The Stereo

Demmy has always liked having a nice audio system in her car.  When her Altima was totaled I pulled the system out of it with the intention of installing it in a modified form into her Maxima (since we can't get full coverage on a salvage titled car).  We planned on buying a new deck, some wiring and building a new box for her car, unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

The first step went fine.  We picked up a JVC deck on the cheap and I flush mounted it in her dash.

Next I built a new speaker box.  Her two 12" Elemental Design subwoofers were removed from the old speaker box and I made a new compact isobaric box for them (easier than it sounds).

First I made a mounting plate to attach the two subwoofers together so they wouldn't hit.

Then I built a box to mount the new "subwoofer" into.  I went through several different designs and modifications before I ended up with the finished product.  You can see where I was test fitting it, the sub fires right through the trunk pass-through in the rear seat.  Bolts were countersunk and glued into place to hold the combined speaker in place.

I wanted the "horn" to be smooth flowing to prevent any noise and to make it look as if the box were carved from a single block.  I filled the area with expanding foam, shaped the foam, fiberglassed over the foam and used body filler to smooth it out.  The finished product was painted with hammerite green paint that closely matches the exterior paint on her car.

The box was tested at this point.  I decided it was still too big (after some intense calculations) so it was further cut down and made symmetric.  Since Demmy will be autocrossing this car eventually, I wanted the box to be removable.  I made a lightweight tube steel frame and powder coated it with crinkle black paint.

After the box was completed and tested, we decided that the speakers she had in the Altima weren't going to cut it in the Maxima.  We picked up 2 pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect's on ebay and I installed them in the doors and rear deck.  These speakers are AWESOME!

When we tested one of the earlier subwoofer box designs we discovered that our MTX sub amp had died (again, after 3 previous times in the MTX shop).  I've had enough fun with MTX so we decided to pick up two new Audiobahn HC series amps (gotta love ebay).  I fabricated an amp rack that would make them appear to "float" next to the sub box.  The amp rack was also powder coated in crinkle black.

Finally, these big amp's need big power.  A 0 gauge cable was run from the battery to the new 3 farad capacitor which was mounted on the other side of the sub box.  4 gauge cables go from the capacitor to the amps.  Of course I fabricated a custom mount for the capacitor and powder coated it with crinkle black to match.

I still need to chase down some rattles and cover the speaker box, but here is the "almost" finished product.  It looks and sounds awesome!  It is by far my best stereo install to date (sound quality and looks).

(datsun510.arizonagt.org) (Dementia)