A Suburban A Warhorse and a Pair of SMDeez

[onebadmonte 235]

one step closer

nice living room btw !!!

One step. Thanks. The wife thinks it's so much nicer now with the woofers outta there.

no gasket + huge screws + huge box + huge subs =

I'm digging the look. The box isn't all that big though.

Yeah i like the no gasket look myself

I was on the fence about going gasket-less for a while now. I just was sure if it was gonna look good or not. I'm glad I did it. Makes the subs look lean and cut.

something tells me these pics are a step or two behind knowing hugo............ so with that said.. .how does it sound?

i see some new additions to the H/T due tell

You're right Jon. My organization skillz are a mess. As I work I take a ton of pictures. At the end of a couple days of progress I go through the pics, delete the bad ones and sort the pics out into stages of work. From there I write a little something up and post what I have. Mind you all this when I actually get something done. There have been times where I haven't been able to work on the project for one reason or the other, but I've still been able to post a stage or two of progress.

As for the sound I'm just not there yet. Very very close, but not there yet.

As for the new toys, good eye Jon. The horns I had told you about for my big ass compression drivers finally came it. For those of you wondering these are Autotech 350-Tratrix horns. Hand laid fiberglass horns made in Poland with a cutoff frequency of, you guessed it, 350Hz. The compression drivers are Electro Voice DH-1A. With the horns in, and once the suburban is done, I'll start working on the mid-bass horns. Especially, now that I've fine tuned my wood skills. For the mid-bass horns I'll be using a pair of Electro Voice EVM15L woofers, but all that is for another build. Now back to the topic at hand.

Stunning.

Thank you.

[onebadmonte 235]

???? Drawing up a little writers block. Well, I was off the grid for a couple of days. I'm back now, trying to get things rolling. I last left off with the box done with the subs in place. Before the box can go in the amp power cables will need to be replaced. The new box is a few whiskers bigger than the old box hence why the power cables need replacing. How about some pics? I started off by laying out, highlighted in white, the size and location of the new cutout.

Here the floor insulation has been cut to size to show how much of the floor needs to be cut.

A little jig saw action to cut the sheet metal.

Another fine opportunity. The floor sheetmetal is spot welded to a vertical panel on the underside of the Suburban.

At this point the vertical panel is gonna need to come out as well. This is so the cables have enough clearance to loop around the bottom panel and come up and through the floor. This time around I did not have a fancy tool to cut out the vertical panel. I went old school with some tin snip a hacksaw blade and the ever impressive mini sledge and chisle.

The carnage afterwards.

With the sheet metal out of the way. I used some of my fancy cable holders to route the power cables. The cable holders will also keep the cables from rubbing on the sheet metal.

This shot is looking down through the floor at the cables.

This shot is looking from the ground up at the cables before the batteries are in place. Alot of cable snaking around going on here.

With the cable opening all figured out the batteries can go back in. Here is a little action shot of the batteries going back in.

The new cables in place waiting for the new floor cover.

and here is the cable cover in place. The silicon job is a little messy on this one.

Another shot of the finished cable job. Think, box going in place for the next update or the quickest way to get a hernia.

Someone asked what paint I used for the box. Here it is. I used two coats about an hour apart. On the port and port brace bevels I put a thin coat of wood glue to keep the wood from absorbing too much paint and swealling up.

[Sencheezy 689]

looking goo! What are some of your personal goals with this setup?

[edouble101 314]

Awesome. What fuse holders are they?

[nem 2,019]

They look like the ones parts express carries.

Awesome build!

[ricksi30 923]

HOLY SHIT!! I can't believe that I haven't noticed this thread. Amazing work man, your hard work definitely shows!

[stevemead08 752]

Lookin good buddy! When do I get to hear it?

[onebadmonte 235]

looking goo! What are some of your personal goals with this setup?

Thanks bro. At this point my only goal is to get the thing done. When I first started the project the goal was to be able to have some sweet sweet SQ. Hence the front stage and the MS8. And to be able to break the 150's on the TL/SPL Labs Meter. The SQ part was pretty easy, it's the breaking 150 that's kicking my ass. The box is tuned low, 28Hz-ish, versus what the cabin resonates at, which is around 44Hz. Then to top it off the cabin volume is around 240cuft. So I've got my work cut out for me.

Awesome. What fuse holders are they?

The fuse holders are from Scosche. Here is a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-EWFH-Single-Fuse-Holder/dp/B000KIR8M0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336487598&sr=8-2

They look like the ones parts express carries.

Awesome build!

Thanks. Getting closer and closer everyday.

[onebadmonte 235]

HOLY SHIT!! I can't believe that I haven't noticed this thread. Amazing work man, your hard work definitely shows!

Hey man, where've you been. I've been waiting for you to drop by and say hello. Glad you're liking the build. Now where's my Chico's?

Lookin good buddy! When do I get to hear it?

Thanks bro.You know me, just trying to keep up with the Joneses, or in my case the Meads, with No E. As for taking a listen, I give up on saying this weekend. I'm gonna just put it a month out. Maybe I can make it to the June Heatwave Show in Houston. Will you be there?

[orlando144 20]

Are your mids in an enclosure? Or IB? For the front stage.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Very nice attention to detail.

[onebadmonte 235]

Are your mids in an enclosure? Or IB? For the front stage.

IB for the front stage.

Very nice attention to detail.

Thanks, with out the details it's nothing.

[onebadmonte 235]

With the batteries up in place it was time to connect the cables from the alternators to the battery bank. In getting ready to make the connections I was stopped in my tracks. The fuse panel thingie that I made to go inbetween the alternators and batteries was in bad shape. Here are a couple of pics of the item and location in question.

The fuse holder panel.

Fuse holder panel in position.

Here is said part after a year.

I think what really did this part in is for Christmas I drove the Suburban to El Paso. It was a freezing drive, I-10 was salted to keep the ice to a minimum. Here are some more pics of what I had to work with.

The backside.

I used a wire cup on the drill press to knock off the lose paint and rust. I followed up with a scotch brite pad to get into the corners. Lastly I followed up with some metal conditioner to neutalize the rust and prep the bare metal for paint. Here is what I used.

Here is the part in my quick drying contraption.

This is what the part looked like before painting.

A close up of the neutralized rust, well sort of. There is still a little bit of rust red in there. When properly done all of the rust should be a black color. Another treatment would have gotten all done right.

My quick drying contraption in action again getting the job done with the fuse holder panel painted.

The finished part, ready for installation.

DOUBLE UPDATE!!!!!!!

A little something extra for tonight. Some of you know, some don't, but the front stage was being powered by a Crescendo 1000c4. I sold it. Now here is what's taking it's place.

Yes sir, today we merge the old school with the modern era. A US Acoustics USB-2080 (2x80) for the components, and a US Acoustics USB-2150 (2x150) for the mid-bass.

One last pic at a funny angle to make you tilt you head to the side as you look at it.

The end is near.

[Ohjay 116]

won't be long now

[KyleBrown 121]

looking really good man!

[Sencheezy 689]

[mccleery3 166]

Nice update.....oldschool FTW!!

[onebadmonte 235]

THREAD RESURRECT!

Ha, ha. I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off lately. I've made a bit of progress on my system, I just haven't had the chance to put my pics and words together for a proper presentation.

Here we go. I wanted to take a little bit of time to make some improvements. Make things a bit easier in the disassembly and re-assembly department. We'll start off with the alternator bracket. The biggest pain in the ass is when tightening the outer most alternator nut and bolt. To remedy this I welded a threaded insert to the backside of the bracket. In this pic, the red circle is the area in question. On the right side is the insert to be welded.

To center the insert I used some foil paper to center a bolt threaded into the insert.

Here is the welded insert.

The final product.

Another area I improved on is the receiver hitch area. It's a bolt in piece, that has to come out when the battery rack has to come out. The pain about it is that it's a two person job that I'm always doing alone with a floor jack and a pair of ratchets. The only way to eliminate the floor jack is if I bulk up, which ain't gonna happen any time soon. The next best thing is to eliminate at least one ratchet. To do that I welded some bolts to a stip of 1/8" steel.

Here is the new part installed.

Looking up at the receiver hitch mount.

The receiver hitch installed.

More on the way.

[swift 501]

Looks great, I bet it sounds good tuned low as well!!

[onebadmonte 235]

Yay for updates! This was a fun day. First a big thanks to my buddy Rick for coming over early in the morning just to help me load this monster up.

No amp on the box, just too much weight. O_o

Amp installed.

A little bit of the wiring.

A couple of install picks.

Barely enough room to shut the barn doors.

Looking over the drivers shoulder. Finally, some subs in view.

Up next some the smoke test. O_o

[Shogen 325]

holy SHIT!

[Shogen 325]

I would move in to be your apprentice dude! and maybe fall in love and adopt Asian babies with you...

***(if you fix up my car that is)....

[onebadmonte 235]

I would move in to be your apprentice dude! and maybe fall in love and adopt Asian babies with you...

***(if you fix up my car that is)....

You had me at "asian babies"

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

I would like to extend an e-high-five for the US Acoustics amps hiding under the seats. Favorite part of your install.

[jonbearsmt 919]

clean and seamless great job buddy!