2002 Ford Escape Professional Amateur Build

[imsickofweed]

Ive used all 6 rolls of the denim insulation in mostly the rear wheel wells and Im not exactly sure what Ill do next. Another 6 rolls would be more than I need but I need to keep costs down so Im considering reusing the denim type jute material that I pulled off the backside of the carpet to stuff in the pillar cavities and under the dash in some places. It looks similar, but is probably not the same. Can anyone comment on this?

Also Ive decided against speakers in the rear doors for now, but I will run speaker wire to them for posibilities later and will mess around with keeping the stock speakers in and running them off the line level on the hu. I will still sound deaden the doors if there is dynamat leftover from the floor and front doors. To help seal up the doors Im going to order a few sheets of 1/4" ABS plastic to cut to fit on the large holes. I also need to pick up some sound absorbting ceiling tiles to put inside the door between the outside skin and window. They will be wrapped in plastic and taped to the door using some super special foil tape.

Its been a few days since any physical work has been done of the E, but a lot of strategic planning and designing has been going on. Ive been trying to find the manual transmission grommet that everyone says is a great place to run a power cable, but I dont see anything anywhere around my master cylinder in the engine compartment and nothing under the vynil mat on the firewall. I do see a hole that the auto ***** shift cable goes through, which could probably be used to the manual clutch cable, but thats it. If someone cant point it out to me Ill end up drilling a hole under the auto ***** grommet and put in my own grommet for the 0 gauge welding cable Im going to run for amp power.

Im also wondering if I should have a distribution block behind the dash for future expansion and to get a better power and ground source for the HU. Have any of you guys done this?

 

[ObTechAudio]

Ive used all 6 rolls of the denim insulation in mostly the rear wheel wells and Im not exactly sure what Ill do next. Another 6 rolls would be more than I need but I need to keep costs down so Im considering reusing the denim type jute material that I pulled off the backside of the carpet to stuff in the pillar cavities and under the dash in some places. It looks similar, but is probably not the same. Can anyone comment on this?
Also Ive decided against speakers in the rear doors for now, but I will run speaker wire to them for posibilities later and will mess around with keeping the stock speakers in and running them off the line level on the hu. I will still sound deaden the doors if there is dynamat leftover from the floor and front doors. To help seal up the doors Im going to order a few sheets of 1/4" ABS plastic to cut to fit on the large holes. I also need to pick up some sound absorbting ceiling tiles to put inside the door between the outside skin and window. They will be wrapped in plastic and taped to the door using some super special foil tape.

Its been a few days since any physical work has been done of the E, but a lot of strategic planning and designing has been going on. Ive been trying to find the manual transmission grommet that everyone says is a great place to run a power cable, but I dont see anything anywhere around my master cylinder in the engine compartment and nothing under the vynil mat on the firewall. I do see a hole that the auto ***** shift cable goes through, which could probably be used to the manual clutch cable, but thats it. If someone cant point it out to me Ill end up drilling a hole under the auto ***** grommet and put in my own grommet for the 0 gauge welding cable Im going to run for amp power.

Im also wondering if I should have a distribution block behind the dash for future expansion and to get a better power and ground source for the HU. Have any of you guys done this?

Looks like you've been doing a lot of work. I've been gone on vacation, but I just got caught up on your last few posts.

Regarding the alternator... You do not need to remove the axle to replace the alt. I even fit a large case hairpin in there without removing the axle.

Regarding the insulation... You could reuse the stock denim. It's not as thick as some others out there, but it might be better than having to buy more.

Regarding the power run... I have three runs, so i elected to run them securely under my car and through the grommet in the spare tire area. I've never been a fan of running large power wire through a firewall and then under the carpet. Some vehicles it's easy to do. The Escape hasn't been one of those vehicles for me.

Regarding your box... I personally would glass one into the panel. Making a factory box work would be more hassle. Glass is the way to go.

Regarding going active... Do it -- you won't regret it. I kind of did the same thing with pro mids off amp and components off deck -- crossed them up differently and set each piece of the front stage to exactly how I wanted it. Loved the sound.

Keep up the good work. I'll be following much closer now that I'm back in town.

 

[imsickofweed]

Looks like you've been doing a lot of work. I've been gone on vacation, but I just got caught up on your last few posts.
Regarding the alternator... You do not need to remove the axle to replace the alt. I even fit a large case hairpin in there without removing the axle.

Regarding the insulation... You could reuse the stock denim. It's not as thick as some others out there, but it might be better than having to buy more.

Regarding the power run... I have three runs, so i elected to run them securely under my car and through the grommet in the spare tire area. I've never been a fan of running large power wire through a firewall and then under the carpet. Some vehicles it's easy to do. The Escape hasn't been one of those vehicles for me.

Regarding your box... I personally would glass one into the panel. Making a factory box work would be more hassle. Glass is the way to go.

Regarding going active... Do it -- you won't regret it. I kind of did the same thing with pro mids off amp and components off deck -- crossed them up differently and set each piece of the front stage to exactly how I wanted it. Loved the sound.

Keep up the good work. I'll be following much closer now that I'm back in town.

I know its possible to do without removing the driveshaft, I watched a bunch of youtube videos about it and decided that it looked like more hassle that way. Also I had to do the big 3 on it as well and I thought itd be easier if I could sit on the ground to do it. At the same time I did the alternator I replaced the control arms, tie rods, struts, sway bar bushings, and end links up front and the control arms, springs and shocks in the back. Theyre all greaseable joints now and it rides and corners so much better now.

I thought about doing the glass on the factory panel, but the one I have isnt made for the factory subwoofer and theres not much room behind it to make a decent sized box. I got the factory box out of a mazda tribute and the interior panels dont match up with the escape, but the box does. I need to make another trip to the pick a part to find a panel that will fit and color match. I already have the factory box and a kicker 6.75" sub that I got for free so Im going to see how that sounds and find out how much I can push it. I know Im going to want more, but I need to get the basics of the system in and the interior put back together asap.

The amp is going to mount under the passenger seat and I have a firewall grommet and some corrugated plastic split tubing for protection of the cable. The way I plan on routing it, it shouldnt be in the way of anything. Ill take a look under the car to see about running it that way with some sealtite. Im trying to be stealthy and keep the cargo area for cargo type activities so I dont have any plans for a box and amp display in the cargo area. Im hoping to get some more work done tomorrow and Ill post some pictures either way of the progress or all the things I got to install, lol.

 

[ObTechAudio]

Sounds good man!

 

[imsickofweed]

Do you have a build log or a gallery of your escape build? Id like to get some ideas.

 

[ObTechAudio]

Do you have a build log or a gallery of your escape build? Id like to get some ideas.

I don't. I actually haven't had anything in my car for a few months. I have all the equipment in to do my massive rebuild, but no time to actually build it at the moment. I'm working on something else that you may have seen the log for:

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/car-audio-build-logs-cars-trucks-suvs/625825-chase-160-db-demos-team-alphard-audio-usa.html

 

[Joseph7195 10+ year member]

I dont get on here very often anymore, but when I do, I LOVE seeing build logs!! Thank You for taking the time to make one for the car audio community!

 

[imsickofweed]

I did a little more dynamatting in the tough spots today. Im almost ready for wire runs! There is some factory mlv in the foot wells up front and its hard to hold that up while dynamatting. Im trying to decide whether or not to be thorough under there. Currently Im doing some thought experiments on wire runs, if you have an Escape, Mariner, or Tribute Id loce to hear your input for speaker, rca and power run routes.



Heres todays progress, the black dynamat is from today and is the new version of dynamat extreme aparently. My older stuff was silver.

 

[imsickofweed]

Heres whats going into the Escape, what are your opinions on the bass knob? When tuning the amp with test tones should I have this all the way up or all the way down? The RCAs are from monoprice, I dont this they are twisted inside the white or red channel cables and the red and white are definitely not twisted together, theyre outer jackets are connected together in parallel. Should I pull them apart and twist them or would that not help and only the ground and conductor twisting would make a difference, which I cant do with this cable anyway? Currently I have all 3 sets labeled at both ends and ziptied together.



Heres the 14ga speaker wire, also from monoprice. It is already twisted in the jacket around 5-6 turns per foot, does this need to be twisted more?

 

[imsickofweed]

It took me about an hour after work to run 3 pairs 14ga speaker cables through the boot, it was a pain in culo, but I got it done. I ran 3 in case I go active and want to add another speaker per door, but after the install I will only need 2 for the tweeter and the 6.5" focal midrange. The crossover will live under the passenger seat with the amp. If I go active I can just hook up directly to the amp.



I removed the little limiter thingy so I could get a little extra room to work, but not much. It helps to be able to pass cables past this without pulling them through the gap.



I moved all the molex pins to the top side of the connector to make room to drill and cut holes in the bottom half for the speaker cables. I cut the green locking clip around half way, but it still locks and it doesnt block the speaker cables.



The female side on the cabin side can be cut off almost half way and still click into the male pin side from the door.



On the door side with the boot I drilled a small hole and then kept going up in size until I got to the largest drill bit. After the picture was taken I used a razor knife to cut out the little bits around the edge to give it a more sauare look and be able to fit the cables easier.



Cables fit through the boot and the molex connector, Im not sure if 3 sets 12ga cable would fit, but you could probably run a smaller set like 18ga for tweeters, the 14ga for the mids and a 12 or 10ga for an 8" midbass driver.



Here is the 2 sides of the connector put together with the cables ran into the cabin. Make sure and put the boot on the connector before you shove it back into the hole on the cabin side.



I also ran the 2ga positive to the battery through the firewall. I used a step bit and went slow, I got a bulkhead strain releif fitting to use as a grommet and keep it from moving in and out through the firewall.

I know the drivers side will have more wires running through the molex, but I hope I can still fit 3 sets of the 14ga through to match the other side. I considered using the 6x8 factory 18ga speaker wire for the tweeters, but I was able to fit the 3rd cable so I ran it just in case things change in the future.