

[JasonInAugusta]

This is an interesting one.

We have a '65 Coronet 440 that I picked up a few years back. It's a black 4-door car that my daughter loved. The intent was for it to be her first car...but not one she'd drive all the time. She doesn't like new cars and prefers the classics.

So I had a plan to build a system into the car that was largely hidden. I called DD Audio and had them custom build some 3000 series 15s. I ended up with a pair of their supercharged 3015 ESPs with dry carbon cones and dust caps with graphite logos. The idea was to just build a black trunk in the big, black Coronet.

Then we had a death in the family and I ended up with a '66 Chevelle in Malibu trim. Also a 4-door. Since the Chevelle was a much nicer and more mechanically sound car, the decision was made to put the effort into it instead of the Coronet.

The overall goal for the car is to update it with modern features that today's cars have like HomeLink, power windows/locks, a new gauge cluster that actually told you something about car, and a full sound system.

The ultimate goal for the sound system was to have a full build that is competitive at Finals...and I wanted it all to be completely invisible to the casual observer.

Nothing in the car should stand out as being an aftermarket item. With the trunk closed, at least.

A few pictures of the car the day I picked it up.

[JasonInAugusta]

My daughter with one of the DD 3015s and a shot of some of the other gear that's going into the car. A NIB AM/FM Craig 8-track player, a Sony RSX-GS9, Stevens CompNeo Minis, and Stevens MB8-2s.

To keep things hidden I decided to use Stevens horns under the dash with MB8s in the kick panels. This puts me in MECA's Extreme class since the location for the 8s is the fresh air ducts that are fed from the cowl vents. The size of that opening puts me in Extreme class.

Oh well.

The Craig 8-track that's in the dash feeds into the GS9 via the GS9's Aux2 input which is a high-level input. Since I wanted to keep everything hidden or at least looking like it was a factory piece, I put the Craig 8-track in the factory AM radio location and bought a NIB tissue dispenser to house the GS9 and put that dispenser under the dash in the center. If you're wondering why tissue dispensers were a thing back then...it's called sex in cars. Was popular.

Anyway...some photos.

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[JasonInAugusta]

To get HomeLink controls in the car I pulled a Lincoln sun visor from the junkyard and gutted the HomeLink controls from it. Then it was a matter of ripping the stitches out of the old visor, cutting a location for the HomeLink control board, and routing the wiring through the mount for the visor. To do this I had to drill through the mount to get the cable ran through.

With the HomeLink controls on the top side of the sun visor there's no indication that anything has been changed.

[JasonInAugusta]

Since I started off using a Helix DSP PRO MKII I decided to put the Director in the dash.

I had a Director with a faceplate that been cut/modified for an install in another vehicle. When we decided to move the Director to another location we installed a new unit. That left me with this previously modified piece.

I measured the Director's display and found that it would barely fit in the black dash strip of the car. I decided to use the cigarette lighter location for the knob and put the display on the left side of the knob. After a bit of measuring and layout I rough cut the opening with an oscillating tool and did final trimming with a rasp and file.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of the trim for the cigarette lighter so I could attach the Director's knob. Then I cut down the old cigarette lighter and bonded it to the Director's knob with some Fusor 152 adhesive.

After that it was just a matter of putting the dash strip back on the dash panel.

[JasonInAugusta]

I set up the Director's display to time out so it goes black and better blends in to the black dash strip.

I have some anti-glare screen protector here somewhere that I'll cut down and install to get rid of the glossy screen surface.

[BigAl205]

Pics just don't do this thing justice. I'm looking forward to seeing more

[Hillbilly SQ]

Looks good. I wish they still made cars/trucks with BIG bench seats.

[JasonInAugusta]

This is something I used in another car and wanted to carry over to the Chevelle - a set of VU meters.

These meters were sold as Denon units. I picked it up on ebay and then found out it was (apparently) a fake. I ended up buy a new circuit board for it and painted the interior plastic pieces matte black instead of the way it came with white plastic internals around the meters. The matte black just helps the meters look like they belong in the dash.

Behind the meters sits a pair of Audison Voce AV X5 5 1/4" coaxes. I made a mounting plate to stick the pair in the factory 4x10 location. A new piece of black grille cloth over the mounting plate keeps the coaxes hidden through the factory grille opening in the dash.

[naiku]

Pics just don't do this thing justice. I'm looking forward to seeing more

Agreed, such a cool car.

[Holmz]

The problem with VU meters is that people often do not believe that the power can be that low...