ACSchank's Build Log

[acschank 0]

Until I go to town I am without kerosene for the heater, so I have a minute to start my build log.

Eclipse CD8053

MB Quart RAA4200

CDT Eurosport 07 braxials (I need to find out which tweet these have as I really don't recall, I think I remember drt-26 or perhaps that is wishful thinking)

MB Quart RAA1000

MACH5 IXL 12 SL

SDS CLD Tiles and EBR

MLV and Gymnastic Mat (CCF)

The vehicle is a '92 Subaru SVX and a project car if there ever was one. I started gathering some of my equipment two years ago when I still had my '93 Saturn SC2, but reality soon hit that the Saturn wasn't really the car I wanted to go all out on with a stereo install, especially with the leaking sunroof and given the fact that it already had a complete Pioneer/Phase Linear/Infinity aftermarket system that was appropriate for an economy car like the Saturn. So in boxes my equipment sat until I stumbled upon a few 8053s on ebay all at the same time. I jumped on the first one (turned out to be a good move economically, the third one sold for over twice what I gave for mine!) and the car audio fire was lit once again! All there was to do after that was to buy some deadening, cables, and find the right sub. Now here I am at the fun part: the install.

I have been working on the first door for about a week or so now in my spare time and it will finally be done today. i am just waiting on the paint to dry on my MDF grill shell so I can cover it with cloth. I would have never guessed one door would take me so long, but boy it did. Laying the CLD tiles and EBR in the door was a piece of cake and I finished all that in a few hours after dinner one night. I spent most of the next day gathering materials like MDF and screws for the speaker spacers I found out I would be making (my door cutouts were PERFECT for the CDT 07s, but there was only 2" of depth and I needed 3"). I also had to find a source for sheet metal to seal off the door access holes that my old license plates wouldn't cover because I didn't like Lowe's selection. I ended up with some aluminum plate that is probably 1/8" thick. Great stuff for the flat holes but a little but of work for a guy without a brake (like me) for the bends. I managed with a couple hammers, a couple different sized boards and a vise. Between those first couple days and now I have been being a perfectionist trying to mount the door speakers perfectly. My first spacer with the hole perfectly centered put the braxial arm right into my door card, so I made another with the cutout offset slightly (but not after cutting away more of my door card than I should have). The second spacer worked much better than the first and it only took me about two days after that to decide how to rotate the speakers to aim my tweeters (the downside of installing my speakers first: having to guess rather than test). Of course since the first grill shell was designed around my original mounting design that had to be redone as well. The MLV and CCF were a pain. There is an area about 1 sq.ft. that can afford absolutely no additional material between the door metal and door card, so that was a big shot to me emotionally. So that brings us up to present, door one should be done today and pics will be up when it is. I didn't take pics of a lot of the in between stuff, I figure you guys would rather see what actually worked.

[thebiggmann12 14]

lol post em up bro.

[nem 2,019]

Sounds like it is going to be an awesome build, but ^ as stated above we need pictures.

[TRP 42]

Pics would be great!!

[acschank 0]

Below is the passenger side door covered in about 14 CLD Tiles. Most of them are where you can't see them (obviously). The EBR is tucked between the safety beam and the skin. I used over a whole box for this door when you take around the speakers and cover plates into account.

And here is the door all sealed up and with the final iteration of the spacer in place. I think I will skip the license plates on the drivers door and just use the aluminum for all the covers.

Next comes the braxials. They seem to be aiming dome light/rear view mirror-ish in this position, we'll see how they sound soon enough.

The door card with 1/8" ccf / MLV / 1/8" ccf. I couldn't fit even just the MLV in the uncovered area.

All buttoned up with my new grill in place. It is by no means perfect, but I swear the grill looks better in person. The cutout really doesn't show up to the naked eye.

And the small hole under the grill where I removed too much material trying to make room for the braxial arm when using my first speaker spacer. Oops!

And now the drivers door is covered in cld tiles and awaiting cover plates.

Edited March 1, 2010 by acschank

[TRP 42]

I think something is up with the pictures? I am only getting the location in text?

[porkchop 304]

cool build thread description, pics need to be posted correctly though, with the insert image thingy on the tool bar.

oh, and uh, i know i am reading it wrong, but when i read the name.....acschank..... i seem to come up with ass-shank..... just a observation, lol,

chop

[acschank 0]

cool build thread description, pics need to be posted correctly though, with the insert image thingy on the tool bar.

oh, and uh, i know i am reading it wrong, but when i read the name.....acschank..... i seem to come up with ass-shank..... just a observation, lol,

chop

Do the pics work now, I think I fixed them as soon as I posted it and saw that they didn't work. Man you guys are quick.

Since ACSchank is my initials and my last name I guess I'll have to live with it. I already have people pronounce it "skank" instead of "shank" from time to time. It doesn't really offend me when they say it wrong, it just bothers me to know that they are thinking "Man this guy has a terrible last name" when what they should have said sounds much better. At least you got the "shank" part right!

Anyways 3 of the four holes have covers made on the drivers door, one more to go. Hopefully I find time to knock that out tomorrow. Spring break is next week so I see no reason for this install not to be finished by then.

[porkchop 304]

right on with the pics, looking good.....

so "shank" , thats cool ........

imagine being a pork chop ! lol

not just a screen name, even in court, my attorney calls me chop, the bank folks, pastor at church...... my real name ;is a jeopordy answer, lol

i will buttoning up the Dakota in a while.... will use alot of similar methods...

dam, spring break....... time seems to jet by...

chop

[TRP 42]

Yea man works fine now, and looks good!! GL with the rest of it!

[acschank 0]

I got the drivers door sealed up last night. As expected it went quicker than the passenger side. Now I just need to get off my ass and cut the ccf and mlv so I can throw the door card back on. Then I can finally get a change of scenery and focus my attention on the trunk

And a closeup

[acschank 0]

It's been a busy weekend. I made some progress with the deadening in the trunk and on the floors and got my wires ran to the back. I used up the 12 cld tiles I had left on the rear deck, trunk, and rear seat area and proceeded to cover everything with mlv. The trunk was a breeze, plenty of room back there between the trim panels and the metal for mlv and ccf. I put 1/8"ccf / mlv / 1/8" ccf in the sides and on the trunk floor. I made some 1/8" ccf / mlv pieces for the rear seat side panels as well, but I never did get any pics of those before I covered them up. The tunnel received 1/8" ccf while the floorboards got 1/4" ccf with mlv on top. I tried to get away with as little cutting as possible but I ended up taking the carpet back up to cut the mlv around the corners of the floor when I realized the seats were not going to bolt down if I left it uncut. Even with the mlv cut it was difficult to get everything back in properly, but with time and force it all eventually went. After the floor I had used up the whole roll of mlv and almost all of the ccf. I did managed to piece together enough scraps to do a decent job covering the rear seat area, and I should have a couple little pieces left so I can make a couple inserts for the kick panel covers. So all and all the 90 sq.ft. of mlv was just about perfect. I would have liked to have had a few square feet left over so that the next time I have my dash out I could do the firewall, but I'm not that bothered that I don't and hopefully my dash doesn't have to come out any time soon anyways. So that was the work part. Now I've got the mentally challenging part ahead: figuring out where to put this box and these big amps in this little trunk. I am thinking either a double sided board angled somehow at the rear of the trunk or a shallow v at the front of the trunk. Due to the space constraints of the trunk I am almost forced to mount them at an angle.

Trunk side panels:

The trunk mat:

Rear deck:

The open speaker holes seem to cause a lot of resonance in the deck. I tried to deaden it with cld tiles, but I think a couple of simple X braces would have been better.

Rear seat area:

Floor and 1/0 that ended up a little shorter than I would have liked:

Floor again and the 6ch stinger RCA's *so much better than running 3 sets of wires*:

MLV before cutting edges:

MLV attempt #2:

The patchwork job under the rear seat:

And I finally got my drivers door back panel on also:

Now I am going off to be mentally challenged!

Edited March 8, 2010 by acschank

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

Lookin' good. I can't wait to do my doors! I was wondering if you glued the CCF and MLV down? Did you glue/tape the seam's and edges?

I just got done wrapping the rear wheel wells and that alone cut my road/tire noise in half in my car.

[acschank 0]

I only used the hh-66 between the ccf /mlv /ccf where I thought I needed it. I glued the ccf and mlv together at first for the door panel but it didn't fit as well as I had hoped and I removed a ton of material from it while I was trying to find out what was keeping the door panel from going into place. On the next attempt I worked one layer at a time to get the best coverage I could and found that I could keep the pieces together pretty well without the glue so I skipped it there. I did use the glue for the side panels by the rear seat and trunk area. the main reason I glued these was because I used velcro to hold them to the trim panels and this way one piece of velcro to hold all the layers. I wanted to glue the trunk mat just to make it look and lift good if I ever need to get at the spare tire, but i ran out after the first side. The glue probably would have went a lot father if I had only used ccf on one side of the mlv. I didn't glue anything on the floorboards. Is it supposed to be more effective if you glue it or does it not matter? If you do use the glue I would suggest laying the mlv down with the ccf on top, pull half back and cover mlv and ccf lightly with glue then keep pressure on the unglued half while you gently pull the ccf tight as you press it down on the mlv. If you don't stretch the ccf you will get lots of bubbles.

My initial impressions after all the deadening: I need new door seals and I need more mlv for the firewall since engine noise and what I am 99% is wind through the seals. It wasn't the OMG reaction I was hoping to have but there is definitely an improvement and I think I will be more than happy once I take care of those two things. Oh yeah, I still need to replace the hood liner that never got put on the new hood. That should help with the engine noise.

[acschank 0]

repost

Edited March 9, 2010 by acschank

[acschank 0]

Had a breakthrough today. I realized that the RAA's are only 11.5" tall rather than 14" as I thought when I was out there with a tape measure trying to find a place to put them. This means I can go the simple route and mount one amp on the back seat and the other on the sub box. That is a big time-saver. I got the plastic toggles in the back seat today for the 4 channel amp and half of my box is drying as I type, now I just need to cut out the hole for the sub and the hole for the terminals and zip it together the rest of the way.