I bought another Neon...

[JayinMI]

So, back in December 2019 I was missing having a manual transmission car. Started looking for something cheapish...
Hit up Neons.Org and found a '99 Expresso Coupe like 2 miles from my parent's house that I managed to pick up for $550.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

This was the day I got it, after the PO delivered it to me. At this time, the speedo/odometer didn't work, the reverse lights didn't work and the sunroof was F'd.
There were more issues, but those were the big ones. I got those all fixed a couple months later.

Last summer, I decided to replace the roof skin with a hardtop skin to delete the sunroof in preparation for putting a system in the car.
I took 3 times to get it done (the first 2 I tried to short cut and it bit me in the butt.)

Fail #1

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Fail #2

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Success!

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Since I had some extra roof cuts lying around, I added an additional roof brace to the mix.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Then came body work, rust repair and paint:

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Even the door jambs:

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Painted in my garage with a 26 gallon Harbor Freight compressor and TCP Global single stage paint.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Export tail lights

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Mostly back together, had to source some windows at this point:

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Taa-daa!

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lol.


She's about a 3 footer, but not bad for my first complete paint job.

Audio work updates, soon!

Jay

[Notloudenuf]

Nice job! Color me impressed

[chithead]

Very cool! I'm digging it!

[JayinMI]

My initial plan was a budget build using the 8to12 Aero I had lying around, some Sony GS 3 ways I got from work for cheap and an Arc X2 1200.6 I also got a deal on at work.
Subs are 2 Audio Dynamics 2208's. I've since added an Arc X2 600.4 and some Dayton CX120-8 point source coaxes for rear fill duty...they may or may not stay, but I wanted to try them out.
Then I decided I might want to compete in Install class, which caused me to spend even more money. lol

I added about 14 square feet of Resonix squares to the roof. The roof braces are all filled with expanding foam, to keep them from vibrating off the roof skin itself.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Then I added a layer of Second Skin hydrophobic Melamine foam between that and the headliner. I had this for over a year before using it and bought it before Nick came out with
his Resonix melamine foam.

For the headliner, I used the Sunroof headliner, and filled the hole before wrapping it in faux suede from Yourautotrim.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

By using this one instead of the hardtop headliner I also had, I got to keep the little bulge where the sunroof controls used to be...which is where the Mosconi Mini RC will go.
Since the Mini RC can be controlled by an Alpine RUE-4202 remote, I decided I'm going to implement that once I finish the steering wheel controls.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Some time ago, I designed new buttons to fit in the cruise control button pods on the Neon steering wheel. These will either get integrated with an Arduino, or perhaps a couple of Maestro SW's...One to do volume and maybe sub controls via the Mini RC and one to control track/tuning/etc. on my Pioneer 6220BS (or 8800BHS I may upgrade to.) I thoughtt it would be kind of cool to have volume change via the processor directly. I did something similar in my Kia.

Jay

[JayinMI]

Next I ran all my wiring so I could handle the things on the floor. All of the wiring is in Techflex, ziptied every 6" or less to metal tabs bolted to the floor via M4-.7 rivnuts and security torx machine screws.

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The speaker wires are all terminated with XT30 and XT60 connectors. Speaker wire is Sky High Car Audio OFC in 14 and 12ga. I used it because it was available in green/black.



I made my own RCA's using Mogami 2965 coax, Rean 352 ends and Forest Green Techflex. Ends are soldered with WBT silver solder. I also made a coax digital cable using Mogami 2964.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

I ran all the wiriring to finalize routing, then pulled it all back out and deadened the floor. First a layer of Stinger Expert (I had 108sq ft...I'm saving the 50ish feet of Resonix I have left for the critical areas.)

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

Then I went over that with a layer of Sonic Barrier MX4 I had left over from the Mazda build. Let me say this: This stuff is absolute garbage. In the Mazda I found that it oozes over time and doesn't do much for deadening over time. But I had it and I wanted it more for the closed cell foam as a decoupler, besides, it's on the floor...where is it going to ooze to? lol. I had like 8 sq ft of Stinger Ultimate and between the two I had enough to do the whole floor from front to back seat.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

The power/ground wire is Knu Konceptz Kolussus Flex OFC cable. I used my TemCo hydraulic crimper for the rings. All in Techflex.

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Here's some pics of the wiring runs before I installed the new carpet.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

I ordered a new carpet kit and paid extra to have the MLV option bonded to the bottom of it. It was the darkest gray option they had, but it wasn't very dark.

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But then it was. lol...I hated having to dye a brand new carpet kit, but I also didn't want to send it back.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

The other reason for ordering a new carpet kit was it didn't have the hole for the cable trunk release. I removed mine and added a power trunk latch from a 2nd Gen Neon.

by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

It came out OK. I also made new mounts for my 2nd Gen Neon center console. It basically adds a third, bigger cup holder to hold more modern sized drinks. lol

So, now the roof and floor are done. I need to do the rear deck and quarter panels so the interior will be nearly done.

Jay

[JayinMI]

I haven't gotten to the doors yet, but I got ahead of the game for when I do. I wanted to stiffen up the mounts for the speakers...so I ordered some laser cut steel rings for mounting from Send Cut Send. Can't say enough good things about them. I think from design and order to receipt was like 3 days.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

They're set up to mount to the door with 12 M6-1.0 bolts (with lock nuts) I made duplicated of 1/4" ABS to give me a total thickness of 1/2". It also gives me the option of taking out the ABS spacer in case I need the room for future upgrades. Currently, I plan to upgrade to Karma Mobile Audio in the future.

Untitled by Jay McGraw, on Flickr

The doors will get ABS or Kydex panels to seal up access holes, and some Resonix squares, as well as Blackhole tiles. (Bought before Resonix's similar product because available.)

The quarter panels are going to get stuffed with rock wool, sealed up with kydex panels and deadened. I have a few yards of Resonix CCF7 as well.

In almost 30 years of doing car audio professionally, this is the most effort I've ever put into deadening/sound proofing one of my cars. lol

Man, these audiobooks are going to sound amazing! haha

[chithead]

Wholly moly! That is impressive. The dampening, wiring, body and interior modifications - all of it! Really cool how you're trying to keep it all a factory appearance as well.

[JayinMI]

I haven't picked a final design for the trunk/amp rack...I'm between doing a late 90's style carpet monster (to keep it basically period correct) and using some of the specialty tools I've bought and doing something cool and up-to-date. I also have a double din dash bezel I built for my last Neon, so I may switch up to my old Car Play radio from the Mazda.

[JayinMI]

I haven't been idle, but with the sun, no tint, and weather in the mid to upper 80's, working on this sucks. lol I bought a 10x10 pop up tent, so hopefully that will help mitigate it some.
Anyway, I've been deadening.

I got a couple of Resonix squares on the outer skin of the quarters...basically all I could reach. Then I stuffed the quarters with Rockwool.



Then I made some block off plates from 1/4" Kydex. I just used stainless self tappers to hold them on because there's nothing I need to service in there.


I also made some block off plates for the strengthening ribs in the rear deck.





And then everything got deadened again...



This made the sun worse. I imagine working in this car is akin to some kid trying to burn me with a magnifying glass like ants. lol I also put rivnuts in so that I can bolt the 6x9 plates in from the bottom without having to gut the back half of the interior if I make changes.

I followed that up by deadening the back side of the inside quarter panel, and then went over that with Resonix CCF7.








I also wrapped edges in CCF7 where they might come in contact with any non-soft surface, like near the back window and around the side windows.



And that's when I found out the tolerences on that styrofoam block on the back of those panels were tight enough that they don't fit anymore. lol
Going to try to fix that this weekend.

Jay

[Notloudenuf]

I like how the rear deck indentation looks like a knockoff JL Audio logo.
I appreciate the work you are putting in! I'm looking forward to more.