'04 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart - First Build Log - Page 3 - Car Audio

hottcakes · 03-10-2011

i've used lookpic.com for some pictures, only since i don't upload much. i suppose a drawback may be that there is no account or anything. nor is there a way to see the links to your pics again so you would need to either copy and paste them all to a text file of some sort or take a screen shot and label appropriately.

at the top of the page it says its for torrent sites, but on the bottom it lists several others. they claim no bandwidth limiting or deleting of pics. as far as i can remember all the pics i've uploaded are through that site.

strakele · 03-10-2011

Hmm, I just resized all my stuff so hopefully once it resets on Saturday, my bandwidth should last longer. I do like being able to log in and mess with stuff..

strakele · 03-15-2011

Alright, last update before everything is done. This weekend I'll be leaving the car at Ryan's to have a bunch of work done. This will mainly include modding the A-pillars to hold the AR3K's, and building a new custom sub enclosure for a pair of new Dayton HO 10's. This will be my first ported enclosure, so I'm pretty excited.

Some final prep work I did: 2 layers of closed cell foam in the rear deck. This has continuously been a source of rattles at certain frequencies in my car, so I'm hoping the damplifier combined with the foam will stop it. It's compressed pretty tight now and seems solid, so I have high hopes.

Covered the rear deck:

And the cover:

aeon · 03-15-2011

Sweet, can't wait to see the finished a-pillars.

**Mic10is** · 03-15-2011

If Ryan is rebuildin the entire Apillar, save those apillar tweeter grills and I'll buy them from you

strakele · 03-15-2011

Nah, it's just gonna be glassing them into the stock A-pillars. They're all one piece, with the tweeter grills molded in.

strakele · 03-29-2011

Alright, it's finally done! This evening I picked up the car from Ryan after having the AR3K's mounted in the A-pillars and a new ported enclosure built for the Daytons. While I was there, we made a new floor for the trunk to mount the mono amp on while still enabling access to the spare.

Build pics will come tomorrow or whenever he sends them to me, and I'll put up several pictures of my own as well. But for now, all I can say is it sounds great. After finally getting a solid Imprint run (the damn thing keeps throwing errors at me) I went through my usual demo tracks and can definitely say this is the best sounding version of my system to date. More details to come, it's late and I have class in the morning, but for now I just want to say I'm extremely pleased. And another thanks to Ryan for the great work.

**Melodic Acoustic** · 03-29-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by strakele

Alright, it's finally done! This evening I picked up the car from Ryan after having the AR3K's mounted in the A-pillars and a new ported enclosure built for the Daytons. While I was there, we made a new floor for the trunk to mount the mono amp on while still enabling access to the spare.

Build pics will come tomorrow or whenever he sends them to me, and I'll put up several pictures of my own as well. But for now, all I can say is it sounds great. After finally getting a solid Imprint run (the damn thing keeps throwing errors at me) I went through my usual demo tracks and can definitely say this is the best sounding version of my system to date. More details to come, it's late and I have class in the morning, but for now I just want to say I'm extremely pleased. And another thanks to Ryan for the great work.

Glad your enjoy the system, can't wait to see the pics.

slade1274 · 03-29-2011

I'll go ahead and put in the pics with fabrication commentary, I don't have the carpeted box nor the pillars with the grills installed as they are quite a tight fit and didn't want to remove them to show off the drivers at the reveal. I'm sure Grayson can add a few pics once he places the grills.
Right, now the commentary:

First needed some rings. Grayson wanted to have grills, so the rings are 3 pieces, the mounting ring, the recess ring, and the one for the grille cloth.

As they are HUGE and have the magnet from a 7” driver, I couldn’t use them mounted for mock up. The magnet kept pulling to the sheet metal- so I had to simulate the driver on the baffle.

slade1274 · 03-29-2011

Then covered them with cloth:

Test fit

Resin Coat

Then did some layers of fiberglass to make sure they were solid to hold these drivers.

slade1274 · 03-29-2011

Drilled holes round perimeter to ensure solid mating to the pillars and poured in a couple small batches of duraglass milkshake

Filled and sanded (yes, great day- sorry about the sun)

Covered in black vinyl and used some Back to Black product to match the shine of the dashboard

Despite what the shooting angle of the pictures may imply, they are both aimed across at the opposite window, about 4 inches behind the sail panel at ear level.

Grayson will shoot some pics of the grills inserted. They are flush mount and covered in black material to hide the drivers.

Next: Box

slade1274 · 03-29-2011

Grayson spec'd a box that was in line with Chad's recommendations for the Dayton HO 10" sub, but double it. We went with a 1.4 ft^3 volume tuned to ~29cycles. Port mach was a challenge with this, but I was able to go with a pair of 3 x 2" ports and achieve a mach of ~.13 at 20 cycles- something he probably won't get down to often to observe the ~150fps in the port. At the tuning frequency it is below a .1 mach.

Wedge shape to match the seat angle of ~18^. 3/4" MDF with center brace to reduce box resonance that could play with tuning frequency.

It was wrapped in trunk matching charcoal carpet, but PIC FAIL once again.... my typical MO.

Also finished with a pigtail wire and an Anderson PowerPole connector.

**JayinMI** · 03-29-2011

I use Powerpoles on my RC cars, and Deans connectors on my speaker wires.
Nice job on the box. For my Dayton's I went with .605 (+port and displacement), tuned to like 33Hz. Port mach stayed pretty low, bass stays up front most of the time (unless I'm cranking it...and then I don't care

),
My port was 10x12.5x46...

Jay

bertholomey · 03-29-2011

Great job with the pillars! Those ARs are great looking drivers. I really hope to hear a set at some time in the future.

I bet that Dayton's will sound fantastic in that box - if I didn't like my IB sub so much.....of course that box would take up every bit of my trunk.

Fantastic work!

boricua69 · 03-29-2011

very nice lancer; i have one of those and modify everything. you can see the thread LANCER RALLY ART PROYECT.

strakele · 03-29-2011

Yeah man, I've been following your build log as well. I really like your door panels.

Anyway, here's a couple pics. I'll put up more tomorrow when I get the new trunk carpet cut, but for now, here's the box by itself:

Nice and shallow, just how I wanted.

Now for a couple quick shots of the pillars with the grills.

strakele · 03-29-2011

Now for some before and after shots of the pillars.

Before:

After w/o grill:

After w/grill:

Other side:

I think they look great and I'm very happy with them. The vinyl wrap is extremely close in color and texture to the dash and door panel.

strakele · 03-29-2011

New trunk floor pieces and amp mount. Not meant to be flashy, just functional, and allow spare tire access. Made with some spare 1/2" MDF Ryan had laying around.

Small piece just there for cargo support. Removes easily:

Larger piece with spacers for the amp can be easily pivoted up for quick access to spare tire and tools:

The wires will be zip tied and organized nicer when I have some more time.

No pics of the finished trunk till I cut the new carpet, but here's what the new enclosure looks like from inside the cabin.

That blue power wire will be shortened so it's not just sitting there like that. By the time I was connecting everything up that night it was getting dark and I just wanted to get everything hooked up so I could hear it and make sure everything worked before I left Ryan's.

bertholomey · 03-30-2011

I agree on both counts - the pillars really came out well - fantastic job with the vinyl wrapping. The ported box looks really good as well - how do you like the sound with the two Daytons ported?

Are you going to Erin's?

JediMentality · 03-30-2011

Wow, I really like the pillars. i like how they aren't really that obtrusive and blend nicely into that corner. Excellent work. The sub box is nice too. I wish I tried a similar box design when I was running my Daytons. Listening impressions with the revisions?

strakele · 03-30-2011

I like the Daytons a lot. I wasn't sure about going back to 10s from the 12s I had, but the added efficiency of the ported enclosure makes up for it. In the model, they actually surpass the 12s in output up to around 50Hz.

I also wasn't sure about going to a ported setup. All previous subs I had were sealed. For a while it was hard to get rid of the "ported boxes are boomier" idea, but I'm glad I did. The ported Daytons are loud, clean, and take up a lot less space. I don't think it's any less detailed and accurate than the IDQs, and it sounds much more solid now that theres no box flex. (the old sealed box was starting to leak..)

Yes I'm going to Erin's.

Unobtrusive and well blending is exactly what I was going for with the pillars, and it's exactly what I got. I wanted them to stick out as little as physically possible - no small feat with smallish sedan pillars and the deep, beefy AR3Ks, but Ryan did a great job with them and I'm very pleased.

Haven't had a lot of time to listen, but so far I love it. A combination of the solid new enclosure and the CCF in the rear deck got rid of basically all the rear rattles I had, so now bass sounds right up front. The pillars sound great how they're aimed, and having so much of the content being played above the dash is great for stage height and depth. The doors still need CCF and some more deadening, but overall I'm loving it.

wdemetrius1 · 03-30-2011

Grayson, I love those pillars and the trunk. I saw those massive AR3Ks drivers when I went to pickup my car. I'm going to Erin's as well, I'm looking forward to getting a listen.

strakele · 03-30-2011

Alright, got the new carpet in for the most part and cleaned up some wires, so here are some pics. Weather was crappy today so low light in the parking garage..

Trunk before:

And trunk now:

Wiring cleaned up a little. I'm either going to paint the metal bracket black or cover it with carpet.. not sure yet.

Looks very unassuming, and takes up less space, leaving maximum cargo room and no subwoofer cones to worry about. I'm very happy with how the box came out. I'll probably post up some better pictures once Atlanta is no longer completely enveloped in a cloud.

wdemetrius1 · 03-30-2011

Another job well done, Ryan. I continue to recommend anyone in the greater Atlanta area to come to your "shop".

wdemetrius1 · 03-30-2011

Everything is much cleaner. Enjoy!!!