Well the D900 arrived on my Door this morning... Alpine finally came through. So this weekend I will get a start on it. Since the processor (H700) isn't shipping till late June, I am going to wait on the custom dash/center channel.

Hopefully I can score one of those CNC dash mounts!!!

..... I'm excited... and I'll take lots of pictures.

Brian

Car Audio Editor
Secrets of Home Theater http://www.hometheaterhifi.com

 

:cheers:

 

Ahh, im going the same route. Feedback and pics when you get a chance! :smash:

 

:cool: :cheers: :cool: :cool: .......dont forget pics :smash: :p:

 

Still waiting on the h700 too :crazy:
Well, the rest of the system is up and running at least.
:cheers:

 

You should get that mount Friday. I'm honored to have been included in your plan. :bb

P.S. I only ran 3 of the fully cut out pieces and 2 are already gone. Dumb.

 

Well here is a run down of the install:


Thursday Night:

Completely removed interior of car, seats, etc..

Friday:

Installed new alternator, the custom mount didn't work.. so I used the top bolt and rotated the bottom mount into the supprt bracket and tightened it up. Didn't budge, so I installed the belt and started it up. No issues, so took it around the block and did a few redline shifts... no problems. I did notice that the 250 amp alternator sounds like I have a blower on. I used the pulley that came on the unit, I think it's being over driven a little, so I may put the stocker on.

Ran new 4 guage from the alternator to the battery by Zip tie to the existing wire.

Ran new 2 guage from the battery through the firewall, to the back. *** I wouldn't reccomend anything larger, as assembly was hard with 2 guage. I added a 4 guage ground to stock ground on the frame, after cleaning with brass brush.

I used the ground on the drivers door jam. I sanded around the bolt to bare metal, then installed the ground *** This location had the lowest resistance that I could find, much better then the seats. It was also nice since I didn't have to drill and tap the frame.

Saturday:

Installed the Brown Bread from B-quiet. I did a complete single layer from the lower firewall to the back. I covered the entire drive tunnel. I also did 2/3 of the doors (to the control computers). (1 big roll)

Sunday:

Made the speaker mounts for the front doors out of MDF. The Dynaudio 360's are an exact fit to the bare metal, so the opening in the MDF was very large. The MID and the 7" driver had to be over lapped because both have such large mounts. This meant that the 7" driver had to be counter sunk into the wood frame so that the mid could be flush... thank God for routers.

The side braces were glued into the center well, and the top cut to fit (several times). After the sides were hardened, the top was glued into place. The 12W7 fit into the space, I built the entire thing from 3/4 mdf. Before we mounted the driver I filled the enclosure with bird seed, and it measured 1.47 ft^3 . Perfect for the 12W7.

Monday:

Mounted the 12W7 and check for air leaks, had one leak around the latch hold down, re-applied some sealant, solved.

Mounted the XM, Head unit (had to file the CNC'd bracket). Connected the parking brake, and foot brake taps. Installed the battery and checked for functionality... went well, had to re-tap the power antennae lead, as I had the wrong dark green wire.

Applied a layer of L-Comp to the interior, cool stuff. Used 4 rolls.

Diconnected battery again, and installed engine side power wiring, and 200 amp breaker. Used pg platinum batery posts.

Pulled the speaker lines, cut and installed amp power lines, installed ditribution blocks. Installed remote power on relay.

Turned gains all the way down, turned on head unit... and we have sound. Quick speaker check... and shut it off.

Re-installed interior, and found a problem with the rear speaker mounts... Due to the depth on the Dynaudio, I will have to have a local car-audio shop work them over.

The trim and seats were a huge PITA... everything was a very tight fit. The dash looks nice.... I got done last night at 11:45 everything but the doors were on. Fired it up... it rocks (even with the gains all the way down).


I have never worked so hard in 4 days.. I went through 5 gallons of gatorade and a 24 pack of beer.

Some more touch up and I will be very happy.... I will have the Car audio shop do a false floor to cover the whole thing as well.

 

Can't wait to see some pics

 

Pics Pics Pics ... come on man ... you have a HomeTheater HiFi site ... pics should be a piece of cake ... if you need a host ... e-mail me at aap8@cwru.edu

 

Yeah.... but it's not fair to my publisher if I were to dispurse those when they are the sponsors of the project...

 

Did not think of that ... sorry ... when will the pics be published? I guess it is for the June or July issue?

 

:thumbs:

 

Well, in the publish world, we wouldn't see it till Sept or so. But this is an online mag :smash:
Hurry up and write the article boy! Stop playing with your toys!!! :p:

 

The technical article for the Brown Bread and L-comp is done, hopefully it's published next week.