Leroy's 2004 Tacoma stereo build log

I tried the thing with the mat. I dont think it will work. A different pattern may have been better. I think that I will just carpet the top. I could technically just staple this down on top of the carpet and that may work...

 

I did finally get the top put on. Now I just need to prep the front for magnets. I'm just going to get some metal strips and do some dados to mount them flush. Then I will have a much easier time getting the front panel right.



I rotated the terminal cup 90 deg so the wires wouldn't be hitting the top of the box and potentially make noise. I got the wires cut to length and prepped.




Note that because of the rotation when the box is in there, you cant see which one is + and -, so I put them on there in marker.

Boy do I realize that I'm super slow at all this. I'm basically a newbie trying to do an advanced install so it takes a while. I could never work in an audio shop.

 

Love this thread. Really motivated to get something like this going, and the amount of effort you've put into optimizing this is awesome and really informative.

Any idea how much you have into it in costs so far?

Also curious about any resources you found extra helpful in planning this build. I know almost nothing about car audio currently, I just know what sounds good.

Recently bought a 2001 and the guy who owned it before put a sub and amp in and maybe some new speakers, but it doesn't sounds great, lots of rattling. Maybe a little better than stock, but really wanting more quality.

 

Thanks a ton! Your words are very much appreciated.

Well, I went with high end Focal speakers. $700 for subs retail, but I got 1 free, so $350 there.
~$300 for wiring and install stuff
I think it was $400-$500 for front components and rears.
$350 for Joying head unit. Biggest mistake by far. Thing is a piece of shit and will get replaced.
Sub box materials is probably around $120.
Sound skins was around $200 I think.
Various miscellaneous was around $200.
Steering wheel leather wrap was $35

The real kicker is the labor.
I've been speaking on and off with the local stereo shop where I bought my speakers.
He stated that for them to do the install the way I'm doing it would be $3,000 minimum in labor. They did say one time going in there, "ohhhh, you're going to do it right, we get it now". IOW, I'm going it how the owner of the shop would do his own.

The sub box for them to make would have been over $1,000, due to the labor.

Also, I used this project to get cool new tools. Bosch plunge router and table. Various other tools that I didnt already have is around $500-$700.

You can see why it's been a long time. I've really put my heart and soul into the truck. My wife calls it my Marty McFly truck.

Car Audio Fabrication on youtube. I learned sooooooo much from Mark its scary.

The easiest bang for your buck is not even to do new speakers.
Get a great head unit. Then sound deaden your doors and get rid of rattles. Get foam blocks (Focals are nice) behind your door drivers to stop backwave.
CAF has some nice vids on doing DSPs with just your head unit.

 

Put almost finished box back in truck cuz I needed to get the measurements for the front panel. It takes some work to get it in the and I will have to be super careful with the subs for the install. All three mounting bolt locations were perfect though so it will be in there tight even in case of a rollover. SAFETY FIRST!

I got the front beauty panel contour almost exactly perfect on the first try. A little adjusting and another 3/16" off for wrapping, some holes and rabbeting and it's ready for carpet! The end is nigh!

 

LEDs acquired. Definitely behind fans and under box is way to go. Under dash would be annoying.




Also chose the carpet from local car upholstery shop. Its thicker than the stuff you get at local audio shop and will be good. Going with the Ash one


This kit also has ability to hook into door light which turns them on white when you open the door. I should probably take the time to wire that up.

 

Just some prep work for carpeting by doing a rabbet on the back of the top piece. Also some work on the beauty panel. I took off the angles off the front of the box by the bottom to get as much air flow from the bottom as possible.


I also cleaned up the bottom using the flush trim bit cuz that's where I'm mounting the LEDs.

 

Got my 1.5" x 1/16" magnets today.

$25 Super Strong Neodymium Magnets | Powerful Disc Rare Earth Magnets | Super Strong Magnets in Various Dimensions and Patterns (Neodymium Magnets 1.26x1/16" 10-pack)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000W8O7P4?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image

And then realized that my forstner bits only go up to 1-3/8".


I did a rabbet around my entire outer edge of the beauty panel. Once I cut out the hole, it was obvious that I screwed up. The bottom bit was really not strong enough.


So I had thought originally that I was gonna screw up the edge, so I had another piece all ready to go and just transferred the pattern over and redid it.


I next was going to tackle how to mark out exactly where on the front of the box and the beauty panel to mount the magnets. Then it hit me. I have an exact replica of the final beauty panel that I can drill through! So I can just stick it to the box, and drill through it slightly into the main box and then just transfer the hole locations to the final beauty panel. Easy peasy.

 

Magnets mounted and drying. Almost mounted the wrong way of course.. but caught myself.

 

Love how your showing the process.

 

Holy crap, I'm almost completely done fabricating stuff. It's hard to believe. All the wood working is completely done. I remade the seatbelt cover as it was too perfect. It needed more clearance for carpet.

I was going to paint the inside of the seatbelt area orange, but didnt have that color, so I went with green.



Tomorrow, I'll do some more coats and cut out the grills. I wont put them on til after the carpet is done which is a week out.

I can wire up the LEDs this weekend too. Soooooo close I can taste it.

 

Grills cut out. Cant attach em until carpet is done. Painting is done. Now to wait for carpet.

 

Love the level of detail you're putting into this. Not many people are willing to go this distance. Good stuff man!

 

Got LEDs installed in amp rack. You could see the blaring light of them through it rather than diffuse ambient light, so I ran some electrical tape down the middle of them to attenuate the effect. Looks pretty good.

 

Seriously, what design engineer would think that a dome light fuse should go in the engine bay? I gotta go through the firewall to adda fuse tap for the dome light?

Is there an easier place to tap or splice into it? I dont want to take stuff back apart...

 

I think that you can hit it from the kick panel. If you search for the key ring light they talk about were to tap into the dome light.

 

Getting the carpeting done. Was gonna just have the upholstery shop do it, but they wanted $130 in labor and really, it's not that hard.
This is real automotive carpet and not the stuff you normally see on boxes. It is super nice.


This was my test. I'm also going to use this as figuring out mounting the grills.

 

Booyah!

 

Looks epic !!!

What's with the blue tape??

 

That was just to keep the glue from going where I didnt want it. Made it easy to carpet. I removed it after.