2001 SEL System rebuild

[SomeguyinPDX503]

Please Rate this thread & post up what you like/dislike on my build or ideas for improvement. I'm always looking to better my ride. Thanks (Constructive criticism is welcome, Haters are not!)

I always wanted to put a good system in my car, but I refused to pay the $200-250 for the digital dash kit from Metra. I originally had the mach audio system and it sounded pretty good so I just added a sub stage using the speaker inputs on my EQX. Powered by an old school Orion 2350gx pushing 2-15"solobarics in a sealed box (My avitar shows it). I had no issues and it sounded great as long as I kept the subs turned down because they would overpower the mach audio mids and tweets. About a year ago I came across a guy selling the Metra Digital kit for $120 bucks on caraudio.com, and jumped on it. At this point I decided to go all out and build something that would get loud and still have excellent sound quality. I am sorry for the lack of pics on some portions of this build but once I was in "work mode" I would forget to take pics. Anyway here is the list of what's in the car so far:
HU- Alpine 9887 (3-way active) with ipod cable
Front doors- Silver flute 6.5" and Seas Prestige 1" tweeters
Rear Doors- CDT 690cfx
Sub stage- 2-15" American Bass XFL's in custom designed enclosure
Amps- a/d/s M860 (8x60rms), Rockford Fosgate T1500bdcp(1x1500rms)
Wiring- Stinger sheilded RCA's, 0/1 pure copper welding cable 2 runs, All speaker wire is Knu Conseptz 14ga.
Power- 2-yellow top Optima's, Power Bastard 220amp alt. (195amp real world)
Deadener- 3 bulk packs of Stinger roadkill (almost 100lbs.)
Security- Viper 2way paging alarm, and 9mm


First pics are the Metra kit and my Alpine going in:

[SomeguyinPDX503]

No pics of the 220amp alt. but here are some pics of the other power up grades. I got a yellow top D34-78 under the hood and the big 3 done with 0/1 pure copper welding cable(flexaprene). Another matching yellow top in the trunk. I made a mount for the battery tray then routered the edges and painted it with Hurculiner. I have a 140amp breaker under the hood between the batts and will be upgrading it to a 250amp shortly.

[SomeguyinPDX503]

The first 3 pics are showing the factory Mach audio 5x7 next to the new Silver Flute 6.5" mids. The next several pics are my first attemp at making door pods. If you take your time they arn't that hard to do, not the type of project you can rush. Also you need to factor in a stupid amount of sanding. The Mach audio system has made very nice tweeter enclosures, so my tweets got mounted in the factory locations (sails).

[SomeguyinPDX503]

More pics of the door pannel process. I can't tell you how many times I wish I had never started this project during the sanding and filling, sanding and filling, sanding and filling. Then you realize that you havent even started the other door! thats when you just go strait into a deep depression. lol

[SomeguyinPDX503]

More door shots. As you can see in the pics I ended up using Hurculiner to cover the lower half of the doors. I will be putting a finial coat of GRAY hurculiner once the weather warms back up. (I don't care for the black) The doors really do look good in person, the pics don't do them justice+ their dusty in the photo. Also not pictured is the 3 layers of Stinger roadkill. 1 layer on the back of the outside door skin, 2nd layer is cutout to match the factory moisture barrier, and the 3rd layer is on the back of the actual door pannel. I installed with all new door pannel clips. My doors feel so solid now and road noise was noticably lower.

[SomeguyinPDX503]

On to the rear doors. I know Taurus's don't have rear door speakers but due to the fact I no longer have room in the rear deck thats where they went. I used the same fiberglass method as on the front doors and they came out nice, and much faster since I knew what I was doing this time. Same as the front for deadener 3 layers (1-on back of outer door skin, 2nd layer cutout to replace factory moisture barrier, 3rd layer on back of the door pannel). Brand new pannel clips all the way around.

[SomeguyinPDX503]

More rear door shots. Speakers are (CDT 690cfx) carbon fiber 2way 6x9's with a 2" voicecoil, and 1" silk dome tweets.

[SomeguyinPDX503]

Now for the substage!!! I took some careful measurements and made a cardboard mock-up to see how big of a box I could get into the trunk. After that I got a hold of Jason (owner of Mobile Enclosures) and had him design the box and provide blueprints and a cutsheet so I could build it myself. There a pic of my rear stock speakers right before I removed them. And the last pic is the box that was designed and tuned to the cabin of the Taurus.

[SomeguyinPDX503]

I'll post more up in a few hrs.

[sheila]

Wow! Lotta work!