Leroy's 2004 Tacoma stereo build log

I still have the stock speakers on the drivers side. I got the Focal sound tiles installed on the side and oh boy did they make the stock speakers sound way better. Better mid bass and response all around. They sound like new speakers.

 

Doors are finally done and put back together. Second door took just one day once I knew what to do.

 

Looks like you relocated your window rails. No issues there?

 

Got a 10mm nylon spacer and a longer bolt from Tacoma Screw. (what a great name for a hardware store...)

There is enough play in that whole system that it causes no issues or binding whatsoever. I really couldn't have mounted these speakers without that little trick from Mr Marv. He said on these older trucks it works great, which I take to mean that it might not on newer trucks.

 

Sweet, thanks for that. I don't think I need to move mine, but good to know I can if needed.

 

Went to the junkyard and picked up scuff plates and seat side panel (which I understand always breaks).

I've been using a magic eraser to clean up panels and they look like new. Worked here too.
Where my "new" seat trim was slightly broken, I melted the plastic together with my soldering iron.



This was the back of my old one.


New one looks great.

 

And all of sudden, I have a whole ton of electronics installed! Man this turned out great. I had so much planning that went into the execution of this amp rack. One of the things was you had to be able to remove the side panels without taking it out. The push rivets hold it in there like glue.



Oh yes, totally correctly torqued

 

Took the truck over some sweet jumps and did a full hard stop test. No squeaks or rattles or anything. As a matter of fact, the entire cabin is Fricken quiet! There are no buzzes or anything. Love love love it.

I had another cool idea. Rather than just reupholstering the bit above the amp rack, I could create a little storage area for guns, or first aid, or whatever. That would be cool..

 

Remembered that I had rear speed rings that I couldn't use on the front speakers, so installed them on the rears. Man, I'm gonna have some good clean mid bass

 

Ground all done

 

Running power required some cutting of scuff plates. Luckily, I had spares to test with.

 

Oh, and steering wheel controls mounted

 

Finally getting close to being done with phase 1. I'm trying to determine the best way to mount the backup camera. I'm thinking of just cutting a hole in the plastic beside the tailgate handle. Otherwise, cutting into the bumper besides the license plate seems okay...

 

Have all wires run to the front on the passenger side. I had just enough room with some careful wire positioning to get all four speaker cable, RCA (which with insane KnuConceptz shielding is the same size as 4AWG wire), and DSP remote wire.



I ran the backup camera wire to the back bumper. I actually somehow got it through the existing wire grommet. That was a tight fit. I still haven't quite figured out exactly where to put the darn thing.

 

Back with an update. Got backup camera done, head unit all wired up and mounted, gps, etc etc. Dash isn't put back together yet as I still have to config the dsp. Not all channels work until then. Steering wheel control works now that there's a battery in it.

 

Well, got dash all put back together. We've been driving around and everything sounded okay. I get home and connect Bluetooth and now have engine whine! Wtf why would Bluetooth cause engine whine?

 

So first thing to try on the engine noise is to do a new ground for the head unit rather than using the harness. We'll see if that fixes it. In the meantime, I did get my DSP channels and routing all configured. Best sounding speakers I've ever heard in a car and I haven't even tuned them yet. All the work to put in sound deadening, foam surrounds, stopping backwaves etc has resulted in alreday immaculate sound. The tweeters are a real surprise as normally, you really have to tame them in any system. Initial listening tests I noticed a certain frequency was a little harsh, but otherwise like butter. This nodes well for getting a good tune.

Now I just need to install my temporary sub box and set my gains. Then I can boot up Room EQ and start analyzing.

The CarJoying head unit:
Radio is subpar. I pick up the strong stations only, there are others that only barely come in. I knew this going into it. I don't listen to the radio.
Documentation sucks.
But overall, pretty gosh darned pleased with this unit. Better than the Pioneer $1,200 unit by FAR and only cost $385.

 

Phone died and had to send into LG.

I'm all done with phase 1. Head unit and temp sub box all installed. Spent a lot of time tuning with Room EQ Wizard and this is the best car stereo I've ever heard. Even the imaging is .

Now I have to build the final box and do some trim work.

Fyi, I traced the ground loop issue to the actual head unit itself. Other head unit with same every thing had no whine. All grounds and cables checked out perfect. So I ended up having to put a ground loop isolator on the RCA cable. Oh well. Still love the head unit.

I'm at the point that I'm going to take a break for a while. The last bits will probably be done in the spring.

 

Great job! Looking forward to seeing the final thing

 

Lookin' nice Leroy.