'98 Neon R/T kinda SQ build.

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

More progress on the amp rack:

This is the panel that fits under the amp rack and sandwiches it to the seat. T-nuts installed for amps.

Originally planned to vinyl the amp rack and paint the outer trim, but changed my mind and am doing it the other way.

A layer of Glaze:

cont...

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

In primer:

Trim (this is getting black vinyl)

Then I drilled it for push pins, counter sunk the holes for the push pins, and filled with bondo glass after I glued them in.

Couple of random fitment pics:

That's about where I left it for tonight. Our car club is having a get together tomorrow morning, so I still need to get ready for that too...

Should be done this weekend, tho. Mainly just minor adjustments to get thisngs to fit how I want, but it's close.

Jay

 

[Rawr-DQ 10+ year member]

I like your amp rack, I may consider doing something similar to the stratus.

 

[bigbangtheory 5,000+ posts]

Looks awesome! I used to have my amps in my Cutlass like that, but was in the upright seating position. I had the box ported through my rear deck and amps recessed into the seat like you did, but with plexi glass and neons coming through. Was pretty slick, but a pain in the nut sack to get done.

Good job mang!

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

May I ask where'd you get those "push pins" from? I need something similar for my false-wall beauty panel (male & female ends)

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

I got them at Advanced Auto. They're just the push pins. They fit snug into a 5/16" hole, but if you are looking for male and female ends, I'd suggest ball and socket connectors. I got some from a buddy a long time ago who worked at Best Buy, but I think Partsexpress.com might have them.

Jay

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

Looks awesome! I used to have my amps in my Cutlass like that, but was in the upright seating position. I had the box ported through my rear deck and amps recessed into the seat like you did, but with plexi glass and neons coming through. Was pretty slick, but a pain in the nut sack to get done.
Good job mang!

I did something similar in my 1st Neon, but I rebuild the whole seat structure out of MDF...it worked great, but was heavy as hell. I had 3 10" kicker free airs mounted on the rear deck, so it helped dampen the wave to eliminate cancellation. I wanted this one to be lighter.

Jay

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

Well, I did a little test fitting today. I noticed that the amp rack sat a little below the trim ring, so I mad spacers to bring it up flush. The problem I ran into was that I was trying to keep clearances to a minimum around the amps, and when I put the amp rack in the car, and tried to load up the amps, I cracked the amp rack a little into 2 places! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

So, I had to sand out the spots, CA them, refiller them and sand AGAIN. Oh, and I took 1/16" off the top and bottom of the opening so now the amps fit easily. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/veryhappy.gif.fec4fed33b4a1279cf10bdd45a039dae.gif

I'm waiting for primer to dry so I can put a quick sanding on it and lay some paint tonight. I want this in the car tomorrow.

The trim ring is finished and in the car.

Here's pics:

Before I spaced the amp rack up:

Amps sitting in place, amp rack raised to match trim:

Here's where it cracked (actually on both lower corners, this is just the passenger side):

Here's the trim ring after I sanded off all the bondoglass...BTW, don't EVER let this stuff dry all the way before sanding it. It's a pain. I knew better, but I wanted to go to sleep, so I took my chances. That's glaze on it to smooth out some air bubbles in the bondoglass.

Trim ring, BeA stapler. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

Trim ring on the seat:

(I left the material on the inside like that on purpose. The amp rack loads in from the top, so that should make sure you can't see any carpet or anything, and the amp rack kind of floats in the seat independently of the trim ring, so it takes up some slack.)

Where I'm at right now: (Sanded with 320, had to touch up the primer on the corners, so I'm gonna hit the whole thing with some 600 and shoot it before I go to bed.)

Will be done tomorrow, the amps will probably go in, but I may not wire anything up yet...I need to recover (money wise) before I do much else, and I need new RCA's and stuff...no point hooking up the 4 channel to my crappy inside speakers right now, anyway.

Jay

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

Well, I got paint on it last night. Was wetsanding it today, and (of course) I went through the paint. I was being lazy, so I used too agressive of a sand paper and went too far with it. The next time I'm using a higher grit so I don't so this.

Test fitted:

Painted the inside black:

Wetsanded:

Ooops!

So, I taped it off and painted it again...

Should still be in today, just later than I thought. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crying.gif.ec0ebefe590df0251476573bc49e46d8.gif

Jay

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

Oh, since I hadn't mentioned it before, a few months ago, I modded some cruise control buttons and added steering wheel controls for my radio to the car. Here's how I did it: (copied from a post on car club's website).

But here's how I did most of it:

The left side buttons don't have a center button, just a dead plastic "placeholder." Since I flipped the other side buttons over, I know had a functional button, but no way for it to register, so I drilled out the center of the switch assembly and mounted a surface mount micro switch from Radio Shack in there.

I soldered some wire from a leftover network cable to the switch, and added an appropriate resistor (they came with the PAC adapter) in line on one side and soldered the wires to the appropriate connectors from the switch "board" assembly.

Then I used some hot glue to keep the resistor out of the way (and insulate the connection.)

I had to solder in some different resistors to "replace" the factory ones, so they were in a range the Pac adapter could use. Here's pics of the side that originally had 3 functions, and where I soldered the resistors.

And here are the buttons w/ 6 useable functions instead of 5:

I had to reshape the button a little on one side, because it was rubbing.

Then I painted the buttons black. Once I get it all working properly, and figure out what functions I want where, I will worry about marking the buttons. For now I'll roll with this:

Then I switched out my clockspring with a cruise control clock spring I got at PG. Luckily my car already had the overlay harness. There are 2 plugs in the back of the clock spring. One is a small yellow 2 pin plug for the airbag, and the other plug had two black (w/ tracer) wires and a red/tracer wire. The red wire is the cruise control output wire. I grabbed the pigtail when I yanked the clockspring, but didn't actually need it. (yay!)

Old clockspring:

"New" clockspring:

Notice the pigtails for the buttons.

cont...

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

Then I cut the red wire in the plug on the back of the clockspring and taped up the end going toward the PCM. I connected the white wire from my PAC SWI-PS to it. This unit is specifically for Pioneer (and Sony) radios with a "wired remote" plug on the back. I may switch to a PAC SWI-X, because it lets me program any of the functions on my wireless remote, instead of the limited number of pre-programmed options of the SWI-PS. The SWI-X works with any radio that has a wireless remote.

That way I can program one of the buttons to be "Enter" which will allow me to answer my phone from the steering wheel since my radio (A Pioneer DEH-P790BT) has built in Bluetooth wireless.

I wired the power and ground for the SWI-PS behind the radio.

This is what the SWI-PS looks like:

And here's my radio: (Premier DEH-P790BT)

Then I put the steering wheel back on, and installed the buttons:

Then I programmed as per the instructions that came with the PAC unit.

That's about it. Works great.

For those of you who don't know, PG=Parts Galore=Best Junkyard I've ever been to! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Jay

 

[JayinMI 10+ year member]

OK. I let it dry, and wetsanded it out with 1500. Polished it/waxed it and put it in the car.

I used my 300/4 to test for fitment, and when I go to put the 500/1 in the holes didn't line up quite right. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif So, I drilled some stuff out to have a little play.

But I think I stripped one of my Tnuts, so now I might have to gut everything to fix it! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif

Here it is polished:

I put some Ponte' fabric (kinda like speaker grille cloth) over the opening at the top so you wouldn't see the seat foam.

In the car:

I used these (10-24 allen head bolts) to hold in the amps, cause they match the ones on the amps.

Seat up:

Photobucket was being Ghey, so I hope these are viewable later.

I still need to get 4 more bolts, and the local Home Depot is out. I actually only need 3, but I messed one up and they come in packs of 2.

Anyway, that's where things are right now.

I have a couple more ideas for the trunk, but I am a broke bish, so it might be a couple weeks.

The trim ring is hanging a little in the last pic, because there are only 2 bolts holding the amp in...once they are all in, it will snug up nice.

Jay

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

Looks great man

 

[cjcrook 10+ year member]

Awesome job, looks great!

 

[liljojo4711 10+ year member]

did u install any fans yet? it would seem like those amps are going to get pretty hot...