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2001 SEL System rebuild

7K views 30 replies 7 participants last post by  fct 
#1 · (Edited)
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:
 

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#2 ·
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.
 

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#3 ·
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).
 

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#4 ·
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
 

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#5 · (Edited)
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.
 

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#6 · (Edited)
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.
 

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#7 ·
More rear door shots. Speakers are (CDT 690cfx) carbon fiber 2way 6x9's with a 2" voicecoil, and 1" silk dome tweets.
 

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#8 ·
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.
 

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#9 ·
I'll post more up in a few hrs.
 
#11 ·
Yep, but should be worth it when its finished.
 
#12 ·
After about 40 emails with Mobile enclosures and a bunch of number crunching and modeling different setups we came up with this configuration. Subs up port back, and by cutting out a fair amount of the rear deck and the speaker placement it's almost like having the subs in the cabin. My goal with the enclosure was: flat responce, low tuning, and high output. In that order. You can see pics of the router bit/dremel used to perfferate the rear deck cover so that it keeps the stock look. I also cut out the rear insulation/sound barrier to fit the cutout in the sheet metal.
 

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#13 ·
Starting the box build. You can see the port is narrower at the exit than at the entrance. Jason said that style port is called a reverse tapped horn. I routered all the edges and corners of the port area to keep turbulence to a minimum.
 

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#14 ·
More pics of the box build. It took quite a bit of time drawing out the port layout on the top and bottom of the box, so I did'nt miss with the drill or screw and split the wood. I forgot to take pics of the second top sheet for the box (double baffle).
 

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#15 · (Edited)
In the first couple pics you can see the interior of the box has been caulked and waiting to dry. I didn't get pics of it but I cut and attached the second MDF sheet to the top of the box so it's 1 1/2" thick (double baffle) Then I took it back out into the garage and got busy with the router.
 

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#18 · (Edited)
Starting the bodywork. After filling all the screw holes I started spraying several coats of primer till the wood wasn't soaking it all in, then gave it 3-4 coats of semi-flat black. This box is getting friggin' Heavy!!! I don't even want to think about lifting it once the subs go in. Subs are around 45lbs each + box = Hernia.
 

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#19 ·
Thanks guys. More pics on the way.
 
#21 ·
Covering the box in Herculiner to keep with the same theme plus I already had a few cans. The first coat really soaked into the wood. While that was drying I got my speaker wires ready. It's 8ga. the biggest wire that my subs could take at the terminal. Subs are dual 4ohm and gonna be wired down to a 1ohm mono load. The second coat of the Hurculiner came out looking sweet.
 

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#22 ·
I picked up some "rope caulk" from ace hardware to help seal the subs against the rough bedliner. Stuff works awsome. At work I came across some sheets of polyfil that came as packing material and snached it up as soon as I saw it. I lined the inside of the box but not in the port. Also installed the terminal cups and wiring.
 

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#23 ·
In the first two pics you can see the subs loaded into the box. The 3rd and 4th pic are taken from inside the cabin looking into the trunk. The 5th and 6th pics are taken from outside the car looking down through the back window. In the last two pics you can really see how they are basically in the cabin. With this configuration I end up getting alot of cabin gain by having the subs firing up into the cabin and rear window (almost like having subs in a hatchback). I will post up more pics of the amps shortly. Thank your for all the positive feedback. It means alot.
 

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#24 ·
More pics of the box in the trunk. I am going to have to figure out what to do about my rear springs/struts, I am now sitting a lil low in the back and it squats under normal acceleration. lol There is a lot of weight back there. Does anyone make springs with a stiffer rate???
 

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#25 ·
Pics of the RF T1500bdcp currently running both subs. Soon I will be hooking up a second T1500bdcp so I will be running one to each sub.
My 8 channel a/d/s unfortuatly is blowing fuses on channels 1&2 so it is currently at Zed Audio being repaired. Once it gets back and I get it all tuned properly I will post up some vids. Just tested the subs on low power and I'm already impressed.
 

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#26 ·
I have to admit you did an amazing job on the construction of the enclosure. It's truly first-rate work. Do you work with wood for a living?

I was wondering what went into the design of the enclosure? Was is based on simple measurements or was there some kind of testing performed (e.x. impulse excitation technique)?

My other question is why did you use bed liner to coat the box instead of something that has more dampening properties like acoustic carpet?
 
#27 ·
I have to admit you did an amazing job on the construction of the enclosure. It's truly first-rate work. Do you work with wood for a living?

I was wondering what went into the design of the enclosure? Was is based on simple measurements or was there some kind of testing performed (e.x. impulse excitation technique)?

My other question is why did you use bed liner to coat the box instead of something that has more dampening properties like acoustic carpet?
Thank you for your kind words.
1. I do not work with wood for a living. My only training in woodworking was "Shop class" in 7th & 8th grade. That was a long time ago, since I am 39yrs old. lol I found a good used tablesaw on Craigslist for $120 and got a black friday deal on the Ryobi Router/table $79. I just took my time and didn't rush anything.
2. Enclosure design was much much more than just giving him the measure ments. Jason at Mobile Enclosures calculates almost everything you can think of. If you go to his website and look at the order sheet for plans you can see a list of everything that goes into the design. He calculates the internal volume of the pass. cabin, Distance to windsheild, distance to drivers headrest, the amount and area of the widows/glass to calculate reflections, tuning freq., type of music you play, and many other peramiters. Included with the plans were 3d video models of how the pressure propigates through the port and how it loads against the inside of the trunk. Also got some pdf.'s showing freq. curves and much more. This was my second time using Mobile Enclosures, the first time I had him design and build a box for 2-10" Skar Audio VVX's to replace my original sealed 15's. Those 10's and that box blew me away, it had more output and got lower than my sealed 15" solobarics. So when I decided to go bigger he was the only person thought about calling.
3. I used the bedliner stuff because it is more moisture resistant & way tougher than carpet. I have to disagree with you on the "carpet having more damping properties". Hurculiner has a different feel than other spray on bedliners that I have seen like (LineX,ExtremeCoatings, ect.) The Hurculiner coating sets up like rubber. I've never seen any tests but I beleive it has more dampening properties than carpet. (but also 10 times the cost) There is approx. $60 worth of the bedliner just on the box. lol

Please let me know if you need more info on anything
 
#28 · (Edited)
I will post up some more pics soon. Working on a few finishing touches and taming some new rattles. Also since I am into guns and have a consealed carry permit I am building a "Holster holder" on the drivers side of the box for my backup 9mm.
 

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