Alright, I figure I'll get lots of things I did wrong pointed out, oh well. Bear in mind that this is my personal vehicle and it won't be my primary for more than a couple more years (if it lasts that long as many miles as I drive weekly).

The goal is active 3 way from passive 2 way with a clean looking setup and of course, a new woofer (since the Quatro was only meant to be temporary).

I'll start with the boring "thank you's" first. Thanks big time to all of these people:

Pete with Team Toxic Bass and Hexibaseforum.com (user = Hexibase) for the enclosure design help

Scott at Fi for answering all my questions and selling me a great woofer

Scott (xbrightsidex) and joe (paint toad) from s10forum.com for putting up with all of my pictures as I built and chatting with me about stuff

Jimmy (aka Tempe on many many forums) for also putting up with me and my pictures

Danssolow from Hexibaseforum.com/diymobileaudio.com/mys10.net for helping me find my xover

Some random guy named Jeff Smith who I bought the xover from used for $125 shipped

All of the forums I frequent for help:

www.s10forum.com/forum

www.hexibase.com/forum

www.diymobileaudio.com

www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum

http://www.pesupport.com/cgi-bin/config.pl

Now to the build:

Some of what I already have:

I'll be using Audax 1" textile dome tweeters for now. I have a feeling all speakers in the front are going to change this coming summer, but this is a big step up from passive 2 way to active 3 way.

Hifonics 1206D

2 7" Dayton reference 4 ohm

2 5" Dayton reference 4 ohm

(I'll probably not be using the 7" and use the 6.5" Dayton classics in the doors already...they have a better low end IMO)

quick sketchup

the glue I'll be using

I already had all the MDF from building boxes for other people, and the glue too, so...the only cost to build this box will be the 6" pvc, the woofer, binding posts, T-nuts, and carpet if I carpet it.

2/25/07

Started assembling my sub box

I bought 2 90 degree corner clamps and went to town clamping/gluing/nailing the box together. The glue has a 30 minute set time in the clamps so it went slowly, but quite well. This is my first box to ever use corner clamps on and its amazing. I ran the bracing vertically on the box, and I will be flush mounting the woofer.

And then the bracing. With the exception of the top and bottom boards, bracing is done.

Done for the night

2/24/07

In the wee hours of the morning...

I sanded all the braces and board joints just to make sure they were perfectly even. Then I glued and nailed on the bottom board.

Later in the afternoon

I cut out some speaker mounts for my 5" references to go into my 6.5" kick panels. The speaker mounts do not take up the entire diameter of the kick panel (done on purpose so any water that may sit on there from my feet does not rot the MDF or speaker). They are pretty sweet.

The pencil is there just to give you an idea of how it'll be centered in the kick panel.

Of course...I'll primer and paint all of this stuff before installing. So far it's looking excellent though.

2/27/07

Crossover came in!

PPI FRX-456 crossover. Got it for $125 shipped (used). This thing is amazing. I can do up to a 6 way setup with this sucker. If I wanted to, I could run 1 set of full range RCA's into it and have it separate it into all 6 channels (sub, midbass front, midrange front, tweeter front, midrange rear, tweeter rear). Of course, I'll probably only ever use it as a 3 way setup, and perhaps maybe run the sub into it too someday, but I have a head unit controlled sub output so I like that better. Here's some pics hooked up to one 5" Dayton reference and one Dayton reference 7" with the signal split to their proper frequencies, etc.

I also painted

Speaker rings painted and predrilled for mounting holes to the kick panels (countersunk holes)

Installed the speaker rings in the kick panels. Yes I did mean to leave that gap there, and yes I realize I still need one more screw in the driver's kick panel. My 12th screw was flathead, not phillips like I thought.

I put the screw in the last kick panel picture by now...

3/6/07

I had to replace a messed up RCA today so I took the time to reroute my RCA's to my new amp's location...the amp enclosure. I also took the time to take out some unnecessary plastic behind the head unit and manipulate wires for a better fit. Then, while the carpet was up, I ran 6 sets of speaker wire underneath and routed it to the amp enclosure as well. 99 total feet of wire used. I color coded the wire with electrical tape. I bundled the left channels in yellow and the right channels in green. The midbass wire got blue, the midrange wire got red, and the tweeter wire got white. This will allow me to hook up the speaker wires more easily without guessing which wire is which in the future, especially if I need to diagnose a problem. Sorry, no pictures. Nothing really picture worthy anyways...

3/10/07

In the wee hours of the morning, I submitted my order with Fi for a 12" Q Dual 2 ohm woofer. I paid via PayPal. $259 shipped is a good deal in my mind.

3/13/07

Made a Wal-Mart run and came way with a Duplicolor Bed liner gallon. I'll be using mini foam rollers to roll this on to my box. It should make a durable coating for the box since it'll be coming in and out of the truck fairly often and it will seal any leaks I did not seal from the inside. I like this idea better than carpet.

3/14/07

Made a trip to Parts Express; only 45 minutes away. $145 worth of parts including 1.5' RCA's, fuse distribution block, wire terminals, gasket tape, binding posts, 4 100 amp fuses, a relay to turn on all my stuff, and a set of T nuts with bolts.

Then, on my way back, I stopped in Xenia for some 6" PVC. Had to buy it in 10' section, but since I was in my firefighting uniform, the owner gave me a discount. $30 for the PVC. Bleh. Went back to campus and had a guy I know in the Engineering workshop cut it for me on a large bandsaw.

While I cut the holes for the flush mount and the port, I started installing amplifiers, crossover, fuse block, and doing a heck of a lot of wiring.

Here's the box with the port in place (ring inside holes it to the box wall and there is a cupped support underneath the PVC for support).

One more pic with the top glued and nailed on. Lots of sanding will follow so I can cover it in bed liner.

I did get everything put back inside the amp case for the night. I'm still running passive 2 way, although all the wiring is setup for me to do active 3 way. I could either use my two cheap amps (2ch and 4ch) and run active 3 way for the time being like that...or I could wait until I purchase an Infinity 6ch amp and be done with it. Sorry, no pics of everything put back in the case, but with the lid on you wouldn't see anyways

Let me know what you think so far. Waiting on the woofer to install the T-nuts, test the sub in the box in my Jimmy, and then I'll bed line the box if it's acceptable. Infinity amp could be a while...I'm po'

nice, looking good.

Looking great, love the old PPI !!!

Keep teh pictures coming, we love build logs here.

3/15/07

Just a note: Dayton Audio cables are by far the best I've ever used or seen. They're fairly inexpensive and well built. Here's a pic next to the standard crap cable you can buy at walmart for comparison.

looks good

here's a few pics. my T nuts didn't work out so well (3 didn't set and were a PITA to get those bolts out so I said 'screw it' to the T nuts, rotated the sub 1/16" turn and cranked down some 1.5" drywall screws). all pics of the sub installed in the box with the exception of the last one are BEFORE i took out the T nuts and bolts. they were too much trouble in this instance. thus, the gangsta lean to the sub

Las Vegas to Ohio in tip top shape

My friend takes a picture of me while I have my hand up the box's ass trying to grab the T nuts while the magnet pulls my pliers towards it.

Edited March 21, 200718 yr by juddspaintballs

Pictures are not loading for me.

photobucket is being gay right now....

LOL, ok cause all I see are "X"

apparently they are having technical trouble with a few people's accounts and mine is one of the lucky ones

3/23/07

Finally got some pictures of it installed but lacking sanding, roundover, and bedliner.

3/25/07

Sanded and put the roundover on the box. Sweet.

Started bedlining the box today too. My idea was to use foam rollers so I got less texture than I would with the standard bedliner roller. Well, it does work, BUT, the bedliner eats through foam. I had to change the roller every face of the box. Good thing they're cheap.

Here's two pics with the first coat minus the sub face

I may break down and use the actual bedliner roller anyways...

One hour later

Okay...so I did. There will be texture now, but I think I like it. It hides all imperfections well and at least the roller doesn't break down and fall apart in pieces that stick to my box. I can apply the coats thicker now too. I think one more coat and it will be complete. It got up to 80 today so it dries pretty quickly.

Pics after the 2nd coat (this time with the sub face)

Third coat drying

And the Fi sticker I actually did put on the back:

Third coat is dry, time for the sub to be put back in:

And then time for it to be back in the Jimmy:

Edited March 26, 200718 yr by juddspaintballs

Box turned out great, but should I ask about one of the 3 kings in your truck?

he's plugged into a power inverter. fun to turn on at night with people behind me, thats all. i think its funny

is that gold, frankincense, or myrrh?

(yes, I had to spell check that!)

who knows. looks like its not gold (although it's in a golden vessel). maybe myrrh? i think it really adds to the quality of the music personally

that looks awesome.....now i want to get that crossover and do a 4 way active setup....

you can do up to a 6 way active setup

if you count the sub, i guess i am doing a 4 way active setup. i'm using the midrange of the rear channel on the xover so i can overlap frequencies a lil bit between midbass, midrange, and tweeters. the xover has the HP of the midrange on the front channel be the LP of the midbass, and ditto for the tweeter/midrange. so i used the midbass and tweeter channels on the front input and midrange on the rear input (summed input signal between front and rear) so i could set things up with a little bit of overlap. i'm quite pleased. better pronounced vocals than my old passive 2 way setup and much more detail. unless i turn the SW output on the HU off or turn it up from 0, you don't notice that it is there. everything blends together so well.

4/1/07

I like my KnuKonceptz Klarity Kables RCA's, but I am getting a little bit of noise in my system. The first culprit I believe is my RCA's since my power wire is actually run inside the frame rail about 1ft over from the RCA's run on the floorboard. Its just a little bit of noise, and no alternator whine, so hopefully better RCA's will help. Here's what I just bought because I had $30 just sitting in my PayPal account

http://knukonceptz.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=KRY4.6M

Red/white for front stage, blue/black for sub