My Audio Build

So I take it your install is well under way?

 

For the power wire I used a junction box once I got it in the area I wanted the amps. Mine is made by Stinger, 1 in and up to 4 out. Had it forever and cheap $$, probably $15 or so. Splicing just didn't sit well with me.

Up to you but i put the crossovers for the components in the doors and used some 3M goop to hold em still. No problems so far and I've had the truck 3.5 years.

 

Well, yes and no. I wired the doors with the speaker wire but they aren't hooked up to anything. Also waiting on new door speaker adapters... the ones I made aren't thick enough and as I found out the hard way don't clear the window track (luckily no damage to the speakers). Waiting on my correct Scosche dash harness adapters so I can try again with the wiring of that to the speedwire. Lastly, still waiting on the ID MQ150.2.

As my truck sits right now, both door panels are off and the kick panels and sill panels removed. I have my fabbed tweeter mounts in (I could mount the tweeters whenever). Power and speaker wires are run properly through the wiring channels, but not hooked up to anything and just hanging out in the back (Power is NOT connected to battery).

Edit: Another productive day:
- Wired up the tweeters and secured the OEM wiring with wire-ties to make it look nice
- Ran all speaker wire/power/ground cables under the carpet beneath the seats from the wire channels. Ground cables are both ready to be secured to where they will go.
- Got the power distribution block secured and hooked up to the main power line from the battery (power is still NOT connected)
- Made the ground cable for the second amp
- Started to run the cat5 cable for the AudioControl bass knob (still need to decide where I want it)
- Wired up the passenger side door speakers/tweeters to the that side crossover
- Mounted the in-line fuse for the main power cable to the engine bay

 

Yet another productive day!

- Got the correct dash wiring harness in the mail today. Wired up the Metra harnesses to the Speedwire. Pretty sure now all I have to do is remove the HU and plug in (and run the Speedwire to cab).



- Installed and wired up the door speakers with the correct speaker adapters.



- Finished 90% of the wiring to the amps, LOC and crossovers. I didn't get a picture but the PG 500.2 is all wired except for bolting the ground down. The LOC is just waiting on the Speedwire for signal and a small ground wire. The ID MQ150.2 needs the speaker wires from the LOC and also to bolt the ground down.



Ran into a snag however. My sub box smells like mold, lol. I looked at the back panel and it definitely looks like it sustained some water damage in it's long journey sitting in my garage over the years. I'm gonna fire it up, but honestly will start looking for a new box as well as check the sub itself for any damage. Big bummer!

 

Lookin' Good gk. Nice to see you taking your time with this.

Bummer about the sub enclosure, however IME those pre-built enclosures are usually a compromise...especially when the driver is changed. On the bright side, now you can give your sub a proper home

 

Something doesn't look right with the metra harness. Why are the speaker wires between the two metra connectors spliced together? Typically you would only splice the speaker wires from the male (HU) metra connector to the speedwire cable. Are you running new speaker wire from your amp to all the speakers or coming back to the HU to use the existing speaker wire?

 

Which color speaker wires are you referring to? The green/purple wires are only connected because I wanted the extension of the Metra harness to be equally as long for both OEM male plugs. I don't even have rear speakers which is what those are for anyways so I could've left them off completely. The other wires white/gray/black are spliced with the OEM harness for no other reason to make it look clean. I am running all new wiring from the amp to the speakers so the OEM wiring at this point is useless from the HU to the doors. Is it bad to do it this way? Should I just depin them?

 

I was referring to the front speaker wires (gray/white) on the metra connectors. I guess it should be OK as long as you're running new speaker wire to the front speakers. I'd be a little concerned with the possibility of something shorting out one of the pins on the old speaker connectors while they are disconnected or maybe that old speaker harness could become a nice antenna for picking up noise.

 

I think i'm about 99% done as of today. By my calculations i'm only missing one 4awg ring connector to connect the power cable to in-line fuse (somehow came up short). Once I get that on i'll fire her up. Everything else is wired. Got the dash done and ran the Speedwire, everything else is hooked up. Checked all my connections but still nervous I f'd something up, lol. Truck started up fine, headlight dimmer worked, and although theres no working stereo I turned it on after the dash modifications and nothing blew up or caught fire so hopefully that means I didn't mess something up too bad, yet.

Dash part was actually pretty easy since the harness was already pre-made.



My mold suspicions were warranted. Geez, what a mess:



Luckily, its JUST this panel. So, to save some cash i'll just go to Home Depot and get a piece of MDF and remake this piece. After removing this and inspecting the rest of the box, its actually a pretty strong looking box which is good news.

 

Might want to re-make that port while you're at it. That thing looks a little flimsy. I don't know what size your port is, but something like this works great. http://www.parts-express.com/precision-port-4-flared-speaker-cabinet-port-tube-kit--268-352

You can also make a port with just a PVC pipe, but attaching it to the MDF can be a little tricky. Gorilla glue will be perfect.

 

I agree, it's also been contaminated by mold so the cardboard part will have to go. You can't see, but there is a plastic piece that 'looks nice' on the other side of the board and comes through about an inch that the cardboard tube is attached to. So when I head to Home Depot i'll try and find a 4" strong carboard or PVC pipe to replace that piece.

 

IMO, don't bother with cardboard and go with PVC or ABS.

 

Hate to break out to you but if there's mold on that one panel theres mold on the others as well. Mold spores don't just contain themselves to one area especially if it was in an enclosed area like a sub enclosure for years. I'd at least spray it down with bleach a number of times, but to be safe I'd replace the entire enclosure. The parts you are going to replace may be mold free initially, but will eventually get spores that will migrate. Trust me, I did mold remediation Years ago. Mold isn't something you want to really mess around with. It's like they say, it's the small Stuff that can really bite you in the ass.

 

We have power! Got the final battery ring connector... checked my connections again and fired her up! I probably still have some tuning to do but got a good baseline on the gains/sensitivity levels. Had to adjust the crossovers for the tweeters to 0db from +3db because they were a little much. Damn, it sounds good! What an improvement! No sub yet, however. Still remaking the back panel. @surfpops I'm gonna give this box a go and keep an eye on it. Didn't want to shell out the money yet for a whole new box but if it comes to it then I will.



I took the advice of the board and remade it using PVC. Tomorrow the new terminals should arrive so i'll drill out those and get the box back together.

 

It really does make such a huge difference when you upgrade speakers, the stock stuff is just garbage. I'm glad your quest for better sound is going well man!!

 

Started building my harness today. My first time ever soldering so it is taking me forever to do.

 

Got it all done!!

 

Looks good! Hope my thread was of some assistance at least.

In addition to my build, I caved and bought a new sub box. Ended up going with a supercrewsound extended cab box. I know I know I could've made one or bought a better quality box but I've spent hours refurbishing my existing box and finally got fed up it wasn't coming out the way I wanted and ordered it on a whim. Plus, when I finally did put my bandpass box in it literally took up 85% of my back area which was a little much.

 

Everything helps man. I really appreciate it. I don't blame you on buying a new box, I would have too. How is your build going? You got it up and running yet? Pics of the new box?

 

Besides waiting on my new box to arrive everything is done and i'm enjoying some loud quality tunes! I still need to mess with the settings on the LOC and the amp... just wasn't getting the power I expected from the sub (from what I remember). The thing used to hit hard and now it doesn't, lol. I've looked at the Image Dynamics spec sheet for the IDQv4 10" for ideal frequency/Hz settings but to get it to hit somewhat hard I have to turn up the signal from the LOC to the amp higher but then it will start to distort. I may just dial it back and go for the clean sound over the thumping bass.