IHateTacomas's Audio Build

UPDATE: There was some slight buzzing from how tight the box was against the plastic panel. After some experimenting I found that my box wasn't totally sealed off around the edges so I squeezed some wood glue between the cracks. I then removed my plastic panel behind my seat fully, hopefully this clears up my whole buzzing issue.

Please make sure you fully cover your door panels. This was something I didn't realize I did wrong until the build was finished. Again, don't cover any moving parts or computers for obvious reasons.
Disclaimer, as far as rattles, I haven't had ANY, so if you've followed through the build this far don't fret.

Hi all.

Today I start my audio build. It will cover some basics as well as some advanced topics that some people miss in their builds. This will include:

1. Sound Deadening, including: (Completed)

• Making your own Vapor Barrier
• Applying plexiglass to holes in door

2. Making Your Own Sub Box (Completed)

3. Making Your Own Speaker & Tweeter Templates (Completed)

4.Installing Your Wires (Completed), including:

• Fused Distribution Blocks as well as Fusing your Power Wire
  
  
• Power and Ground Wires (placement and length needed)
  
  
• RCA Cords
  
  
• Speaker Wire

First is Sound Deadening: What is it?

The noise you hear rattling or vibrating is generally created by a vibrating panel or two pieces of the vehicle making intermittent contact with each other. This vibration can either be caused by the bass generated by the stereo or simply driving. Panel resonation is caused when the bass notes are the same frequency as the resonant frequency of the door panel, whether it be metal or plastic.

There are 2 things you can do about resonation, either:

1) Brace the panel with another panel, such as filling in the brace connected to the door panel like italynstylion did in his “Audio Visual DIY Thread”.

Or

2) Add mass to the panel, usually done with some sort of dampening panel. Adding mass will lower the resonant frequency to below the bass notes, and even if the dampening material doesn’t lower the resonance level enough for you, it will at least make the panel massive enough that the bass sound wave doesn’t have enough energy to significantly vibrate the panel.

Sound deadener might seem scary at first, but its not as bad as it looks...

What you’ll need:

1. Safety first, you’re going to need some leather gloves. This material when cut is sharp on the edges, so to avoid cutting up your hands wear some good work gloves.
   
   
2. A rolling pin or something that provides an equal amount of force upon the subject your rolling. I personally used my fingers.
   
   
3. Some type of heat instrument, or use the sun and let them sit out for a bit, lets the matting stick better and the butyl rubber adhesive to spread out.
   
   
4. Flathead and Phillips screwdriver
   
   
5. 10mm wrench for door panel, 14mm for removing the rear seat
6. Exacto Knife

What to do:

• Remove plastic clip, push in with a small screwdriver, get underneath the clip and push upward.
  

• Remove a-pillar

This is the front panel a-pillar, all you need to do is lift and pull lightly.

• 
  

>This is the rear panel A-Pillar off, the front panel looks different but it’s the same concept as the door panel removal. Make sure you grab the plastic clips out of the door panel so you don’t lose them, squeeze and pull to get them out.<

• Remove screws in door lock and by door handle, they are covered by plastic panels that you can lift usually with your fingernail.
  

• Remove window switch panel, its easiest to start from the top of the switch panel, or aiming away from the inside of your vehicle when you open the door.
  

• Remove window panel wiring harness, need a flathead screwdriver to push the switch in on drivers side, squeeze and pull.
  
  
• Remove the door panel. There is an arrow at the bottom left or right of your door panel as shown here. This is where you want to start pulling your door panel off, simply slip your fingers in between the door panel and the metal part of the door and pull outwards. The only thing holding the door panel to the metal door frame is some plastic clips, be careful when your pulling the door panel off so you don’t break any.
  

• Remove the metal piece, and start deadening the edges of the big holes like I did here, then move onto the back panel. Don’t be afraid to use big pieces of deadener, in the end it should look something like this. If you’re not sure if you’ve put enough deadener on, do a quick knock test on the outside of the door and compare it to your unmatted door. If there is a dull thud when you knock on the deadened door then you’ve done a good job and you can now move onto the next door.
  
  
• Tip: when you’re deadening the edges of the panel and you’re going around a corner, make cuts into the deadener either before or during the time your sticking it onto the panel so you can roll the deadener on as tightly as possible, this improves adhesion and acts like a double barrier for the edges. Also make sure you cover every contour of the door panel that you can, see how my example is pressed against the recessed panel?
  

>MAKE SURE YOU DON’T COVER UP ANY MOVING PARTS OR COMPUTER DEVICES< Without access to free air they will overheat. This includes anything you cover with matting.

All the holes covered in this project are not necessary to the fitment of your door panel.

You can also lay deadener down like this if the corners are giving you trouble, don’t forget about the x and + cutting trick I mentioned earlier.



Here was the finished product.



When putting the door panel back on, you’re going to try and ‘hang’ the top of the door panel (the black part of the plastic panel) onto where the window rolls up. This is where you want to begin when you are putting the door panel back on. Make sure the wiring harness for the window switches are accessible, line up the plastic pins, and push the panel back on. It should look tight against the window like this.




I did the rear doors, this time I focused more on the inside of the door panel since I won’t have speakers set up in the back, and was more for making my vehicle as soundproof as possible.


-Update: I added a piece of acrylic glass to cover the holes in the door.
I cut the piece of plexiglass to accommodate the hole. I then followed the ridges of the hole with silicon, applied the plexiglass, and sealed the edges with deadener. This was followed up by adding my own DIY vapor barrier.

Materials:

• Silicon
  
  
• Acrylic Glass
  
  
• Skil Saw

Ridges followed with silicon, look for pressure points when applying the plexiglass.



Finished product




I then added my own type of vapor barrier.

Materials:

• Vinyl Covering (2ft x 2ft section for each door)
  
  
• 3M Extreme Outdoor tape

I followed the outline of the caulk used on the last vapor barrier. The seals in the window are watertight, but they aren’t perfect. They channel into the inner door panel and drain out a hole at the bottom of the door, which is why the vapor barrier is there so the inside of the truck doesn’t get wet through evaporation of the water.

I started off by cutting a 2ft by 2ft section, put it against the door, draw out where the caulk used to be using a sharpie against the plastic, cut, and tape on.



Then I moved on to the rear wall, I used about 3 sheets, cutting only around the latches that lock the rear seats in place. You can remove the child seat anchors that are connected to the brace by drilling out the divide and pulling them off, carefully so you don’t rip the metal.


Update: I went back and cut off the tabs in the back with a grinder, now you have a flat wall you can work with put the deadener down AFTER you cut, easier that way.



Bonus Picture




Congratulations! You made it through step 1!

Step 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Making your own sub box is pretty easy as long as you have some woodworking experience, I used 1/2 inch MDF wood and my dads skil saw. (A lot of credit goes to him making the boxes and speaker templates) This was our measurements without cutting the plastic off the backside of the seats. Keep in mind this isn't the largest sub box you can put back there, and since I didn't countersink the subs I lost some space there too... Anyways here are the measurements
Here is the actual building process.
We used L brackets and wood glue

---------------Step 3---------------
Building the speaker and tweeter templates.

I used a 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper for this process. Lay the paper against the 6x9 hole your stock speaker left, make sure you have the screw holes inside the piece of paper as well, and crease the paper around the edges of the speaker hole until it is mirrored onto the paper. Then draw out the hole of the speaker your going to add in, mine had a hole of 5 ½ inches and is shown here.

Here is the template installed

Just make sure you test-fit it before you install the speaker and that it clears the bottom lip of the door panel. As you can see I countersunk the nuts so if you can I would recommend it so you can use the stock ones.

In a creative sense, the tweeter template was a totally different matter, I was able to use the stock tweeter mount and I would recommend to try it out. Simply take the tweeter mount out and cut the 3 metal strips off. The tweeter is held in by industrial glue so just get your flathead and clean it out. The back should be just as flat as the front by the time your time with it.

Inspired by the industrial glue design, I first tried Krazy Glue, but since it wasn’t sticking I quickly turned to JB Weld, which worked wonders.

Step 4
Installing your speaker wire, rca's, fuses, and distribution block.

I originally bought 50ft of 12 gauge wire, but ended up using 80ft. I’m sure 50ft is more than enough for most people, but I had a vision about how I wanted to run my wires so I followed it. My suggestion would be to run the speaker wire against the center console like this. The best way to get the RCA cables to the stereo is to bend up a wire coathanger, bend one side into a hook, and tape the RCA’s to the hook and push it straight through under the right side of the steering wheel, or if you have your stereo out already, shine a light down and follow it from down under.

This might be considered cheating, but I found these videos to be really helpful because im a visual learner. Credit to *********.

Installing RCA and remote turn on wire
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/srpCbSIzWuY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

How to remove seats, center console, storage and panels
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yEcowYsoW-c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

How to install speaker wire.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FksEfMdZf9U?list=PL66108201F0DDFBD9" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Now fusing. I used 1/0 gauge wire for my single power wire (250A fuse) and at the distribution block I used 150A for the sub amp and 100A for the speaker amp. My distribution block has a magnetic strip on the back so its connected to the rear wall. The main thing you want to do is put it in an accessible location by your amps so you can change out the fuses easily.
I bought 25 ft of 1/0 and 15 ft of 4gauge. You'll only need about 15ft of 1/0. I bought so much because im doing the Big 3 Upgrade as well.

 

Congrats man! how did you find working with the product ?

 

Loved it! I liked the square design so you could cut a straight line no matter what and it made it easy to measure distances. Great stuff man, glad you showed it to me

 

subbed .

I am next . My plan is to start next week now that the snow is gone .
Here is my build page using Mercury products .https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ab-2010-with-pics-and-prices-write-up.364009/
Thanks for the great write up . I see we are using the same tweeters . Considering you are way ahead of me , what are you running for an amp and mains ?

 

bump for updates, and to answer you I have the MGR495 and MGR1200 for my amps

 

Subddd

 

great little build I bet people cant believe your running 8s

 

@manethon
Nuhuh, especially now that they're running at full capacity!

 

subbd Maybe one day I'll do this on mine

 

Are you back in Elko yet?

 

Subd