I so dread trying to remove that tar/ASSFAULT in my German sled. What
is the deal with the dry ice? Is it an easier process over the heat and scrape
method? Your lucky you didn't run into the old horse hair crap that is used
under the carpet as a pad. That stuff is going to be the death of me!
Wow this is a pretty cool build log. Going to keep tabs on this.
Thanks man, I try Not nearly as hardcore as your dash sub project, I gotta say. Enjoyed watching that thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FLYONWALL9
GOOD STUFF HERE!!
I so dread trying to remove that tar/ASSFAULT in my German sled. What
is the deal with the dry ice? Is it an easier process over the heat and scrape
method? Your lucky you didn't run into the old horse hair crap that is used
under the carpet as a pad. That stuff is going to be the death of me!
Thanks!
I had a bunch of MOLDY jute to contend with. I'd trade that for horsehair
Like the other poster mentioned, and I've heard from other sources as well, dry ice apparently just hardens it up enough that you can hit it with a hammer and it shatters.
Took the day off today, feeling like crap. Got bored sitting still and decided to do a little work in the shop.
Here's part of my parts hoard. Rapid Parts 8v valve cover.
DJ Auto smoked aero headlights. These replace the pitted US sealed-beam lights with H4 european beam pattern lights.
Osram H4's (thanks, Justin)
These are "euro" style headlamp so they have a hole providing for a parking light of sorts. I didn't feel like hooking that up or just leaving the bulb holder in there, so I put a small piece of electrical tape on some silver duct tape (sticky sides together) and placed that over the hole for the parking light.
Voila!
Then I prepped and added a bead of clear silicone around the sealed edges (these are apparently prone to leaking between the glass and metal).
I installed the lights & a new black front badge just now.
Before doing so I taped up the back of the H4 connectors - I don't like that they're exposed. Probably doesn't do a thing but it makes me feel better
Pulled out the old headlights and found an old wasp's nest. What is it with my VWs and wasp nests?
New lights & badge. They match up really well to the smoked indicators, I think. The car is kinda filthy - still covered in pollen from Spring. I don't really want to wash it until I get the new seals in.
I did the "big three" upgrade today. Well, actually big four: + to starter, + to alt, - to chassis, - to trans. All of it is 4 AWG, techflexed & heatshrunk.
I figured out a good method for adding heatshrink & techflex. First off, make sure that if you're not cutting it with a hot knife that you hit the ends with a lighter to keep them from fraying. I wasted some already because it frayed. Have your crimp finished on one end, slide the techflex on partially, and then slide your heatshrink over it. Then just move the techflex to the end and crimp the other end, put your heatshrink in its final place, and hit the heatshrink with a heat gun.
here's a somewhat decent visual:
Three of the four inished cables.
In order to get everything to fit, I rotated the battery around. Factory connections use the top posts, and I added some GM posts to the side, where all of the upgraded lines attach.
You are exactly right on your way to sleeve cables. I build cables like that at work all the time. Another trick is to use adhesive lines heat shrink. It bonds to the sleeving and the wire much better. Good call on using the fire proof sleeving too (white tracer wire).
Do you have a link for where you got those seals? I am hoping they have some for my cabby which is getting a rebuild and new system soon.
'04 Black TDI Golf
'92 Blue Golf Cabriolet
'99 Eurovan aka Urinal Van
You are exactly right on your way to sleeve cables. I build cables like that at work all the time. Another trick is to use adhesive lines heat shrink. It bonds to the sleeving and the wire much better. Good call on using the fire proof sleeving too (white tracer wire).
Do you have a link for where you got those seals? I am hoping they have some for my cabby which is getting a rebuild and new system soon.
Right on. My buddy keeps telling me how awesome the adhesive heat shrink is. I'll have to pick some of that up!
The sleeving's not fireproof - that's a gold thread
Ha I have no idea what the gold tracer is then. Thanks for the info on the seals.
It's just for looks. They make pink sleeving, green sleeving, etc... lol.
No worries on the seals, I'm glad to help. I've had quite a few mk1's (six? Eight?) and they all have shot seals at this point. New stuff used to be ridiculously expensive, so it's good there are folks out there doing repops.
I got a bunch of work done yesterday with the help of my buddy Justin.
We did up a template for the back seat panel which will hold the sub box, amp, and eq in place. It'll be held in with bolts and hurricane nuts.
The board has notches out in the corners where the mounts for the rear seat are.
The aforementioned hurricane nuts:
Since I rarely have the right tools to do anything, I figured out a neat trick for countersinking and only drilling partial depth holes. Basically, I just figure out the depth I want to go to and wrap some blue painters tape around the drill bit. Works pretty well. If you're just doing countersinking depth, you need to clean the bit out every time you use it, but still - better than nothing.
Here's the initial mockup of how the speaker box will sit. It's just over .6 cuft, which is the manufacturer spec for a sealed box for the Infinity 10". My cuts weren't perfect, but it'll look good enough with some carpet on it.
So that I had everything oriented properly, I drilled a hole in both the seat back panel and the sub box front, exactly in the center of where I wanted the speaker to sit in both. I then used a metal dowel (from my Jasper Jig setup) through both to get them in the right place. I drilled holes for the hurricane nuts that'll hold the box to the panel.
Another neat trick - with everything aligned I drilled the first hole for the hurricane nuts, and used a screwdriver to hold the panel in place 'til I was done with the other holes.
I initially thought I'd mount the amp on the outside of the box, facing the trunk, as pictured above, but if I have the space I think I'm going to mount everything as follows:
I gotta pick up some carpet and fleece (for the door pods) this week, then hopefully I'll get everything in the car and mocked up. Should be pretty sweet when it's done
Yesterday I got out and finished the woodwork for the sub box and support panel.
Busted out the jasper jig and routed a hole just larger than the outer diameter of the subwoofer.
Then added a 1/4" roundover on the side that faces inwards to the car.
Hit it with some primer.
And then a coat of this textured spray I got. I like the finish, but the nozzle was all messed up and sprayed a large blotch on the top right. Unfortunately I couldn't get it wiped off without making more of a mess so I decided to leave it. It should be mostly unnoticeable... I hope.
I routed the front of the speaker box as well, and used some of the smaller #8 hurricane nuts on the rear to support the sub.
Here's how it looks fitted.
Then I routed the rings for the front speaker pods. I don't have a router table, so I just flipped the thing over and went to town. Not OSHA compliant, but I still have my fingers
Finished product, with a 3/8" roundover posing as a chamfer. Gotta work with what you've got
Carpeted the box, added some acoustastuff (probably too much, honestly), installed binding posts. The side you see is attached to the support board and nobody'll see it. I added a layer of Ensolite to prevent any resonance between the box and the support board, and to act as a seal around the sub.
And holy shit, the spray adhesive stuff will get you all sorts of fucked up. I had to go outside and take a break for a while.
With all that taken care of, I moved on to some other stuff. Replaced some rotted out seals on the hvac junk.
Installed firewall grommet & techflexed power wire.
Replaced all of the rotted vacuum lines.
Replaced the antenna (no specific pic)...
And test fitted my new wheels
Oof... just barely.
One wheel has a bend in it (you can see it in the pics I posted of the two wheels sitting on the floor), so I gotta get that taken care of. Might just pay someone to refinish all of 'em... haven't decided yet. Either way I think they're going to look bad ass.
Put the dash in first, wired everything up with the help of my buddy Matt. Replaced the battery and it fired right up first try Tested the AC and found a big leak at the expansion valve Timing's way off, engine bogs and backfires out the intake
Matt gave me a hand mounting the sub box in the trunk...
View of the sub box from the trunk. I swear it looks pretty damn good when not on my iPhone. I need to bust out the real camera tomorrow :-/
View from inside the car
I had to run some additional wiring for dash stuff today... grounds, power & sensor wires for the Duostyle gauges. I techflexed the shiz in the engine bay, and used one of these suckers to run power for the gauges. it just allows you to expand on a circuit.
Amongst other wiring crap I did today, I ran the driver's door speaker wires. This is where the speakerwire comes out for the tweeter, which will sit in the sail panel.
Labeled up everything using a labelmaker and some clear shrink wrap. I'm working with an assortment of scrap speaker wire... it's good stuff but the runs aren't terribly long. So... I'm breaking up the runs in places that make sense. Door speaker wires will be terminated at bullet connectors right inside the car. I feel like it gives me some future flexibility in amp placement, wire runs, etc as an added bonus.
Half decent pic of dash installed. Still needs some parts reinstalled.
Duostyle gauges lit up after the car'd idled for a bit. I'm going to leave the protective wrap stuff on the faces 'til everything's installed.
That's about it for today. Figured out I'm missing part of the speaker cover on the right side of the dash, the defrost vent things on top the dash - all of this on an early dash (snap in bezel) with the hard(er) to find pieces. Oh, and my hvac panel is completely broken. Figures that I can't find my spare... groan.
So my HVAc panel was busted. The grey backing piece (which you see in the pic below) had cracked in half and the knob thing would no longer click into place.
So I went digging last night - mostly on Anthony's prodding to find a better power source - and found the old style HVAC panel that came with the dash. Of course, all of the clips were broken off... so I decided to make a hybrid.
The plan was to disassemble both, and transfer the guts of the old style unit to the new one. So I disassembled them both...
Trimmed a bunch of crap, and glued them back together
Of course, the new style knob jammy wouldn't snap into the old style HVAC panel (note the feet)
So I busted apart the old style hvac knob (which has a different pin-out that doesn't match my harness, in case you're wondering why I'm doing this)...
And I bent the plate from the old knob to make a clamp for the new one
Voila... lots of work so I don't have to go to the junkyard.
Next on the agenda was to work on the door cards. This was what I was envisioning...
But the Zaph 5.25's need .25cu ft worth of air space, which pretty much negated the cubby jammy if I didn't want the speaks to stick out a good 8" from the door.
Here's the mediocre Trohpy door card I'm staring with.
All the leather (?) is pulling up
So, I removed it
Laid down numerous layers of blue tape, and waxed it with Collonite.
Stuck some hurricane nuts in some hardboard, drilled some holes, and mounted the pods on a board.
Laid quite a lot of fiberglass. (Hotter mix this time... perfect actually... yesterday's piece took three good hours to dry.
While those were drying, I set the ignition timing. Response is better and it doesn't seem to want to backfire out of the intake, but it took a little bit of effort to get it started after it was warmed up. I'll deal with that later.
I also found a better fuse to use for the gauges.
Decided that since the pods are in progress that I no longer need to worry about sealing the doors, so I applied a little Raammat, and made myself a new vapor barrier. It came out OK.
Pods dried, and trimmed. They both bow in a little in the middle... not sure what that's about but it'll do.
More hurricane nuts. These damn things are useful.
Got to work on the sail panels, decided to try out the CA/grill cloth method.
The tweet secures using an M4 screw, and I drilled additional holes for the leads.
Cut out some grill cloth, sandwich it in the PVc with the tweeter.
Just secure the grill cloth around back with some tape
Lots of tape.
First try. Painters tape around the tweeter was a BAD idea. I had to use a scalpel, a razor blade, and a couple different flatheads to get the tweeter back out. Some flaws and an overly shiny part on the side.
NOTE: Use the accelerant for the CA glue very cautiously! I did a test piece first and had it smoldering. Plus the fumes are horrid.
NOTE #2: Be careful with CA glue in general. I managed to not get some parts with the accelerant and they were still wet when I started taking things apart. As a result, I am typing with 3.5 out of 10 fingers encapsulated in glue. Plus I somehow glued my shirt to my chest hair. That kinda sucked to fix.
I sanded the edge around the tweet and used a sharpie to re-black it. I have extra sail panels, lots of grill cloth, and more PVC, so I can always make another one later. Now that I know the basics I can futz around with it a bit.
Re: ODJ's 1988 VW Jetta
Not nearly as hardcore as your dash 
Linear Mode
