1999 Chevrolet Blazer

[gckless]

So, build has been complete for a few months now, but I just joined the site and figured I would throw this up there, especially since I might be changing stuff soon. Here’s a brief rundown of the notable pieces:

Pioneer DEH-80PRS – Head unit
Vifa NE25VTS-04 - Tweeters
Exodus Anarchy – Mids
Custom 3HP 15” – Subs
PSI 18” passive radiator – Passive Radiators
DC Power Inc 270XP – Alternator
Sears Diehard Platinum – Batteries
KnuKonceptz and Sky High Car Audio – Wiring

Goal for this build is basically the definition of SQL. Don’t plan on seeing a meter other than to just see where I am once or twice, haven't yet. I wanted it to sound great first and foremost, and it does that.

I will just be copying and pasting, so most posts will be in present-tense, but all this is done. There's a LOT of pictures incoming, so be patient with the posts.

Here’s the ride when I bought it. I have since taken off the roof rack:



First up, Pioneer DEH-80PRS. This was in my last ride, love this HU. Will be the first time running it active. Planning to cross at 63Hz and 2kHz. Will be using an iPod/iPhone via USB most of the time, don’t really use CD’s.









For my tweeters, I’m using Vifa NE25VTS-04’s. Frequency charts look good, usable down to 1.5kHz with a fairly flat response. In the A pillars, aimed at opposite headrests. Guess I never really took good photos of these. Not a huge loss, they’re not that special. You’ll see them more later on.

[gckless]

A pair of Exodus Anarchy’s will be used for mids. 125W RMS @ 8ohms, XBL^2 underhung design, they be some beefy guys. These will be going in the stock location in the doors, but some work will have to be done to fit them.

Thread found here: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/sh...Exodus-Anarchy

















Compared to some Polk dB651's I have:

[gckless]

For my subs, I have a pair of custom built 3HP 15” subs, built by Zeuslicious. Modded 3hp tall top plate and 3-1" magnet slugs instead the regular .75", dual 1 ohms big ww and 8 layer fw aluminum coil, dual spaced TC spiders and DD 8" Carbon Fiber cap. Rated at 1800W RMS. I polished the magnets. Will be mounting these inverted.

Thread found here: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/sh...w-custom-3HP-s

















Here is a before/after comparison:





They turned out well. Just need to clear coat them now, and I'll be done with them.

[gckless]

For this build I will be using passive radiators. Was gonna go ported, but [MENTION=20]neo_styles[/MENTION] talked me into it. These are 18” PR’s built by Dave at PSI. He’s a good dude, can’t say enough about the customer service over there. And these are beautiful. 3.5” p-p travel, carbon fiber caps, dual spiders to handle the power, green logo.

Plan on playing around with tuning quite a bit. My first tune will be at 23Hz, and I’ll go from there.

Thread found here: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/sh...sive-Radiators



















Here is the box design:



9 cubes gross, with displacements should bring me down to right around 8.5 net. I'm going to mount inverted, and being a bit bigger leaves me room to mount normally if I need/want to. It also will fit right in between the wheel wells, no building over the wells bullshit. About 6" from the hatch.

[gckless]

For power up front, I’ll be running a Zed Audio Leviathan III. Channels 1 and 2 will be tweets, and channels 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 will be bridged for a Anarchy for each pair of channels. So I have 190W RMS @ 4ohms for each tweeter, and 380W RMS @ 8ohms for each mid. Power is not an issue

Got this through [MENTION=142]Vertex Audio[/MENTION]'s trade-in program. Traded in my DC 175.4 and pair of DC Level 3 10's, and I paid very little cash.

Thread is here: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/sh...-Leviathan-III

[gckless]

For sub power, I’ll be using a DC 5.0k. Will be mounted upside-down. I made a plexi back and am showing off those guts.

















Compared to a 2.0k:



Plexi:

[gckless]

Now for pretty much the only work I have done, my A pillars. I Bondo’d in some PVC, flocked them, and installed them in the vehicle. They look pretty good and the finish is holding up pretty well so far.

Thread: http://mobileaudioforum.com/forum/sh...illars-Flocked!

First, I cut the PVC to where they would sit semi-flush, and aim at the opposite headrests. This was done with a dremel. I had originally planned on using a flush-mount baffle, but [MENTION=8]keep_hope_alive[/MENTION] recommended against it, due to the lip on the flush-mount.



Then, took them down to the car and aimed them. Tacked them with superglue.



Added some Bondo. Decided not to use fiberglass because of the relatively small amount I needed here.



This was after a little filling and sanding work, maybe like 4 sessions with Bondo. There were a few pits in it, and I was pretty fed up with Bondo at that point lol, so I just used wood glue to dab on and fill those pits, then sanded it smooth.



After some coats of paint/primer and some sanding, I had this.





Not horrible, but still some imperfections. But, if I was just going to keep it a spray paint, I could have worked those out.

But I decided to try flocking them. Flock is finely ground material, can be a bunch of things like ribbon, fabric, PVC, feather, a lot of things. Not a whole lot of prep work needs to be done besides getting the surface fairly smooth. You also need to paint it the color of the flock, the end goal color, if you want it a solid color. I used clear glue, so that shows through. You may also get colored glue, or paint the surface a separate color for an effect.

Anyway, here are the products I used. Found them at Michael's, it's called "embossing powder". They looked at me like I was speaking Thai when I said "flock".



So here I tried a test patch on the back of the pillars. The process is simple: you brush on the glue, then sprinkle on the powder. They sell a kind of shooter for the powder, and I also think you can spray it on with an airbrush, which would probably yield better results. But I just sprinkled it on.



Then just tapped it off the next day.

[gckless]

Now I knew it was go time. Took the whole pillar, spread the glue all over it. You want to use a good amount, want to make sure every part you want flock on covered. And then when you're applying, you want to turn the piece so that it's horizontal, so gravity does work for you. If you just let it fall off the side, it doesn't stick as good. Here's where the airbrush or shooter would come in handy. You also want to put paper or something underneath, because you can reclaim the excess flock when you're done. When I was applying, I used about 3.5 of those little jars. After I reclaimed, it turned out that only less than 1 actually stuck on there.



You have to make sure not to touch it AT ALL after you apply. If you happen to accidentally touch it, throw some flock on the exposed glue. You can then gently dab out the mark as best you can. I know because I did this

You also need to make sure to let the glue fully dry. Best to let it sit a full day before you even think about touching it. Didn't seem to try until day 2 for me.

After it's dry, just hold it up, and tap off the excess. You can brush it off the surface at this point, most of it should be stuck on by now. Here's what the finished product looks like.









I think it turned out pretty good. It's something different, and wasn't too much work. I have a couple little spots I can dab glue and touch up with some flock, but all in all I'm happy with it. The texture is somewhere in the middle of suede and sandpaper.

Here they are installed:

[gckless]

Worked the small panel where my tape player is. Tape player will be coming out.



That panel pops right off, and I cut a small piece of plastic and worked some Bondo in there.





This is where I will be putting my meters, the USB connection for the 80PRS, my PAC LC-1, and possibly other switches/electronic stuff.

Also ordered a dual ammeter/voltmeter gauge and shunt. Going to try it out, see if I can make it work. Ordered these ones:

DC 0 100V 0 500A Dual LED Digital Volt Meter Ammeter Voltage Amp Power F 12V Car | eBay
500A 75mV DC Current Shunt Resistor for Amp Panel Meter | eBay

[gckless]

Dat wire





KnuKonceptz Kolossus Fleks Kandy cable. 50ft of 1/0ga, 10ft of 4ga, and 16ft of 8ga, all OFC. 4ga for my Levi, 8ga from sub amp to box, 1/0 for everything else to include 2 positive runs front to rear. This is half of the wire I need, this is all my positive. Need an equal amount in black for negative. Will be getting Sky High Car Audio wire from Jim.

Also determined I need to make the amp rack myself, so I'll be picking up a few hand saws this weekend. May end up making my box too depending on how the amp rack goes. Anyone try the Craftsman bolt-on kit (http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_101...00916496000P)? Gonna try it out, gonna get the drill, router, jigsaw, and sander attachments. Going to get a seperate 20V trim saw that will cut 45's as well.