My new hooptie, 1980 CoupeDeville. Bumping on a budget.

[Mtopper 23]

well, according to our lovely weather report... we'll be clear all day tomorrow. and it'll be decently warm! keep it up man. love the look of the gauges

[sefugi 166]

Oh yeah!!! When you get the blue leds in the gauges that is going to look great!!!

[outhopu 70]

well, according to our lovely weather report... we'll be clear all day tomorrow. and it'll be decently warm! keep it up man. love the look of the gauges

For once they werwe right. It was a perfect day for working outside.

Oh yeah!!! When you get the blue leds in the gauges that is going to look great!!!

I'm thinking the same thing. The leds should be here Tuesday, too bad I didn't order enough bulbs to do the entire dash. I forgot to count a few things in the dash that are not connected to the instrument cluster. Nothing like getting pimped out of another $15 shipping and handling on a package that won't even weigh a pound.

Nice weather equals good progress.

Primed and painted the pods today. I found a textured brown color thats a very close match to the darker section of the dash so I went with it.

Pulled all the carpet to run all the wires through the interior. I had some help today for the clean up at least. My daughter loves helping out so this was a perfect job for her.

Found a location on the firewall to run the 1/0 power and ground. It just needed a little modification and it worked out. I was able to tuck the power wires neatly into the factory wire holder and used some hold downs for the section under the rear seat.

Also ran all the patch cables, remote turn on wire, and speaker wires. I tryed to keep all the cables seperated. I had to cross one of the speaker wires over the other cables up front but ran it at a 90 to them at least.

I've ran into a little set back though. The car seems to have a leak at the fire wall or windshield that lets a significant amount of water in. All the factory sound deadener was soaking wet when I pulled it. Im letting it dry out and will try to seal the leak up prior to reinstalling the interior.

[sefugi 166]

Pods turned out great!!!! DIdn't notice the rear hole in them before, your reason? Maybe the install pics will make it self explanitory.

Your daughter helping out is good stuff, has she picked out what ride she wants yet?

Some of the older cars have a little more firewall space to work with when it comes to running larger wires.

Great Progress!!

[onebadmonte 235]

Great work man! Awesome getting the little one involved. My oldest help in similar fashion when I did the first iteration of my infinite baffle build in my little olds. I'm digging what you did to get the cables through the firewall. I'll be doing the same. Keep up the good work.

[emh9009 199]

Looks good, i hear ya' on the leaks Glad i'm done with that PITA.

Why don't you run the wires together? I've read that the wire "technology" is far superior than back in the day when they would interfere with each other, so you should be fine. But i have no proof to back that up! Better safe than sorry, i guess.

Pods do look really clean. I'm thinking the hole is to give them an opening into the fender or something to get closer to IB environment for them.

[outhopu 70]

Pods turned out great!!!! DIdn't notice the rear hole in them before, your reason? Maybe the install pics will make it self explanitory.

Your daughter helping out is good stuff, has she picked out what ride she wants yet?

Some of the older cars have a little more firewall space to work with when it comes to running larger wires.

Great Progress!!

Thanks. She may end up getting this Caddy if she has anything to say about it. When I first showed her a pic of it inline for sale and asked her if I should buy it, she didn't even hesitate when she said "you should definetly buy it thats cool". So 2 days later we took a road trip and bought it. I think she looking forward to riding in it than I'm almost.

The holes in the pods were an oops on my part. I didn't account for the fiberglass thickness that was added to the inside so I had to open them up for clearance. I'm debating wether to seal them back up or not.

Great work man! Awesome getting the little one involved. My oldest help in similar fashion when I did the first iteration of my infinite baffle build in my little olds. I'm digging what you did to get the cables through the firewall. I'll be doing the same. Keep up the good work.

Thanks.

I thought the cables would fit with ease on the passenger side but the dam heater/ac box is huge on this thing and left me with no room. I'll be adding a battery to the drivers side anyways though so it all works out to be the same amount of wire used.

Looks good, i hear ya' on the leaks Glad i'm done with that PITA.

Why don't you run the wires together? I've read that the wire "technology" is far superior than back in the day when they would interfere with each other, so you should be fine. But i have no proof to back that up! Better safe than sorry, i guess.

Pods do look really clean. I'm thinking the hole is to give them an opening into the fender or something to get closer to IB environment for them.

Honestly I've ran wires together and never had problems but since I had to pull everything out to dry everything I figured might as well keep them seperated. It goes along the old ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure theory.

Problem with the opening on the pods is there isn't a good place to vent them into that gets the backwave a good distance from the front wave. Will that matter? I don't know. I'm still sorting that out. I wanted them sealed but as I stated above I screwed up a little.

[sefugi 166]

The holes you cut in the pods looked so clean, like they belonged there, you could have BS'd us and we would have went along with it. Great work and tuned in for more!!

[outhopu 70]

I found the source of the water leak and sealed it up. Easy fix luckily. I also gave the carpet a good cleaning while it was out and let everything dry completely before putting the interior in. Thats why I haven't posted much progress. It's just not very entertaining watching water evaporate. However...

...Pods are in for good now . I fiber filled the pods and also stuffed some behind the oem kick panels to help keep pressure on them to keep them from buzzing or rattling. I also glued a layer of sound blocker foam between the 2 for the same reasons. I didn't get the step by step pics but here is the end result. Hood release still works with no interference.

Installed the blue LEDs in the dash also. I miss counted though and need to get a couple more for the gauge pod still.

[MR_8 0]

Great work so far man, that front stage looks pretty intense, i like the subs too, i remember a few years back i had (2) 12" infinity perfect subs on a 1200w class d amp, i loved their sound , great ""SQL"" sub, and very puuurty too, BTW i hope you eventually put like 1 mllion pounds of sound deadening in that trunk, or its gonna rattle lik a mother F !!!!!! keep up the great craftsmanship, im def tuned in for more

[Luke.H 33]

The kickpods turned out really well. They look like they came with the car lol. The quality is amazing great build

[sefugi 166]

Pods turned out really nice!!!! LEDs look great but it's weird to see an old school dash with colored lights!

[outhopu 70]

Great work so far man, that front stage looks pretty intense, i like the subs too, i remember a few years back i had (2) 12" infinity perfect subs on a 1200w class d amp, i loved their sound , great """SQL""" sub, and very puuurty too, BTW i hope you eventually put like 1 mllion pounds of sound deadening in that trunk, or its gonna rattle lik a mother F !!!!!! keep up the great craftsmanship, im def tuned in for more

Thanks. I do have a plan for keeping the trunk rattles in check. I have to fab up all the hydraulic racks and get all the openings in the trunk floor cut before I can do it though. Warm dry weather is also needed.

The kickpods turned out really well. They look like they came with the car lol. The quality is amazing great build

Thanks I was going for a "factory" apperance with the pods. Only problem is I'm completely not happy with how plain and cheesy the doors look now. Oh well, I'll come back to them at a later date.

Pods turned out really nice!!!! LEDs look great but it's weird to see an old school dash with colored lights!

Thanks. When I was trying to decide about the colored LEDs I wasn't sure if I'd like the blue but after seeing it I'm pleased. It was either blue or red and I've never been a fan of red instrument panels. The EQ offers only blue or red for it's lighting and I wanted all the lights and gizmos to match when lit up at night. I hate the interior looking like a carnival at night.

Managed to get the batteries in and completed all the wiring in the engine bay.

New power and ground to the alternator and to second battery.

Just need to make some hold downs for the batteries and machine some terminal adaptors for the second battery and it's all done under the hood.

Also got started on the trunk wiring.

Mounted the fuse and distribution block.

I did a quick wire job for the amp to the highs for a test run. Sounds pretty good. Now I need to get the sub enclosure stained and installed.

[emh9009 199]

:fing34:

[outhopu 70]

More rain equals no progress in the trunk. So I moved the box into the garage and got started sanding and prepping for stain.

Did a coat of stain prep first then moved onto the first coat of stain. I'll need to do one more coat of stain to get a good match to the interior "wood" trim.

I'll be working on getting several coats of clear on it during the week if it warms up a bit more.

[sefugi 166]

Been to busy to get anything done myself, but your progress is looking great! Keep it coming!!

[outhopu 70]

Finished staining the box and laid down the first coat of clear.

It's a good bit darker now.

Another 10 coats of clear and it should look like glass.

[Mtopper 23]

hell, that looks a lot better than the hardwoods in my mom's house when they were first put in... looks darn good man. your work is always impressive

[sefugi 166]

Clearcoat lookin' good!!! Do I see pumps coming soon??

[outhopu 70]

hell, that looks a lot better than the hardwoods in my mom's house when they were first put in... looks darn good man. your work is always impressive

Thanks. I need the temps to get into the 70's the clear is taking forever to dry enough to sand and do additional coats. I want to get a good build up of clear so I can wet sand it and polish it to a glass finish.

Clearcoat lookin' good!!! Do I see pumps coming soon??

Those pumps in the pic are for my homies ride. I do have my pumps already though. I'm working on getting my batteries and steel for the racks to get started on the hydraulic set up. I'll post that also since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the other chassis/hydraulic build pics I posted.

[sefugi 166]

Clearcoat lookin' good!!! Do I see pumps coming soon??

Those pumps in the pic are for my homies ride. I do have my pumps already though. I'm working on getting my batteries and steel for the racks to get started on the hydraulic set up. I'll post that also since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the other chassis/hydraulic build pics I posted.

Yeah!!! We want to see all the upgrades of this build!! Keep it comin'!!

[outhopu 70]

Clearcoat lookin' good!!! Do I see pumps coming soon??

Those pumps in the pic are for my homies ride. I do have my pumps already though. I'm working on getting my batteries and steel for the racks to get started on the hydraulic set up. I'll post that also since there seems to be a fair amount of interest in the other chassis/hydraulic build pics I posted.

Yeah!!! We want to see all the upgrades of this build!! Keep it comin'!!

Well it's settled then. I'll keep posting until everybody gets bored of my topic.

Made some pic worthy progress this weekend.

Installed the new wheels and tires which required a bit of modfications.

Opened up a window to allow the spare to be removed from the trunk by removing the upper section of the back seat. I will not be bolting the upper seat section back in for easier access.

Added a piece of angle before cutting it to keep the rear deck and belt line of the car from warping.

Also used some 2 part expanding foam to fill the cavity in the 1/4 panels to keep them from flexing and making noise. This is as good as I can get for a pic.

Added some wire holders under the amp rack to keep the power,ground, and remote turn on wires tidy.

Prepped the trunk, masked off the car and sprayed an extra thick application of spray on sound deadener. It's actually a modified urethane bedliner that has rubber crum in it to give it more weight to help stop panel vibration. I used 3 gallons to give maximum build up. I can't say I really like the heavy texture finish but very little will be seen after all the gear is in so I'll see how I feel then.

[emh9009 199]

Keep the progress rollin'.

Notice any difference with the trunk sprayed with road noise or anything?

[outhopu 70]

Keep the progress rollin'.

Notice any difference with the trunk sprayed with road noise or anything?

I won't be able to tell honestly. I've never even drove the car aside from the test drive prior to me buying it. I had a friend drive it home for me when I bought it and it's just been sitting in my garage or driveway being worked on since then. I'm pushing to get all the audio done before this coming weekend so I can at least take it out for a cruise over the holiday weekend. After that it's on to doing the hydraulic set up.

[Mtopper 23]

looking good. i love the look of the old school low rider rims. how thick is the spray on in your trunk?