Car mods; restoration; rehab; audio thread

[guids]

I am by no means a super expert on cars, I have restored a couple, 66 mustang, a couple wranglers, in teh process of redoing a superbee, and was a car audio nerd in HS. Ill just give a quick little rundown, and hopefully it will spur a discussion


audio:

this is pretty general, and the first thing you need to do is sit down and plan your budget. your budget is the determining factor on how you want to approacha new audio system. Never buy an "install kit", find a good electronics shop, and you will be able to find all your inline breakers, 4/8 gauge power wire, rca cables etc, for about 10% of what they charge for a kit at best buy

generally:

100 to 500: this will get you a new head unit, and maybe some replacement factory speakers, a cheap amp to power them

500 to 1000: this can get you a nice sub/amp, amp and new speakers, and a head unit

1000+ all the above, but w/ good components, and nicer amps etc


component speakers are basically 2 or 3 seperate speakers, that have a crossover to seperate the frequencies to the correct part (tweeter= high range, mid = voice, sub = bass), good compontents and a good amp will in some cases get you as much bass as a crappy sub. The most important part about getting good bass from any speaker/sub is the box/enclosure, bass moves air, getting the right sized box will allow you to move the most amount of air, and get the loudest bass. It doesnt matter too much where you position your speakers that are providing the bass, it is very important to get your tweeters about eye level, near your head, this will get you the best sound.


basically, a simple setup, is a headunit, with 2 sets of RCA cables from the head unit to your trunk, and a 4 guage power wire with an inline breaker, also to teh trunk. Split the power wire using a splitter into 2 8 gauge wires so you can power the sub, you also need to run a "remote" wire along with teh power wire so teh amp knows when to shutoff (see your headunit instructions for details), also your RCA cables ran from teh headunit to teh trunk to get the sound to them. Ground your amps negative directly to teh trunk, adn always run your rca on the opposite side of the car as teh power to prevent distortion. than you just run speaker wire from the amps to each of the speakers.


good brands for whatever you need: alpine, jbl, rockford fosgate.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/newbie/

great site on car computers etc


car mods and restoration:
this is really too big of a subject, so if you guys have questions just post them, and Im sure I or someone will be able to help

[guids]

oh [censored], mods, move this over to EL D's forum for me

[TheRover]

I didn't see this reposted in Diablo's forum so I'll post here.

I really need a good how to guide on fixing surface rust and more importantly fixing spots that are rusted through.

I've read this , but it only seems to apply to surface rust.

I am going to take a look at a 1973 Jensen-Healey this weekend described as: ran after injecting fuel in carb., minor surface rust w/ one spot rusted through, minor seat damage, needs new top.

Lotus engine, Lucas wiring, hard to find/expensive parts... am I entering a world of pain or am I entering a WORLD OF [censored] PAIN?

[theblackkeys]

guids,
how did you handle the body/rust restoration? Did you send it to a shop? Or did you do it yourself? I think that's the major issue with restoring a car yourself. You need welders and other equipment to do the job right. It's probably worth it in most cases to send it out for repair. I think interior and engine rebuilds can be done at home easier than bodywork.

I had a '56 VW bug (oval window), it had a nice body, needed a bit of work, and I didn't have the resources to work on the body. I ended up selling it. Wish I hadn't now, but I didn't have much of a choice. I was pretty lazy at the time, but I did get some engine work done.

I will buy another old bug, and I plan on building a hot motor for it. If anyone's restored a car and has pictures, it would be cool to see.

[CrashPat]

guids,

I know you are a bit of a wrangler guy, I have a CJ5 that I just put a new console in that has a DIN slot that's weather proof. The old radio is some tape/am/fm thing that I'll leave in the dash, it doesn't work, and the old speakers died so I clipped the wires and removed them.

What I'm looking for is a cheap solution for speakers, but they need to be waterproof as they will be exposed to the elements for most of the winter. Additionally I'd like to be able to hear them at highway speeds with the top off, without blowing them up. Sound quality is secondary, the amount of wind noise at 65 mph is enough that as long as I can hear them I'd be happy.

Several companies sell enclosures that sit above the shifter and have two 6" speakers or whatever, do you have experience with those? If those work I'd prefer it as the rear speakers always got in the way before.

[z28dreams]

I used to be into car audio a lot too, and most of what guids said is pretty spot on.

Car audio installs get pretty expensive as soon as you decide to go with an amplifier of any sort.

Here are all the parts you'll typically need for a full setup, and things to look for.

CD /MP3 Head Unit ($150 - $$$$$$$$ )
- RCA outputs - you'll want at least 2 sets of outputs, 3 if you are using a subwoofer
- HD-radio - becoming standard on some radios now, a nice but not incredible feature. Quality is kinda so-so (112kbps)
- USB or SD card port - I wish I had this on my radio - plug in a thumb drive or memory card and play
- Auxillary input - usually a 3.5mm jack for hooking up any outside source. Some are proprietary, some use RCA's.
- Extra parts needed: mounting kit (makes it fit your dash), wire harness, antenna adapter(for some cars).
- You may also need additional adapters if you have a premium sound system (bose,monsoon,etc) in order to work with their built in amps.
- Good bang-for-your-buck brands: Pioneer, Alpine
- Good higher-end brands: Eclipse

Component Speakers - ($150+).
- These come in a variety of sizes, but most popular are 5.25" and 6.5". If possible, 6.5" provides a LOT better midbass than 5.25" in my experience. Some cars can fit them, others need extensive custom fiberglass work. Some come as 3-way sets (usually a 6.5", 4", then tweeter).
- Good bang for the buck brands - CDT, Infinity, etc
- Good higher end brands- CDT, MA Audio, Rainbow, Arc Audio, A/D/S, etc
- no extra parts needed

Amplifier
- This depends entirely on your setup. There are 2 main styles of amplifiers: A/B class (for your normal speakers) and D-class (for your subwoofers).
- A/B amps provide higher quality output, but are less efficient than d-class subs.
- Some manufacturers make multichannel amps that are meant to run everything. These are usually 5-channel amps that have 4 channels, one to each speaker, then a fifth to the sub.
- Extra parts required: Amp wiring kit (power cable, ground cable, remote-turn-on cable, RCA wires, battery terminal, fuses, hardware for connections (washers/screws/etc))
- Good bang-for-the-buck brands: (not sure on this) last I checked Directed, Clarion, Alpine, etc were good.
- Good higher-end brands: Arc, a/d/s, etc

Subwoofers
- subwoofers come in many varieties. most are optimized either for SPL (loudness) or SQ (sound quality).
- I believe that a single 12" subwoofer is more than sufficient for any car
- Like guids mentioned, the enclosure is critical. I think sealed boxes have the tightest sound, but it depends on the speaker. The specs of different subs lend them to work better in ported/sealed/etc boxes. There is also software available for box-building. The most important aspect is matching the proper internal air volume (in cubic feet usually).
- subs come in dual or single voice coils - these coils can be 2ohm, 4ohm, or 8ohm.
- your amplifier and subwoofer should be matched for this impedance. Amps are rated to be "4ohm mono stable" "2ohm mono stable" or "1ohm mono stable" usually. The lower the number, the bigger load you can put on the amp.
- in most cases, for a single subwoofer, you'll want a 4ohm single voice coil sub. For 2 subwoofers, you'll want 2 dual voice coil subs that are dual-4ohm subs run in parallel
( 4 series 4 || 4 series 4 ) = a 4 ohm total load
- good bang-for-your buck brands: image dynamics (IDQ 12"), audiobah, alpine type r

General Tips
- focus your money on a good head unit and front component speakers
- if you don't often have passengers, rear fill speakers are pretty unnecessary and just add expense
- don't go crazy with subwoofers - a single 12" is more than enough for most people
- buy accessories online - things like wiring, mount kits, etc are MUCH cheaper online than in stores
- the technical aspect of installing this stuff isn't actually very hard. The bitch is actually getting access to everything. Some cars make it very easy to disassemble, others are a lot of work and require entire disassembly of the dashboard.

That's all for now - feel free to ask any questions.

[gusmahler]

I had a shop install an amp and a subwoofer for my first car. (Traditional install. Head unit where it belongs. RCAs to the amp in the trunk which powered all the speakers and the sub.)

It always had a terrible whine in it. I think it was interference between the power line and the signal lines. I brought it back 3 times. Each time, they could reduce the interference. But they could never get rid of it. I ended up not replacing the stereo after it was stolen and have kept my cars stock ever since.

How is that kind of interference avoidable?

[z28dreams]

Gus - it can be a few things, but sometimes it's tough to get rid of.

A few tips:

(1) Never run power wires parallel to RCA cables
(2) You may want to actually tun the -speaker wire- all up the same side as the RCA's.

example:
driver-side: power/remote wire
passenger side: both sets rca's, speaker wire to passenger front door, speaker wire to driver front door. Then run the speaker wire across the car to the driver side front door underneath the carpeting.

I've also been told there are filters you can put near the alternator, but I'm not sure how well they work.

[guids]

[ QUOTE ]
guids,

I know you are a bit of a wrangler guy, I have a CJ5 that I just put a new console in that has a DIN slot that's weather proof. The old radio is some tape/am/fm thing that I'll leave in the dash, it doesn't work, and the old speakers died so I clipped the wires and removed them.

What I'm looking for is a cheap solution for speakers, but they need to be waterproof as they will be exposed to the elements for most of the winter. Additionally I'd like to be able to hear them at highway speeds with the top off, without blowing them up. Sound quality is secondary, the amount of wind noise at 65 mph is enough that as long as I can hear them I'd be happy.

Several companies sell enclosures that sit above the shifter and have two 6" speakers or whatever, do you have experience with those? If those work I'd prefer it as the rear speakers always got in the way before.

[/ QUOTE ]

boat speakers. you probably have to order them from a catalog, but my last wrangler we put boat speakers in, which are pretty good against the elements.


ill get to the rest of the questions later

[TheRover]

hey guids, can you post a pic of your Superbee before you started restoring it?