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Ok My Nipples Are Hard....

Discussion in 'Subwoofer Box and Custom Fabrication' started by Willy D, Nov 8, 2006.

  1. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    Figured I would get some attention with that title....but seriously....

    I have been away from car audio stuff for quite a while....After coming here for about a week now, I am changing my plans for my system somewhat..I am keeping all the components that I listed, but I am gonna do a little custom thing.. the only place I can at this point....

    My truck ('95 1500 chevy extended cab) has quite a bit of room behind the rear seat, so I think I am gonna build me an amp rack....Right now, my Blaupunkt is under the driver's seat....I plan to get another amp for the sub (probably the mono kenwood)....I had been contemplating where to mount my front speaker passive crossovers and I was gonna stick the kenwood on the back wall so.....what the hell......Gonna build a rack and put both amps and crossovers inside....Probably gonna buy a distro box for power and maybe ground and put it all neatly in this box....I went out just now and looked at the space back there and I think I am gonna make the box go fully from one side to the other and form fit it on the sides to look like it belongs there....The plastic trim on the sides and the top of where the box is gonna sit is gray plastic...I think I am gonna go with a nice gray vinyl to cover it the amp rack....it would match the trim better than carpet I think....

    I would prefer to custom fit around each amp leaving no wiring connections exposed...in my last car system I did, I had the two kenwood amps and I custom fit around each one leaving only the heat sink fins showing...At each end of the diagonals of that box I installed a tiny 12 v fan...One pushing air into the box and the other pulling..I wired a relay and made them come on with the amps powering up.....

    When time for the build comes i may seek some advice on this vinyl and how to fit it the best....now I am stoked.....I gotta get this second amp and lay all my stuff out now and make some plans......

    Cool

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 8, 2006
    #1
  2. TheViking

    TheViking Well-Known Member

    The only thing about those trucks i dont like is the location for the HU. Otherwise they can have some really nice things done to them...

    I remember doing a very high end system in one years ago. It was all orion except for the front speakers, i believe I used Soundstreams. rebuilt the door panels for 2 6 inchers in each door, you know, the usual fibreglasse/vinyle/flush grill type thing. In the dash the tweeters went. I remember running them fairly low on the x-over point (didnt use the SS x-overs) made plates that angled the tweeters towards the back of the truck, more on axis. the factory grill was raped and gutted to do away with the plastic grill section, so as to help eliminate diffraction., then recovered in grill cloth. the subs were 2 twelve inch Orions, the XTR12DVC, vented box in the rear, subs firing forward along with the vents. on top was the amp rack which housed a couple of 250 HCCA's for the subs, and a 2150 SX for the highs.. x-over was the 200 crx, driven by a 300 prq preamp. All done up in vinyle/flush amps/press fit sub grilles/plexiglass blah blah blah......Looked great, sounded VERY good. It won a few regional iasca events. the imaging and staging was on par with some of the best systems of the time. I dont remember the HU, but i am pretty sure it would have been a Clarion pro audio unit of the era...

    just remembering the past!!!!

    Its amazing how some of this comes back to me after all these years!!!!!


    I should tell yall about the 30,000 dollar S-10 i did!!!!!! That was a freekin kick-ass/nightmare project!!!!!
     
    TheViking, Nov 8, 2006
    #2
  3. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    wow.....sounds awesome......Mine aint gonna be near that nice....pretty plain jane.....You guys amaze me with your install/fab abilities......very cool....

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 8, 2006
    #3
  4. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    What I would like to do is have the amp rack look like it was supposed to be there all along....It is pretty much gonna be out of sight to eyes looking in from the outside...I would love to conpletely hide everything under a cover but make sure I can access stuff for a while after I install to get it dialed in...I may adjust things for SQ after driving and listening for a while...or if I leave parts of it visible, I want just to see the components and no wires...You know...Kinda like if I have a distro box, you see the box and the wires pop in and out of it, just as much as has to be seen, but not leading up to it and way from it....

    Just kickin around ideas and thoughts....Any suggestions as to what you would do with keeping it pretty basic...

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 9, 2006
    #4
  5. TheViking

    TheViking Well-Known Member

    Well, one of the easiest thing to do is build your enclosure to fit in the back, keeping in mind you will want to mount the amps/disto blocks/componennts on top. make the box so that the sides extend up above the height of the tallest component by about an inch. with the actual top of the box being where the amps are mounted, they will be sitting down below the sides. then get yourself a piano hinge and attach it to the box along with the top to hide it all....then simply tilt the top up to access everything, of course forced air cooling is a must in this design. Can be covered in carpet, vinyle, laminate, etc......
     
    TheViking, Nov 9, 2006
    #5
  6. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    Another thing I thought of doing was this.....

    Pull that carpet off the back wall loose as you suggested and glue pieces of 5/8" plywood strips running up and down. Maybe use 4 wide ones spaced across the width...Then build my amp rack box leaving an air space between wood that screws into the strips and the wood surface that the components attatch to....Run all my wiring in that air space and drill holes near each component, so the wires look like that just pop through the rack and attatch to each respective terminal, so that gives a real neat appearance to the components without showing all the wiring.....In other words all the stuff would just be surface mounted onto a false back wall to hide all wiring...This would give me easy access to gains, etc...Eliminate the need for cooling and make it easy for people to see the stuff when the rear seat is folded forward..

    That makes for a nice, neat, simple rack....

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 9, 2006
    #6
  7. clipser-gs-t

    clipser-gs-t Full Member

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    clipser-gs-t, Nov 9, 2006
    #7
  8. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    Take a piece of 5/8" plywood and make it cover most of the area of the existing carpet (about 48" wide and 16" tall) remove the existing carpet and save it.... On this piece of 5/8" plywood, glue strips of wood from top to bottom (maybe space four of them across). Make these strips 1" thick to give the airspace. Take another piece of 5/8" plywood and make it conform to the space and use the carpet to cover it.....Mount components onto this board drilling holes where wiring has to come through....Mount this board in front of the glued up board by screwing wood screws through the board into the 1" strips underneath....

    The space available that I measure is 4.75" from the exisitng back wall to the back of the seat....False wall would measure (thickness) of about 2.25" giving me about 2.5" for the thckness of components.....

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 9, 2006
    #8
  9. TheViking

    TheViking Well-Known Member

    That would work quite well actually. I was thinking you wanted most everything hidden from view......
     
    TheViking, Nov 9, 2006
    #9
  10. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    clipser.....

    that is cool.....

    beam me up Scotty.....

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 9, 2006
    #10
  11. Willy D

    Willy D Full Member

    Well....In the everyday use of the truck the seat is in the upright position...Nothing visible.....If someone wanted to see the stuff, I fold down the back of the seat and wallah!! There is the stuff sitting there, easy to see, easy to adjust...Secured and neatly connected.....If I were really gonna go all out and customize things, I might want to do a little more, but this would keep it basic and simple....

    Willy
     
    Willy D, Nov 9, 2006
    #11