altoncustomtech

Thanx!! Dear God I hope so. I hope the routing wasn't too deep on mine too. AND Thanx! Thanx, I sure appreciate it. I'm trying to take my time and have it turn out the way I see it in my mind. Only time will tell. Thanx, the paint turned out okay. Everyone will see the problems it still has once it's in the sunlight, and yeah, he's only 9 and already posing questions about his first car and stereo. LOL, thanx man. I didn't have enough clamps so I figured some weight on top could do the same. It was either the rotors or a stripped down 350 block, lol.

Thanks for the kind words. I feel as though none of it is turning out like I had planned.

Thanks, I hope it holds up to the abuse. I'm hoping it doesn't give me problems like it did for Chuck.

Thanks, but I never did anything with the paint. Once my paint guru told me that the problem wasn't that it was soaking in, that it was actually "blushing" from the heat and humidity. So since there was nothing I could do with it I just said to hell with it and put the clear coat on.

Alright, I'm going full blow post with this. I'm tired of wasting paint. I've been painting this damn thing with color now for around two weeks. Giving plenty of time to dry between coats, wet sand, etc. and it still looks like shit. There's 6 coats of automotive primer on it before I started painting as well yet it still continues to soak in, like so. This is after around 3 coats of paint. BTW the color is deep jewel green with the metal flake in it. Same color that's on my '70 chevy. And this is after around 8 coats of paint. The picture was taken this morning moments before coat #9. So what can I do with this? I was wondering if a coat of clear over the paint that's on there now would seal it good enough to put more coats of paint on top of that clear. I have no idea how viable a solution that is. I REALLY REALLY don't want to sand it down and do it all over again, I have quite a lot of money wrapped up in it already. Thanks for the whatever help I can get guys.

It feels great to finally be getting things done. So far this weekend #2, #4, #5 and #7 are complete. The box has seen all the paint and clear it's going to get. Speaker wire moving has been done. The Knukonceptz RCA's are in and they are REALLY nice. Triple shielding FTW! The amp rack is cut, built with the beauty panels, holes and channels for the wire is done.

anthony, I can tell you from experience that Hifonics amps ARE dirty power. bigjon is right, if you do use this amp on that sub you will have to set the gain carefully AND be responsible with the volume knob. Another problem is they're not very efficient amps either. As is mentioned many times before NO speaker out there is indestructible. Fi designs all the subs to take their share of abuse, but they have limits and if you exceed those limits they WILL fail as would anything else that was used outside it's specifications. Another good car analogy example is with a friend's recent destruction of a transmission. Not just any transmission this was a race ready 350 turbo with heavy duty plates, gearing, etc. Rated good for 1200HP by the company that built it. He blew the original transmission in a demolition derby car he was running and the car was still in plenty good enough shape to make a run in another derby. So he grabbed that race ready 350 turbo and threw it in there for this one last run with the car. Ended up splitting the side of the case open and spewing it's guts. Do you think the 350 small block in the car was making anywhere near 1200hp? No way, it was just being used outside it's limits. The constant forward and reverse of the derby was just way out the ability of the transmission to handle. Similarly with the BTL or any speaker for that matter. If you get anywhere near the power rating of the sub with a dirty and clipped signal you'll be on here asking why the sub blew, it's that simple. I would recommend looking into getting a better quality amplifier. Yes, I know it will cost more but you'll be better off. If you do get the Hifonics or similarly priced/quality amp you should REALLY REALLY be mindful of how everything is playing.

Yep, used primer before painting. Six coats of primer to be precise, with sanding, before, during and after each coat. Before the paint the primer had a better finish than the paint does right now. I talked to my body and paint guru today and he said it could very well be the high humidity causing me the problems. So now I'm not sure what to do. I don't know anyone with a climate controlled paint booth to use for a bit so I'm stuck now. If I did lay down a coat of clear to attempt to seal the box better I would sand and rough it like any slick surface before painting over it. I know that it doesn't stick to slick glossy surfaces. I'm looking up more information on how humidity affects the paint. If it indeed looks to be the root of my problem I'll most likely HAVE to sand the color off and start it over again.

I think I should include that an enamel based primer was brushed on the MDF first. Then six coats of automotive primer followed by automotive color has been put on. No rattle cans involved and the brand is Nason I believe.

Making more progress. Got the board for the amp rack cut and the amp placement figured out. Onward to beauty panels, running the new KNU RCA's, mounting and wiring. Quick question, anyone here have good experience with pain on MDF. I've put approx. 8 coats of paint on the box and it's STILL soaking in, heavy coats at that. Think it would be okay to put a coat of clear on then paint over that?

Sound deadener adds mass to the thin metal panels that make up the vehicle. I've seen people use peal 'n seal from hardware stores. Even with that cheap substitute you CAN hear a difference. Now before you go out and buy a bunch of peal n seal I gotta tell you two things. First of all, while it did make a difference in sound it is not as dramatic as real sound deadeners. Second, all it took was one year of getting hot in the summer and cold in the winter and more than half of it had came off. As soon as it comes loose it is no longer doing its job and it wont stick back on again either. I've used RaamMat in my vehicles and have had great results. I'd love to try Second Skin but it's still a bit out of my price range usually. It's my personal opinion that the CCF and vinyl are needed more in today's cars than older ones. Today's car's are built with thin, flimsy sheet metal and more and more plastic. You should visit the SoundDeadenerShowdown.com website and read carefully through it and Second Skin's site as well. Don and Ant go into some great detail on what the deadener, CCF and vinyl does. The how it works and why we use it is important to know before you purchase anything.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum! I have SA8's myself. Three on a SAZ-1500. I've still got to build the enclosure yet, but I'm looking forward to getting some good reactions with them.

As with everything else in this hobby, you gotta watch just how cheap you buy something. Things are cheap for a reason, and usually it's not a helpful reason. At any rate, I'd recommend Deka Intimidator batteries. They're not as expensive as a lot of other batteries out there but they have pretty much proven themselves as performers. A 9A31 or group 31 battery is the best way to go if you can find the room to fit it. There's some rebadged Deka's out there being sold with another name on them at a little cheaper price but I can't ever remember who it is that has them. Hopefully someone else can help out with that.

I have bought a bunch of stuff from them. Nothing but good experiences in dealing with them. Same here, if the item(s) is in stock usually the shipping is scary fast. All but three times I've ordered from them the item(s) shipped same day, and on those 3 times they didn't ship same day cuz the order was placed after 8pm.

Welcome to the forum!

It's looking good, some sound deadener will finish off the deck nicely with that new cover. Good luck chasing down the squeaks and rattles.

Got the port & inside of enclosure painting completed yesterday. Now to tape off all the openings and paint the outside of the box. Can't wait to see it finished and in the sunlight, . The list to completion: 1. Take van to have front end aligned. 2. Build amp rack, with some way to access the 2nd battery. 3. Carpet amp rack 4. Install new Knu RCA's, upgrade the current cheap 4AWG for the 4 channel to Knu 4awg. 5. Reroute speaker wires to new amp location. 6. Install amp rack & amplifier's. 7. Finish painting enclosure 8. Apply Fi logo to plexi window on enclosure. 9. Install and wire subs into enclosure 10. Install everything, test and tune.

lol, well, I didn't mean to shove it all the way, or while there's a lot of power on it. Usually with a bad tinsel lead it doesn't take much to get it to do it's thing, just loud enough to hear it and just pushing enough to move the cone and see if it cuts out or not. The coil won't rub the gap unless you push down on just one side of the cone or something like that to cause it to twist. If you want to be sure the coil(s) aren't blown the best way to check is to use a DMM, which would also work to test the tinsel. Use the DMM to check the resistance of the coil. The DC resistance will be just a little lower than the rated impedence (example: 4ohm sub will show 3.x ohms DC resistance). On the tinsel check if the resistance changes then there's a good possibility a tinsel lead is damaged and most likely you won't be able to see that problem either. There's not alot of things to see on a sub that could possibly be blown without any major signs, but one tell tale sign could be the color of the coil IF you can see it through the vents in the frame. Usually the coils will be a darker copper color, almost red looking when they're good. Hopefully you have access to a DMM, it will tell you more definitively than about any other check.

LOL.... no... she got run off the road by some asshole in a white blazer. He was parked in the middle of the road on the backside of a hill, when she came over it she put the van in the field to keep from hitting the truck. When he saw her hit the field he took off like a flash leaving some nice black marks in the process. Anyway, it didn't hurt the van all that bad but it screwed the shocks and struts to hell and bent the drivers side tie rod. Didn't catch the guy and the insurance wouldn't pay for any of the repairs so I got stuck with the bill which is why it's taken so long to do anything with it.

You mean pushing in on the cone right? And yes, very much so, but not necessarily blown. I've seen many times where a tinsel lead goes bad and it causes problems such as that. I think bobobass has the right idea tho, tighten the terminals first then see what ya got. If it still does it push in on the cone while its playing and see if it stops and starts again. If it does then the chances are it's a bad tinsel lead.

Okay guys, I FINALLY got the mechanical problems with the van repaired, $800 later that is. I'd love to take that $$ out the the guys ass who caused it. Anyway, the enclosure for the Q's finally has some color on it, it should be finished before the weekend. The only problem I'm having is figuring out how to still have access to the 2nd battery behind the amp rack, but I'll have that figured out easily enough. Looks like it could finally be complete in the next couple of weeks. FINALLY!!!!!

Dude, I think I got the jist of what you were asking, but seriously to post like that then come back like a smart ass is a little immature. Now, If I were you I'd forget about the 10's. You really don't want to mix sizes like that and if the 10's aren't loud enough now, they'll never keep up with the type of 15 you're looking for. Not to mention that you wouldn't want to put any kind of speakers that play the midrange and up frequencies under the seats, I can only assume that's what you meant by "voice" speakers, that would be pointless. Now, for that idea of replacing the 60/40 bench with buckets and building a center console style enclosure for a big, high powered 15 that's not a bad idea if your box guy can really pull it off. In any case most of the subs you had listed would be great for the application, some more than others and since you deleted the list I can't go through them individually with you, however the BTL would definitely feed your SPL appetite given it could be properly installed and powered. With the power, well, any good reliable amp that delivers at least a good solid and clean 2k watts is ideal for optimum performance from that BTL. As everyone else has mentioned, put a little more time, thought and punctuation into the question and we'll gladly answer to the best of our abilities.