[C-Bass]

I've been out of the game for a long time and after spending some time lurking the forums my interest in car audio is becoming a problem again .

Budget, availability, weather and a variety of other random factors should make this somewhat different from the average build log. If nothing else the order at which some things were done. I'm doing much of the work on the driveway...in the winter. Don't chalk this up to "some crazy canuck" because I spent the last 6 years in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico...so I'm 3 times as cold as anyone else out here. I just hate all these awesome builds and me sitting around doing nothing about it.

Two words, Multiple layers

I'd also like to point out that I am complete Clineselect groupie. Seeing his build log definitely inspired and motivated me to get my audio system in check. I've also asked him more than my fair share of questions so I'm hoping some of the things I've come across and learned will be useful to others. Thanks Clineselect :thumbsup:

My equipment selection is still in the works and was started off by a simple need. Entertaining the 7 year old while in the back seat. Seeing as I'm working with an extremely limited budget that was the next factor that was considered in most of the equipment selection.

That brings us to the head unit. I'm working with a Jensen VM9311TS in-dash DVD. Yup...pretty crappy, but after all was said and done it was cheap and for now it fulfills my purposes...movies for the kid.

Total cost of Jensen 9311 project was about $190 US

I've really, REALLY wanted to go with a 3 way setup for the longest time so I'm hoping I'll be able to pull it off.

A while back my buddy donated most of his old audio gear which included some Canton Pullman 325ti tweeters. So that's where my equipment started.

He used to run these in a full size van off a PPI a204 and they were awesome. Super clear sounding and loud, but other than that, I don't have any more information on them. If anyone has some literature, I'd love to see it.

Total cost of tweeters: FREE!!!

Next up I found a pair of Seas L12RCY locally for a good price. Not many people in this forum (or others for that matter) running these but they look pretty good on paper..and the price was right

Total cost of Mids: $75 Canadian

I drove around for a few weeks listening to the factory "premium" infinity system rattling in the doors and HAD to do something. This was months prior to me even really thinking about a decent system in the truck, that's how much the rattling was pissing me off.

So I ended up using some Fatmat Rattle Trap mostly because it was local and "cheap".

Total cost of Fatmat: $160 Canadian for 100 sq. "kit" (kit means a cheap exacto knife and roller)

I ended up going a bit nuts and using the whole 100sq feet only in the front doors.

We've all seen deadening a million times so I'll be very brief.

Inside and outside done. I'll probably add another layer of deadening once I get my hands on some better product...but that's a bit later on down the line, like summer time. I'll also add some ensolite at that time.

 

[C-Bass]

Now that I had my tweeters and mids picked out, it was time to settle on a midbass. After all the reading and opinions, it was basically between a Dayton RS-225 or a Peerless 830667. Both get good reviews and both are very similarly priced. I was learning more towards the Dayton...for no real good reason, then I heard some Peerless 6.5s and after consulting with Clineselect (he must have tried 20 different kinds of midbass in the doors of the Ram) the choice was made: The Peerless 830667.

After searching around and not being able to find any "deals" on the Peerless I was steered in the Solen.ca direction by a member of Canadian forum. This saves me having to deal with the ever helpful and friendly customs people as well as exchange rates.

Super fast shipping and great packing job. Highly recommended

Total cost of Peerless 830667s: $150 Canadian

The most recent thing I've been working on over the last couple of days was to get those peerless in the doors. I was hoping I'd be able to finish up today...but the weather turned on me and went from +9 celcius to -13 over the course of the day.

After eyeballing the door for a while I had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done.

This is the stock 6x9 cut out.

I'm a very hands on guy, so I looked around the house for a bit and luckily found a take out food lid that is the exact size I need as a template for the peerless.

This gives you a good idea of what needs to clear and I can see what could possible interfere with the magnet.

Here you can see the gear comes out a bit when the window is rolled down. Clineselect pointed me in the right direction...which is towards the front and up when it comes to cutting out the doors. This way everything clears and there is minimal door panel modification involved also.

We've come to the moment of truth. Most of my friends look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them I'm cutting my doors. I get the "you took a perfectly good vehicle, ripped it apart and cut a bunch of stuff out" a lot.

so using my trusty Chinese dremel knock off and a fiberglass cutting disc we get this:

Now try to do the same on the other side

 

[C-Bass]

Next I cut some baffles out of 3/4" mdf and painted them black to seal out moisture. I had the paint already and I think resin is too expensive for this purpose. Besides, I plan on replacing the mdf baffles soon when I add the deadener/ensolite.

I originally planned on using non hardening clay in between the baffle and door. I swiped some from the kid's craft stash, but I wasn't too happy about the multiple colors, so I started to work it all together and then realized it's probably easier to buy some of a single color.

I searched the local stores and the only place selling single color blocks of clay was expensive enough for me not to care about the multiple colors the kid had going on.

Then a couple of days ago I stumbled across this product in the electrical section of Home Depot.

Looking at the product label it looks to fit the bill and at $1.29 a LB it's definitely priced right. I picked some up to see what it's all about.

As far as I'm concerned this is pretty much the same if not better than the clay, or at least what my kid had in his stash (which the product has NON HARDENING MODELING CLAY specifically written on the label). It's also a lot cleaner to work with than the other stuff I had. Hands were not greasy at all and it didn't come off in my finger nails.

Has anyone ever used this Duct Seal for car audio purposes?

I put the heat gun on it for a few minutes to see if it would melt and it held up just fine, so that doesn't seem like it would be a factor.

Back of the stock panel

I covered one of the holes for the door panel mount with the baffle so I had at least one thing that I needed to cut off.

Once I cut that off I was able to almost get the door panel on. Another quick check and it was easy to tell where a few other things needed to be modified.

shaved a few things here, cut a couple there....

Not the best shot, but everything clears

 

[C-Bass]

Like I mentioned earlier the weather turned on me today so this is as far as I got, but as soon as it warms up a little bit I'll throw the baffle on the passenger door, wire things up and mount the speakers.

Usually I try to keep things stock as much as possible as far as factory wiring and mounting locations are concerned so other than the cutting to clear the speakers only 2 additional holes were drilled.

Clockwise from the top, the first 2 baffle mounting holes are the original locations for the door wiring harness. The last 2 are the stock 6x9 mounting locations.

The door harness runs right along the edge of the baffle and the only thing I did was drill 2 holes and move the stock retaining clips. Any bare metal was painted with primer to prevent rust.

 

[chevbowtie22]

Looks good so far. I'm planning on throwing the same set of Peerless's in my '08 Denali here in the spring. I'll definetly be keeping this thread in mind.

 

[C-Bass]

Some minor updates while I wait for "warmer" weather

Got the passenger side mounted

I'm not a huge fan of the regular spade connectors so for the tweeters and mids I'll be using Dean's plugs.

For anyone not familiar with Dean's plugs they are most commonly used for Remote Control purposes and can handle quite a bit of voltage/amperage.

The finished product

 

[capnxtreme]

Very sweet! Nice log, I hope you keep it goin like this.

The primary purpose of the non-hardening modeling clay is to add mass, so the question is, is the other stuff as heavy?

 

[C-Bass]

To me it feels pretty much the same as the clay.

The stuff the kid had was in smaller pieces so I would have to make some sort of measuring device to be 100% sure.

I used a pound in each door securing the mounting baffle and it sounds real solid.

 

[txredxj]

looks good

 

[C-Bass]

minor updates...

I had high hopes starting off the day...but it quickly turned out to be "one of those days".

I started off trying to do the "quick" task, which was to finish up my 2 month old alarm install. I can't seem to get the damn thing to get my truck going via remote start and the door pins keep triggering the alarm even after I isolated them individually with diodes.

Since it's not audio related...let's just say I'm just about going to break down and have someone else finish the last 20%.

I moved on to mounting the 8" in the door. Seems simple enough right? Suuuuure it is! I screwed the speakers to the baffles, patted myself on the back and ran a quick errand.

20 minutes later I'm pulling up to the drive thru speaker and I roll the window down.

You can see where this is going right?

The window hit the magnet on the way down. It didn't stop dead, but it definitely hit. Once I got home further investigation revealed the magnet didn't clear the window...but we were very close.

It took me over 2 hours of fiddling with the mounting baffles before the window cleared. I was going for a clear the window and don't stick out far combo...so maybe I was being overly picky, but at this point I was thinking later the door panel won't fit.

Anyway.....finally mounted

Next I moved on to making some plexi covers for the large open area of the doors. That went decent, but it was too cold for the DAP to set anywhere near as fast as it should. I guess I'm lucky it set at all.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be warmer, but might rain. We'll see what happens.

I'm hoping I can finish the plexi covers, throw some fatmat on them and put the door panels back on. Been long enough. With my luck things won't fit by a fraction again and I'll spend whatever free time I have fighting with my door panel :worried:

 

[designer485]

Looking good so far, keep up the good work!

 

[ClinesSelect]

Looking great! The SLS were only 4mm deeper than the XLS but that was enough for them to scrape where the window glass attaches to the frame. I ended up using a 1" mounting baffle as a couple of the other drivers I tried were a little deeper. 95mm seems to be the limit when using a 0.75" baffle.

 

[C-Bass]

Looking great! The SLS were only 4mm deeper than the XLS but that was enough for them to scrape where the window glass attaches to the frame. I ended up using a 1" mounting baffle as a couple of the other drivers I tried were a little deeper. 95mm seems to be the limit when using a 0.75" baffle.

Thanks, but I still have a LONG way to go

I KNEW there was something to it! but after taking the speaker in and out a few times I started to think with the size of these 8s I'm sure it's cutting it close anyway.

While I was at it, I was thinking 1" would have been the way to go, but I wasn't sure if it would fit with the door panel, or rather how involved the "fitting" process would be.

BTW, I happened to hit the car wash today prior to my drive through revelation, and after removing the speakers out of the doors I had a few water drops on them...right about the magnet part. I noticed the same thing withe the factory 6x9s when I was taking them out.

You ever notice something like that?

 

[ClinesSelect]

The 1" fit just fine in my truck. My baffles are a little larger than yours but, with the door panel on and the window/lock/mirror switch still off, I put some Ensolite between the baffle and the door, basically decoupling the door from the mounting baffle. It takes a few layers but you can reach in through the opening to get access. That helped with rattles.

The door panels also seemed to vibrate (make noise) where the different pieces are plastic spot welded together. I wiped down the plastic with alcohol and put Damplifier strips on the inside where the pieces meet each other. They are rattle free now.

I've not had any water intrusion into the door to the point where it got on the drivers.

 

[C-Bass]

Have a few more updates but it seems that I misplaced some of the pictures I took a few weeks ago.

It's nothing revolutionary so....

I had to enlarge the factory dash tweeter mounting location so these Seas would fit in there. Once that was done I made a baffle out of some thin mdf, painted it and mounted the Seas to that.

This is the end result.

Dean's for the tweeter and mid

Same deal on the passenger side

I mounted the mids one day, and the next day I had some more time to see where I might position the tweets. Seeing as those Canton's are HUGE and mounting them (to my satisfaction) would require some more modification than I'm willing to undertake at this time looks like they're on hold for now.

Instead, I'll be testing out a set of Exile X1T pro. I came across these buying some random speakers from some guy I found on craig's list. Most of the stuff didn't work, but I managed to get a couple things going and recoup my money and this is one of the things I'm left with.

I've searched a bit to see if there are any reviews/opinions on these tweeters without much success, but they look like they're well put together, unlike the other exile speakers I ran across.

I'd REALLY like to stay away from mounting tweets in the a-pillar mostly because I don't care for how it looks and I was always told not to mount them in there by various "in the know" people.

I'd like to try to get the tweets mounted just like the mid firing at the window but I see tons of installs with tweets in the pillars and not too many with people mounting them on the same surface as the mids. Any reason for that other than lack of space?

Would I complicate things with my tweeter location? From my understanding and what I've been taught, this would definitely be the preferred way to mount them as opposed to the pillars. Any comments on that?

 

[chithead]

Wow... I am watching this one.

 

[Sr SQ]

Fabulous tutorial C-bass, keep it comming!

 

[TXwrxWagon]

if you don't use the Canton's.,.... I am interested in buying them from you.... PM me...

nice build so far...

Rob

 

[C-Bass]

Thanks Sr SQ

TXwrxWagon I don't think I'll be selling them...at least for now. I have an idea in my head that would allow the seas/cantons to co-exist on the same mounting surface, but it's a bit more involved than I'm willing to get right now. That will soon change seeing as everything is thawing around me

 

[C-Bass]

found some of the pictures I was talking about.

Here is the stock cutout for the dash speaker.

The larger template is the size I need for the mid to fit, the smaller is the canton. This is why I'm not going to use the canton tweets yet, too big for trying to keep the dash stock.

You can see in the picture how the mid template overlaps the stock mounting holes a bit. In this shot it was pushed to towards the right of the factory cutout. I was trying to get it so that I would only have to cut one side, but couldn't make it happen.

It doesn't look like much but it's a few mm all around and after all was said and done I was surprise at how much material I had to remove to get the magnet in there.

after all was said and done I had to sacrifice the left screw hole.

Here's the template for the mounting baffles.

I made a baffle a few weeks ago but actually installed it the other day. I used 3/4" MDF because I had it already and you can make out the dimensions I used written on the mdf. It fits right in between the plastic trim on both sides.

While I was in the baffle making process I drove around with everything removed for a couple days and let me tell you it is LOUD. Turn on the heater and it gets MUCH LOUDER. I'm very interested in seeing how it will be after I deaden everything properly. I'll probably seal one of the vent also.

After some carpet.