2013 2SS 1LE Build Log

[lsuguy]

Nice. I'm getting everything together to tackle my build. Starting with a big order from SDS and I may break out the fiberglass and fill all those big holes in the door.

Looking forward to the pictures!

[mattyjman]

alright... i'm soo happy today...

with the amount of progress I made today... I surely didn't think all this was going to be possible...

so, with the front midranges installed and ready to go, I turned my attention to the mounting of the horns... and i hate installing horns.

i mentioned earlier that there are two things I absolutely detest in this hobby, and that's deadening cars, and hanging horns.

so, with the dread of today in front of me, i went to work patiently, and thoughtfully, looking for the best solution.

first off, a thing about the horns. there are a lot of horn bodies out there, and out of the ones that I've used, I prefer to use the minihorns from Eric Stevens, as they are what I consider the most "install friendly" horns I've seen. they are small, the angle of the neck allows them to get fairly wide without any modifications, you can push them back pretty far out of the way.

so, first thing is making sure i have horns that are easy to install. second is weight. heavy horns are a bear to hang... which is one of the reasons why i went with the bms 4552nd Neo compression drivers... they are small in size, and they don't weigh very much. third thing is magnet pains. if you've hung horns, then you know every time the compression driver comes into contact with sheet metal, you're in for a wicked fight to get them loose.

so, this is why I came up with these. i'm sick and tired of scratching the horns, and them pulling towards every metal piece in the car. simple diy fix for this is to use some scrap ccf, and a zip tie... and voila... you have a protective sock for the driver.



after looking around for quite some time at possible mounting locations and hanging solutions I settled on one that would be the easiest, and the most effective.

most people will use backstrap, and hang it from a post within the dash... and then attach it to the front of the dash with more strap... it all leads to a pretty flimsy solution.

now, in my location hunting, I found out that i could get the side horn mouth within 3/8" of the body metal. the little indent in the kick panels allowed me the extra room. so i trimmed to bodies way down... but i made sure i did so with a strong 90 degree angle.
(again, trimming the bodies, getting rid of the unnecessary fat, allows me to have have extra feet room as well... which is important when i'm driving.)

so, I decided to fab up some brackets that will allow me to attach the horn at the mouth.. and because of the way that the horn is designed, almost all of the weight is placed on this bracket as well... eliminating my need to use any other install points.

here I'm drilling three holes per horn:



and i'm countersinking the inside so i don't have bolt heads sticking out:



i used two pieces of aluminum in this install. one that attaches to the horns and the bracket, and the bracket that attaches to the body of the car. i drilled three holes to coincide with the horn mount as well as the body mount.



then I attached the horn bracket. now, with horns, you want the inside to be as smooth as possible. countersinking my bolts caused a bit of a problem with that, but not one that i hadn't anticipated. with my new found love of CA glue, i angled the horn in a way that the countersunk holes were horizontal .. and then filled each to the top with ca glue and used the accelerator to cure it. now, it's like i didn't even cut into the horn



it was important that nothing stuck out of the bracket, so it wouldn't influence the way that this bracket would mate with the one in the car. i trimmed off the excess threads on the bolts that were securing the horn bracket.



after using some self tapping screws and some patience in lining everything up, here is what we have:



nice, level, and sturdy.

i repeated the same thing on the passenger side:



on the passenger side, the glove box makes up part of the underside of the dash. consequently, it also has a hinge that was getting in my way, and so I decided to remove it. in this picture you'll see it trimmed down on the left side:



and some final pictures for you... (mind you I still need to address the wiring in the kick areas and reinstall the factory kick panels ... that will be for another day. )

view from the passenger seat:



and a little bit lower:



view from the drivers seat (say hello to my legs )



and a little bit lower:








i love horns. i hate the process of installing them. this was, by far, the easiest solution that I have found, but still abiding by conventional horn aiming techniques.

i love how they are hidden from complete view, and how they can present a huge stage with depth to spare, good height and width, and most of all, dynamics.

i fully intend on telling people my system is factory because unless you knew better, you really wouldn't be anyone the wiser.

i still have a few things to address, like creating a few underdash panels, the kickpanels, etc... but all in all, i got a TON done today and I'm super stoked about it.

edit: oh, I guess I should add, that even my size 12 feet don't have a problem with the clutch pedal... another reason why i like the mini's ... they stay out of my way

[mattyjman]

not much install love from you guys out there... ?

[mattyjman]

looks like Christmas came early boys...



nice packaging technique...



all the flak on forums about the wait time for AE subs... came in under the quoted timeframe for me.





these things are beasts... I'm SOOOO stoked.

here's a sign of things to come -

[charlietuna]

I'm not a audio guy.... But this is an awesome build.

[darkrider01]

I'd love to hear this in person some day. I've learned a lot just from following this build.

[was619]

Well after reading through this awesome build all I can say is that I love all of it except for the firing direction of your subs.(trunk pass through) al though it does make the most sense to have them there.
Keep up the great work and would love to hear some specific reviews on whether the sound deadening techniques(layers used) works well or not. I have a friend who ripped his entire interrupt out just like you did, put down a layer of dynomat everywhere and was less than impressed with the results saying that it only improved the audio a little and out side noises are still the same.
Please let us all know if it helps reduce out side noise as well as helps your new audio setup!

[mattyjman]

Originally Posted by charlietuna

I'm not a audio guy.... But this is an awesome build.

Originally Posted by darkrider01

I'd love to hear this in person some day. I've learned a lot just from following this build.

thanks guys... i'm glad y'all are getting something out of it... if nothing else, i like to go back and see the whole process from beginning to the end ... it makes me appreciate what it takes to really get good sound ... you can slap some gear in, even really expensive gear, but the install is where systems are made or broken. i've heard very cheap systems that are installed thoughtfully sound way better than an install of very expensive equipment that was just slapped together.

[mattyjman]

Originally Posted by was619

Well after reading through this awesome build all I can say is that I love all of it except for the firing direction of your subs.(trunk pass through) al though it does make the most sense to have them there.
Keep up the great work and would love to hear some specific reviews on whether the sound deadening techniques(layers used) works well or not. I have a friend who ripped his entire interrupt out just like you did, put down a layer of dynomat everywhere and was less than impressed with the results saying that it only improved the audio a little and out side noises are still the same.
Please let us all know if it helps reduce out side noise as well as helps your new audio setup!

subs are going to be installed in an IB configuration... otherwise known as free air, so they have to be installed this way... besides, there really isn't any better solution for 15's in the trunk anyway.

as for the deadening... there is a right way and a wrong way to approach this. first is understanding what tools to use.

your friend who dynamated his entire car used the wrong tool to achieve his desired result.

dynamat, or the CLD tiles I'm using, are for vibration damping, not noise or sound isolation. you need a noise barrier for that.

cld - constrained layer dampener - panel resonances and vibrations
mlv - mass loaded vinyl - applied properly, this is what keeps road noise out, as the sound waves can't penetrate the mlv. if you make a seamless barrier around the entire inside of the car, this is pretty effective at quieting the car. it isn't total however, as there is glass, and certain areas that you can't treat.
ccf- closed cell foam - decoupling device used between the sheet metal and the mlv - keeps vibrations from getting through to the mlv and interior
thinsulate - acoustic material developed to absorb noise

these are all the things i used and why. all this is to quiet road noise and exterior noises that come through the car. however it doesn't increase the quality of the sound... it will never do that.

this is a pretty oversimplified version of car deadening, but you can quickly see why layering the entire car with dynomat won't achieve the results someone is looking for. that's why i have only gone for 25% coverage ... any more and it's just a waste.

hope that helps.

[was619]

That's a great help! I will reference this thread when I go to buy the various products you mention.
I can see why you need multiple layer as well. Seems like the reason why he didn't think he got much out of it.
Thanks man!

[mattyjman]

if you really want a more in depth explanation, check out this site:

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/

it's where i ordered all my stuff, and Don (the owner) is really a helpful guy... good business.

[midnightwarrior]

Are you at the point where you know how much excess sound deadining materials your going to have?

[mattyjman]

Originally Posted by midnightwarrior

Are you at the point where you know how much excess sound deadining materials your going to have?

unfortunately, no.

i still have the back seat, deck, rear quarter panels, and the entire trunk to do. I'm thinking i'll probably have 10-15% excess, but it's too early to tell.

[midnightwarrior]

Cant wait for the update!