great work so far! i def. agree on the Z06 needing the Cf treatment from the factory, and it looks great!
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great work so far! i def. agree on the Z06 needing the Cf treatment from the factory, and it looks great!
Thanks. The CF looks SOOOOOO much better than the plastic in there. I didn't go over board, I think I did just the right amount and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Also, I got several emails and replies about those baffles behind the Seas mid bass drivers. Bad idea apparently so I'll be pulling out the baffle and cutting out everything except a cover on the top.
Jay
i decided not to mention it-- it was something that would have worked itself out when the speakers were lacking. your on the right track though-- in my own install, i used some pieces of gasket rubber above the mids to prevent water from coming in direct contact with the driver components(peerless hds 6.5" nomex drivers)..
the other thing about those particular foam covers is their cone shape-- with certain mids, like my hds's, the magnet is almost as large as the cutout, so the cone shape would completely block the back wave of the driver..
another thing to keep in mind with the door panels is to try to keep the openings along the bottom clear so water can drain from the panels correctly..
Now on to the sound deadening of the cabin but first a few pics of the original dampening material:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSC00385.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSC00384.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/DSC00383.jpg
And some more I added:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5094028.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154033.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154034.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154035.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154037.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154038.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154039.jpg
I did the back wheel wells and all back behind that area as well as all the vertical parts of the back hatch. I didn’t take any pictures of that but you get the idea.
Jay
Now for the true sound deadening material:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5214072.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5214071.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5214069.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5154044.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/P5074012.jpg
And I do similar applications to the back along the wheel wells and inside quarter panels and vertical areas. All in all it takes me about 3 months of working here and there to get this part done. I will not be quitting my day job, I would starve trying to do this for a living.
While having the car apart I wanted to have my tweets in the A-pillar. Problem was I did not know how to do this but I did know someone that did. Problem was this particular someone would not do them without the car present so he could properly aim the drivers. So matter how much I tried to get him to do it he wouldn’t. I respect a man that sticks to his principles. Good man Bing! So I tried to line up a fellow Corvette forum member to let him borrow the car for an afternoon. I just about had this done when Bing emailed me saying he had another C6 in the lineup for an install. Send him the A-pillars pronto and he could get them done. So off they went to bing for his magical treatment. Here’s a few pics of them. I borrowed some previous pics from Bing but the process is the same:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...lar/vette9.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ar/vette10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ar/vette11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/P7104602.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/P7104601.jpg
The pillars are then sent off to be covered in black Alcantara. All in all it takes about 5 months to get the pillars sent to Bing and back from the leather shop. It takes forever but the end result is worth it.
Jay
Ok, so now we have all the sound deadening done…and thank God for that. I swear I’ll never do that again. It was a PITA…worth it…but a PITA. I’ve got all the interior parts off being covered in leather or Alcantara. I sent the Dash and carpet to Caravaggio and many of the other plastic parts to APSIS for covering. Those are trickling back little by little. This gives me time to start the component placement and wiring phase of the project.
My biggest issue now is where to place all the parts. I’m having spatial issues with the amps and PC and other bits and pieces in the back…I just can’t seem to get everything to fit and keep my hatch area volume loss within my specifications. So I called on a very well known installer here I had gotten my DSP6 from, Bing. He and I started chatting about options. He was very nice to answer my emails and give me some pointers. He helped me pick my drivers, which I bought from him, and sold me the DSP6 and DRC controller.
After much debate I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to stay with the Macs, I would have to raise the floor up past the lip in the back. The other option was to go with different amps. Ones that were very thin that would allow me to keep the floor within my limits. After much thought and the pros and cons of each, I decided that keeping the floor to my max height was more important that using the Mac amps. Bing advised that I could go with the Zapco DC Ref series amps that would do all the processing I wanted (one of the goals was to be able to do the processing from the drivers seat…that’s why the DSP6 was such a great option for me). I would still be able to use the PC and the circuitry in the amps was the same as the DSP6. So this was a major deal, I could eliminate one box. The opened up the cubby hole on the drivers side and I could put the PC down in that hole.
Looking at the physical dimensions of the amps I could tell this would be a much better solution and open up a lot of valuable space I could use. I also decided to go with a pair of SLB-U volume controllers. One would be the master control for ALL drivers and I would split that signal and use the second one for Sub volume control.
The drivers were installed as previously described. The mid bass and mid were in the door, kicks were not an option for me due to limited foot space in the Vette. I over did the doors knowing these drivers would go there and knowing they were not the optimal spots but if the doors were done right would maximize their performance. On another note, I did remove the baffles to the mid bass drivers after several folks told me (Bing being one of them) that this was not a good idea and would not be best of SQ and would really hold back those mid bass drivers.
So I purchased 3 Zapco DC Ref amps. A 650.6 for the mids and mid bass. Channels 1,2 and 3.4 were bridged for the Seas RW 165 mid bass drivers. Channels 5 and 6 for the DLS UR 2.5 mids. For the Seas rt27f tweets I got a 200.2. Finally for the DLS Reference W10 10 inch sub (got two of those), I got a 1100.1 amp to drive those two. I plan on running those in parallel at 1 ohm (both SVC at 2 ohm). The subs will be housed in a custom fiberglass enclosure in the back corners.
So that’s the plan and so I started laying out parts to see the best fit. Here’s are a few pics
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P8234753.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P8234752.jpg
I went through a number of spots for everything placing, pickup up, moving and finally this is the end result where all the back parts ended:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/PC114904.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/PC114905.jpg
The computer went into that cubby hole in the upper left hand part of the shot. It’s hard to see and I’ll post some more pics of that here in a bit. But for the most part, this is what it looks like today. I’ve wired up everything as seen. There is a power block and ground block. There are distribution bus bars and a few relays that control fans, amp turn on and retained accessory power functions. There is a video security system in the back as well. This can be access by the PC and videos reviewed. This automatically records when the car is turned on and stays recording for a specified amount of time after it’s turned off. I still have a few more security features to add.
I did not want to drill into the floor board in the back hatch. There are things like brake lines and gas tanks and what not that would not react well to screws. So I needed to epoxy threaded stand offs to hold the parts in place. A buddy of mine got me some aerospace epoxy used on the YF22 for just this sort of thing. Turns out one can buy the stuff mail order as well:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P8174743.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P8174744.jpg
And a few pictures of the stand off going into place:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P9244799.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P9244802.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P9294805.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h/P9294806.jpg
Next, we’ll get into the PC and how that evolved over time.
Jay
i don't know if wiring the subs as 1 ohm loads is going to be the best for sq-- the lower the end load, the less control the amp will have over the sub, but the louder it will be..
Does the 06 Z06 use GMLAN?
If you ever get sick of it, I'd be happy to take it off your hands ;). I'd even do it for free too! I'm just a nice guy like that.
The beauty of the way I have things setup is I can easily change the wiring from paralell to series to just one sub so I can play with different configs and see what works.Quote:
Originally Posted by soundman98
Jay
I don't think so. It uses GM's class 2 protocol. I don't think the CAN system started showing up in the vette until 08...but don't quote me on that.Quote:
Originally Posted by tripzero
Jay