bondo? i always used spray adhesive i steal from work, didnt know you could use bondo.

 

You still need spray adhesive. Bondo is for filling in/hiding the horrific flaws in the glass that carpet won't hide by its self There’s much less bondo work involved with carpet because it hides flaws as compared to vinyl, paint, etc.

 

Trans swap pictures or proof that something did happen over the past two weeks depending on how you look at it.


(click to see another picture of things labeled. Pardon the shift ball. It's only temporary while I wait for my nice Hurst ball to get back in stock @ hawk's)

It looks like that because the speedo didn't work the first attempt so I had to pull everything apart to fix it. I plan on tiding it up a bit in the near future but at this point I care a lot more about everything working (reverse lockout, reverse lights, VSS for a working speedo, etc). It’s nice to be driving my car again and the 6 speed is a big plus over the automatic it replaced. This has got to be the torquiest manual I’ve ever driven and is a breeze/joy to drive aside from the clutch, which likes to grab like a **** (imagine that ).

Again, I hope to get some actual stereo work done fairly soon but everything is going to come to a stand still until I decide what to do about the cage.

 

i want a t56

i dont think my 700r4 digs almost 500 lb ft of torque, built or not, so may be a swap in the near future, whether my credit needs it or not...

 

I ended up doing the swap because my auto was starting to slip but I figured that I could milk it to the summer. Then one day I stopped for gas and saw smoke coming out from under the car. The exhaust was soaked with ATF because the front seal blew. I faced either buying another auto (was going to be a probuilt) or converting to a manual. I love manual, have always driven manual, etc. The choice was easy.

I love my T-56. It shifts like a dream, double overdrive is nice, and the trans is very well built. Don't let anyone fool you - this is not a cheap swap. I’ve got $4500 in this swap for parts alone (did all the labor myself). Clutches/flywheels are damn expensive (paid $1,000 for both combined), the transmissions are high priced (GM wants $4,500, junkyards usually want $1,500 used, they go for around 1,500-1,700 used on e-bay. I got lucky and scored one for $1,900 new. I refused to buy used). Crossmember/torque arm were $640. True, I bought the “good stuff”. I didn’t have to go chrome moly or get such a nice flywheel/clutch combo but I opted to do it right the first time.

Expensive, yes. Worth it, yes.

 

Update!

Over the past week the following have happened:

1 - got ticket for expired registration. I don't mind paying the ticket as it's defiantly a my bad. I just hate that a cop pulled a u-turn in the middle of a 4 lane road with no traffic on it and ran my plates purely because of what I was driving. I wasn't speeding/swerving/whatever and it was about 4:00 in the afternoon in perfect weather. What’s ironic was that the cop was black. You know if a white cop did that to a black guy the black guy would scream bloody murder.

2 - I got another ticket trying to make the money to pay off the first ticket and get the car registered again. I literally only had $1 in my wallet at the time of the first ticket. This time my car got pulled over all by its self. Without me in it. Ignition off. Parked in my work's parking lot. Same as before: expired registration. Still my fault but annoying none the less. How am I supposed to pay off the first ticket and get the car registered again anyhow?

3 - So I get the car registered again and have $116 in my wallet as of today. Life is good. Then I get a phone call from a coworker saying that work's on fire. Literally. Not joking. I laughed at first because I didn't believe him until he responded in all seriousness that a lot of people had lost their jobs and it wasn't funny. So I’ve got no money for the next three weeks or so, I need to pay off two traffic tickets, and I need to come up with gas money so I can finish the semester at college.

They say it will be 3 weeks until the restaurant is up and running again. That’s not that bad considering that there’s a hole in the roof and water/foam/smoke damage everywhere. We will see how long it actually takes but I can tough out 3 weeks living at home without rent

The good news is that I have a lot more time to work on my car I plan on doing tomorrow what I said I would get done last week: build the box for the amps.

Here’s a link to the article about the fire if anyone is bored: http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...NEWS/604200312

 

Back seat amp rack is done. Pictures coming tonight after I steal my gf's digital camera again.

edit: nothing tonight. She's hanging out with friends and thus isn't home. I'm broke otherwise I would probably just buy one for myself so I wasn't always stealing hers. Pics will come though

 

Hi, Gumby. Sorry to hear about the fire at your job. It's interesting that you work at Fridays--I work at Fridays, too! Are you a server or do you work BOH?

Anyway, I've been reading your thread since day one and have been greatly anticipating the backseat amp rack build. If at all possible, could you post a guide on how to build one step by step? I'm guessing it's pretty much as simple as cutting the foam out of the back of the seat with a dremel and installing the amps, but I could be missing a lot. I've been wanting to find a place to install the amps I am going to buy, and the backseat seems like the perfect place: out of the way, looks stock and almost invisible to thieves.

Great project going. Keep your head up as far as the job goes. If it makes you feel any better (or worse lmao), my Fridays was back up and running within 4 days after Hurricane Ivan hit... you know, the one that pretty much demolished Florida's western panhandle? Food for thought.

 

I was a server but I have kitchen experience and have wanted to cross train for a while. They're thinking everyone isn't going to come back so I'm going to lean on the managers some to let me work in the kitchen weekdays and as a server weekends. They were willing to let me do both when I started but I was intimidated by the 100% Hispanic kitchen, especially with me knowing about 5 words of Spanish (I took Spanish 1 and 2 about 4 years ago). My Spanish has improved over the past half year and the kitchen loves me so I don’t think it will be a problem now. They’re talking about reopening in 3 or 4 weeks meaning we will be back working in 2 or 3 hopefully, training the new staff. For pictures of carnage check out one of my friend’s photo blog: blog.myspace.com/crib Let me know if the link doesn’t work. We threw everything out. All 3 walkins worth of food. All the beer. All the kegs. All the bottles. Everything.

No problem doing a write-up on the back seat install. It’s really not that difficult but you’re pretty limited in terms of space inside the seat. I barely jammed everything in there. I will try to get pictures tomorrow. I ended up going away for the weekend and haven’t had a chance to steal the camera yet

 

Wow, I've missed a lot in this thread! Tons of excitement; good and bad.

Having a T56 is awesome... I truely envy you!

Everything looks and sounds like it's coming together. Keep us posted!!

 

I will, just not with pictures Me and the GF broke up today. It was an end that had been coming for a while. It has been over for the past month or so in my eyes because that's when she cheated on me (read: had sex with another guy when she was drunk/stoned). She wonders why I don't like it when she does those things Of course there's more to it but this isn't the place to bitch about it.

You guys are stuck waiting until I get my job back and can afford my own camera. Don’t worry, you probably won’t miss much because I’m too broke to get much done because I’m basically out of resin and don’t have the money for a new rear seat cover to finish that up. Who knows, we might get back together and I might get some pictures soon. Doubt it though.

 

Its all good. now u can concentrate all funds to the ride .

 

I'm happy to say that it's time to bring this thread back to life after about two months of no updates. Fridays is open again but business is returning painfully slowly and I owe my mom a ton of money but I’m finding ways to sneak some money toward the car again.

I bought another big Bondo container of resin and another box of gloves so I’m good to start glassing again. There shouldn’t be much money involved in the short term since I have plenty of the other supplies.

I’m going to pose a question. Since I lack a digital camera I’m going to try to dig out a film camera (if we still have one) and then get a picture CD. I can either post updates and skimp on pictures until I shoot through a roll of film or I will just post a large weekly/bi-weekly update depending on how fast I move and get film developed.

What do you think?

 

2 months of dead time later and I've got some teaser pictures


Amp rack installed minus neat wiring and the seat foam/cover


The box + a layer of bondo slushy + a layer of v3 to make sure it’s water/air tight

I'm still waiting on the v3 to dry. Once that's done I'm going to calculate the box's volume by filling it with water then I will decide sealed vs ported.

More updates to come as work progresses. With any luck I will be able to aim the rings tomorrow.

 

looks great!

 

fun project, keep posting!

 

Rear seat amp install


Lay out everything where you want it to make sure it will fit


Unzip cover and pull/cut out hog rings


Dremmelize it


I don't have any in between pictures but all that I missed was cutting the wood and screwing it down to the plastic backing of the seat. The feet of the NINe.1 and NINe.2x were removed and I used the strips of sheet metal to secure the amps to the wood.


I know, I know, I still need to trim excess metal and do a neater/better job running my wire. All in due time It will look 200x better when that big bundle of wire for the subs is run and out of the way.


At least the 2 gauge run for power is well protected but yes, the random green wire is the current remote wire


Test fit. At last my front stage is working again. Music!

That's about as far as I got with that so far. I'm not going to do anything more on it until I can afford the black seat cover. No point in reinstalling the gray one (three color interior) just to rip it off in a month or so anyway.

 

Box volume


The box ready to take it like the woman it is.


This mark is 12 quarts or 3 gallons, whichever you prefer. It took about 7.5 of these to fill the box.

I discovered a few leaks and my measuring method was far from 100% accurate, but it looks like the box's volume is pretty close to 3 cubes (+/- .2 cubes). After I address the leaks I found I will measure again. At this point I think that I'm going to stay sealed. With a 3 cube box and the two 10a.22's I should have a F3 around 43 Hz and a Qtc of .74, which is pretty good.


Car picture! Like everything in this project it needs some TLC (read paint)

Tonight I will slather some more v3 on the box and I will hopefully start aiming the rings. Stay tuned.

 

Looking good man. Keep up the great work, and don't get discouraged! These cars could use another hobbyist like you.

By the way, I need a 5 oz fry, please.

 

Thanks for the kind words but the 5 oz fry went over my head. I'm just a humble server at Fridays

More progress for whoever out there that's still watching aside from Nate.


Marked and ready to be cut.


Cut. You wouldn't believe how many 'reinforced' cutoff wheels this took. The meaty part would go flying but the reinforcement stuff would stay put. Made for some pretty nasty projectiles.


Rings + dowels + hot glue + mini hot glue gun. This gives you an idea of how long this project has sat. All three dowels were perfectly straight when I bought them.


One ring installed.


Same shot as above but from the inside of the car. For the observant, the first picture was taken after the second picture but this order makes more sense from a viewer's perspective. I will give a cookie to whoever can find the difference.


Both rings in. It actually wasn't that bad getting them to line up and look the same.


Shot of everything + sub. The magnet is why the rings stick up so high.

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and buy a staple gun and get the fleece stretched at the very least. I'm also going to install the wire terminal. With any luck I should be more or less ready for carpet by tomorrow night.

 

Totally HARDCORE !

 

Looking very good dude.

 

Thanks for the kind words guys I've made yet more progress. Ran out of resin so I had to take a break


The hole for the wire terminal. Pretty thick, eh?


Resin on the outside


More liquid nail goodness on the inside. There will be no leaks here.


Fleece stretched out. Sorry that I didn't get a more flamboyant pattern but this was the stretchiest stuff walmart had


Somewhat thick fleece + resin + 40 oz + more resin = a ****ton of resin. I literally went through 7 solo cups worth. Time to go get some more. I’m not sure why that one area looks like a giant bubble in the picture. I assure you all that the top is 100% perfect so far.

 

Looks awesome. The thickness is niiice. Do you have plans for painting it?

 

Carpet because at this point I have way too much time invested already. I want it over and done with. The last thing I want to do is have to bondo and sand the crap out of the top.

I will post another update later tonight or tomorrow, whenever I feel like not being lazy.

 

Another update. Two in the same day even.


+ 3 more layers. The order is this: fleece, cloth, mat, cloth, mat. The center section has an additional two layers for kicks and giggles putting total layers @ 5 everywhere and 7 in the center.


Artistic shot


Another indication of how long this project has taken. This is the invoice for my hurricane nuts, hex screws, and security screws.


Playing with hurricane nuts so the install will go without any hitch when I try it on the box. The idea behind using hurricane nuts/t-nuts is to give you threaded holes so you can install/remove the speakers as much as you want to without destroying the box.


Holes cut. Yes, it did get darker out.


This will give you an idea of how thick just 5 layers is when you're working with such heavy stuff. The rings are 3/4" MDF


Mmm, dust. Man am I itching right now


10a.22 minus rubber gasket to mark out the holes.


Imagine the outline is the basket of the sub and the dots are the screw holes. Seem like the screw holes are a little too close to the center? That’s because they are. Due to this I scrapped the hurricane nut idea and will just be screwing them down with screws. I didn’t have enough room to get the 1/4" hole in for the nuts. Don't worry, the security measures will still be in place.

To do (for box)
- buy foam tape stuff to go around the holes
- screw subs down
- have bass again until carpet arrives

To do (general)
- deadening
- fix wiring

 

Everything is wired up and it sounds simply amazing. The 10a.22s blend awesome with my QSD-216 up front. Can you say loud and clear? I love it

More pictures and what have you tonight. I've got a one hour drive (one way) in store today so I will have plenty of listening time.

 

right on.. so just how heavy is that box (before subs)

 

Are you referring to the dowel that is not in the other pics?

Anyway I've been silently following this thread and i have to say... great work man, and thank you so much for documenting this for us. This has helped me and I'm sure many others immensly.

 

I honestly have no idea but it felt a lot lighter than the old MDF box when I dropped it into place this morning. I will try to remember to weigh it when I pull it back out to carpet it.

Yeah, I was referring to the dowl. Thanks for the positive comment btw

On to the pictures!


Today started off with a trip to home depot to get some of this stuff


Another shot to try to give you guys an idea of the thickness of the top (the sides/base are thicker). The black foam is 3/8" and the MDF is 3/4"


Wired to a 2 ohm load


Installed

I still need to carpet the box but for now I really don't care. I'm just glad to have low end again.

As for how it sounds, let's just say this:

Seriously though, these have got to be the most accurate subs I've heard to date. I love they way they sound and they couldn't blend better with my frontstage.

More is in the works so stay tuned.

 

snazzy.

 

Very nice! Keep up the good work man.

 

super sexy swinging sounds

 

Looks good man. Now the hard part, finishing. Mine's still sittin the same way it was when i posted my original pics... Once you get the sound it's just so hard to get off your a$$ and wrap it up.

Seriously though it looks really good man. Mostly I'm glad you like it yourself. Nothing like spending all that time and being "OK" with it. Keep it up man!

 

hell of a nice job. glad you like the sound, i didnt think those drivers would disappoint. did you ever find out if those are indeed tc9's?

 

nice job man. how much did that cost you in all minus the subs. I have a box already mad but i was wondering can i strip the carpet off of it and then fiberglass it so i can get it painted. If so what would i need b/c i want my box to match my car!

 

It looks nice! I am also wondering the cost of materials. Also, with that fiberglass stuff... when you hit up wal-mart, target, whatever... pick up some cheap panty-hose's. Use them at the end of the day before... or after? you take a shower. i can't remember.. .but anyways, it pulls the glass from your skin

 

Sorry for the lack of updates but as lockchad said, once you have sound it's pretty hard to find the motivation to go out and finish the box (carpet in this case). The car is still in more or less the same shape. Other problems with the actual car have developed (read: I discovered my front end was about to fall apart) and I am devoting funding elsewhere for now (600 series box, tubular a-arms, coilovers, etc ).

Never did the research but I'm pretty sure I could find out pretty easily. If I remember to look into it tonight I will be sure to post the results.

As for cost, I posted it a few times earlier but it was fairly high. It could have been lower if I already owned some of the tools and if I bought things using cheaper methods.

Mat was basically free on e-bay. I ended up paying about $5 for all the mat/cloth pictured in the beginning of this thread but I paid around $50 to get it shipped here.

Resin was around $150, which could have been cheaper if I ordered in bulk online vs going through 3.5 of those bondo resin containers, which were purchased locally.

Gloves ran around $10 for the two boxes I used on the project. Solo cups were around $5 for mixing. Fleece was about $5 as well.

Masking tape and aluminum foil were around $25 for the three rolls of tape + the roll of foil

I had to buy a staple gun + staples for $25, a resperator and an extra set of cartrages for $60

I already broke $300 and I’m missing a lot of stuff still. There’s also the extreme amount of time involved in making a box like this, especially on the first time out

ScottieB - I will be sure to try that when it's time to sand it down.

 

way off topic but check out the new tc sounds woofers. they're selling direct to customers now, and have a few updated speakers. the tc-2000's are a bit nicer version of an rl-p, i'm going to buy a pair of tc-3000 15's in the next month or two.

TC Sounds (TC-3000)

 

I'm pretty happy with what I've got. Honestly, if I was going to buy a new sub I would probably buy something with a XBL^2 motor because it reduces cone mass. Or a pair of w7’s. Or wait for ED's av.2. Those things should be crazy. The only reason I would upgrade at this point is for better SQ but I'm completely happy with what I have so I’m probably not going to change the subs any time soon.

 

wow. Those are some crazy subs. But I think Ill stick with my Type R. at least untill I blow it!!

 

Back to the top. The box might be going up for sale because the TA is no longer going to be my daily driver. I will finish the box (bondo, sand, and carpet it in any color the buyer wants) if anyone is interested. PM with reasonable offers if interested.

 

This thread was making me very happy until the final post which made me really sad. But I guess if you want to sell it that's your own choice. I wish I had the knowledge/ability to make something like that

 

Haha, thanks for the complement. It might not get sold – it depends on whether or not anyone wants to buy it.

Here's the deal. I'm going to be buying another car sometime in the next month as a winter car and a new daily driver. I'm not going to sell the TA because I would lose a ton of money but at the same time I no longer see the need for that amazing of a stereo. The 3 cube fiberglass box really isn't necessary anymore. Then again, if no one is interested in it I might save the box and use it once the TA is completed.

 

Well, I'm in the same boat with my car... gotta get a winterbeater, but I'll still leave my system in the bird. After all, winter is only 1/4 of the year

 

i had to bail too, electrical gremlins were killing me. started popping that ecm fuse up by the battery left and right, so i parked it for the winter and bought a 98 explorer, leather, v8, awd, 48k miles, sunroof, its nice. almost got the box done today, should have the system in next week. its 8.2 cubes tuned to 32 hz, 2 fi q 15's on my crossfire 2000d, the crossfire vr602 driving a pair of xxx midbass drivers, and an orion 8004 bi-amping my alumapro components. 240 amp iraggi alt, 175 at idle, it should be loud

 

I am definitely interested in the box. you did a great job and my convertible would love it . pm me and we could work something out I would rather see you getting the cash instead of the local stereo shop. definitely not thrilled you are selling it though after all the work that was put into it.

 

jstoltz:

Good luck fitting that box through your convertible's trunk opening. At least that's the problem I have right now. I built the box in the fiberglass subbox tech article for my hatchback, but I'm building a convertible now and the box won't get in there.. lol

Unfortunately that means I'll have to mess with the fiberglass once again... But like Gummie was sort of saying... I guess you get to a certain age and don't really see the point of such a massive stereo anymore. I think this time around, the 'vert will get just a single 10" and be done with it.

Gummie:
Hey great job with the updates. I'm sure a lot of people benefitted from you sharing your experience on the fly like that.

 

Yah, sad to see it up for sale, but I as well got to that point. I want clarity... not quantity when it comes to bass now. If I told myself 4 years ago that I would have a pair of 8"s in my car... I'd laugh!

 

well I guess count me out on this box, sorry

but Jza since you have a vert there you interested in doing a dual 12" box for me. pm me or e-mail at droptop406@sbcglobal.net