SQ_MGB's 2002 Chevy Reg cab build

[sq_mgb 21]

Drivers are all from a company called "Blues." You can do a search for blues car audio, but all that comes up is a teaser page right now. The company is an older company that has it's roots with the original Stillwater Designs (Kicker) company. Their building was directly across the street from the R&D center for Kicker in Stillwater, OK. My friend in Jackson, MS owns the company and he's bringing the drivers back to market soon. My drivers are all the original drivers EXCEPT for the tweeters. Those are the new ones that are being tested right now. If you are local to Springfield, Missouri or Jackson,Mississippi, I can make a few phone calls and arrange a listen for you.

The triso only works with the original Blues drivers (for now), specifically two series-wired 4ohm 8's and one 8ohm 10, all wired in parallel to a final 4ohm load at the amp. This setup WILL NOT WORK with any other driver as far as I know. Others have tried it with 10's and 12's, 12's and 15's and they all had the same result....lots of magic smoke! After I finish the truck, I'll be tearing the MGB apart and changing all the drivers in it to the new Blues drivers. I'll do a build log for it and build a downfired triso for it with a window so people can see how it works. It'll be the first time I've ever put a window on a box, but it doesn't seem to be too difficult, so I should be able to make it work. If you want anymore info on the speakers, PM me and I'll see what I can do for you.

If anyone knows how to make a first gen iPhone take video, please let me know so I can do a vid and post it up for you guys.

Glad you enjoyed the pics....I'll try to get more this weekend.

[sq_mgb 21]

Got a little bit of time last night to work on this.....Right now I'm trying to decide just how far I want to extend the sides of the console in front of the sub. I have three options. The first is the angle the front is cut at now. Second option is the first blue line going back towards the woofer. Third option is the last blue line going towards the woofer. I figure I'll see what you guys think before I permanently attatch the sides. I'm leaning towards the first or second option because it gives the most clearance between the woofer and grill. Third option opens up the area between the dash and box more however. What do you guys think????

Now.....on to the pics.....

Disregard the gaps you see in this pic.....the wood is just standing on the table, no clamps or anything yet.

[sq_mgb 21]

Got a little more work done.....

While I was waiting for glue to dry I thought I would keep myself busy......

Now why would I want two discs with a hole in the middle????

I still have to get the angle right for the tweeters, but that's just a little sanding. I also have to repair the driver's side a-pillar where it meets the dash. It was broken when I got them, but the price was right....only paid $5 for the extra pillars. A little epoxy, a little fiberglass.....be good as new. Still deciding on if I want to cover them in vinyl or suede like what's on the seats. Most likely vinyl. I'm also making an insert to go where the beveled edges are on top of the box that will be covered in the same material that my seats are made of. No pics of that....yet. I'll get back to work on it this weekend and see if I can get the box finished and covered. Next will be the amp rack build. I'm thinking of taking a page out of Hillbilly_SQ's book and making something similar to his only extending mine up to the bottom of the back window. Maybe adding a plexi window to see the amps. Who knows, I'll just have to see what time and money allow.

More pics to come!!!

[jcarter1885 995]

Keep up the good work and the pictures coming.

[chrisommer 4]

Nice work!

[sq_mgb 21]

Thanks for the encouragement.....I just wish I had more time to work on it. I'm not in a huge rush to just throw something in, I want this one to be "right." It won't be the loudest truck out there, but it should sound world's better than most around here. I'll see if I can find the pics of when I put the original sound damping material in the truck and post them as well. If not, I'll take pics of what I can get to without taking the truck back apart.

I saw a build on fullsizechevy.com that gave me some ideas, and I'm going to try some of them in this build if I can figure out how they work. Involves the use of expanding foam to make a shape and then fiberglass over it. Hopefully I can make it work out. I'll be sure to take pics of what does (and more importantly what DOESN'T) work so you guys can learn from my mistakes.

Guess I better get back to work!!!

[sq_mgb 21]

Got a little more work done.....had to work outside since the garage is full. It started out COLD!!!

Had a little fun.....

Started with this.....

Got the guts up to cut this.....

Then I got out the shoehorn.....

Right now all that's holding everything in place is plumber's strap....I have a guy that's working on making a kit to do the DD conversion (theDetailSS.com) for the 99-02 trucks and when they are available, one is coming to me so I can be one of his guinea pigs. Hopefully that will be soon! Sorry for so few pics, but it was cold and I wanted to get as much done as possible while I was outside. I have to get some ABS plastic sheet to trim out the dash bezel, and LOTS of sanding to make the part I cut match the rest of the dash bezel, but that shouldn't be too hard. I still have to make the amp rack, then I want to get everything playing before I do the finish work to make it look nice. Lots still to do, but it's starting to come together....'till next time.....

More pics to follow soon!

[sq_mgb 21]

Well, things are slowly starting to take form. I got some plastic repair stuff that comes in a tube and when it sets up it gets pretty strong. Here's a pic of the stuff I used.

Then I put wax paper on a piece of mdf and taped that to the back of my dash bezel and put some fiberglass down for strength...

Then I laid down a bead of "liquid plastic." I love this stuff!

Then I started the a-pillar tweeter mount. I still have to do the other side.

A couple more angles....to spread the liquid plastic I just wrapped wax paper around my finger and spread it how I thought it should look.

While I was at it, I primed the other parts of the bezel that I want to paint satin black.

I actually painted them in the garage, but since it's so cold out there, I bring them into the house to dry. I still have some sanding to do on the bezel where I primed it. Seems the adhesion promoter didn't like the plastic and bubbled up as soon as it touched it. So I let it dry and sanded it back as smooth as I could get it and hit it with more primer. I'll just build it up with that until it's back as smooth as it should be. That's all for now, I should get more done this weekend!

[viper167 1]

amazing build ! everything is looking awsome!

[sq_mgb 21]

Finally got around to taking pics of the sound deadener.....I got it cheap, and got it before everyone and their brother started making the stuff. I still want to do some other things to quiet down the interior, but right now that will have to wait. Anyway....on with the pics!

Speaker wire, ground wire grommet, and ground for relay.

Power wire grommet....

Grounded on frame....I need to take this off and scrape off the rust and repaint it. It's been there awhile so I want to "refresh" it.

Then I cut out a back wall to mount the amps.....

Then it got too cold to work outside so I went inside and worked on the dash bezel some. I still have some fitting to do, but it's better. This is the backside of the dash bezel where I filled in the gaps on the sides of the radio.

Front side before paint....

Then I worked on the a-pillars some more.....

I still have some sanding to do to make it smooth on the edges, but yesterday was the superbowl and I just wasn't too motivated to work on it. At least I"m at the stage now where I can work on some of the stuff inside where it's warm! I still have to make the grill for the sub and once that's done, I can finish the box and make it look good. Right now the plan is to put the grill on the front of the box and run a roundover bit around the top of the box and the front of the grill to make it blend with the sides. Then I'll prime the entire thing to find any imperfections, fix those, and texture and color coat it to match the rest of the truck.

Stay tuned!

[jcarter1885 995]

[altoncustomtech 773]

That's too cool. I've not seen an IB setup like that in a LONG time.

[TRP 42]

Looks like a nice build!!! My pops lives in Missouri, he is over in Gainesville. GL with the rest of the build.

[sq_mgb 21]

Got a little time last night to work on the truck so I though I would post the results.....went from this.....

To this....

These will be wrapped in graphite vinyl to match the color of the truck. I had thought about texture coat, but since one of them got cracked at the mounting tab, I'm not sure if I can make it look "factory" enough to match the truck. Waaaay easier to hide the imperfection under the vinyl as long as it's smooth.

Now for the people who wanted to see what was under the cover, here is the next project in the works.....

Plans are for 8's in the front kick panel area, tweets wherever they sound best, and a triso box on the rear shelf behind the seats downfired. The triso box will be removable for classic car shows where they don't care about audio, only originality. (GAAAAASP!) The trunk (boot for you British guys) will have a pair of LP DPS350's one on the front stage, one for the triso. Crossover will be handled by the Eclipse 5441 in one of the pics earlier where I shoe-horned all that stuff in the dash to see if it would fit. Hope you guys enjoy the pics....I'll have more soon!

[Randal Johnson 544]

wut up dude ... you gonna beat me with that truck ?? ... lol just kidding ... nice work there sir ...

[Kanaworm$ 292]

For the people who remember the Blues speakers....they are in the process of being brought back to market if anyone is interested.

Seriously?

I own a pair of the 6.5" and 1" dome tweets sitting in the closet.

Btw, great craftsmanship! I love the Triso box, the orginal was a great sounding enclosure.

[Randal Johnson 544]

yea ... I like seeing old school stuff back on the road ... powerful, clean sound ...

[sq_mgb 21]

Hey Cablguy!

I'm sure gonna try! Although you will have the advantage of cone area on subs, I have a smaller cabin so maybe it'll equal out on SPL. NOT!!!! You're gonna kill me on SPL with the dual ISOKITS in the back wall, everything else should sound similar. Heck the only difference is our cd players! You're using a 2.2HV on the front stage right? And a 5002 or 502HV on subs? I conceed the SPL part, you'll hammer me. But I'll just have to make sure my staging depth and height is at least as good as you if I want to hang. We both know you have a small "advantage" over me in where you live, but I can always come down to visit "the source!" Ha Ha! You'll have to post some pics of your truck on here so others can share in the old school goodness!

OldSkool_08....

The prototypes for the new drivers are being tested now and from what I've listened to, they are better than the originals. I have been told they will have a butyl rubber surround instead of the treated foam like the old ones, for the larger woofers anyway. Not sure if the rubber surround starts at 8" or 6.5" however. The new tweeters are much smaller than the originals, I think my old ones are almost the size of a 3 1/2" midrange! The new ones are a little larger than 1" and are the smoothest tweeter I've heard to date in my opinion. I know there are other great sounding speakers out there and I'm not knocking anyone else's speaker, I just happen to like the sound of these better than any others I've listened to. If you want to know anything else about them just PM me and I'll try to answer the best I can or at least point you to someone who knows for sure.

When I redo my MGB I'll be making another triso for it with a plexi window so people can see inside at what's going on inside. I'm still in the planning stage for that one, but as my skills get better I want to try and make one that looks like the craftsmanship of some of the guys on this board.

And to everyone else....Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement!!!

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

Sweet car. THATS a midget right? Edited February 10, 2010 by j-roadtatts

[Randal Johnson 544]

wut up dude ??? I heard that Johnny got his ISO-kit for his truck the other day. You talk to him? You get your subs playing yet?

[6APPEAL 7]

Yea, I picked up my ISO-10 kit when I stopped by the shop last week. Waiting on the 6 1/2's. At least some progress is being made. After reviewing the rules for SQ, I think I fit in modified, not super modified. Cable, You must remember that my truck had a Bose sub in the console and the console can be modified by the 2010 rules. Which also allows me to be in Q.

[Randal Johnson 544]

you never told me that there was a sub in the center console. thats cool. but nothing larger than a 8" in front of the B pillars dude. you start on your box?

[6APPEAL 7]

Refer to the SQ rules, no mention of woofer size forward of the B pillar. That rule is in Streetbeat.

[sq_mgb 21]

Well....got to work on it again.....back has been messed up and since I work on it by myself, lugging this thing around takes it's toll sometimes. Anyway....on to the pics!

Made a grill.....here's the front......

and the back.....

Closeup of the grill guides....

Texture coated and color coat applied....

Test fitted the woofer.....pretty tight fit.....

Fitted the insert.....I know there's a spot I have to fix.....didn't see it until after I got it textured and colored.

Wrapped in factory match cloth....

And put it in the truck....

Hopefully I can get the weather to co-operate this weekend and I can get the wiring up to snuff.....it's just thrown in there now, I need to make it neater. Still waiting to hear on my DD conversion kit, I may end up having to make my own. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to do the back wall, I have three or four different ideas going through my head, so once I decide I'll get to work on that. I'm still trying to make it look as factory as possible, but I would like to have a little "show" to it as well. I have more of the factory match cloth like on the doors and I'm trying to come up with a way to incorporate that into the install.

J-Roadtatts....it's not a midget, it's a "B" LE. It's just a LITTLE bigger than a midget, but not much bigger than a power wheels! It has a whopping 65 horsepower motor and I'm not sure it would get to 80mph if it fell out of a plane, but it's FUN to drive on a warm spring day. When I get the system in it, it will be even more fun!

6APPEAL....How are you going to put an ISOKIT in your console? Are you going to lose the flip up part?

[6APPEAL 7]

At least you have somewhere to work on it! Too bad you don't live here any more since help was kinda "built in". I'm still waiting on Mike to get the woodshop back up and going. Too many Buicks and all their stuff at my house. Looks good so far.

Yep, the flip up factory console top is going away. Mine is going to look pretty much like yours, just a little different. Not as deep behind the seats as yours since I have a rear seat that flips forward to contend with in my Crew Cab. My port will also extend all the way to the dash since I need a longer port than you because my box is smaller. I'm considering using 1/2" MDF for the port top and bottom. That way I can "bend" the port instead of cutting it at an angle to follow the floor

How tall is the box? Not sure if mine is that tall, but it might be. How are you attaching it to the floor? I didn't see the console bracket in the pics.