2002 stereo system build

[HCCA 250]

Thought you guys might get some idea from this.

Second Skin Damplifier Pro

Second Skin Luxury Liner Pro

 

[HCCA 250]

Main power wire from engine bay, though firewall.

Inside view through firwall.

And, down the driver's side channel.

DC Power 230 Amp Alt. Stinger terminal & 1/0 wire.

 

[HCCA 250]

Framing up the amp rack.

Cooling fans on the corers.

I drilled out the faux speaker grilles, as they only had an opening for the 6x8 plate speaker. The speaker was 6x8, but the speaker opening was more like 4x6. Not a large enough opening for the BA Pro 60's.

Speaker adapter plate for the 6 1/2's.

 

[HCCA 250]

Boston Acoustics Pro 60 components

The door install
The Mid bass response is improved when you seal off the backwave. If you look carefully, hopefully you can see where I added SS Overkill Pro over a layer of Damplifier Pro on the outer door skin. I then added another layer (two, in some spots) of SS DP on the inner door skin.

 

[HCCA 250]

The speaker is installed with the supplied 1/2" spacers.

Though, I'm working on some angled spacers. Will post up if that succeeds.

Very important for all speaker installs in '02, and newer Explorers; brace your doors!!! The speaker baffle doesn't move much, but the backwave of the speaker makes the inner door skin move DRAMATICALLY! Specifically, in the area of the door handle. I attached a piece of 1/2" square steel tubing, directly below the door handle. Huge improvement, in both MB response, SQ, and I could lower the HP cutoff by 25 Hz while still not having the speaker bottom out.

 

[HCCA 250]

Not the best place for the crossover, but it will work, for now.

Pioneer DEH-800-PRS

And, changer under the seat.

Amps installed. One Boston Acoustics GT-24 supplying 225 W/ch to the mids/tweets. Two GT-28's, each supplying 1250W/sub.

Used a piano hinge across the full width of the lid.

Two JBL W12GTi's in 1 cft sealed.

 

[Nixthebomb]

Wow, nice system, got my installed this weekend, still need to take pics

 

[aznboi3644]

VERY FEW people know the importance of proper sound damping. Good job.

 

[BigBoom]

very clean install. plan on any trim panels on the side of the box? looks good regardless.

and second skin? DC alts? very very nice stuff there. you over on SMD at all? those names are flying around there all the time. good stuff tho

 

[HCCA 250]

SMD? Not sure what that is...

BTW, added still more bracing. Even better than the previous bracing!

 

[BigBoom]

smd is stevemeadedesigns.com. it's an audio forum. good lookin out on the bracing too

 

[HCCA 250]

smd is stevemeadedesigns.com. it's an audio forum. good lookin out on the bracing too

Well, thanks for the link. It ought to keep me busy for while!

 

[rumproast789]

what did you use for your speaker adapter plate? I got 6.5" speakers because for some reason I thought they were the same size. No biggy.
I am going to sound deaden all doors and trunk, maybe eventually roof and floors but IDK if I could just tear the car apart like that.

I am also interested in your bracing on the doors. You are saying the speakers are making the door panels flex around the handles on the inside?
Could you link me to some of the stuff you used, or where to get some?

 

[HCCA 250]

what did you use for your speaker adapter plate? I got 6.5" speakers because for some reason I thought they were the same size. No biggy.
I am going to sound deaden all doors and trunk, maybe eventually roof and floors but IDK if I could just tear the car apart like that.

I am also interested in your bracing on the doors. You are saying the speakers are making the door panels flex around the handles on the inside?
Could you link me to some of the stuff you used, or where to get some?

For the speaker adapter plate, I used aluminum sheeting. It's about .060" thick...or so. I got it from a guy I work with. He had a few large sheets of it. You can probably get something similar at Home Depot, Menards, Lowes, etc...

The bracing is 1/2" square tube steel stock, from Ace Hardware. The silver stuff you see on the door is SecondSkin Damplifier Pro. I used the DP to close off all small holes (except, for the holes where the door skin cleats go), and the same aluminum sheeting as for the speaker adapter, to make a cover for the access hole. I covered everything with DP, after that, and then cut the square tube steel to fit over that. I counter sunk the holes for the screws, at approx 3" intervals. Just eyeballed it. I didn't actually measure. In a few places, I placed nylon washers/spacers behind the tube steel, to keep from torqueing the steel, or aluminum. Those were from Ace, also.

When you get the door card off, pull on the door handle. Watch the steel. You can see it flexes realllly bad. The bracing cuts that flexing down to almost nothing at all. So, if you notice your sound lacking in the midbass area, or even hear your speaker bottoming out, this will boost your MB, and likely reduce or stop any bottoming out.

NOTE: I forgot to mention that the brace on the lower part of the door, is the 1/2" tube steel stock RIPPED LENGTHWISE. I didn't think there was enought space between the door card, and the door steel. It seemed to work fine. Though, you will need to have a band saw, or access to one, to cut the tube steel this way. You don't want to use flat steel for this, either, it doesn't have nearly the stiffness the tube stock does.

 

[RobClay]

Very nice install. I just did my roof and floor of my trunk with ss damp pro. but used some of the new kind that has the black foil. Stuff works great!

 

[HCCA 250]

very clean install. plan on any trim panels on the side of the box? looks good regardless.

and second skin? DC alts? very very nice stuff there. you over on SMD at all? those names are flying around there all the time. good stuff tho

Actually, I think I'll be making a new box. The manufacturer recommended a 1cft for a sealed box. It's too small. I think 1.25-1.5 cft would work much better. Time to play while the snow flies, though.

Very nice install. I just did my roof and floor of my trunk with ss damp pro. but used some of the new kind that has the black foil. Stuff works great!

I still want to do my roof, but after all this work, I just wanted to take a break, and enjoy the system. As for the SS...yup, awsome stuff!

 

[deernet]

Looks awesome, very clean. I've got a question about sub placement. In most systems I've seen people have their subs facing the back of the vehicle. Would you get better sound from placing them facing up like in your setup?

 

[BigBoom]

a small setup like that, it may not make a very audible difference. if one at all. in either position he has a decent amount of space to the roof or to the back hatch. in SUV's, ported boxes with subs up and port to the back tend to be one of the best ways to do it.

any reason why you did sealed over ported? if you said, i didnt see why, sorry. not that everyone looks for volume, but you could get louder with a ported box over the sealed.

 

[HCCA 250]

a small setup like that, it may not make a very audible difference. if one at all. in either position he has a decent amount of space to the roof or to the back hatch. in SUV's, ported boxes with subs up and port to the back tend to be one of the best ways to do it.

any reason why you did sealed over ported? if you said, i didnt see why, sorry. not that everyone looks for volume, but you could get louder with a ported box over the sealed.

Key, you made a note of "volume". By that I mean space in the rear of the vehicle. Ported would eat up over twice the space. I wanted some room left when I was done. Actually, I'm not disappointed with the sound from 2400 watts....even sealed.

 

[macknos94]

about how many square feet of damp pro material did you use? i have been wanting to do my floor and roof so bad. my passanger doors are done and sealed but after i got t-boned the body shop didn't replace it my dynamat. also what did you do to stop that rear window rattle? i'm sure you know what i mean.