onebadmonte

I would have made the same face if I had a monkey on my head. Cool pics, glad to see you all out and having fun.

With the batteries up in place it was time to connect the cables from the alternators to the battery bank. In getting ready to make the connections I was stopped in my tracks. The fuse panel thingie that I made to go inbetween the alternators and batteries was in bad shape. Here are a couple of pics of the item and location in question. The fuse holder panel. Fuse holder panel in position. Here is said part after a year. I think what really did this part in is for Christmas I drove the Suburban to El Paso. It was a freezing drive, I-10 was salted to keep the ice to a minimum. Here are some more pics of what I had to work with. The backside. I used a wire cup on the drill press to knock off the lose paint and rust. I followed up with a scotch brite pad to get into the corners. Lastly I followed up with some metal conditioner to neutalize the rust and prep the bare metal for paint. Here is what I used. Here is the part in my quick drying contraption. This is what the part looked like before painting. A close up of the neutralized rust, well sort of. There is still a little bit of rust red in there. When properly done all of the rust should be a black color. Another treatment would have gotten all done right. My quick drying contraption in action again getting the job done with the fuse holder panel painted. The finished part, ready for installation. DOUBLE UPDATE!!!!!!! A little something extra for tonight. Some of you know, some don't, but the front stage was being powered by a Crescendo 1000c4. I sold it. Now here is what's taking it's place. Yes sir, today we merge the old school with the modern era. A US Acoustics USB-2080 (2x80) for the components, and a US Acoustics USB-2150 (2x150) for the mid-bass. One last pic at a funny angle to make you tilt you head to the side as you look at it. The end is near.

IB for the front stage. Thanks, with out the details it's nothing.

Hey man, where've you been. I've been waiting for you to drop by and say hello. Glad you're liking the build. Now where's my Chico's? Thanks bro.You know me, just trying to keep up with the Joneses, or in my case the Meads, with No E. As for taking a listen, I give up on saying this weekend. I'm gonna just put it a month out. Maybe I can make it to the June Heatwave Show in Houston. Will you be there?

Thanks bro. At this point my only goal is to get the thing done. When I first started the project the goal was to be able to have some sweet sweet SQ. Hence the front stage and the MS8. And to be able to break the 150's on the TL/SPL Labs Meter. The SQ part was pretty easy, it's the breaking 150 that's kicking my ass. The box is tuned low, 28Hz-ish, versus what the cabin resonates at, which is around 44Hz. Then to top it off the cabin volume is around 240cuft. So I've got my work cut out for me. The fuse holders are from Scosche. Here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-EWFH-Single-Fuse-Holder/dp/B000KIR8M0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336487598&sr=8-2 Thanks. Getting closer and closer everyday.

???? Drawing up a little writers block. Well, I was off the grid for a couple of days. I'm back now, trying to get things rolling. I last left off with the box done with the subs in place. Before the box can go in the amp power cables will need to be replaced. The new box is a few whiskers bigger than the old box hence why the power cables need replacing. How about some pics? I started off by laying out, highlighted in white, the size and location of the new cutout. Here the floor insulation has been cut to size to show how much of the floor needs to be cut. A little jig saw action to cut the sheet metal. Another fine opportunity. The floor sheetmetal is spot welded to a vertical panel on the underside of the Suburban. At this point the vertical panel is gonna need to come out as well. This is so the cables have enough clearance to loop around the bottom panel and come up and through the floor. This time around I did not have a fancy tool to cut out the vertical panel. I went old school with some tin snip a hacksaw blade and the ever impressive mini sledge and chisle. The carnage afterwards. With the sheet metal out of the way. I used some of my fancy cable holders to route the power cables. The cable holders will also keep the cables from rubbing on the sheet metal. This shot is looking down through the floor at the cables. This shot is looking from the ground up at the cables before the batteries are in place. Alot of cable snaking around going on here. With the cable opening all figured out the batteries can go back in. Here is a little action shot of the batteries going back in. The new cables in place waiting for the new floor cover. and here is the cable cover in place. The silicon job is a little messy on this one. Another shot of the finished cable job. Think, box going in place for the next update or the quickest way to get a hernia. Someone asked what paint I used for the box. Here it is. I used two coats about an hour apart. On the port and port brace bevels I put a thin coat of wood glue to keep the wood from absorbing too much paint and swealling up.

All I can say is that BigJon nailed this one on the head. Awesome work Steve.

One step. Thanks. The wife thinks it's so much nicer now with the woofers outta there. I'm digging the look. The box isn't all that big though. I was on the fence about going gasket-less for a while now. I just was sure if it was gonna look good or not. I'm glad I did it. Makes the subs look lean and cut. You're right Jon. My organization skillz are a mess. As I work I take a ton of pictures. At the end of a couple days of progress I go through the pics, delete the bad ones and sort the pics out into stages of work. From there I write a little something up and post what I have. Mind you all this when I actually get something done. There have been times where I haven't been able to work on the project for one reason or the other, but I've still been able to post a stage or two of progress. As for the sound I'm just not there yet. Very very close, but not there yet. As for the new toys, good eye Jon. The horns I had told you about for my big ass compression drivers finally came it. For those of you wondering these are Autotech 350-Tratrix horns. Hand laid fiberglass horns made in Poland with a cutoff frequency of, you guessed it, 350Hz. The compression drivers are Electro Voice DH-1A. With the horns in, and once the suburban is done, I'll start working on the mid-bass horns. Especially, now that I've fine tuned my wood skills. For the mid-bass horns I'll be using a pair of Electro Voice EVM15L woofers, but all that is for another build. Now back to the topic at hand. Thank you.

This has been the view I've seen while entering my living room since this past January. As of today this is my new view. Before we get to the good stuff, writing on my subs. Actually following up on the "I know what I'm doing wiring my amp up" comment. This is how I'm keeping all the wires in order. I identified the coils as VC1 and VC2. The polarity was up next since the push connects are color coordinated on the bottom only, making it hard to see. Lastly the "WHT" and the not shown "BLK" reffer to the color of the zip ties used to bundle the pairs of wires. Now the good stuff. One sub in, one ready to go in. With the mounting hardware so close to the lip I had to sand a flat on the washers to clear. It's official, they're in. I don't know about you, but I'm digging the "no gasket" look. Almost there.

Awe man, now here too. Thanks. I finally got it right. Thanks. If the sound sucks I'll make a coffee table out of it and a conversational piece about my "epic fail".

Thanks guys. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the build as much as I am. It's been some hard work along the way and some seriously fustrating moments, but when I look back at the pics all I can do is smile.

Thanks, lets just hope it lives up to it's looks. Ha, ha. Thanks. With a couple of box builds under my belt I figure I'd learn from my mistakes and turn it up a notch on this box build. Don't get me wrong though, there's always plenty of fucking around when I'm in the equation.

Almost, almost. I'm even starting to get a little antsy.

Now, a little carpeting action. Firstly I'd like to thank a fellow forum member Jon, a.k.a CHEVY4X4BLAZER for braving the South Texas sun and humidity. He came over lending a helping hand and for a little comradership. Thanks for you help friend. First the goods. Parts Express finest speaker box carpet in a not so original charcoal color. Adhesive in a spray can by Loctite, some scissors and a box cutter. The wrapping process. Finally a box fully wrapped. The seams came out pretty good. The last time I carpeted a speaker box I used similar carpet with a backing and I couldn't get the seams to blend well with each other. This carpet didn't have any backing. The seams blended nicely together with no fussing just a little fuzzing. With the box wrapped and ready to go we got the plexi-glass pieces in place and wired the box up for the subs. Here is a shot of the plexi-glass in place. Thanks to Jon for helping with the gazillion screws and getting the plexi-glass mounted. I opted to do all the wiring internally to keep things looking clean. The subs are D1s. For the Warhorse the coils are wired in series to get the 2 ohm load required by the amp for full output. If the wiring pictured doesn't really make sense to you it's because the amp wires up to subs in a real odd ball way. Trust me when I tell you I know what I'm doing here. Here is the box at 95% complete. A close up of the box port. There is a little story about this port that I'd like to share with everyone. The original design of this box only had the outer most edge of the port beveled. The port brace and the inside edged of the port, next to the plexi-glass window, was originally to be left square. A co-worker of my likes addressing everyone by adding the word "Big" infront of their first initial. In my case, he addresses me by calling out, "Big H." In the spirit of that, I beveled both the port brace and the inside edge of the port to make a big "H". One last shot of the box. Up next, the subs go in the box. Thanks for your help Jon(CHEVY4X4BLAZER).

happy birthday.

I would've if I could've. Soon enough you'll see why they are what they are.

With the box taking shape here are some pics of the inside being painted. First and foremost, a little test fit in the vehicle. He, he. Now some paint shots. A nice a sharp 45. Don't cut yourself. I spread a thin layer of wood glue on the beveled edges to keep them from soaking up too much paint and swelling up on me. With the inside fully painted I mounted the sub rings before adding on the bottom of the box. I pre-painted the bottom of the box before assembling it on. This keeps me from having to work in the small confines of the box. The final product. Up next a little carpeting action.

that would have beat the record before Allen did.Anyway someone is always better, faster, or louder. Did somebody call for me? Oh, no, wait, that's just me being a smart ass. Carry on.

Nice, loving the small footprint of the 125.4. Looking forward to pricing and availability.

Thanks for sharing the pics Dani. Excellent showing fellas, congrats on placing.

Thanks. I was so bummed I couldn't git'er done for the weekend. I guess you could say my eye were bigger than my appetite. Looking forward to the get together. Thanks. It seems this little box build is taking forever. Just trying to enjoy the build a bit before it's all over. I tend to enjoy the process just a little bit more than the final outcome.

Finally some box assembly action. Since I like painting the inside of my boxes I assemble them starting at the baffle down towards the base. Here the sides go up. The sub rings are in there, well, I don't know why. I'll take them out to paint. The center divider and the 45's going in place. Some essential tools to get the job done pictured as well. Glue, a hammer, and an industrial fly swatter. Here the port wall is coming together. Since the leading edge is cut with a bevel I used nails and a nail gun to keep everything together as the glue sets. Clamps, clamps and more clamps. The port is taking shape. Woot, woot! Hey now, this thing is starting to take shape. Sweet.

Test fits, misfits and how to deal with them is today's subject. I test fitted all the panels together just to make sure everything was going to fit without any surprises. I did my darnest to make sure all the panels were cut to size in a single setup, but as luck would have it one of the panel's a whisker too long. Between 1/16th and 1/8th inch too long. This is one of those things where I'd either try sanding or filing or both to get down to size. Pretty much a couple of hours get burned tring to get a nice fit. Not the route I want to be going if you know what I mean. I kicked options around for a bit and decided to use the same technique that I used to cut the panel window slots to trim down this panel. I setup the panel to be trimmed, over hanging the amount to be trimmed, on a larger straight panel. The larger panel is to be a guide for the router with a flush trim router bit. Here is the setup: A close up of the amount to be removed from the panel: The finished product: Easy peasy. Up next some box assembly. Woot, woot!

Pinned thread, and now more secrets. Dang Steve I don't know what's going on. It's like I've entered the Twilight Zone or something. O_o Keep the madness coming.

Work is a stickler about me making stuff using their equipment for profit. At the same time they're not in the audio buisness so they're not interested in the profit offered. : I can offer you PDF and DXF drawings if the rings, in which you can take to a local shop with CNC cutting abilities. Let me know. Great community here. Always supportive regardless of equipment used by this knucklehead. Stop by more often. Thanks for the kind words.