[reedal]

Reed's '03 Tahoe: Hybrid Audio, SQ/AQ, Singer, XS, SHCA

Hey guys. New member on this forum, been a member over on SMD for a couple years now, so here is my build log. Not the best, but every time I make a change, I learn a new lesson and get a little better. I'm all about doing it yourself, and you can't learn if you don't try.

As for this build log though, I'm going to copy/paste everything that I've already posted on SMD and TYF, and then when I return from this deployment, I've got a bunch of goodies waiting for me to install and play with. Thanks for reading, and all advice is welcome of course

 

[reedal]

So I happened upon this clean blue beauty and for a price of almost half of all the others of similar year and mileage, I snatched it up.

 

[reedal]

My build plans with it are to move my current system from the explorer into this since i will no longer own the explorer in a short time. The equipment being:

HU- Pioneer DEH-80PRS
Subs- Two SoundQubed HDS312D2's
Amps- SoundQubed Q1-3500.1; AudioQue 90.4
Mids & Highs- CDT CL61A
Wires- All Sky High 1/0, RCA's, 12ga speaker wire
Power- Haven't decided on an alt yet, gotta contact singer, see what he's got. I don't think I'll go with anything over 300A on the alt. I'll have a D3400 under the hood, and I've got a D4700 i had bought for a cruze that I'll keep by the amps.

 

[reedal]

Hopefully I can get started on transferring it all this weekend. I've got duty saturday so i'll have all day sunday to knock it out. The only things that need bought are the D3400 and the alt. I'll post pictures as i go through the install.

 

[reedal]

 

[reedal]

Went to a local shop to get the metra dash install kit for my 80PRS, so thank you Sound Wave Customs of Virginia Beach, VA.

Sunday I'll get that put in. But I'm thinking of buying additional speakers to fill in everything that the Bose setup is in besides just the front doors. The time alignment isn't important to me. In my explorer, the backseat only hears the subs, not the components in the front doors very well, so I want to fix that issue this go around. I'm thinking coaxials, but may go with pro audio. SoundQubed of course to stick with the theme. I may replace the CDT components for the front doors with the AudioQue set I have. I haven't figured out which has a better sound to it yet. Well, that's my thought process as of right now. Suggestions, thoughts, questions, or whatever else is always welcome.

 

[reedal]

So this is my amp rack I made a couple weeks back, needs a little work, like putting a couple pieces down to hold the battery in place. It gets the job done though

The enclosure is just a prefab I've had for a few years, just don't have the right tools to make clean cuts for the design I made to make a new one.

These are all pictures in the explorer. Just giving the you guys an idea of what is going into the Tahoe this weekend.

 

[reedal]

seem to be having difficulty with the pictures posting correctly... i'll figure it out and get back to it. standby please

 

[Coppertone]

Oh wow lol it's like you're having a conversation with yourself. Fear not as I'm always interested in a good build. Hope it turns out to be all that you want of it.

 

[reedal]

Oh wow lol it's like you're having a conversation with yourself. Fear not as I'm always interested in a good build. Hope it turns out to be all that you want of it.

Haha thanks. It's been a constant work in progress, never really finding a combination that makes me not want to change it. But I think that's how it will always be; constantly changing to see all of the different possibilities. Of course, there are things that should have been first priority that I'm doing late than it should have been, but it's a learning experience.

 

[reedal]

Ok. Here's the update. I'm done temporarily. Ran into a wall I didn't think of before having owned chevy's before. Side post battery. But I did get a little done. Ran my front to back wire from battery to battery (not hooked up to front batt, fuse pulled by back batt), which was a pain in the ass getting the floor trim pieces back in place with the wire there.

So it's just kind of tucked away for now until I get a D3400 for the front.

Finished pulling the 80prs from the explorer, put my new 1/0 inputs into my 3500. I got them in the mail a couple weeks ago just never got around to it.

Decided to open up my AQ 4X90, here's its innards if you've never seen them before

And here's the amp/batt rack in the Tahoe waiting to be put to use again.

I threw the subs in there too, didn't grab a pic or wire them up. For now, I'm leaving the factory Bose setup in there, until I get my battery for the front, and once I can squeeze that purchase into my budget and it arrives, it will be time to swap in my 80prs, do big three, swap front speakers/tweets, run wire and RCAs, DD-1 it to see if gains change between vehicles, and then hopefully by summer I'll have a new enclosure, another component set and 4 channel, and an alternator. And this won't be just a purely audio build log. There will be eye candy upgrades to go with the ear candy.

 

[reedal]

Got the 80PRS installed last night. Used the PAC OS-2X to retain GM's stupid idea of having the stock radio as part of the data bus. Also have the stock Bose hooked up to it for now until I get my ibar side post adapters for the battery so I can use my components.

I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures so I'll try to get more of the component install once that happens.

The only issue I had with the PAC harness was it seems cheaply made, and I was getting a lot of static at first until I switched the stock speaker harness from "amplified radio" to "non-amplified radio", but music is louder on the non-amplifier side than the amplified connection. The 80PRS distorts via DD-1 track 2 at 48 out of 62 at the speaker outs, but I get to right around 40-45 before it starts sounding distorted to me. And a whole lot louder than my components on my 90X4. Any thoughts?

I fixed my grounding/alt whine issue. Turns out I had some insulation crimped into the wire. All fixed now. But I decided that while the dash is apart, I'd run my RCA's.

Getting them zip tied and tidy looking

Also got some blue LED's to replace all of the interior lights with (doors, dome, maps, glove box) and white LED's for the license plate. I didn't snap any pictures of the little things before the install, but I'll try to get some of the lighting in the morning on my way to work. Perks of leaving your house at 5:30 having blue interior lighting is something I always wanted to try out so I did it. If I end up not liking it, I still have all of the stock bulbs.

 

[reedal]

So here's the interior lighting. It looks brighter in the pictures than it is in person.

D3400, SHCA shirt, and VM-1.
Here's the 555 side post adapters

Out with the old

And in with the new

Here's the blue interior LED's in daylight

 

[reedal]

So today I decided to start to make some door pods to put in the factory location. Only started the passenger side for now. Didn't use enough hardener though. So hopefully tomorrow it'll be nice and hard

My canvas

All dried up and ready for body filler and paint

 

[reedal]

Covered in body filler (I'm not very good at that part at all, first time using it though) and a little bit of sanding. I think an oscillating sander is in my future though. Finish it up tomorrow hopefully, prime/paint it.

Can you tell which one was the first? Too much hardener

270A 6 phase hairpin powder coated blue to match the Tahoe

 

[reedal]

Now, for round 3 of making my door pods. Hopefully for the last time....

 

[reedal]

iPhone 5 bounced around too much, screen separated :/

debadging/destriping the body of the Tahoe

 

[reedal]

 

[reedal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGJ5aU61RyQ

 

[reedal]

I haven't had my DRLs working since I bought it, so I figured it was time to make them work again. I took a look through the lense, and the bulbs had broken filaments. I swapped the passengers side, then when I went to the drivers side, the socket was melted and scorched

Only audio updates I have are I just purchased a cockbox from Scott bowman, and I bought an iPod classic 7th gen 120gb to replace my very broken iPhone 5 that vibrated apart