Project 626

[DNick454 10+ year member]

Your right about the car, It drives well, actually very comfortable and has a smooth ride. It is a generic looking body and interior. The oscillating front a/c / heating vents crack me up. Next thing is a little body work and some paint. This Mazda has the problem with the f-ed up paint and clearcoat. Looks like someone poured paint remover all over it.
Im also going to mess around with an amp rack/mount for the alpine and tuck it away in the spot on the right side where its sitting. I just have it mounted there because it was easy and we were impatient.

Putting them in the kicks is probably the only place you could get away with pods in an old Mustang. Cutting into the doors just wouldnt be right in a classic like that. Kick pods can always be removed. Glassin is pretty simple but can be a bit pricey when you first start. Your probably looking at at least 100 dollars for the resin, matt, body filler, primer, spot putty and paint. If you try it just stay away from the fleece and get something like I used on these, I wrote about what I used somewhere in this build. Fleece takes a lot of resin to soak thru, 3-4 times as much as what I used. You could even do your buildup on the inside of the pods and make finishing the outside much easier. I had to glass the outside because of using the original siht holders that were on the doors. No way to glass inside the pods.

I heard a good material as an alternative to fleece is the material T-shirts are made of. It doesn't sound like it would be as stretchy though, but aslong as I don't go crazy with the design, I think I'd be fine. Also, I was watching some tutorials on youtube for doing kicks, and they didn't even use glass. They just used fleece, then bondo, primer, and paint. They said all the extra fiberglass reinforcing was just not needed. Thoughts? I'll take some pics of the kick panels, they're super easy to get to, remove, and make a template for some nice kick panels which is why I'm so tempted to do so //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[fshanda 10+ year member]

I heard a good material as an alternative to fleece is the material T-shirts are made of. It doesn't sound like it would be as stretchy though, but aslong as I don't go crazy with the design, I think I'd be fine. Also, I was watching some tutorials on youtube for doing kicks, and they didn't even use glass. They just used fleece, then bondo, primer, and paint. They said all the extra fiberglass reinforcing was just not needed. Thoughts? I'll take some pics of the kick panels, they're super easy to get to, remove, and make a template for some nice kick panels which is why I'm so tempted to do so

Just fleece and resin or even tshirt material and resin has no strength. You could poke your finger thru it or crack it with a little effort. Maybe slathering the inside with dura glass or a mix of coarse chopped matt and resin on the inside to strengthen the pod would be an easy alternative. I have a bucket of coarse chopped mat here, if you want some of it I would send you some. Just mix up some resin and put a bunch in and mix it up good. Comes out like a thick paste. an easy way to add a little strength. Resin without the glass has little strength.

Looks good to me. I would consider relocating that amp though. If the box flexes, its going to cause the amp to flex with it and can cause the amp to break or rattle something loose.

If I had room in there I would. Im adding some vibration insulators to the bottom of the amp soon to help with excess vibrations. I dont want to mount it on the floor because that would eliminate access to the spare tire well. I know it would be best to not mount it on the box but that amps big and I have very few options //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

clean those wires up and you'll be set

Weather permitting, this weekend we will be taking care of moving the alpine and doing a little tidying up of the wiring. That bothers me too. I have been working on that car for a month or 2 and I just got a little impatient and did a quick job mounting it all up so I could hear it.

I also have to change the remote wire. Its hooked to the cigarette lighter, The amps power up before the head unit and we get speaker pop when the head unit fires up. Will move that wire to the head unit remote wire and hopefully take care of that problem.

Next thing will me setting the gains properly. trying to figure out what the other settings on the Mojo are for ( no manual) dont know what to do with two of the knobs //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif Then finaly taking it to a show somewhere this summer and getting it metered.

 

[DNick454 10+ year member]

Just fleece and resin or even tshirt material and resin has no strength. You could poke your finger thru it or crack it with a little effort. Maybe slathering the inside with dura glass or a mix of coarse chopped matt and resin on the inside to strengthen the pod would be an easy alternative. I have a bucket of coarse chopped mat here, if you want some of it I would send you some. Just mix up some resin and put a bunch in and mix it up good. Comes out like a thick paste. an easy way to add a little strength. Resin without the glass has little strength.

Alright, I'll just go ahead and use the coarse mat on top of that. I don't mind adding the extra glass, the mat is cheap as hell, it's the resin that kills me. Know of a good place to order resin? All the auto parts stores want like 60-70 bucks for a gallon or whatever. I'm like 30 min away from Lake Michigan though. Maybe a Marine store carries it for cheaper? I wouldn't mind ordering it off the internet if it was cheap somewhere as well. Any advice?

 

[fshanda 10+ year member]

I get my stuff here.

http://www.uscomposites.com/polyesters.html

I used the 435 standard polyester layup resin on the Mazda. Worked very well. I used the B-440 on the stuff in my truck. To tell the truth I didnt really notice a difference. Shipping is pretty reasonable too. It also comes with the MEKP and a measuring cup. I think its a pretty good deal. Even the boat yards around here want twice that per gallon.

And if you need material that can get a good stretch look for a shirt with a spandex rayon blend. Thats what I used on the Mazda. I could pull that stuff and conform to any shape. Some T-shirt material is blended with this stuff. I used one of my Wifes old shirts.

 

[DNick454 10+ year member]

30 bucks for a gallon on the 435, I like that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Thanks for the tips, I'll be sure to post a build log should I take a stab at it. My next project that I've gotta get out of the way first though is a 6th order bandpass box for a little 8" sub for a home theatre setup. Should be very interesting //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[fshanda 10+ year member]

Was making last minute adjustments on the 4 channel yesterday before making a video of it and blew the 5 1/4s.

Thought I blew the Alpine, kept getting a CUR warning on the amp. Excessive current warning which put it into protect. Took me an hour to figure out that it was blown speakers sending it into protect. One of the mids is locked up and the other moves but sounds like crap and both smell like burnt clutch.

Hoping the crossovers and tweeters are OK but dont know yet.

Fing sucks. No money to replace them.

The other set of 6 3/4's seem to be ok. Cranked them all the way up with no problems so far.

 

[crash9201 10+ year member]

**** man, your kid better know how lucky he is, my 1st car and my current car didnt have any sounds in it for 6 months... no hu no speakers... nothing, just me and the wind....