Cheers mate

I got the carbon fibre vinyl from Trade Me (NZ's version of Ebay). Cost me $35 for a sheet of 1000mm x 610mm. Not sure of any places over in Aussie that would stock it, but you should be able to find a signwriting place that will be able to source it for you. Might also pay to check on Ebay too. Hope that helps.

KWIKXR I'm going to mount an amp under the seat tomorrow.

Where did you ground the amp? I want to use a fairly small ring terminal, are there any conveniently placed bolts?

The seat mounting bolts and handbrake lever bolts spring to mind, but I don't want to be scraping paint away from the body to get a connection there.

What did you use?

Do you think the amp will be cooler under the seat than mounted to the side wall of the boot? Its Air conditioned inside the car, I reckon it will be the way to go. It was in the boot previously and was overheating.

OK, I lied I have totally ignored you thread for a while now Sorry been doing other stuff....

So here goes,

The air box is cool, carbon fiber looks great.

Good to see you got the Fairlane side indicators fitted and good score on your EL grill

Good job on the EL rear numberplate surround, I think the colour coded section ties it in well

Keep up the good work mate.

Cheers

Hey SLO247, i grounded the amp using the rear outer side seat mounting point.

I actually mounted the amp, ran all the wires and noticed i had completely forgot about the amp ground cable so grounding it using the seat mounting point was the best option for me. Only had big 2 gauge ring terminals too so it was ideal and being clamped down by the seat the ground would be fairly solid. The seat bolts where so thick i had to mod the ring terminal into a forked spade connector, but stretched apart so it could fit around the bolt lol. You don't have to sand/scape much paint away either, i just sanded a small area around where the ring terminal would sit back to bare metal and that was sufficient.

I didn't really have much of a look at where else to mount the ground cable so I'm not too sure on how many options there is. If you are looking at using a small ring terminal the handbrake lever mounting bolts would be well worth a try

I think the amp under the seat is a good option, keeps the amp out of the way and out of sight. There is still a fair bit of room underneath the seat with my amp mounted in place too so there should be adequate air flow around it. So as long as your amp isn't overly large in size i reckon it should run fairly cool. If all else fails you could wire up a few fans from a 12V power source or something i guess.

Where did you have your amp mounted in the boot? Before i started my boot install i had my amp mounted on the flat hump behind the rear seats. Seemed to run quite cool back there, but then again it was hardly putting out any real power - a whole 200wrms of pure prime bump in your trunk

LOL, mate, no worries at all. We all know you would be a very busy man especially being a moderator on these forums and putting up with all the crap that has been thrown your way lately, so you keep up the good work too

Cheers for the kind words too bud, appreciate it. Will try and make do with whatever money i can throw at it for now, will be a little bit limited on funds in the next month or 2 so i doubt there will be any new mods for a while. One thing high on the list to do will be this boot install so i am very eager to get that done and dusted once money starts coming in again. I think i have finally decided on a cheap temporary sub amp combo for the boot install which will sound okay until i can afford something a little bit better in terms of SQ.

Focus for now though is on this weekend where it will get some much needed attention, a thorough wash, polish and wax

Last edited by KWIKXR on Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It was mounted in the factory location, but visible, not hidden. Bolted up a piece of MDF behind the carpet, and screwed it on. Always overheated if I cranked it up on a hot day. 400 RMS Monoblock I think? I can't remember. Just a cheapie, but Adelaide gets pretty warm. I don't want it overheating, should be good in the airconditioned interior. I'll let you know how I go anyway.

Heres a pic. Ignore the big black cable, that was for the trailer plug that I hid in the boot.

Ah so it is that one you're talking about. I actually remembered seeing that picture in your build thread just after i hit submit on my last post, but thought you might of had another amp mounted somewhere else that i missed. Just seems strange for it to be overheating there, have seen lots of people mount amps in that location with no issues, but then again it could always just be relative to the amp design or something and like you said, the warmer climate over in Aussie.

Let us know how you get on with mounting it under the seat though, will be interesting to see if the amp gets better cooling inside the cabin.

Seeing that picture also reminds me of how my boot used to look with the carpet. Every time i open the boot I'm met with a big ugly flat sheet of MDF board with screws all over the place

Pics?

Pretty much looks like this, but worse now that things have been thrown in the boot so it has black scuffs everywhere, dodgy looking drawings from more measurements i had taken, had extra screws sticking up all over the place as i put my amp and sub back in a few weeks ago and the sub was sliding around on the board so I stupidly thought that screwing a few screws in half way into the MDF would secure the sub box in place and with the way i throw this thing into corner sometimes those screws have just flung straight out somewhere. I guess it can only get better lol, really needs some carpet on it soon..

This is an old pic of when it first went it in, camera batteries are dead at the moment.

I wish i had a dollar for every time someone said, "what the f**k is that thing?" when i open up the boot

Finish it already . How much has it cost so far? What do you expect to be the total cost roughly?

Just the boot install? I think i have spent about $50 so far , just for that MDF and a whole heap of shelf brackets to use for the side walls.

It will probably end up costing a few hundred to get it all done though, and I'm a long way from being finish. I need more 12m thick MDF for the side walls and 18mm thick at the bare minimum for the sub box, plus any screws and things i'll need so say under $100 for that. Carpet will be costing me a fair bit to get in the same colour as what's already in the boot, i think it's around $50 for a 2m x 1m roll and i'll need probably about 3 or 4 of those rolls to be safe. Then for the temporary sub/amp combo I'm thinking of using with it, will be just going with a cheapo mono-block amp to run a single 12" DVC pioneer sub at 2ohm - that will set me back around $300. Plus any extra wiring, connectors and stuff that i may need.

I actually had second thoughts about continuing with the boot install the other day. I thought, hell just get a decent amp and a free air sub mounted in the parcel shelf and that's it, ditch the boot install.. That way i would still get decent bass and have maximum boot space. The boot install will be adding a lot of dead weight to the car by the end and with my plans of trying to get a bit more go out of the engine in N/A form, it's defeating the purpose. But then again, i want something a bit different so the boot install would be a good thing and if power it is a problem i can always add a bit of boost later on. For the time being the boot install will go ahead, but we'll see what happens i guess, i have a bad habit of changing mind at times like this

I know how that is. I don't really want all the extra weight either I guess. My preferred option at the moment is the amp hidden under the seat, then a fiberglass enclosure made to fit in the back corner of the boot, adjacent to the taillight. Somebody should start making them, I have seen them for sale to suit a few different models.

as much as i like the detail of a nice boot install, these days id much prefer a simple audio setup with free air sub in the parcel shelf..... run a decent sized amp to get as much bass as you can out of it

this way theres more boot space, you save weight, car drives better, less time/money etc.

either way, im keen to see how it pans out !!

We'll see how things turn out when i get to it

Popped down to Pick a Part this morning, started pissing down as soon as i parked up

They just got another EL Fairmont in a couple of days ago so i wanted to see what i could grab before it gets raided by everyone else. Walked out with a "Fairmont" beaver panel badge, a passenger side headlight and yet another EL Fairmont grill . Also had side moulds there which i was going to take as they were in heritage green, but they looked a bit rough so decided to pass.

The grill was in pretty rough condition, the rubber edging is ripped and, the chrome has a few stone chips in it and a big gouge in it on the bottom part of it, so it's showing the plastic beneath the chrome. I'll keep this one aside and get some work done on it later on, maybe get it stripped completely of the paint and chrome, remove the finned inserts and spray them gloss black and get the grill re-chromed, including the centre part. We'll see how that turns out...



The big score was the headlight though, it's practically brand new. It's aftermarket though, but shiny as f**k lol. Pity only one side was new, the other side was still the original faded one. Will have to find another aftermarket one, bolt them on and hopefully that will help my lighting issues a bit.

LOL, you have been saying how hard these EL fairmont grills are to get, good score mate.

What are you doing with the EF one now. I thought it looked much better.