#71
That's some damn sweet looking nothing.
#72
Does this mean you’ll be selling the Alpines?
Wink wink nudge nudge
#73
Originally Posted by TheTodd
Yep, if you're interested shoot me a message. I'll gladly meet somewhere to save shipping!
#74
Ordered everything I needed to swap out the amps, looks like that should all be here by Wednesday, so pulled the Alpines earlier and mounted the SIQ amps:
I'm likely going to mount the distribution blocks on the top this time, with the much MUCH heavier SIQ amps, I'd be concerned about the weight pushing down on any wiring underneath, plus having to run the extra wire, I figure it made more sense to go on top. Thinking of putting them in the colored blocks on the image, the orange dot at the top is the ground location, so about a 2' run to the distribution block on that side, the battery run comes in on the right, so the power block can be there.
The yellow rectangle at the top is where I am thinking, hoping, to be able to mount the DSP. Have to think about that though for a bit.
#75
A productive few days, Wednesday the new power and ground wire arrived, as well as all the distribution blocks. Initially, I used the same grommet as the 4GA, while the 1/0 fit, the grommet was not going back on and the wire being against bare metal bothered me. So, reluctantly I pulled it back out and searched for a new way to get through. Eventually, discovered a large grommet with factory wiring passing through and enough room to the side for the 1/0. After careful poking a hole, then really really carefully drilling, I managed to get the wire through, now secure in a rubber grommet. Getting it to the trunk was fairly straight forward, but I need to remove the B pillar as the seat belt is not retracting properly. First time working with 1/0 gauge wire, that shit is annoying, refuses to bend, twist or do anything other than what it wants really.
With that done, moved onto getting all the wiring sorted on the board. I ended up adding a small piece at the top for the MiniDSP which seems to work out nicely. Here is the final layout, just missing speaker wire.
At that point, it was ready to go back into the car. Hooked up all the speaker wires, fought a little with the ground wire (added bonus, a little ground noise I had is now gone) and nervously since I had pretty much pulled everything, turned on the ignition. Some nice little clicks from the SI amps, green lights on all 3 and the little LED's inside all lit up. Felt nice pulling off the protective covers and seeing all the shiny pieces.
For now, I just approximately set the gains, using an existing tune from the old set up it sounds fucking killer. The sub is loving the additional power and definitively got the wife approval factor (had her sit in for a quick demo). Tomorrow, I'll likely work on a new tune although I am reluctant to start, even though I have 3 presets spare, the one sounds good, sort of an if it ain't broke situation.
One issue I ran into was the factory false floor no longer closes properly, towards the middle of it is a section that is raised about 1.5" or so that hit the top of the amps. Not a big deal, I just set the wooden one in there with no carpet and put the plastic trunk mat over it to conceal it some. I also added some metal bracing, seen here.
Nothing fancy, just to give that area some strength as the subwoofer sits on top of that piece. I ordered a piece of plexi the other day, hopefully that will arrive later this week, think I have also found a decent carpet match that I can be happy with as well. So, get that finished in the next couple weeks and then this can be done!
One thing I kept saying while working on this the last few weeks, I cannot wait for my garage to be built. While I have room in the existing one, it's a constant struggle moving around without knocking into something (usually my bike handle). Having that extra room is going to be glorious.
#76
Looking good! Can’t wait to get my new amps… and get a listen to these, of course.
#77
So, the carpet sample card I ordered has still not arrived, however I did get them to send me a sample of the 1 color they had in stock, as luck would have it, it's a pretty dang good match. So, went ahead and ordered a yard of carpet, that arrived earlier this week and so today I started wrapping the floor pieces.
After I wrapped this piece, I realized that I needed to order 2 yards. I'm about 8" too short with the remaining carpet I have left to finish the floor, but, lemons into lemonade, I figure with the spare carpet I'll re-wrap the subwoofer enclosure since that is a much darker black, that way everything should match nicely. I think I need to trim a small amount off the 2nd piece of the floor, it fits, but barely and I suspect when I add carpet, barely fitting will become not fitting. I also removed the hinge for now, it was on the top, which would have made carpeting tricky, I may eventually put a hinge underneath, but we'll see.
An LED strip should also be on it's way, so that along with the plexi and this should be all wrapped up in a couple weeks. I'm unsure on the plexi window yet, I do want to use it, just not yet wrapped my head around mounting it without buying tools I don't already have (and learning new skills, those are also useful).
#78
I see the finish line!!!
The remaining carpet arrived early yesterday, so went ahead and wrapped the remaining floor piece as well as a press fit type of panel that lifts off to show the amplifier beneath:
There is a slight difference between the 2 batches of carpet, it's less noticeable in person (thankfully). There's a small piece near the tailgate opening in the center that I may try to pull and smooth a little, it was getting close to the edge there so did not wrap around as much as I would have liked.
As you can also see, the lights came in, for now they are just plugged into that 12V outlet in the trunk. Unfortunately, that is constant 12V so I have to unplug them, it's not a big deal though. At some point I may hard wire the lights to a switch underneath the panel, but given they will likely only actually be used at meets and not all the time, I may just leave it plugged into that outlet when I want to use them. Last thing left to do is to remove the carpet from the subwoofer enclosure and wrap it in the matching carpet as the floor, I'll probably work on that later this week.
Overall, pretty happy with the end result. In the past I have never really bothered with trying to make things look all that neat/presentable in the trunk, just gone for functional and since it is typically hidden, not really worried about how it looks. So, for me, I'm happy with the result, if I were to do it again, there are a couple small details I would likely try to improve on, but that's just me being picky.
Of course, one thing I do need to figure out next, since installing the SI amps I have developed a new rattle somewhere in the passenger door during piano notes!!
#79
That is phenomenal! Excellent work!
Are you not entertained?!?!
#80
Very nice!
This is the next step in my false floor project, and for whatever reason I keep procrastinating..
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