1990 Thunderbird SC Stereo Build Log

[Tazer999]

This thread details the work done for the audio system on my 1990 Thunderbird SC

Well a few years ago I decided that I wanted to take my TBird and do something special with it. I bought this car when I was 17 and drove it until I was 21 putting on a little over 30,000km. I had worked on it a few times and added some cosmetic, performance, and ricey upgrades through the years. I decided to ditch everything, and start with a clean slate.

The project was slated for 4 years to accomodate work and travel, however after spending nearly a year in the Philippines and some other time outside of Canada it really halted my progress. All I could do was stockpile parts! Now that I am back I have finally been able to get some work done on this thing, but looks like I am leaving again here fairly shortly so it is back to stockpiling parts for awhile!

Each of the following posts will contain an aspect of the stereo build. None of these aspects are complete yet, however daily/weekly updates will be supplied with pictures and answers to any questions you may have

Click to read more...

 

[Tazer999]

Sound Deadening

After driving many different types of vehicles, I always get turned off by the amount of road noise that comes into the car. I vowed to make this car very comfortable to be in, and to keep road noise to a minimum. My major pet peeve with the car before was the sound the doors made when being shut, and the amount of road noise transmitted through the floor. With that said, multiple layers of sound deadening (Brown Bread) were applied. In total I believe there was 110 square feet of deadening put in.

Majority of the back seat area completed

Majority of the trunk area completed

Majority of the floorpan area completed

Door panel in progress

Completed product

 

[Tazer999]

Rear Speakers**not yet complete**

For the rear speakers, I decided to do away with the 5x7's in the rear panels, and opted to put my speakers into the rear deck. After some searching around, I decided to use the Phoenix Gold Ti6 MID's as my rear fill. These are a 6.5" mid woofer which should complement the front components, and low end nicely. For this project I needed to cut apart the rear deck so that I could fit the boxes for the mids into it as they require their own sealed boxes. An individual box was created for each driver, with an airspace of .412 cubic feet per box built out of 3/8" MDF

Mmmm, 6.5" mids!

Rear shelf ready for some work to be done

In the process of cutting the pieces for the rear fill boxes/plates done. The CNC machine is truly great for this. No more need to use a tablesaw, router with a Jasper jig to get the mounting holes perfect, or a drill to pre-drill anything.

Assembling the boxes/top plate for the mids (made out of 3/8" MDF)

Boxes/plate sealed

Speaker terminals installed

Plate/boxes assembled/sealed/painted and ready for install

Mounting plates sealed/painted and ready for install

Putting in the mounting plates for the speaker boxes

Test fitting the rear driver plate on top of mounting plates with mids in

Got the outline of where I need to cut into the rear shelf

Cutting the rear deck for the speaker boxes

Test fitting the boxes/plate into the rear shelf

Boxes/plate mounted and installed. An additional 1/4 trim piece covered in carpet will complete the installation

 

[Tazer999]

Subwoofers**not yet complete**

For the subwoofers I originally planned on just using 1 10" as I listen to a lot of metal music and did not want a sloppy bass response, but in the end went with 2 10"s. The subs being used are Phoenix Gold Xenon 10D4's which have dual 4ohm voice voils. An individual box was created for each sub, with an airspace of .768 cubic feet per box built out of 3/4" MDF.

Mmmm, subs!

Getting ready to cut the boxes out on the CNC

Most of the pieces for the first box cut. The CNC machine is truly great for this. No more need to use a tablesaw, router with a Jasper jig to get the mounting holes perfect, or a drill to pre-drill anything.

Assembling one of the sub boxes

1 sub box assembled and ready to be finished

1 sub box fully finished and ready for mounting to false floor

Making the mounting plate/false floors for the sub boxes (3/8" MDF)

Sealing the mounting plate/false floors

Putting in the mounting plate/false floors for the sub boxes (3/8" MDF)

Both boxes mounted into car on top of mounting plate/false floors. Eventually the entire trunk will be completed with fiberglass and trim panels. That will be put in a different build log

 

[Tazer999]

Front Speakers**not yet complete**

For the front fill I needed something that would sound very crisp and nice to me, yet fit without too many complications. I decided on using the Phoenix Gold Ti5 Elite's and mounted them into the doors instead of making new kick panels.

Mmmm, 5.25" components!

Front door ready for some speaker action

The driver is installed! Time to mount the tweeter and crossover

Mounting the tweeter into the door panel

Mounting the crossover to the door

Completed product

 

[Tazer999]

Wiring**not yet complete**

With all of these other mods going in, as well as a decent stereo requiring some power, I figured its time to upgrade the wiring also! They say that the wiring is like the veins to any good audio system and the better quality vein the better quality stereo. The big 3 wires under the hoodwere the ones I set up to fix first. These wires are the alternator positive to battery, battery negative to chassis, and chassis negative to engine block.

Wiring/Connections

- xx feet Stinger SPW10TB PRO Car Audio 1/0 Ga Black Ground Wire

- xx feet Stinger SPW10TR PRO Car Audio 1/0 Ga Red Power Wire

- 1x Stinger SPT5212 Dual Foot Grounding Terminal 1/0 Gauge

- 1x Stinger SHT303 HPM Series Positive Battery Terminal

- 1x Stinger SHT303 HPM Series Negative Battery Terminal

Stock big 3 wires under hood

New wires/terminals/grounding blocks going under hood

Wires coming off of battery post with new terminals

New grounding point for engine

Completed product

Next up is the wiring for the rear distribution blocks, rear speakers/amp and subwoofers/amp.

Rear Distribution Blocks

- 1x ground distribution block

- 1x power distribution block

- 1 Stinger SPT5212 Dual Foot Grounding Terminal 1/0 Gauge

- xx feet Stinger SPW10TB PRO Car Audio 1/0 Ga Black Ground Wire

- xx feet Stinger SPW10TR PRO Car Audio 1/0 Ga Red Power Wire

Wiring/connections for rear distribution block

In progress

New mounting spot for amplifier grounds

Rear Fill Wiring/Connections

- 2x speaker terminals

- 15 feet Stinger SHW514BC HPM 14 Ga Twisted Blue Speaker Wire

- xx feet ground wire

- xx feet power wire

- xx feet remote turn on

- 1x rca

Wiring/connections for rear fill

In progress

Wiring/connections for rear fill amplifer

In progress

Subwoofer Wiring/Connections

- xx feet sub wire

- xx feet ground wire

- xx feet power wire

- xx feet remote turn on

- 1x rca

Wiring/connections for subwoofers

In progress

Wiring/connections for subwoofers amplifer

In progress

 

[Tazer999]

Let me know what you think

More updates to come surrounding wiring, front component speakers, head unit, front component speakers amplifier, and trim panels

At this time I am still undecided on what RCA's, headunit, distribution blocks and amplifiers to run. Any suggestions?

Thinking about using this equipment but not sure. Suggestions?

Subwoofer amp: Phoenix Gold X600.1

Rear drivers amp: Phoenix Gold X200.2

Front component amp: ??

Headunit: ??

RCA's: ??

Distribution block: ??Anybody know of a block with 1 1/0awg in, and 3 4awg out?

 

[kmanian 5,000+ posts]

having the cnc is awesome! how long is it taking you to program a cut?

 

[DBDRAGGUY 10+ year member]

Very Cool, I miss my SC

 

[Freelander 10+ year member]

what would you charge to do some work with that CNC for me?

 

[Tazer999]

Programming the cuts takes about 30 minutes, its quite easy actually and I have never gotten that much into CAD work. The sub box sheets took 45 minutes total to program/cut, and the rear speaker setup around an hour due to the extra complexity

I would dod CNC work for ya, however shipping the pieces afterwards would be quite expensive I would assume as I am up in Canada

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

Will have to peep this when I get home. Not showing up on my work computer.

I used to have an LX Thunderbird 4.6 with after market bolt on super-charger. Man do I miss that mofo! Used to run 12's in the quarter, but it was my DD for a couple years and gas started to rise then and was dumping well over 400 a month in gas. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[RetroAudioinc 5,000+ posts]

Got any pics for this all done I am getting the same car tomorrow?

 

[DB-Audio 10+ year member]

nice work so far cant wait to see more pics