[Alter Ego Trip]

To preface; I'm a huge HT buff, and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment and room treatments. I've always been one to do things myself rather than pay someone else. You just gain a greater sense of satisfaction when it's done. Well due to all my funds being dumped into my HT, my truck's have always been neglected. Well lately I've been getting the itch to do more than the basic install so I decided to tackle the project. This is a daily driver, and not designed to ever be near a sound comp. I also want the install to retain all the stock aesthetics.

Equipment:

Amps-
sub: MTX TE1501D
mains: MTX TE1004
front stage: JBL 660gti
subs: two 12" RE SE's
deck: Alpine W404 multi media and Alpine 12 disc changer
EQ: Imprint
wiring: Knu Koncepts 1/0 gauge, 4 gauge, etc.
sound deadening: Raammat and ensolite

Interior Gutted, nice and shiny.

Doors are gutted as well. I chose to remove the window regulator's to make getting deadening inside the door a whole lot easier. Chevy really makes it nice for taking things apart. Half the truck was assembled with a 10mm socket.

Don't forget to tape up the window before removing the reg though. Bad things will happen if you don't.

Even though it's a purty yellow, avoid messing with the box under the driver's side seat. This controls the airbag....nuff said.

First layer of mat is down. I used a combination of wiffle ball and golf ball to roll it around the curves. This took a lot longer than I originally figured.

Second layer finished. Flat exhausted at this point. The only part that didn't get a full two layers we're directly above the front seats. I ran out and had to make do with what I had.

Back wall finished. This will only see a single layer as well.

Stopped for a few minutes to snap a few pic's of a T storm rolling through.

OK, enough screwing around, back to work. Stuffed a bunch of ensolite in the back quarters.

I doubt it will do much, but seeing as I had a bunch left over I decided to lay some on the floor pan.

Dropped 2 layers on the outside inner panel, and also covered any piece of exposed metal (intrusion bar, etc). Definitely made a difference knocking on the door. There was also a surprising improvement between the first and second layer. Here's part way through.

I also added some ensolite behind the speaker position to help with standing waves.

Seeing as I only had 2 days off work in a row, and this is my daily driver, I had to get cracking and at least get the truck back to driveable. You'd laugh if you saw me trying to remember how it all went back together. Lack of sleep doesn't help any.

Reg's back in the doors and ready for the outer skin. I'm in the process of building some MDF spacers for the door openings. This should create a little diffusion between the speaker and metal door. In trying to stick with the stock look, the JBL tweeters will be mounted above the woofer with the included waveguides. Thank goodness for Chevy's massive speaker grille's.

Cut out the MDF for the amp rack. Covered the back of it with ensolite to dampen it from the back wall. Yes I used screws to attach it to the back wall. I know some of you are adamant against this, but in case you haven't noticed, Chevy cut two huge holes for vents on each side of the cab. I doubt a tiny screw hole is going to matter much. Besides, I figure removal of amp rack is easier this way than using liquid nails. Screws are stainless to prevent any corrosion.

Mounted amps, distribution block, and Imprint. Ran all the speaker wire. I had 12 gauge left over from my theater install so I used that. Maybe a little bit of an overkill but it was free.

That's all for now, comment welcome.

 

[Chris.]

1501d :drool:

Never shoulda sold mine..

looking great. should be a nice setup.

 

[08RCSB]

Nice.

 

[jschrock]

Hell yeah keep us posted with pics!

 

[Alter Ego Trip]

1501d :drool:

Never shoulda sold mine..

looking great. should be a nice setup.

Ya, I laugh at all the people who blow them off cause they're not a Sundown, IA, etc. I have run MTX for years with nothing but great luck. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try out a Mac, but for the money I'd rather invest it in my theater over a daily driver.

 

[jschrock]

Ya, I laugh at all the people who blow them off cause they're not a Sundown, IA, etc. I have run MTX for years with nothing but great luck. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to try out a Mac, but for the money I'd rather invest it in my theater over a daily driver.

i had one pushing my 9500s til it fried then i went MEMPHIS! :tongue:

 

[Alter Ego Trip]

Nothing real exciting here. I finally made some time to continue with my wiring, and to finally deaden the inner door skin. When people mentioned how long it took to sound deaden I thought they must be really slow. It literally took me from 10 this morning until 10:30 this evening. A lot of it was molding the plates to cover the giant holes Chevy left in the door.

All wires are soldered and shrink wrapped.

Grounding points are stripped of paint.

Here's a shot of how the JBL 660GTI setup will look. The woofer will attach to the door with the waveguide tweeter plate mounting the the door panel itself. Tight fit, but should just make it.

I picked up some cold rolled 22 gauge steel for covering the holes. Took a while before I was happy with how it fit against the door. I applied deadening to the back and front of the panel.

Like a glove. Well not quite but close enough.

This panel was a pain in the butt. Attach, remove, trim, repeat. The door handle and lock rod's didn't help any either.

I wanted the panel to be easily removed in case I needed to service the door. I'm still debating about shaving the handles so I didn't want to have to tear everything apart should I want back in. This panel was sound deadened back and front same as the others, but the front coating was only attached to this panel, not overlaid like the rest. The last pic should show what I mean.

Ran out of steel so I had to go hunting through the shop. Found some spare aluminum kicking around. Not as easy to work with but it'll do.

Long since dark before I finished so this pic isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. I ran out of sms screws so I didn't finish the last cover. It's ready to go, just needs to be screwed down and deadened over. The doors weren't as neat looking as the floor. I was running really low on deadener so I had to piece some together here and there.

 

[chevybird2006]

DAMN!!!! overkill but awesome

 

[Alter Ego Trip]

DAMN!!!! overkill but awesome

Overkill. Is that like too much fun?

 

[matt14]

Looks great so far. Keep up the good work

 

[01 chevylover]

nice work man i need to do half as good of a job as u and i would be happy ur going above and beyound good for u keep the pics comeing

 

[[email protected]]

that looks really good. exquisite. I cant wait to see the final product

 

[hagan525]

dang use much sound deadener? looks good though man nicely done

 

[el semental]

that is a shitload of work, looks great .

 

[on1wheel06]

looking good so far.

im most likely going to use abs plastic to seal the doors.

 

[Spugen]

badass work!

keep the updates comin!

 

[Forklift]

average joe is doing great! Better than Ive done to mine so far

 

[redline05]

&#$%!!!
I had a nice, big post ready and it got deleted before I could post it! So now we have the paraphrased version:

-Great work on the deadening!
-I run the MTX Elite amps as well (TE604 and TE1004), and really enjoy them.
-I love the JBL 660GTi's, they are some of my favorite components sets sold on the market. They are everything that I love about a component set, and those 6.5's are the most natural-sounding mid-bass I've ever heard.

Keep up the great work.

 

[Alter Ego Trip]

-I love the JBL 660GTi's, they are some of my favorite components sets sold on the market. They are everything that I love about a component set, and those 6.5's are the most natural-sounding mid-bass I've ever heard.

That makes me feel much better. I was really leaning towards the Hertz Mille's due to loving their midbass extension and natural sounding tweeter but ended up switching to the 660's at the last minute. There aren't very many people who own them so reviews are few and far between, and I don't have anyone who carries them locally to be able to listen to them.

I'm sure the sound deadener was a little over the top, but seeing as I had it I figured I might as well use all of it.

 

[redline05]

That makes me feel much better. I was really leaning towards the Hertz Mille's due to loving their midbass extension and natural sounding tweeter but ended up switching to the 660's at the last minute. There aren't very many people who own them so reviews are few and far between, and I don't have anyone who carries them locally to be able to listen to them.

I'm sure the sound deadener was a little over the top, but seeing as I had it I figured I might as well use all of it.

You will not regret the decision on the 660GTi's. I've only heard them in a customer's vehicle that wasn't even tuned well, but it was quite obvious what they were capable of sounding like with just minor adjustment. That can be taken care of with the PXA-H100.

If you're going to tune the PXA-H100 yourself, send me a PM with any questions you might have. I've done as much Imprint tuning as anyone and picked up a few things along the way.