Acura TL, Take Three! :) IASCA focused this time.

[simplicityinsound]

well, just spent the last three weeks redoing my friend Mike, a.k.a ChicoOG's acura TL. some of you may remember this car, as it is hte third system that has gone through the vehicle and the second time i have worked on it:

The rebuild of the all zapco acura TL is complete.

Some of you may remember that the original system, when i got hte car the first time, was in....less than ideal condition. and that install, was to quickly turn it around, simplify it down, and make it sound better.

Well, good ole Mike's caught the SQ bug, and when the california IASCA shows were announced, we decided to redo the system for even higher level of SQ and the occassional IASCA comp.

so here are the goals:

1. raise the level of SQ a few notches higher htan before, something competitive in the rookie class of IASCA.

2. retain zapco DC power/processing and adding to it.

3. fit much more gear in the trunk but still somehow retain a bit of stealthiness and daily usability.

so...lets get started:

as before, the stock headunit was used as a signal source. the TL is one of those rare stock HUs, when tapped before hte factory amp, is reasonably clean and flat. and not to mention the stock nav and info screen makes it difficult to do an aftermarket source.

as mentioned before, zapco processing, so here is the laptop plugged in and ready to tune:



the front stage we went from zapco to Seas.

the Lotus Reference midbass was installed in the same manner as before, and the sound proofing was also from the previous install:



quick shot of hte termination of wiring on the driver side midbass:



and the same goes for the passenger side of course:





the one thing i added this time, was to fully sound proof the door card. as the TL tend to hvae quite a bit of door buzzing, we also decided to secure the movable pocket door shut, as it was a major source of rattles. so here they are:

[simplicityinsound]

moving onto the midrange. we have a pair of Seas Excel Magnesium 4" mids. this time, i had the time to mold hte kicks into the stock piece. and here is the result. the kicks are aimed at the opposite listener, and have an internal volume of approx. .25 cub ft.









here is the shot of both from the back seat:



then, i made a pair of grilles for the speakres. if you are wondering why the grille is black and not tan, for one, the interior is two tone black and tan, but more importantly, tan grille cloth gets dirty so quickly and is impossible to make clean.







the Seas lotus reference tweeters were installed inthe facotry location, with its early reflection, it sound quite nice, similar to on axis A pillars but IMO affords a deeper stage.

[simplicityinsound]

if you are wondering what happend to the hood release, it was relocated to right next to the kick, still relatively easy to reach



here are some build pics of hte kicks.

first the back mold was mated to the stock panels and then trimmed:



then, they recieved a layer of sound proofing:



ring baffles were then aimed and attached:



and mold cloth secured, resined, and then reinforced from the inside:



after that, they were sanded smooth:



then as usual, each kick recieved a layer of modeling clay, and then another lay of sound proofing to hold the clay in place and to aid in resonance killing. here you see one of hte kicks with clay and the other one is already done with the sound proofing over the clay:



and then, they were wrapped in factory matching vinyl. they turned out to be one of hte more difficult wrap jobs i have had to do, due to the complex concave and then convex shapes. but after a lot of pulling and swearing, they were done

[simplicityinsound]

here are the shots of hte midranges with their wiring terminations:





and finally ,installed into the kick panels:



a quick shot of hte tweeter wiring termination:



so thats it for the front stage.

now a few quick shots of the wiring. here you see all the wires running in the door sills, wired tired and secured every 6 inches or less:









so thats it for the interior. as some of hte work was already done from the previous install.

[simplicityinsound]

moving to the trunk.

here is hte normal view with all the grilles on. the entire trunk was done with grey carpet so its durable. you will notice that the main floor is a two tier wtih a curved step in the middle:

[simplicityinsound]

pop off all the grilles, and here is what you see.

two DIYMA 12s reside in side fiberglass enclsoures that are molded INTO the stock side carpeting (thanks to Josh at JML audio for giving me the idea and insipiration). each enclsoure is 1.5 cubfeet or so.

three zapco DC reference amps are in the two level fake floor. a DC1100.1 powers the diyma12s wtih 1100 watts, a dc650.6, sends 100 watts to each tweeter and 180 watts to the midrange, while a DC1000.4 sends a bridged 500 watts RMS to each midbass.

everyhting is trimmed in exterior matching vinyl, and my logo is on the front wall.

so basicaly a fully boxed trunk install, the only piece of stock carpet you see is the one under the rear deck.

[simplicityinsound]

so here are some build pics of the trunk.

by FAR the most difficult part of the instlal was the side boxes. found out quickly that the stock "carpet" really doesnt take resin at all, and you cant just lay glass on it as it wont stick. so after some trial and error, i coated the stock carpet with a combination of resin and duraglass, let that stick, and then layed 10 layers of mat/cloth on the places where i wnated to have the back of hte subbox.

so here are the sides with all the backs done:





then the baffle was attached. the shape was used to it can accomodate the fake floor to come later, as i knew before hand that all three amps cannot fit on the same plane and still fit the diyma12 on the sides.



then, the mold was resined, and the box strengthend with 10 more layers of mat/cloth from inside of hte box. I cut the backs of these boxes and laid up the glass, and then joined the two pieces back together with glass. you can see in this picture where i put a line of sound proofing on the seams, even though they were already sealed up with cloth/mat from both sides.

then, i sanded and molded the edges to flow into the stock carpted shape:



and finally, the boxes were carpeted, whcih was a bit difficult as well due to the shape hehe, and the front red vinyl trim panel attached:





two quick shots of the wiring going into the DIYMA 12s:

[simplicityinsound]

so here is the floor piece that was curved. you can see here its been glassed and sanded smooth for the curved effect to match the shape of the side baffles:





and here is hte piece after vinyl and carpet application:





here the trusswork belowt he floor. the stock navigation unit, whcih was located ont he passenger side trunk floor, was extended and relocated to accomodate the subbox:



here are some quick shots of hte grilles being made, all have a rabet around the cutout, and HD mesh grille attached:





and all of them carpted, whcih is a breathable carpet.



and a shot of the wiring and layout of hte amps below the floor, all wires secured, and heatshrink terminated.



so thats it...with some quick tuning by Leon, the car definetly have potential to do well at the upcoming iasca comps.

the stage and imaging is excellent i have to say, with VERY good enter focus, and the stage is nice and high and wide.

tonality is also good, very smooth overall but with good detail, but it hink will get even better with more tuning time.

car will be at santa rosa, modesto and marv's...so some of you can take a listen to it and see what you think

cheers!

Bing

[Tonyguy]

wow, beautiful work once again. My hat's off to you. How did the 2 diyma's sound off of the 1100.1 compared to other setups you do, i.e. idmax's and idq's?

[Mless5]

Fascinating!
So do you avaoid multiple layers by laying lots of clay + deading? What if it was a 2 way, would you still do 1 layer of glass?

Thanks.

[simplicityinsound]

well its hard to say, the way its tuned, the diymas are very smooth for sure, output wise, never conducted a full test between the idmax i did in the other tl and this, so i dont want to just guess

i still reinfoce it despite clay, for midranges, i do a layer of duraglass on the inside, mixed in with resin, basically dump it in and spread it all around. for midbass, i coat the inside with some chopstrand and then duraglass.

b

[jerzxdevil]

This is one nice 3Gen TL install. I really like the idea and how the sub enclosures are built.

[AdamTaylor]

very nice as always

[Get_Zwole]

Looks awesome Bing bet it sounds even better fantastic work as usual.

[amitaF]

great work overall.....but the trunk in full stealth mode blows me away.....very creative thinking.

[ssmith100]

Bing,

I think I like this one better than anyone you have ever done. The trunk is spectacular.

Shane

[adhumston]

I'm a fan of all your installs, but this one is definately over the top. An over the top stealth install... How many people can pull that off?? Amazing!!

[brianlin87]

nice job as always.

[dewi1219]

Quick question Bing: How do you stretch/hold the cloth to the front side of the kickpanels while applying the super glue and activator? I'm sure it must be pretty easy, but I just haven't figured it out. On all the kickpanels I've done in the past I have just wrapped the cloth all the way around the panel and spray-glued it to the back side. Your way looks (and surely fits) much better.

As always, the install looks great.

[digitalhifi]

Is that low heat plastic stapled or brad nailed to the edges?

[BeatsDownLow]

also how far out do you push that plastic for doing a grill like that? Just the thickness of the wood you are using, or do you add alittle to compensate for the carpet also?

I thought I saw a tutorial for that awhile ago but I couldnt find it when searching today

[djr]

that is so so nice, it looks like the car came with the install just made to measure

[piston]

I like the relocation of the Hood release, but why is this button still on the kick panel? Looks like something for an alarm, you know something that should be hidden.


Jason

[socal28]

As always, nice work!

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by piston

I like the relocation of the Hood release, but why is this button still on the kick panel? Looks like something for an alarm, you know something that should be hidden.


Jason

well, i didnt do the alarm, and i kept it there. where do you usually put the valey button? I am no alarm installer, but for hte most prat, i have seen the valet switch is indeed in the kick panel area in that general vincinity?

b