[Valdemar]

Hey everyone! Here is my first attempt at a decent install since 2017. Think of this first post as a readme file. The thread will be updated as we get moving on this. This is a starting point for reference and is subject to change as there are details that are likely to be missed. I'll try and keep text to a minimum in the first few posts. I am starting with a bone stock canvas and would appreciate any and all comments

I have a 2000 Ford Ranger XLT 2 door super cab as my daily. (Pics soon)
Most of what is going in came from previous installs or is already in my garage.
I don't have subs or a decent alternator right now, so the mono amp will not be installed yet.
Subwoofer suggestions welcome! Trying to keep it somewhat stealth.

Update 8/16
I have a used xspower d925 from a local shop. This will go on the rear shelf. I also have a pair of *** from ** * that will go in a sealed box behind the seats.
End Update.

This truck is older and has some love bites. Paint is faded, a deer had beef with the door, previous owner sealed the center console shut with gap sealing foam, rear bumper is bent, no alarm, it smells funny, needs a new battery, ignition lock cylinder, door lock actuators, rear window latch and dome light assembly; there is quite a bit of work, so here we go!

HU: Clarion DRZ 9255 w ipod cable; AudioControl ACX-BT1 and Amazon Basics RCA-Aux
RCA: (QTY 2) Knu Krystal 4 channel, 6m and (QTY 2) SHCA 2-channel RCAs plus SHCA Female to Female RCA Fittings
Amps: (QTY 2) JL HD 900/5 and a GZHA 1800.1
Power Cables: Knu 0 ga OFC and Stinger 4 ga OFC; Knu 0ga Fuse holder and Knu Ring Terminals, Misc copper terminals, Knu Grounding Block
Power Distribution: T-Spec v12 Distro
Battery: Odyssey Performance with Knu Terminals
Speaker Wire: Parts Express in wall 4 conductor for kicks, 10 ga (Knu Flex) and 12 ga (Stinger pro) runs to the doors.
Kick Panels: Q-Forms Kick Panel Enclosures
CCF: 1/8" CCF, 60" x 10 yards (150 ft^2)
MLV: 1lb/ft^2 4.5'x30' (135 ft^2)
CLD: Dynamat Xtreme (36 ft^2)
Ring Adapters: Purchased for template, fabricating from Cutting boards, I suspect UHMW, HDPE or polypropylene
Alt: Mechman 320 amp, not installed yet.

Tweeter* (Kicks): Dayton AMT Mini-8 with polypropylene capacitor; starting x-over from 5khz @24db/oct slope

Mid: Morel CAM 558 (Kicks); starting x-overs from 1-5khz @24db/oct slope

Midbass (stock location): Audible Physics Arian 6.5"; starting x-overs from 80hz-1khz @12db/oct?

Midbass 2** (Inner Door Skin): Melodic Acoustic Intimid8r; starting x-overs from sub-160hz @24db/oct

*alternate: Kravchenko xbl tweeters
**If it fits where I want it to fit in the front door cavity. Alternate: Exodus Anarchy

Here's the red ranger... except not red

Where the deer hit, after it's been "patched"

and the bed

 

[Valdemar]

Took the battery out and added the Knu Terminals

Perfect opportunity to clean these carpets. Not that I can smell anymore!

This back wall brace looks like a good spot to reinforce whatever framework I need.

Nice and leaky

We had a VERY stubborn bolt. I stripped it and it held everything up for a few days. This is my friend helping a brother out!

 

[Valdemar]

We compromised and left the last bolt in, cut a slit in the carpet and snaked the belt through the slit.

Under the driver's seat floor. The bracket locations are marked for making adapter plates to mount the amps.

Passenger side looks a little simpler. There's plenty of room! In the future I might consider putting a driver down here. For now, stealth is more important.

Here are the cable tie downs I plan on using with rivnuts whenever possible.

 

[Valdemar]

Got a little more work done! Removed the headliner finally and mocked up some amp racks to go under the seats. I checked for clearance and started fabbing the rack shapes out of 1/8 project boards using a table router. The first one took longer; I started with the driver side and that one's a little more complicated due to the wires that go through the floor. I am using small brackets from the hardware store to mount the rear of the racks to the seat frame, and the front of the racks will be mounted to the car's frame using rivnuts and 10-24 stainless steel screws. I'll have to deaden and decouple them

.

 

[Valdemar]

These are the brackets I am using (Per rack), and what the rack templates look like.

I want to mount the fuse holder for the amps here, where the white board is

 

[Valdemar]

Got a little more done. I had the carpets, seats and headliner steam cleaned by a local detailer. I also had an Avital alarm system installed by Creative Audio in Bentonville, AR. Shout out to Mike, he always takes care of me.

Here are some of the basic numbers I used to get started on the build. Mileage will vary.

 

[Valdemar]

Here are some rivnuts for mounting.. well anything really. I'm using them for a fuse panel and wire management. Here are some mockups.

 

[Valdemar]

Here is the bare ceiling and the factory foam between the ceiling and the bracket below it. The bracket rattles quite a bit and the whole thing is tinny. I'll have to leave the center untreated so I can reattach the dome light.

I was trying to get the most effect out of the CLD by getting as close to the center as possible on the bracket. 25% coverage on the roof.

I decoupled all of the wiring that ran along the ceiling and sides, including the factory speaker wiring.

I then decoupled the bracket and ceiling using some open cell foam I had laying around. I'm not worried about water up here. I used zip ties to make sure the foam didnt budge over time, or at least it did so very slowly and slightly controlled.

Nice and tight now! Took basically all day among other things.

The pound test measured a good improvement. Next is a layer of Hydrophobic Melamine Foam. I could only find 1/2", so that will have to do. I didnt snap a photo of the absorbent layer before I put the headliner in, but in the one above you can see the first piece I laid down (or up). The adhesive backed layer is nice but also troublesome as it will tack hard (even accidentally) and tear that section of foam off if you pull it wrong. I had just enough room to put the headliner back in and its a tight fit in the back, but I think It will do just fine.

Here is some of the foam sticking out past the headliner as it sits mostly in its correct location. It sags without the rear supporting trim panels.

And the rusty hole left by a deer on the driver's side. This leaks water into the cabin when it rains and soaks the carpet.

 

[Valdemar]

Replacing Door lock cylinders and Door lock actuators. I can lock my doors now! I also replaced the sliding window latch, but didnt get a good pic of it when it was missing.

 

[Valdemar]

We had to remove the headliner again to remove some of the doubled up foam, as it was interfering too much. This gave us a chance to take pics! Here is the absorbent layer, featuring Ms Carter. If anyone needs a geometry tutor, I know a gal!

Decoupled washers for the passenger arm handle

ditto for the sun visor clips

 

[Valdemar]

I like to do alot of mockups and transfer markings before I start cutting and making things permanent. I'll usually snake things and try multiple iterations to find the best fit.

For the front fuse holder, I went with a spot that would be easy to manipulate and wouldnt interfere with anything. I chose the spot by the fuse panel power inputs.

The front rivnut is definitely too close to the edge of the material, as is evident by the yielded plastic around the compressed metal. itll hold though! Good enough is good enough.

These are 10-24 screws, the ones I had laying around were too long, as is to be expected. I measured the clearance I had with calipers to be around 0.4" Max before interfering with the power wiring/protruding from the threaded cylinder of the rivnuts.

I bought some SS 10-24x3/8" Pan head screws and installed with some red loctite (threadlock)

Nice fit all installed! No interference.

 

[Valdemar]

I'll be using this nifty little wiring management tape. TBH its not the best as it wears off easy and doesnt stick hard, but handy when you have 8+ RCA channels to deal with. It goes from 0-9

For power wiring, I'll be using 2 runs of 0 ga from front to back: one for positive and one for ground. Here are the terminals I am using

One of the first things I did was augment the stock battery GND to Chassis wire. I added a run of 0ga to the stock ground and sanded the location, then cleaned with alcohol and reinstalled.

Here you see the new ground as well as the negative run from the front terminal Zip tied behind the head light support beam.

There was only room for a single 0ga run into the cab through the stock grommet by the door grommet/conduit. This is where the positive is going. The GND will be run from the hood along the firewall, down under the front mudflap section and into the cab through the big grommet by the driver's feet.

This is the best spot to run the cable into the fender well that I found.

I snaked the cable through the (cut/modified) stock grommet and also installed a 1/4-20 rivnut to tie everything down.

 

[Valdemar]

Here is the last mockup before making it permanent

I made sure everything fit, and installed a 1/4-20x.75" SS Pan head screw with thread lock. I also used 3 levels of butyl for anything going into the cabin: one on the outside of the grommet, one on the inside of the grommet, and one on the inside of the cab. Overkill to help me sleep at night.

Dont forget to decouple when you can!

Here is the Ground run under the mudflap

Had to get a little creative to get a makeshift spacer out of zip ties. I didnt want to force the cable to bend too much, since it had to snake through a series of tight bends in that square frame tubing to get into the cab.

Butyl on both sides to be safe. The split loom ends in the square frame tubing, and the tech flex extends from the in-cab end of the cable all the way a few feet past where the split loom begins.

I ran into a bit of a problem with my distribution panel location. It has alot less clearance than I thought it did, and I will have to figure out where to put it. Problem: both cables are already cut, and I only have excess on one.

 

[Valdemar]

Random:
Ozark Custom Products LLC got a package this week. Any guesses?

Pic for fun. This is Nova.

 

[Valdemar]

Here is some of the speaker wiring to the kicks and doors. I used a 6-32 rivnut on each side to help with the wiring. the left side is a little funkier to try and avoid the power wiring as much as possible.

Mockups with the kick panels

Decoupling where I can

 

[Valdemar]

update time! its been a while since i've thrown some eye candy up here.

I flattened the area as best I could with a hammer and heat gun. JB is good enough for this; not proud of it but its the best I could do with what I had. I had to go back and double up because I could still see light through it after the first time.

I am running the CeNet Ipod adapter under the dash behind the glovebox.

 

[Valdemar]

The power supply is going behind the knee panel bracing under the steering column. I had to flatten a tab to make it fit. Good ole heat gun and hammer method.

A little HU Wiring

 

[Valdemar]

Where I plan to mount the bass level control knob

I deadened and decoupled the pillars as best I could

same for the door switch panels

 

[Valdemar]

Door stuff, deadening and decoupling

Here I am decoupling any panel that contacts anything else. I traced the door panel's silhouette with a silver sharpie onto the door frame. I removed the panel and then used foam/gasket tape to decouple anything I didnt line on the panel itself. I also decoupled all of the slots for the door panel hooks with gasket tape, hoping most of it stays where it needs to be.

decoupling the door brace with Butyl, leaving gaps for water to get through if needed

General floor wiring pics

Pass side

Driver Side, Longer power runs because I was trying to avoid the RCAs

 

[Valdemar]

RCA Run to the back. I am running it under the rear deck through the grommets.

unfortunately, I broke quite a few of these rear jump seat bracket bolts, so I'll seal them up and leave them alone.

These are mockups for the subwoofer enclosure's feet.

deadening rear wall

Rivnuts in rear brace for securing the enclosure and what not

Quarter panel deadening

The trim panels themselves are also deadened.

The barrier around the rear quarter panels is a pain.
In case you needed a random way to put nice round holes in mlv, a step drill works great if you deburr the opposite side with the same bit.