Spent the day with my dad today as he is a retired master wood worker and anytime ive ever had his help with building stuff we get a superior product. Plus hes got the woodshop and tools as well.

$15.00 - 48x24 of half in MDF and 24x24 of three quarters MDF.
$4.00 - various fasteners we used.

I told him I wanted the amps side by side, and he said the box would be too far out to fit them side by side, so we were going to put one sideways... We himmmed and hawwwed - then Dad says `Why dont we stagger them like this`and he holds them up... My jaw hit the floor and we now had a new plan...

We built this bottom piece, and it is bolted to the truck floor through the bottom. Holes are in place and we had to tighten it down to mock-up the rest of the parts. We also screwed on the amps for mock-up, they will be coming off so I can paint it all black with my trusty boxliner spray! The front panel is removable from the base so that we can access the screws that hold the rear amp on. There is access holds in the short center panel to put a screwdriver through to tune if I need to... I shouldnt cause I have the IMPRINT so I shouldnt be messing with the settings after thats done.


Dad is now fabbing up the removable cover that will conceal it all when finished.


And this is how neatly he trimmed it to fit the interior of the truck. The fasteners arent on the cover at this point, those gaps you see are all gone now when everything is tightened up.


I would be working in my garage on this project tonight, but the phone rang and my little buddy downstairs is telling me to grab a couple raincoats and hit the road and get my **** on and put off the wiring till later - and Im listening to him as usual. Anyways, I will be cutting vents into the front cover so you can see the amps inside, I am thinking of doing the 5 slashes and the À`from the alpine logo. The inside of the box should be lit up blue and red from the amps lights and the capacitors lights... So it will look cool at night.

We also made some cupholders for the front and back that I never shot a photo of cause they are just cupholders. ill show you all what they look like when they are bolted in once the wiring is done. I also have some fabbing to do up front, any guesses as to what would fit a 10x8.5 inch lexan sheet for a windowÉÉÉ Its going to let you veiw the IMPRINT module, the booster and the line driver that will all be under the center console... This system is going to crank dudes.

 

i like your design. its a great idea and something i think will look great man

 

looks great so far!

 

Phone rang this morning, it was my dude at the dealership - Your emblem has arrived Thomas - So I lubed up my butthole and Cleo and I drove over to Lakewood Chev to take one up the backside.

$60.48 - GM#15635564 - 454SS pickup Grill Emblem (My first Genuine GM part) it came with washers and nuts to hold it on from the backside so I guess its kinda like getting the proverbial "reach-around". This will be the LAST part to install on the truck whenever I think its finished. Just like a Ferrarri doesnt get its horse until its been tested and perfect for the showroom.


And just to see that it fits my new grill. It fits, but the holes are a little crooked and will need a little dremel adjusting after paint to get it to fit perfect. Thats what I get for using a 30 dollar aftermarket peice i guess.


This will be the ONLY red on a pewter/black truck.

 

i like the emblem. very nice

 

Heres something up your alley MTopper! Shes all painted up, wired, and bolted in. Just awaiting the job of wiring all the signal processors and deck booster etc... thats what Im heading out to do after I upload the latest session.

The DVC subs are wired to load the amp at 2Ohms, Crutchfield says they put out 350W RMS @ 2Ohms. Everything is soldered, even the crimp on ends are soldered on not squished. Both amps have the exact same legnths of everything, and all the gains are set to 0. I dont know what frequency to set the bass amps crossover on the amp at though? Mtopper? Keep in mind I have the IMPRINT and a line driver thats easy to access There is a 500micro farad cap, 4ga power lead, 8ga from dist block to amps, amps grounded to cap, which will be grounded to chassis under backseat maybe, or possible back to the battery if I can score some more 4ga. (I hate paying the stereo shops $6 a foot for it) May look into welding cable to do the power and ground with but thats overkill and leaves a hell of a lump under the carpet.

Here is with the cover off

And with it on.


Please toss me some suggestions for the cut outs on the front.

I was thinking the ////A from the Alpine logo might be sweet with the inside edges of the cuts trimmed in white... Or OHSOFLY... Or leave it stealth and try and find some grey carpet like my carpet to cover it up... Move the cap up so the top sticks out a hole in the top of the cover and i can read the live voltage reading in my rearview? I like that idea up the cap has these red/ble LEDs that throw alot of light stright up. I also think that a fire extinguisher might look good on the top... Lemme hear what the thread followers are thinking while I bang away at this techni-colored wiring nightmare ahead of me... heres what I got ahead of me. also found out that I still need yet another peice for the IMPRINT... dammit Ill have to buy that new too now that Im into head unit, booster, IMPRINT and all that for about 600 bucks...


Oh and I have the booster in now and plumbed, and MAN OH MAN does it ever make a difference in the sound from the internal speakers!!! Its so much louder now before it distorts and just sounds clearer, I may have killed my battery messing around with it.

I guess I have 700W + 180W RMS of total system power now, Stellar!

Ive also decided that the final paint will be a gloss pewter band from taillight to taillight around the front. So the grill will be pewter, it will flow into the stripe down the sides and stop at the taillights and EVERYTHING else will be matte black boxliner. I dont want the pewter stripe across the tailgate. I will prep and paint it myself.

++EDIT++

I took my IMPRINT back to the store and got my money back, it was the wrong unit, they sold me the one for the head unit 9887, I own a 9884. The one that I need is much cheaper though! But there is 3 on backorder... Now 4... So I await another phone call as I truck on.

 

I like the idea of the alpine logo cut out with the fire exitinguisher on top.

 

well, because you have good speakers with the stuff i've seen so far, i'd say low pass the subs at 80hz and high pass all your speakers also at 80hz. that way there is no overlap and you have keep all the lows in the subs. it looks great so far though. i really like the amp box in the corner.

i understand the whole back order thing. i sent my amp in to get fixed and the store is still awaiting 5 in front of mine. so, i know the pain.

great build and why not ground the amps to the rear seat bolt? mine is grounded to the rear tire mount inside my 2 door, the seat bolt should work just as well

 

Well the amps are grounded to the capacitor, and I guess I will just ground that to the seatbelt bolts. I was thinking maybe just weld the ground to the chassis somewhere so i know I wont have it coming loose ever. Time for a break for a few days, gotta work all week, and I think the blazer is going camping next weekend and do a little 4x4ing... Might not be much for updates this week.

80/80 it is. When I changed the deck Xover to 80 instead of OFF I lost that popping sound at loud volumes, frickin sweet dude!!

 

Isn't your emblem the same one off the S10 SS? Those can be had on ebay for about 1/2 the price you paid. S10 SS Emblem