Tacoma Audio Endeavor

I've been putting the pieces together and following my plan. So far things have been pretty good. I'm sure you all remember seeing my deadening build thread. If not here's a link...http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/59941-my-deadening-project.html


After I got the car all situated it was time to get the various components sorted out. I knew I'd be using the JL HD 900/5 for a while now. It's been sitting on my dresser for a few months waiting...
I'm using a set of Wavecore tweeters that you'll be introduced to here in a moment. The midbass drivers will be introduced later as I get more done. There is a plan for that and I actually already have them but I haven't gotten any pictures yet.

I had actually bought a Pioneer AVIC X-910bt to run the show but I simply can't use the unit. It's marvelous once it's on but you might have gray hair by that time. It has a few bugs too but nothing too severe. A good all around unit but I think it just doesn't suit my needs. I'll be sending mine back later this week.

The most recent progress has been the tweeters. Some of you might remember my thread a while back about the Wavecore tweeters (snowflakes) that I'd be trying out. I've finally figured out what I'm going to do with these. They're not huge but they're a fairly large format and putting them behind my door panels just didn't appeal to me. They came with some mounting cups that were pretty useless until I figured out a slick way to use them, properly...




Tweeter cups have a bad habit of exposing wires and that's just not acceptable in my opinion. I hate exposed wires. So I needed a method to attach the cup to the interior of the car that would hide the wires; and let me aim the tweeter. I accomplished all of this with my idea.


The idea was to use a threaded pipe fitting to secure the cup to the sail panel. Since it's a pipe fitting it's hollow and I can run the wires through it. Score!!!

Not so fast though. The the only fittings I found that did this were slightly too large to put into the mounting cup and have the rear of the tweeter still clear the back and fit in. So, cutting solid brass was out of the question....only in the beginning though

I remembered that Joseph (~Magic_Man~) had a tool at work he said could cut anything that conducted electricity. I needed solid brass cut and done at a very precise tolerance. He said no problem. This machine was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. A thin brass wire 10thousanths of an inch thick gets electrified underwater and makes the cut...VERY cool shit! Thanks again Joseph for the help!!

Crappy Cell phone pic but you get the idea...massively cool




So with my new cut pipe fittings I went to work getting my stuff together. I was using a thin rubber washer (lowes, hardware aisle drawers) between the sail panel and the tweeter cup. This would give me some padding between the two pieces and friction; both very important to what I needed IMO. I drilled my holes and then pieced it together.





Here is how I ended up. Because the rubber washers keep it snug but not ridged I can swivel the tweeters up or down. Plus, I've been reading a lot about diffraction and I think these pods with their shape should help a little. I'm looking forward to hearing them.


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sweet- how do they sound?

 

Not sure yet. They amp has yet to go in. I'll be doing that a little while later when I get back from holiday travel. My friend makes RCA's and is going to make me a set. Once he's done with that I can install the amp.

Also, as I've said, the Pioneer unit didn't work out for me so I'll be replacing it with a different unit. I think the new Eclipse AVN726E will be what I stick in there.

 

As always nice work!

 

Let me first apologize for the lack of updates. I've not had the time (until now) to really get things going again. Travel with the holidays, going to las vegas for CES, losing my job....I've been a bit tied up


But, no matter, on to the progress!

Here are the midbass drivers I'll be using. They are H-Audio Ebony midbass drivers. I'm a dealer for the brand so if you're interested in trying any of their stuff just shoot me a PM or an email. I'm very excited to get these moving.




I opened the doors back up to put these kids in. I also did more deadening in the door in some places I deemed needed work. The baffle is another place I put in a good amount of time. There is a layer of deadener between the baffle and the door. This seals it to the door and also decouples it a little. I used some Second Skin Spectrum (liquid deadener) to seal the baffles since I had it left over from like 2 years ago. It really helps on baffles. Sometimes water will get on the MDF baffles and cause them to swell to about twice their size. Sealing them is a good way to prevent that from happening. I also used some foam speaker gasketing tape on the mounting flange so the speaker sealed well to the baffle. I originally only used 4 screws on the basket but decided to use 8 in the end. Total overkill, but I thought that it would help put even pressure on the basket in a more uniform manner. I figured the more points of contact the better; and having a box of like 300 screws I didn't think twice.


So then that leaves us with a fully deadened vehicle with midbass drivers, tweeters and all the wires run. Not hardly a working system but certainly on our way.

The Pioneer unit did get returned. After getting everything sorted out I ended up with the Eclipse AVN 726e that I thought I would. I think I'll really like this unit. It comes in next week and it will promptly go in.

I haven't put in the amp yet because I don't have my RCA's ready. I have a friend making me a 6channel RCA cable and he should be done next week. When that's ready I'll put the amp in.

Also, some people asked about how quiet the car is now. Hope this video helps a little.

 

im really impressed with the amount of work you put in to this project. It is going to turn out amazing good luck with the rest.

 

Thanks! I've made some great progress on the sub enclosure too but it wouldn't make sense to post any of it right now till it's done. Without seeing it wrap up it just wouldn't really make sense and I'd hate to have to explain it in text when finished pictures would do a much better job. I'll have all next week to get that finished up as well. It's going to be pretty epic; in every sense of the word.

 

That is some cool ideas. I had my truck deadened. I am still thinking I should have had them do the roof!

 

Sorry to hear about the job.

That video is pretty impressive, makes me want to redo my truck.

What sub(s) are you going with?

 

I wouldn't sweat it about the roof man. If you have everything out I'd totally do it for sure. But it's the area that makes probably the least amount of difference unless it's raining/hailing.

I'm going with the Tang Band 6.5" subs from PartsExpress...4 of them http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=264-832

 

Ok, I've kept some of the details about the stub stage a secret till now because I honestly wasn't sure if I could get it to work. Now I'm pretty confident it wont be a complete failure. Here is what I've gotten done so far.

I've cut the lip on the bin underneath the seat so the edge creates an even plane. It was not like this stock which took a lot of work. As a result I had a razor sharp steel edge at the top where I needed to attach the baffle board. I took some crazy long piece of plastic edging I found at lowes, filled it with silicone, and seated it along the edge. This gave me a uniform (and flat) edge to seal against; bueno.

So now I had to make the board that would seat onto it. Not an easy task. tracing the bin edge onto a piece of wood was an impossible task. So I went back to Lowes and got a solid 1/8" thick piece of aluminum 1"x48" that I bent into the exact shape of the bin edge. I chose aluminum because it was strong and would hold its' shape when I then tried to trace the shape to the wood and also because I could manually bend the piece to the exact specs. It wasn't easy (yeah it was hard) but I got the results I wanted.

I need to now seal up the large holes in the metal (I have sheet steel I might use) and then finish the baffle board. Progress pics below.







Money shot...plenty of clearance!

 

Wow thats awsome!! The enclosure for the subs is crazy cool!! I think I need to build a custom box for the BM, but I may just use the box I have.

 

looks good

 

your sir have the best write ups. now can you buy a first gen and do the same thing to give me ideas?

 

I did a significant amount of work yesterday. I've got some pictures of what I got done but I don't have them loaded just yet. Hopefully I'll get them up tomorrow.

 

Cool Box

 

Ahhhh, so I'm not the first to realize it's potential am I?

How did you do yours? Tell me about the build; I want to know how you combated the problems that I'm sure we both faced.

 

IIIIIIII'm so excited....and I just can't hiiiiide it!

But really, I've made good progress this week! I think I might have this done by tomorrow evening. That's not a promise but rather an ETA. Things are looking good but I'm not going to rush things after I've come this far to do things correctly.


Just a teaser for now....that's all you're gettin. Not because I'm mean, but because that's really all I have right now

 

I got an email from a member today asking about the subs and what my plans were. He also wanted to know how I was going about doing this. I wrote him back way more detailed than I'd originally intended and it was quite long. I figured I'd post my response in case anyone else had similar questions as to how I went about this.

 

nice enclosure! Please tell me you are planning on fiberglassing the underside though...

I've been awaiting the arival of my new 2010 dc and was going to put a few subs behind the rear seat but after seeeing this i am think this is a better way to go, and either keep the storage back there or more likely still put woofers back there haha. I'm always going over the top with my builds and once i get the truck in i'll post everything up.

Keep up the great work! I cannot wait to see this all completed