1st gen custom radio "build"

[bp71k5]

And this is what will power those subs. A 600w class D amp. The amp bolts onto a bracket which is then bolted down to the seat. It's also quite time consuming to unbolt for security reasons and without the fat wires coming off of it, you can't even tell it's an amp.

I should be able to test fire it by this weekend. Special thanks to Greg72's NCBD photo gallery for the inspiration.

 

[Yukon Jack]

That ought to make some good noise. My kids would appreciate it if I put radios in my trucks!

 

[bp71k5]

I made do with a boombox for a while. You just gotta hide it when you're parked.

 

[jimbug]

hey looks great! sure beats the craftsman radio I am rockin'

 

[Greg72]

Brian,

Have you sat in the passenger seat yet to test it? When I did underseat mounts for my amps the first time, I realized that they were too close to the springs/foam and made the seat a lot stiffer. After a bit of tweaking with spacers I was able to get the seats back to normal and still hide the amps.

 

[bp71k5]

I did think of that problem when I saw your pictures. The aluminum bracket I bolted to the seat spaces the amp down so the seat springs can compress without hitting the amp using my weight as a guide. I haven't tested it off road or with an extra heavy passenger yet though.

 

[ChefBear]

Crushed

I for one will be crushed if this doesn't end in a youtube video of some funky a$$ bass shaking that rag, top.

Pearl Jam - W.M.A.
Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
Bob Marley - Could you be loved
Earth Wind and Fire - Shining Star
Primus - the race care one
Mr. Bungle - Squeeze me Macaroni


Damn Nice by the way.

 

[NorCalKid]

If you are going to go with chili peppers go with suck my kiss hell of a bass line in that song. Flea is a ****ing badass!

 

[bp71k5]

I personally favor something from "Disturbed" myself. The base line on "Down with the sickness" is pretty sweet. Unfortunately with only the subs hooked up, all you can hear is the bass. No mids of highs at all so it kinda sucks.

 

[bp71k5]

amplifier wiring

I finally got a chance to wire up the second amplifier. It's a 50wx4 Alpine amp which drives the two 6x9 door speakers pretty well. It's mounted under the drivers seat in the same way as the passenger seat. The wiring passes through the rubber floor mat between the two and runs up next to the tranny cover into the dash.

I cut the portion of the mat over the tranny tunnel away to make running all the wire easier. The mat didn't fit that great in that area anyway and this allows me to have the cover line-x'd instead. The mat will just be sandwiched between the tunnel and the floor.

 

[bp71k5]

Door speaker prep

I also prepped the lower half of the doors by wire brushing all the surface rust off and using some rust convertor goop to seal it off. I then used some spray undercoating all around the lower half to make sure any moisture that gets in there in the future won't do any damage.

I'm not sure why, but I had a lot of heartache cutting the doors for 6x9 speakers. When I was a kid, 6x9's were for douche-bags who couldn't get "real" round speakers. These are 5-way speakers that sound really nice even from the stock headunit amplifier. There's no logical reason to dislike them.

I'm going to run them for a while and change them to dual 6" round speakers if I can't get over my prejudice.

It's not fully hooked up just yet, but from my testing it really performs well. Very crisp and clean loud sound.