That would have to be the biggest downside for Dynamat, it is quite expensive indeed. I noticed the other day at Repco that prices for a custom sheet (which is basically one decent sized sheet) has gone up $10-12 in the last year or so over here. Luckily I got mine cheap through a guy on a dedicated audio forum, brand new in box, but he sold it to me damn cheap

Pity that material you speak of is now obsolete, sounds like it would be some great stuff for applying under carpet underlay etc. I'm guessing it would have be much cheaper than Dynamat too.

Hahaha, thank George, I guess I have always liked writing, evident by my long descriptive posts on here. I actually should have gone into journalism, probably would have been better pay than what I'm doing now


Cheers man, it looks tidy in the photo, but the stuff is all cut up to fit where ever it needed to go, heaps of creases in the aluminium from getting it into all the crevasses etc. Good thing is it doesn't matter how it looks as it's covered in the end. Yeah I removed all the original sound deadening, all it is a foam like sheet that is just lightly glued over the sheet metal. That foam sheet will be going back over the dynamat and then the door trim on top. That foam sheet actually helps quite a bit with road noise. It's amazing how many different noises you can hear driving around without door trims for over a week

As far as I know, Auckland is still alive and well hahaha. I really don't know why people keep predicting the end of the world all the time - media goes nuts about it and gets into all the vulnerable people's minds. I reckon if the world was going to end it would have happened already. People have been polluting the earth, mining, doing all kinds of bad s**t plus add on all the natural disasters etc and the earth is still going strong. All a bunch of BS I say

Yeah nice, i wouldnt mind doing it to mine, the old Ghia is pretty quiet on the road anyway but be awesome to have a dead quiet car, But man that stuff if pricey!!!
Lol and yeah the end of the world thing, all a load of s**t to me.... All the natural disasters lately are just the world cleansing itself, If it didnt we would run out of room for everyone!

Haven't been able to get much done in the way of the boot install/audio upgrade. s**t weekend weather (surprise surprise!!) has been keeping progress at bay. Did manage to get some work done last weekend though, managed to sort out the cutouts for the door trims, so hopefully once they are ready to go back on they will clear the woofers. The Hertz woofer on the driver's side has been wired up, and mounted with a bit of foam weather stripping applied either side of the mounting ring so it should have a nice seal and also protect the out edge of the speaker from rubbing the door trim if there is any. Tomorrow's job is to get the wiring done for the passenger side, mod the speaker cutout in the door, dynamat the door completely then mount the woofer. Possibly put the door trims back on if they get finished as they are getting a very minor once over at the moment.

Removed the Soundmagus mono amp to make way for the E-Audio 1000D. Since I'm most likely going to be running the amp at 1ohm to power the IDQ's, I'm thinking it could run a tad hot, and being mounted directly to carpet wouldn't be the best idea to keep the amp cool. Had a couple of rejected brass bushes we turned up on the lathes at work the other day so decided to put them to use. These bushes give about 10mm clearance between the amp and carpet so it should get a little bit more air around it.



Ran into a problem pretty much straight away with mounting the 1000D. With both amps up the right way, all connections on the 1000D were on the opposite side to the Soundmagus amp so all the RCA's and the power, earth, remote, speaker wiring cutouts in the amp wall were in the wrong place... Till I noticed that the badge in the centre of 1000D was a totally even shape and could be unscrewed, flipped 180degrees and then screwed back in. Problem solved!!! Hahaha, was pretty happy about that one. Ran the new Stinger Pro RCA's, connected up the right angled RCA adaptors, ran the bass remote wiring for the 1000D and then mounted the amp using the brass bushes. Turned out pretty decent, the 1000D looks much sexier than the Soundmagus, thats for sure.




While I was at it, decided to pull the sub box out and muck around with the setup before it all gets taken out. Ended up inverting the sub and changing the phase to suit. It looks pretty hardcase, and sounds like absolute s**t, will be getting pulled out first thing tomorrow



The 1000D runs it pretty well though

im gonna have to change my user name from Wtbdlltd to WtbKwikxr's boot install

LOL I just realised what your username actually was

yeah i joined this forum as i was looking for a dl ltd but ended up with a ef fairmont and cant figure out how to change my name

I'd love a DL LTD, they are sex on wheels. EF Fairmont's aren't too bad though

Might have to contact one of the FM moderators on here to sort out a name change

yeah i know almost cried when i saw Mar55s crashed hope it had a proper funeral

Yo Nato, how's the car coming along? I was up in Aucks over the weekend to see the mighty Wests Tigers crush the Warriors. Would have liked to come catch up and see the green machine, but it was a pretty fleeting visit - barring the damn ash cloud delays. I had initially planned on driving too, which would have been a better idea alround considering the unplanned volcanic activity, but I'll bring the Falcy up next time and we can do some time trial comparisons, lol.

Hey did you ever come across that gauge setup thing you used to have? If so I'd be well keen, as about to finally start some basic interior changes. Other than that I have been pretty slack lately. Too busy at work.

Just acquired a new set of monroe GT rears to replace the pedders sportsryders that are in there atm. They are too harsh and cause too much wheelspin off the mark I reckon. Need something with a bit more squish to let the big boy take off properly.

Other than that nada been happening really. Still got to put in injectors, replumb intake properly, spark leads, fuel reg, stereo, speakers, LSD head, rocker cover...bah - when is there time - they are all easy little things but so damn many of them lol.

Anyway mate - I'll let ya know next time I'm up there and we will catch up. Hit me up when you find them gauges too.

Al

Hey Al,

Mate, haven't really been up to much at all with the Fairmont, just keeping it clean and maintaining it is all lol. Have started losing a bit of motivation with it to be honest.. I still love the Fairmont, but I really want a nice e-series V8 to play with instead Anyways, I'm slowly getting the sound system upgrade in place (which I'm hoping to finish off this weekend), fingers crossed the weather people on the news are completely wrong and it won't piss down all weekend like they have predicted.

Never did come across that gauge thing, either I've hidden them somewhere I can't remember or someone has turfed them out haha. Its the exact same thing as this one, but at $50 I dunno if it'd be worth it http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-ste ... 458241.htm

Jeez that's a long way to come to watch the warriors get their a***'s whooped - you can pretty much see that on Sky sport nearly every week lol. Next time you're up this way give us a buzz and we'll sort something out .

Are they the Monroe GT sports you got? If so, let us know how you find them once they are in. I'm gonna be buying some new struts for mine soon, just weighing up options between Ultima shortened struts or the GT sports as they are the only 2 in my price range. Spring seat adjustable Bilsteins are a bit too out of my league at the moment lol

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While I'm here I may as well update with a lengthy post/rant about what's been happening with the sound upgrade..

I had the Hertz comps in, mounted and wired, but just couldn't get the right tweeter positioning with the tweeter cups the came with the set. On the trial install I got perfect imaging with the tweeters angled out from the mirror sail area, but with the angle on the cups and the slight angle of the sails, it points the tweeters downwards which just sounded weird. Thought about trying to make a fibreglass moulded cup using some polystyrene balls but meh, too much stuffing around and I wanted some sounds in the car asap which motivated me to fix my stuffed DD midbass woofer and if things went well, chuck that set in and see how they go. Seeing as no one was really willing to price me up a quote on a repair I decided to DIY it. Bit of urethane bonding adhesive between the speaker basket/spider, 6 hours drying time - good as new! How long the repair will last is beyond me, but I'll take my chances

Anyways, mounted the repaired woofer in the driver's door for testing, wired up the crossovers to mount in the map pockets and fitted the door trim up - nice fit!! Hooked up the tweeter and held it up positioned it in the mirror sail area. First impressions sound wise - holy s**t! These DD midbass woofers have a tonne of midbass kick, shocked the hell out of me at first to be honest (would have to give credit to the Dynamat here though), tight, punchy midbass, seemed to play quite happily high-passed off the headunit @ 50hz, but will be set @ 80hz once the sub's are in. Seems they get louder off the same power compared to the Hertz set, but overall the sound just isn't as 'smooth' - still the DD CS6.5 comps are a very nice set of speakers considering they are in fact DD's entry level set. Bad points - the DD tweeters are stupidly bright when mounted on-axis, off-axis they aren't so 'in your face' but still could do with toning down a bit. 2nd bad point - the DD crossovers have no adjustment for tweeter attenuation but that's easily sorted via the headunit.

So the DD's will be staying.... for now . Will probably try make something up to house those Hertz tweeters so I can get them in and running but for now, I CBF. I've gotten even more of an audio bug over the last few months and will probably upgrade to something else in the future anyway... I already have a few options lined up lol...

Have picked up a pair of DLS UP6 6.5" midbass drivers/woofers which may go in later on as part of a basic 2-way active front stage, along with either a pair of Vifa XT25 or Seas Prestige 27TFFNC/G tweeters.



And also picked up this Boschmann 3-way component set. 8" woofers, 4" mid's and 1" tweeters.



Only bought this set so I can muck around with speaker positioning if I decide to go that far with car audio lol. I'm thinking 8" woofers in custom glassed pods replacing the map pockets with the 4" mid's in the stock door speaker locations and tweeters mounted off the mirror sails.. and then hope that I won't get too much separation, lol. Will most likely use raw home audio drivers if I do go with a 3-way active front stage though. Something like Dayton Audio 7" or 8" Reference woofers, Peerless 3" and Vifa XT25 tweeters would be a nice start. Dreams are free, right

As for the subwoofers.. Well, the Pioneer TSW3001D4 subwoofer is now long gone. Managed to break the front baffle off the sub box so I can make a new baffle with 2 cut outs for the IDQ's. What a f**k mission! Learnt pretty quickly not to use Liquid Nails on something if you plan on pulling said something apart later on. Did a proper internal measure for volume and it calculated to be an almost exact 1.0cuft volume per sub enclosure after woofer displacement which is a measly 0.07cuft for an IDQ12. Bought a whole heap of dacron/polyfill from Spotlight last week so I'm pretty much sorted as long as the weather plays nice. Hopefully I can get most of it done tomorrow after the Fairmont goes in for a Warrant of Fitness inspection in the morning.

all that stereo talk has got me confused & feeling old, but damn that boot install looks tidy

well done !!

Hahaha, cheers FF

Should look a bit better once the replacement sub's are finally in. Speaking of which, I got a bit of work done on the sub box today in between the short bursts of rain every half hour

Managed to get as far as cutting up a piece for the dividing wall and the new front baffle, then glued and screwed them in place. Bought another terminal box so I have 1 for each sub, got that all pre-wired up ready to wire the subs up to when they get mounted so that's all out of the way.

Brought out the jigsaw and got to work cutting out the holes for the sub's. All was good until about 2mm left from finishing the first hole the jigsaw decided to commit suicide in my hand, lol. Didn't sound too good when it went clunk, crunch, bang and then free spin shooting off little sparks inside the housing. Opened it up and saw that the gear that runs off the main shaft inside the jigsaw completely broke off, sheared the crap out of teeth, and continued grinding itself away, generating enough heat to nearly melt straight through the plastic housing.



So this is where I'm at now, lol. Will duck out to Mitre 10 first thing tomorrow and buy another cheap $20 piece-o-s**t jigsaw and hope it'll last long enough to cut one more 12" hole as that's all it'll be needed for really. Fingers crossed the boot install will finally be all finished tomorrow and I can get back to finishing off the rest of the system inside the cabin.

Boy you sure give yourself some tough tasks
Bloody power tools, have a mind of their own.

How is the car going BTW? just wondering if you have done any more modding?

Definitely makes it worse when I don't use the right tools for the job .

The car is going alright at the moment mate. Sadly, nothing has changed really, makes it feel quite boring to drive sometimes lol. Just doing a bit of maintenance on it, needs the radiator hoses replaced at some stage (the lower hose was rubbing slightly on the alternator last time I looked, lol) so I picked up some blue Gates radiator hoses to go in. Needs new rotors and pad up front, new struts with Superlow springs, 30mm swaybar still needs to be fitted, pretty sure there will be a few bushes in the rear end needing replacement and found out yesterday that I'm gonna be up for a whole set of new tyres and wheel alignment so there's the start of a list

Only thing I have changed is I have gone back to that DIY carbon fibre wrapped airbox I had, but have now rigged up the Tickford snorkel to feed into it which I didn't have before. Turfed the stock box cause it kept attracting dust and just looked crap. For s**t and giggles I bought a 6" pod and velocity stack/bellmouth to go in DIY box to fill it a bit better, seems to work okay and feels more responsive, more induction noise etc.

Having 2nd thoughts about even turbo'ing it now (unless I win lotto), mainly because I've lost motivation with the 6 and want a V8 to play with. Have had plenty of chances to buy some pretty decent 2nd hand and rebuilt Garrett turbo's, even had a custom auto fabricator lined up to fab up a turbo log manifold for cheaper than I could get a Snort one shipped over for, but just couldn't bring myself to spend the money on it knowing that the whole idea could likely get abandoned half way through if I picked up an 8 somewhere along the way. I still have that ported head that will go on (just needs springs, exhaust valves and some machining work), will most likely get a more aggressive cam grind done, J3 chip from TiPerformance to alter the tune, LSD etc but that's pretty much it. Once that is all done I might just keep the car as is, and look at buying either a e-series era XR8/Ghia/Fairlane/LTD or possibly save up a bit more for an AU XR8 to have fun with - they all seem to be getting a bit cheaper.

looking good mate, been thinking about doing a boot install myself...time is a problem tho.
i have seen a few v8's going cheap lately, even au xr8's.
i'd love an 8 myself too.