Simple little SQ set up for a 2000 Land Cruiser

[simplicityinsound]

briefly stepping away from the world of external processors and rather top end gear...it was nice to do a simple SQ install on this 2000 land cruiser. i say nice becuase for once, i can sit down in my rolling stool and work on the car for hte most part lol, instead of crunching into weird positions all day long

this i guess is what i would call a SQ-lite project.

goals:

1. to acheive decent SQ on a more modest budget

2. to maintain as much usability and cargo space as possible (not easy acutally when the car doesnt have a spare tire well and keeping backseat fold down to store large things is essential)

if you guys remmeber the LC i did last year, this is sorta similar, except with a much lower budget and in tend to save more space than that one.


lets get started.

the signal starts with an alpine 9887 headunit, it also handles all the DSP duties for the entire system. the ipod cable goes under the unit in the din pocket:



the front stage is a combination of DLS and Seas. a pair of Seas Lotus Performance tweeters were molded into the A pillars.

i must have a short memory for pain because when i set out on the project, i totally forgot just how BAD removing hte stock leather from the A pillar was. the foam padding underneath was put on using what appears to be the toughest 3m green cement, and will not come off except in tiny patches.

i ended up scraping away as much as i could with my finger nails and razor blands, and then sanding the rest off, a 4 hour project just for that part lol.

anyway, here is the finished product:









some quick build pics, here are the pillars, stripped, and rings aimed and mold cloth pulled, once it was cured, duraglass/resin milkshake was poured into the inside to make it essentially a solid piece.



then it was sanded smooth and blended in:



and then recovered in tan vinyl:

[simplicityinsound]

the doors, originally planned for seas lotus performance as well, but soon discovered that had zero chance of clearing the door, went with hertz mlk165, but even that, was about 1/3 of an inch too tall. so, we went with a set of DLS ultimate iridium 6.5" midbasses. the hybrid neo motor on them allowed these to fit int he stock door panels...within a hair of not fitting lol

here is the door sound proofed, new baffle built (back of hte motor was only 1/8" away from the window in the down position, and new wires ran into the door:



speaker attached:



same goes for the passenger side:





the main problem with tis door, and why the other two speaker options wont work, is that the door card comes REALLY REALLY close to the metal itself. infact, the stock speaker, was literally butting up right against the door card opening.

here i took a picture of the door card in place, the DLS on just enough spacers to clear the window, and it came with in 1/8" of the door card stilll. infact, i had to trim out the cutout a bit more to ensure there will be no surround slapping issues (i dont think the surround would have slapped anyway but still, better to be safe and sorry). thank god the grille came off easily, so i took the time to rewrap them in new tan grille cloth to replace the dirty and worn out stock cloth:

[simplicityinsound]

so, moving onto the trunk. after going over a few designs, this is what i came up with that saved the most amount of space given the equipment. the rack is mostly fiberglass. and our goal originally, was for the entire structure to take up LESS room than the stock third row jump seats, and i think we managed to accomplish it.

again, nothing showy, just usable and strudy. two grilles hide the amp and sub.



this shot gives you an idea of how much room this thing takes up compared to the stock seats. by looking at the latches in the floor where hte stock seats go into, you can see that at the bottom, this thing is about an inch more outboard, and as it cants up, it saves more room at the top.



pop the grilles off, and here is hwat you see. a Zapco Iforce 5100.7 7 channel amp runs the entire system in 5 channel mode, giving 40 watts or so to the tweteers, 175 plus to the midbass, and 400 watts to the sub. the sub is a single exile audio XT10, chosen for its space saving dimensions, small enclsoure ability, and general musicality. the customer stated he didnt want much bass, but just enough to blend well with the music. and with this relatively low powered sub in such a big cabin, i think the effect is exactly waht he wanted.

[simplicityinsound]

some build pics of the rack, sorry didnt get more, i started it before going down to LA for regionals and finished it after i came back, and sorta forgot my camera in my bookbag for a few days lol...

so here is the initial mold, about 7 layers of cloth:



once that was trimmed to the desired shape, i molded in a bottom plate for the sub.



so here is the entire back mold:



then the baffles, dividers and supports were attached:





then fleece was pulled over the entire thing:





to ensure that it was the proper shape when cured, i attached this first to the panel inside the car, and then applied resin, this way, when the resin cured, it would ensure that the proper shape and countours of remain and not be flexed out of shape due to the force of the fleece and the drying process:



then the structure was removed, sanded a bit, and i skipped a few pics here...where i went in through the back and heavily reinforced the inside walls of the structure.

the subbox portion, whcih came out to be right under .5 cubfeet, got 9 layers of 3/4 oz mat, and also half a gallon of chopped strand/resin mixture poured into it to ensure its solid and air tight. while the non load bearing amp rack walls received about half a gallon each of duraglass/resin and chop strand/resin. at the end of hte day, they wwere quite solid. and then some sound proofing went into it and also on the back wall of the stock panel to whcih this is attached.

sorry agai nfor lack of pics, just have to trust me on it hehe, the thing is quite solid...i sat on it a few times taking a break from working lol





then it was carpted and installed...again...no more pics...

anyway, i just came back from the airport after delivering the car back down to LA. my fourth 5 hour drive in 3 weeks woot!

for the relatively modest amplification and tuning, it sounds pretty darn good. can it benefit from more tuning capabilities? sure...but i think its a pretty solid little SQ system. stage is nice and high and quite wide, center image is okay, midbass impact is quite good...not much true subbass beyond a certain volume and freq but that was never the point anyway

b

[snaimpally]

Very nice work!

[bkjay]

Great install.

[six2six]

very nice.

[tinkletwink]

Nice attention to detail!!!

[buddhaV6]

awesome work as usual. wow!

[sydmonster]

bing, it still has your signature! nice indeed.

[UCF52]

Great install! Always top notch work.

I have a question. I'm getting ready to start a similar enclosure for my Grand Cherokee (glassed in the quarter panel) and I am curious how the grille you made attaches to the baffle? It looks like it just presses in and stays, is that accurate? Any issues with the cone/surround hitting the grille? Is the grille as simple as an MDF circle wrapped in grille cloth?

Thanks for any insight!

[GSlider]

Very nice indeed! I love the clean, simple, yet completely functional approach.

[honza440]

perfect work!

[simplicityinsound]

Originally Posted by UCF52

Great install! Always top notch work.

I have a question. I'm getting ready to start a similar enclosure for my Grand Cherokee (glassed in the quarter panel) and I am curious how the grille you made attaches to the baffle? It looks like it just presses in and stays, is that accurate? Any issues with the cone/surround hitting the grille? Is the grille as simple as an MDF circle wrapped in grille cloth?

Thanks for any insight!

yeah extreme pressure fit, infact, you need to really carefully wedge it out iwth a flatblade screw driver, not designed to come out much

the grille is made out of a ring that has a ID that is larger than the sub's surround diameter, so that elimates slapping issue. but i usually leave a bit room so when the grille is pressed in flush, it isnt contacting the gasket of the sub either

b

[trojan fan]

Hi Bing, any builds for CES ?

[kkreit01]

Very well done.

[moosejuice]

Very nicely executed budget install...

B-

[UCF52]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

yeah extreme pressure fit, infact, you need to really carefully wedge it out iwth a flatblade screw driver, not designed to come out much

the grille is made out of a ring that has a ID that is larger than the sub's surround diameter, so that elimates slapping issue. but i usually leave a bit room so when the grille is pressed in flush, it isnt contacting the gasket of the sub either

b

Thanks for the tip Bing, much appreciated!

May I ask where you purchase your carpet and grille cloth? Looks like some nice stuff. PE seems meh.

[simplicityinsound]

carpet i ust get from my local supplier, as with grille cloth, you can find both online if you dont have a license to order from distributor, you want carpeted that is non-backed and needle punched, so its stretchy and can comform to all the curves. they go by a lot of different names.

b

[94VG30DE]

Beautiful, clean, simple install as usual. It seems like I like your simple builds (personally) better because I feel like your knack for clean aesthetics comes through more. It's hard to get that right.

Would it have been possible to use the glassed area behind the amp rack as more internal volume for the sub enclosure? Simply close off the back of the amp portion and use that? So that instead of the dividing wall between the area under the sub and the area under the amp, it would just be common volume with the amp rack effectively "floating" in space? It doesn't look like you needed it, but I was curious if in a different application that technique could be applied.

[Kenny_Cox]

awesome install! I am just waiting for my exile 10 to show up. I cannot wait

[KAPendley]

Great looking install Bing. Very clean bro. Glad to see you still killing it. I wish you would throw away the duct tape though. LOL

Now trim those bushes and roll that garden hose up you slacker!!

[simplicityinsound]

lol...lets see who gives up first, you haggling me on it or me stop using it

i got gardners that come every tuesday, the bushes gets trimmed every month lol...as for the hose, i gave up on that a while ago.

[KAPendley]

Originally Posted by simplicityinsound

lol...lets see who gives up first, you haggling me on it or me stop using it

I promise....I will give up first. LOL.

Hell, I should thank them. Otherwise you would not have gotten shit from me to begin with, and we never would have been friends. HAHA Thanks for letting me vent and staying unbiased all those times in the past eh!!!

[beerdrnkr]

Would a simple setup like this do well at all in competition or does it have to involve super expensive gear? Has anyone ever won competitions with a pretty simple setup (3way, component system, coaxially mounted components, etc.)? Sorry for the off topic questions, I was just curious. Great work as usual, if I can ever afford the gear and services you'd be the first person I'd run to for an SQ install.