That's crazy.. I love it!! Hope I can see/hear your truck in person someday..

 

Hows the build going? Its gonna be nice I can tell. I am gonna use Second skin to do my F250. I plan to buy 5 gal of the spray & under coat the truck & then spray the inside floor & inside the doors. ANT said it was good plan. I'll add the pad over the spray. I'll add more when I get the money but doing the floor will really help.

 

lost wages isn't too far for us. Might have too see what is around for shows when it's done

She is on hold for a little bit. have about $1000 in power wire to buy then I want to produce my own digital fuse holders. Smallest order they will do for me is 200 units. Price isn't too bad per unit, but picking up 200 isn't easy. I'm sure I can blow the rest out. Just gotta afford the order

Can't go wrong with the SS products. i have been very happy with them even without a system in the truck.

 

I agree on the sound deadening. I've done 2 trucks real well. The cab was completely covered &I filled the cab voids with expanding foam. The quiet & noise reduction were worth the time ,labor & cost. Plus it made my stereo sound twice as loud. Its a great mod. I know about putting a build on hold. Its just part of building on a budget. I just keep adding parts as I can afford them. I keep my trucks for many years so I have time.

 

So I did some thinking out loud today. Was trying to decide what I was going to need for wire so I can order some up. But I need to decide how it is going to enter into the truck and where. 16 subs will eat up a good amount of room in the back so it will really limit on where I can put the amps. I was thinking of dividing them 4 and 4 on the front and rear of the box molded into the box. The front won't be too bad, but the rear may be a pain with the addition of the port. The other idea is to do them under the box. Not the best way to show them off but I was thinking about a pull out tray for the 4 in the rear.

8 HF-2500.1 really don't take up too much room once I laid them out.



At any rate, it's a good amount of wire from the alts to the battery racks and then to the amps. The trick will be figuring out how to feed all 8 amps from the batteries under the truck along the frame rails.

 

Are you making the enclosure out of fiberglass or MDF?

I always thought it would be cool to put the amps down the center kinda stacked on eachother at an angle (like scales on a reptile), then have the subs face the center (even number on each side). From the back it would look kinda like a valley down the center with the amps starting higher (towards the front of the vehicle) and ending about floor level (at the back of the vehicle). It would be a very intricate box.

Two others would be the amps on the ceiling (PITA to mount), and amps in the window openings (ther is about a 6" space that you could do some fancy fiberglassing to recess them in there).

I know that these ideas are over the top, but from what I have seen with the rest of your build you should be able to handle anything you really want to do.

Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

The box is going to be a combo of birch and glass. Going with as many subs as I am, I need all the airspace I can get. I want to grab as much space around the wells and AC unit as I can. I am sure I will change my mind about 100 times on the placement of the amps as I get the box going.

Each of the amps have dual power and ground inputs so that's a whole bunch of wires all over the place. I might try a few tricks with some buss bars I have and the fuse holders to make some sort of power race track.

 

I can't wait to see what you come up with (and how you do it, so don't forget the pics . I think a buss bar would be the way to go.

Where are all of your batteries going to go?

 

Have you thought about using HPDE Conduit under the truck. It comes in any size from 1" to 12" and many wall thicknesses. It is plastic pipe, but somewhat flexible. Electrical Nonmetalic Tubing(ENT) would be another alternative. It is corregated and flexible, also plastic, but would not offer as much protection as a thick wall HDPE. You could run all your power through it and not be concerned with shorts. You could hang it somewhere in all that space along the frame. Also there is ample room under the EX to bulid a batttery rack.

 

I will be making batteries racks to hang under the truck at the frame rails on both sides. It's going to be tight but, it will have 4 batteries along both sides and will have bussbars to tie them all together.

The conduit is a pretty cool trick. I have used in installs where ground clearance was an issue. I also like to stay away from car audio type power wire and go with a good OFC welding cable as the jackets are a little better off in the elements.

The rack will take up most of the run under the truck then each side will have 2 runs each of 4/0 wire from the alts to the racks and then 4 runs of 4/0 from the battery racks to the amp racks. The last part I need to decide on is where my pass through bolts will be in the back

I finally got over being pissed about the doors and decided to get working on them again. I ended up redoing the whole damn thing because the speakers bottomed out before sitting in the holes .









I took a few days off to help a member of another forum install his system.

Blackedout's DAT 08 Civic SI trunk rebuild (56K... Probably not) - SMD Forum

 

Well after much dickin around on other projects, I decided to put some time in on the truck again.

So I spent some time sanding these down and really working them over for some paint. As well know wrapping is way easier to cover the crap you didn't want to take the time to smooth out



I also decided to add some Second Skin LLP where the factory foam was on the back of the doors. It makes for a tight fit, but takes all the rattle out.







Figures I would have a pic of it all done up and it already be dirty.



I left off the arm support covers as these will get rewrapped.



Now the black grille cloth is all I have right now. Once I find a tan to match, I will re cover them.

Now the last little trick to do to help seal the doors is to fill the gap in the weather stripping with backer rod window sealant. It's a tricky process and I find it easier to do with fish rods to help pull the material through. The other thing to do is use a silicone spray to help it through.



These doors shut like a brand new truck again

 

So, did you wrap that whole panel, or did you paint it? Please take some pics of the process of wrapping the upper arm rest cover. I don't know if I am 100% happy with the paint job I did on mine, and kind of want to leather wrap them.

Also, what made you use the foam door seal stuff in the weather stripping instead of the vinyl tubing (3/8" OD x 1/4" ID)? I am getting ready to do that mod.

By the way, welcome back, and I am glad that you didn't forget about this awesome build thread.

Have a good one,

GregN

 

Greg.

Thanks.

Every time i get to working on this, 10 more things come up to take me back off it.

I went ahead and painted them. I had covered one in vinyl from a stock color and pattern, however once it was on, I wasn't too happy with it. So I pulled it and there it sat for awhile. I started working with some textured paints as well as about a mixture of 3 different colors to get this sand finish I was looking for. It's for sure a one of a kind, but will require me to match the rest of the plastic in the truck. It's very time consuming so I will do it as time permits.

I haven't wrapped the arm rests yet because I have misplaced one. So if I can't find it in the next few weeks I will head down to the wreckin yard for new ones. Haven't decided if I will do a material wrap on them or get the hard plastic and have them dipped in a custom pattern.

I used the foam because its a little more rigid then the tubing. However the tubing is way easier to slide in then the foam

 

If you are going to have a box taking up the rear but not to the ceiling, like the video where it is below the rear window. why not try molding them in to the headliner you would have more then a few pilers to run wiring? just an idea?

 

The box will be similar to the style in the past install. Under the window line, and this time, molded into the sides for a tighter fit. Molding the amps into the headliner would work better if it was just for show. With the amount of bass, shaking, and flexing that is going to happen, it would make it hard to support the weight as well as support it all with the conditions that the amps will encounter on a daily basis. It would look sick to have them up there like that, but fiber-glassing over head would really suck.

I haven't fully decided on how the amps will fit in the whole setup. In one way or another, they will be on display when the truck is open.