Replacement UQ7 speaker foam surrounds ordered....thanks Bob88GTA!

 

Cool work on dash!!! Interested to see how the speaker covers hold up...looks great! Also cool you kept the stock unit with a needed MP3 jack! Give you credit for soldering connections! I agree with needed tunes when cruising with tops off. However although you can still talk on your cell phone through the MP3 jack I am spoiled with newer tech on Bluetooth lol so it's hard to choose stock clean look over the newer units. Either way love the detailed work!!!

 

Thanks maks10! UQ7 speaker foam arrived today. Happy NPD (New Parts Day) to me!

 

I herd about those after I spent some of my kids inheritance on a set that I had a repair shop fix I have to try those, I have a spare set to practice on.
Your doing a great job Dave

 

Thank you sir.

Yeah, $13.20 + shipping. What do I have to lose? How often do you get to say you fixed a speaker? Besides, if I replaced them, the aftermarket ones would be from China, and they get too damn much of my money as it is.

 

As Major Warden said in the Bridge on the River Kwai, “There’s always the unexpected, isn’t there”.


I paid for 2-day shipping on the foam surrounds because I was going to pull the UQ7 speakers Friday night after work, then rebuild them on Saturday and Sunday. Ha!


I blame most of the delay on myself. Yes, lots of family and home chore driven delays. And I have our teams on-call phone this weekend. Also, several long calls with my brother, as he searches for a new show car. But that was just the normal delays.


The first delay was my own foolishness, aside from those above. Plan A was just to pop those speakers out in a half hour or so. Not.






I had seen that one of the screws for the UQ7 speakers was captured by the trim. Without looking too closely, I had thought this problem could be overcome by drilling a hole in the trim to get a socket through. And that this hole would be covered by the speaker cloth. This was plan B.


The screw is too close to the edge of where the cloth speaker cover sits, so drilling was out of the question. Time for Plan C.


Plan C should have included removing a LOT of plastic trim, in 30-40 temps in Michigan, without breaking anything. I wasn't feeling too lucky where this approach was concerned, so on to Plan D.


I thought maybe if I could flex that cold, 28-year-old plastic trim “just enough” to get a ¼ drive socket on that one screw, then I could get the speaker out without removing any trim. Not with my Craftsmen ¼ handle and socket.


I tried and tried, using every combination of tools I had, but nothing would fit into that slim space.


So, off to several stores to see what my tool options were (Plan E). I found a much slimmer drive handle, but the cheapy socket was actually longer than my Craftsmen. But that’s OK. We can fix that.










A little measuring to see how much I could take off and still be able to attach the socket to the handle, and still drive the screw.







Time to shrink that socket down to size.







New and improved!







A few (clean) rolled up socks to move the trim panel out, and voila! I don’t like buying tools from Mao and the communists, but every now and then a cheap tool has its place.








And out with the final screw, and the speaker. Found a couple of the mounting screws for the box itself loose. Very loose! So we’ll have to address that. Can’t have that box rattling with the subs working.








And did I drop the screw into the great abyss behind the trim panel? Yes, I did. Thank goodness for the flexible magnet on a stick, and a little good luck fishing around in there.







I had read here on the forums that these Infinity speakers would fit, but you never know for sure until you try. There IS a significant difference in the amount of space needed, and the offset of the magnet, front to rear.







But it does fit nicely.

 

Thanks to photos from Bob88GTA I knew how this came apart.



And apart it comes.



Time to prep it for the new surround. Scrape…






…very gently scrape…







…more gentle scraping of the backside of the cone (while not necessary, [the new cone mounts from the front, not the back], I couldn’t help myself)…




…and just a little more scraping.



A little test fit of the cleaned parts…looking good!



Speaking of testing, I grabbed this vintage Alpine (as in, it was in my Duster when I was in high school) unit out of storage to test each of the speakers before I put them in the car, and the subs before I even attempt to repair them. Just a little FM Static, but everything works well.





Time for glue! No, I could not color in between the lines as a child, yes I was messy with glue, and don’t worry about it, the instructions say. So I didn’t, too much.





And a little weight to hold things down while the glue dries. It’s a little cool in the garage, so I’ll probably let this cure overnight, and glue the outer edge in the morning over breakfast before I go to work.

 

Haha, that's exactly how things go for me when I think in terms of minutes.
Everything turns out as HOURS!
And, of course, the screw would go down the well and cause further delay.
At least I'm not alone

 

I thought someone would appreciate the lost screw story.

One of the misconceptions people get when reading threads (when only the successes are posted and never the failures) is that everything goes without a hitch...like on TV. That has never been the case for me!

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...ps7c2217cf.png
OK,who's the guy that threw the Screw.
remember that Dave !!!!

 

Why yes I do! Those little parts like to get themselves lost, don't they?

 

Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of my purchase of the T/A!

I did get a little more work done. After giving the glue a few days to cure, I took it for a test drive. It works. Can't tell much about sound until I get it back in it's box in the car, and send it only the frequencies it was designed to reproduce.

Having passed the sound test, I "siliconed" the cloth cover and it's frame back on, and set that aside to cure.



I had noticed that the original factory 4x6 had a paper gasket on the back. Nothing like that on my Infinitys. And I DON'T want rattles when the subwoofers are on, so I thought I'd better get to work and make some gaskets. So I grabbed a scrap of cardboard out of the recycle tub...



...and started drawing and cutting out a template.



Cut it out for a test fit, and with a few adjustments, it looks pretty good.



Now for some real gasket material. Curly as heck...it's been rolled up into a tube the diameter of a quarter for at least 15 years.



Transferred from the template, cut out and ready to go.



That ought to get the job done.



Next step, re-installation.

 

Nice little detail there!

 

Thank you sir.

Hopefully my schedule will allow me to get back out to the garage tonight and get those passenger side rear speakers re-installed. It's supposed to be 57 here tomorrow, so I'll probably wait until then to remove the rear speakers on the driver side. I hate pulling and prying on cold 28 year old plastic.

 

I made it out to the garage last night. I was quite excited to get out of work at a decent hour, and have a chance to work on the T/A. I had planned to get the passenger side rear speakers all reinstalled. But then I remembered that the box was loose. I tried to tighten it up, but the top holes were stripped. Someone had been in here before. I scrounged up a couple of speed nuts, and was able to secure the box tightly to the body. Problem solved, I thought to myself. A quick bang est to be sure...

http://vid241.photobucket.com/albums...325_195556.mp4



So out came the screws and speed nuts. Dropped another screw...



...and decided I'd better stop before I broke something.

So today, a trip to the parts store for some strip caulk.



Super sticky, stretchy but more rubber-like than putty-like. Perfect.



A few very tiny, thin little strips of this stuff placed under the edges of the box, and back in with the screws, speed nuts, and speakers.

I mentioned it before, but note the bead of almost liquid highly tacky sealer at the top of the box. I assumed this was factory stuff to help prevent rattles.



If you are wondering about the bright yellow post-it note under the upper right speaker, it says "Loose nut on back". A reminder to my future self, or the next poor cat who has to work on this thing. Hopefully it will prevent those nuts from getting lost down into the quarter panel.

Fully reassembled, and now passes the bang test.

http://vid241.photobucket.com/albums...326_143158.mp4

Trim back on place, and no one will ever know my little secret...when the radio is NOT on.

 

Now on to the driver side. Note NO bead of sealer across the top. So that bead on the passenger side must have been an (unsuccessful) dealer attempt to chase down the rattle from the box.



But there are signs that this side was worked on too. Like the speaker connectors not fastened back down, and jammed so hard against the trim that it has left white "bend" marks in the trim (mercifully, behind the speaker cover).



Hello Nick.



Yep, driver side is shot too. As Herman's Hermits would say, "Second verse, same as the first".

 

As Herman mentioned above, today's work on the driver side looked just like the passenger side. Sub rebuilt, box caulked, both speakers re-installed. Goes a lot faster after you've already done one, made the tools and templates, etc. Rear speakers are now finished. Tomorrow, back to the front seat to start getting the amplifier wired up.

 

Haha, love how you checked for rattles B.A. Baracus style
Just punch it in the face, sucka! xD

 

Well, I'm working out of two shops. Tools in one, car in another. And I get tired of running back and forth chasing stuff. So rather than a soft faced hammer, a fist will due.

It's been tough keeping up the pace of getting a little something done every night. There's just always something else competing for my time. Last night, I was talking to my brother about his hunt for a classic car, and used 10 minutes or so of that time to sit in my car and pull my harness through the pod and across the dash. Not much progress, but a little something done. If I'm lucky, I'll get out there tonight and try to find a home for that amp up under the dash. I have pre-fit the thing, and know the general area where it's going, now I have to hash out the mounting details.

It's still too cold for any cruising yet here in Michigan. I'm trying to push and get a bunch of things done to the car before the really nice weather gets here.

 

Todays was in the low 60s, and with temps getting colder tonight, and staying there for a few days, I thought now was the time to try pulling the dash pad without cracking it.

All went well, no cracks, no lost screws, although I went to extra lengths to make sure the screws above the defroster vent didn’t get lost. There was one screw on the far passenger side of the dash at the defroster that the folks in Van Nuys had over-driven, and the head was just slightly below the vinyl. I was able to ease the screw by without damage.



You may notice the magnets on the end of the screwdriver I used. The whole family has Sonicare electric tooth brushes. And those are the little magnets that help make them work. When you change out the brush head, these are part of the mechanism that gets thrown away. But I could not stand to see these powerful little rare earth magnets head to the landfill, so I snap them off and keep them for a number of uses like this, pinning car show and cruise night fliers to my metal garage door, etc.

A little factory label action.





And found a few rattles.





Only got a few hours of sleep last night, so I decided to stop here for the night and not press my luck. While poking around under the hood, I did find this distribution block under the hood next to the battery, which someone had mentioned as a good place to tap in for power to the amp. And it does indeed look promising. Should be able to conceal it decently, and route it easily.

 

Made it out to the garage for about an hour tonight. The UQ7 amp has been rewired. Went with these nice little twist connectors from Crutchfield, as I simply did not trust myself soldering in this confined space inside the car. The cut factory speaker wires have had their ends touched up with sealer. When it's dry, I'll wrap the bundle in something soft to avoid rattles, and get the amp back in place in the dash.

 

I keep picking away at it as I cn find the time. No photos, but the UQ7 amp is back in place, the new amp has found a home, the ECM harness refitted/sealed to the cowl side panel, and the antennae pass-through modified to allow the amp power wire inside.

 

I decided to draw power for the amplifier from the stud near the battery, on the core support. Wrapped in some small black convoluted tubing, and routed in front of the battery and out through the fender, it should be mostly out of site. So I pulled the battery…



…and things were not as neat and tidy as I would have liked. Already knew this was the case. There is even some chafed paint, and a tiny bit of surface rust starting.

Things were cleaning up nicely, but the overflow jug was in the way. So I pulled it, and there was a little chafing under that too, along with a tiny amount of surface rust in one spot.



So a little more scrubbing, and things cleaned up nicely. The outside of the jug cleaned up nicely too. I coated all of the spots that had surface rust with Eastwood Rust Converter. I’ll top that off with some parts store touch up (as it will all be covered by the battery and jug, a 100% match is not necessary).



I figured while I’m in there, I might as well pull that stud and clean behind it too. The threads on the stud, and the wire terminals, were pretty clean, though the nut was not exactly snug (nor was the battery hold down…just finger tight). But I thought the stud could be a little cleaner, and the nut too. So those two parts, the two self-tapping sheet metal screws that mount it, and the battery hold-down bolt are soaking in some Evaporust.



I’m am optimistic that THIS is a tipping point. That from here on out (with the exception of R&R of the front 4x6 speakers, which promises to be interesting), I will be re-assembling, and no longer taking things apart. I’m already on folder 29 or stepped photos for fixing my broken power antennae! Yes, that’s where this whole deal started…where the avalanche began.

 

You do ALL this DETAIL work, go to a car show and then they spend 2 MINUTES looking over your car, that a 3 year old could do better.


Just wait until you do the SFC-LCA-STB and Wonderbar installations. You'll wonder how they ever said (magazine articles) what great handling cars these were. Maybe 27 years ago this was hot stuff, but it's amazing how TIGHT you can make your Bird with some 21st century aftermarket replacements.

 

Hey Ed. I hear ya...my oldest brother has been showing cars my whole life, and I've seen the work and detail he puts into them. I don't ever expect the car to impress anyone at a show. I get a few positive comments at local cruises and on the street, and that's about as good as it will get.

SFCs are in the long term plans for the car, no doubt. I already purchased the TBI-sytle STB, as they were starting to sell out most places, and I wasn't sure they'd ever be produced again. So that will go on the car some day in the future. And I have a Wonder Bar that needs a light resto, then it will be ready to go on.

 

Take your time and work on getting ALL the orange peel out of the clearcoat. Using a wool pad, a variable speed buffer and some 1500 compound, work on small sections at a time. When you flatten the clear down, use a WHITE foam polishing pad to really bring up the shine. I use a product called Red Velvet (made by Top of the Line) which is a pure brazillan carnauba wax with a red tint to it and made just for RED cars. If you really want that WET look, about a week before the show, apply this and wear fresh underwear, because you will not believe the difference.
As for the wheels, take them off and clean behind them with a piece of scruffy wool. Then I use Q-Tips and some wheel cleaner to get at the smaller holes (80 holes per wheel). Try to get all of the brake dust out of the Red color. Now would also be a good time to paint the front calipers RED. They show up quite nice when the car is in motion. If you need ANY tips on detail, I had my own detailing business of over 30 years. ED

 

Thanks Ed. The (mostly) factory paint DOES need some love. I have not decided if I want to attempt this myself, or pay a pro. I simply don't have the budget for a good repaint, and if that nearly 30 year old first gen. GM clear coat fails at any point in the process, I'd have a real problem on my hands. I made a nice living (commission) at a GM dealer in the late '80s writing repair order after repair order to fix factory paint issues. So my faith in that factory paint, at this age, is not very great.

 

The longer you let it sit, the more oils in the paint disappear. If it is turning white, then the clear coat is starting to expire. You might want to use a mild compound (by Hand) to see if it shines up. Use a soft white T-shirt and rub a small area. IF you see ANY red color coming off, the clear coat is done, but if clears up, then use a high quality polish to bring up the shine. Again, if it continues to develop a high shine, then using any top end PURE banana yellow wax to seal it in. Also a CLAY BAR is excellent in removing any fine dirt that has stuck to the finish. This last process may be repeated several times as the paint will want to soak up the oils in the wax. That is the ONLY way to get that WET LOOK. This is not a day long project, but if done right, it may take a week to get the "LOOK". Any good auto parts store should carry what you need, such as foam pads-compounds-polishes-banana yellow wax-microfiber towels-tar remover-clay bars etc. LOL, ED

 

No discoloring of the clear coat...nothing cloudy or milky. Just lots of factory orange peal. It looks sound...I'm just a worry-wart.

I did go over it with a clay bar last year. First time I'd ever used one...makes a surprising difference. After that, I just kept it clean with spray detailer.

 

At 10ft my car looks great. Upon closer review not so much. My clear is starting to peel on the top of car now. Painted the hood last summer. I will bite the bullet soon and get a whole repaint. Just waiting on a set of factory gfx now to get a better fit on the bottom of door section. Hopefully in the next two weeks she will be getting a fresh coat of bright red.

 

Dave, Listen to me! The oils in a high quality wax is what is going to SAVE your paint. Detail Spray is like using a water pistol to put out a large fire, it helps, but not for long. The 1500-2000 compound will remove a small amount of orange peel. That's what you want. A little at a time will make a difference. Too strong of a compound may take off too much at one time. Next comes the polish. That will make it slick and help the shine, but polish does not last. It will remove spider webbing and swirls, but you need the WAX to make it last. Wax can only cover what it goes over, so if you have swirls in your paint, wax will not take them out. But if you use the correct polish and have a glass like finish, wax will keep it that way as long as you use it VERY OFTEN. It does NOT last more than a few months (if the car is not garaged), but putting on extra coats is like putting butter on top of butter, it just keeps getting easier. My paint is 25 years old and I have body shops tell me at shows, that they cannot get the gloss my finish has even with a fresh paint job.

 

I just like all the different dental picks. I use those quite a lot.

 

I just read all 5 pages of your journey with your very nice 88 T/A. Couldn't help but wonder; did you ever talk to the GM engineer that owned the car (I saw a post that you had his name and address)? Might be neat to hear anything he knows about the car....

 

Your definitely doing the right things man!

Keep up the great work!

 

Dave you have one of the nicest cars on this board in my opinion. True show car.

 

I hear you Ed. Did not intend for the detailer to take the place of a good wax. It was just something to use to keep it clean after the clay bar (which, again, I found amazing). I will get around to the paint work after some of these other repairs are done.

They are handy, aren't they?

Yes I did. I thought I had posted about that here. If it wasn't in this thread, it must have been somewhere else. What the dealer told me was true. He was the first and only prior owner, a GM engineer. The car was delivered through Rinke Pontiac/GMC, which is just up the street from the Warren Tech Center (I bought my GMC Jimmy there years ago). It was always a toy, always garaged, no winters, but was driven to work, saw some rain, etc. So it was well kept, dealer maintained, but not perfect. His wife had a yellow Formula at the same time. He finally sold mine to the dealer I bought it from when he just could not get in and out of the car anymore due to age. He was also a POCI member, and showed the car in the past at my Michigan Widetrackers Chapter "Spring Dust Off". He enjoyed hearing that the car was in good hands.

Thank you badgta! Right now it's one of 10 or so projects I have going all at once....the weather is nice, and I just want to get it back together and enjoy it!

Thank you very much. But it's really just a nice driver. Too many flaws to be a show car. But that doesn't mean I don't love it...flaws and all.

 

I did finally get out to the garage a few time this week and last.

After the Eastwood converter comes this primer red epoxy as a top coat of the corroded areas. Should provide a good barrier to further problems. I mean, it took 28 years to get this bad. In another 28 years...I'll be dead! So this should be "good enough for who it's for".



After this, the whole tray was scuffed with a Scotchbright pad, and that's enough. No primer, no blocking. I've get to get back on the road before summer is out.

Masked, and with a paint drop cloth over the whole front end beyond the paper, she got 3 coats of Duplicolor Bright Red.



Not bad. A little glossy. I'll test fit the battery, and see how much that shows up. If it's too unattractive, I'll see if I can find some mat-finish clear.

 

Looks good Dave,

 

Dupont does make a SATIN clear spray. If you spray the clear along the edge and fog it out several inches, it will blend right in. Or take it over to POLO (Andy's 1992 Camaro) and let him have for a week or so and cut one out of a donor car (with less rust damage) and reweld it into your car.

Really Dave, in a hundred car shows, nobody is going to notice that gloss difference in the deep-dark area of the "Battery Zone". It really looks cool and should outlast both of us!

 

Looking real nice there!

 

Thanks guys.

Going to be a hot weekend for many of us. And while I have nothing to complain about (Michigan) Vs other parts of the country, it still gets very hot in the garage (no insulation, no electricity). So if I'm going to get anything done this weekend, it's going to have to be in the mornings.

 

Got a few hours in this afternoon...90+ outside, even hotter inside, but what are you gonna do?

Working on buttoning up that battery box corner. Got the touch-up paint on the chafed areas of the inner fender, under the coolant overflow. Came out pretty good. Also touched up a TON of little chips in the paint, from mechanics changing batteries, and disconnecting / reconnecting the battery. Again, not show quality, but it hides well. It's harder to see the red touch-up, than the grey primer chips showing through the red. Compare to the chafed spots in post #223.



The amplifier B+ wire was previously pulled through the grommet for the power antennae cable. With the antennae assembly laid out on the floor, I pulled the B+ wire up through the fender well and into the battery box area. That bright red cable will stick out like a sore thumb...not what I want. Printed out previous photos of the wire stack-up so I could get them back on in the order the guys in Van Nuys did.



The amp B+ cable, coated in red, had an even REDDER end on it. So this is where I started the "hiding" process. A few inches of dark grey heat shrink for the eyelet end.



Wires all back in place on the stud. Had to add a few washers (trip to the hardware store) between a few of them to get them sitting flat, and assure good connections. All terminals, and amp cable tested with a continuity checker from the battery positive cable back to the amp B+ fuse. A happy tone each time. Time for some convolute tube.



Went on easily, even around the fuse holder with a little help from some zip ties.



Was ready to install the first clip, but...as you can see in the photo, the clip on the top has a couple of extra little "wings" which would (I guess) create some spring tension when the barbed fitting is in the hole. It would help hold things in place I guess. What they looked like to ME was two little wings that would gouge the paint off the body.



So I trimmed those off with some side cutters (bottom clip in photo), and it's better, but I think I'll make another trip to the hardware store tomorrow (they are closed for the night now) and pick up some neoprene washers to push on over that barb, and protect the paint.

So for tonight, that's it. A million little steps, that look like a whole bunch of nothing!

 

Looking good! Now I'm afraid to look at my battery tray.

 

Me too. I guess I'm just gonna revel in those pics for now.

 

I really like the red with the red rims.. Very nice looking T/A!

 

Thanks guys.

I was not expecting to find any additional work when I removed the battery. But fixing the beginings of rust, touching up scraped/chafed underhood paint (which without clear coat seems to scratch off pretty easily), etc...I felt I just had to address them while I was there. It's how small projects (fixing a broken power antennae) turned into, well, this whole mess.

It's actually a problem my friends are aware. One of my life-long best friends texted me a picture of an editorial by David Frieburger of Hot Rod, in which he explained how an engine swap turned into a trans swap, then a rear end swap, then a prop shaft, then a radiator, then the front suspension, then a brake upgrade...it just never stopped. Well, I've been that way with this...everytime I remove an item, I find more work, or make more work by insisting "while I'm in here I'll go ahead and...".

As I texted him back, the editorial was me to a tee...oil change, or complete resto...there's little in between.

 

Got a little more done tonight.

When I had first observed the chafing of the paint from direct painted metal on battery case contact, I ordered a Battery Mat. Trimmed to just the size of the battery, it should be fairly unobtrusive, pad the tray from the battery, and neutralize any acid that might leak (God forbid).



I tucked the amp harness behind some of the headlamp wiring with a couple of zip ties. About as "invisible" as I'm going to be able to make it.



I decided that I DO like those little wings on the tube clips (after cutting them off the first clip yesterday), as long as it's padded by a neoprene washer. They keep the clip snug, and between the tension and rubber washer, it stays at whatever angle I set it to, steering the harness in the direction I chose.



Two factory holes in the pinchweld flange of the front rail the fender mounts to were perfect spots for more clips.





A quick battery test fit...I'm pretty happy with the way this looks.

 

Got an hour in between "home from work" and dinner.

The big moment...the trouble maker that started this whole mess...the power antennae! It's in, mounted, fastened top and bottom, ECM harness back in place and sealed up, etc.



But, always one step backwards, right? Another tiny spot of rust! See the square dirt outline above this rusty spot? That's the outline of the plastic inner fender liner...the top lip of the liner. Road spray and debris drip down behind the liner, and get trapped between the steel inner fender and plastic liner, around that screw hole (for a sheet metal screw that mounts the liner). There was a little loose dirt here, so I thought, I'll just take a plastic putty knife and knock that loose dirt off of there. Ha! A thin flake of the black undercoat flaked away, exposing the rust. So I scraped it back, and hit it with Eastwood Pre, then rust converter. Tomorrow it will get touched up with the top coat of that system, just like the battery tray. I just could not leave this behind...



Hope to get back out there yet tonight and do a little more.

 

Damn. Another thing for me to check now. Thanks, DAVE!

 

Well, that's why I post those photos, warts and all. If it happened on my car, theres a chance it may have happened on other F-bodies too.

And, it's a tiny little patch of surface rust that took 25+ years and 50+k miles to develop. It was not urgent to address it, but it would nag at me if I didn't do it while I was there.