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Another Audio Build: 2019 Ford Explorer

Been stupid busy.

Got the stock battery bracket off to powder coat. It was starting to corrode so I decided to fix it. While taking it there I debated getting a Harbor Freight PC setup and just doing it at home. :homer:

I have an old vertical electric smoker I could use to bake the parts.

Alright, a few pics.

Tweeter time.

The owner was talking about putting the tweets in the sail panels but they’d be obnoxiously big and wouldn’t look as stock as I’d like. So that's a no-go.

I got the calipers out and measured the steel A-pillar and the distance between that and the spot where the plastic A-pillar trim would be located. There wasn’t enough depth to hide the tweets and I’m not a fan of obtrusive A-pillar pods

However there’s a cavity in the dash corners that will allow the tweets to be hidden and I can get them on a good mounting angle behind the A-pillar.
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I took a picture for the owner, showing him the ballpark location of the tweet. He was down with it.

Also note how the Ford door panel meets with the dash. Owner asked me if I could maybe fix that. The door card is seated in the correct spots to the inner door skin, the door itself isn’t mis-aligned. Just Ford build quality, I guess.

Door trim panel left off on purpose for visualizing speaker placement for owner.
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So then I opened up the A-pillar a little so I could build (yet another) a “waveguide” for the tweet to play into the cabin.
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I finished trimming the opening and dropped the tweeter in place. No one will ever know it’s there.
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Then I spent a few hours working on the shop. The plasma table will be delivered Tuesday and I needed to organize and clear space for it to come in. Still have a lot of stuff to shuffle around, but it’ll be worth it.

Chaos around here right now.
 
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Last night's stopping point.

I got the bay cleared for delivery of the plasma table. Should be seeing it Tuesday.

Forever ago, when I decided to get the table, I knew I wanted it in this bay and that this bay would be where I'd be shooting a good bit of video. So I decided to do something with the wall to both look better and protect it. I'll put corrugated metal on the lower wall section for sparks and all. The upper section is the brick panels from Home Depot. Those panels will look much better than the builder beige that's everywhere in this house.

The laser will shift to the left and the plasma table will go where the laser is now.

Tonight I'll move the welding cart, welding table, and shop press into the bay and make progress on that.

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I have a guy coming from Florida to drop off a vehicle on the 29th, the Explorer is leaving to head back to Nashville on the 4th, and I have a guy from Wisconsin that's bringing a vehicle for sound treatment on the 8th.

Chaos.
 
this is your full time gig now right? Good shit. Said it in one of the threads, but clearly your work/skill speaks volumes if you've got cars coming in from all different areas of the country. Congrats:beer:

just don't kill yourself, listen to the body if you need a day on the couch vs leaning over/under shit.
 
budget76 said:
this is your full time gig now right? Good shit. Said it in one of the threads, but clearly your work/skill speaks volumes if you've got cars coming in from all different areas of the country. Congrats:beer:

just don't kill yourself, listen to the body if you need a day on the couch vs leaning over/under shit.
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It is now. I'm actually stressed over how busy it is.

I bought the 3D printers and was running off parts so I could make money while sleeping/away from the house and don't have time to develop new stuff I had in mind.


I figure I'll have a little time the first week of February to work on that but I'll likely spend a day laid up on the couch relaxing. :laughing:

Can still design stuff while being lazy. :homer:
 
Flatbed said:
At least you know the asshole you are working for :laughing:
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Working for the vehicle owner. :laughing:

Doors…well, driver door, anyway. I’m doing all of the test fit and template work on the driver’s side. When I move to the passenger side it’ll go much faster because I just have to repeat the steps.

Vertical slot in the door to get the MM3 to fit.

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About four layers of deadener on the outer door skin and MegaZorbe applied as well. Several pieces of scrap material was put on the back side of the inner door skin.

This is the same as the Audi build process.

Rivnuts installed for the block-off panel.
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Block-off panel installed. 1/16” lead sheet sandwiched with 1/16” closed cell foam. I also cut a piece of MegaZorbe and stuck to the back side for additional sound absorption inside the door cavity.
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I also did more mockup with the X-brace we ordered and the two 24 baskets. Tonight’s discussion with the owner involved slight muffler relocation and dropping the 24s flat in the floor. You can see here that I don’t need much room to make the basket flanges fit, it’s motor clearance in relation to the muffler body that’s the issue.
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We’ll see what happens. The “simple” solution is to move the mufflers forward and farther left/right off the vehicle centerline.

The trick is that moving them left/right would also move the exhaust tips left/right we would have to move them forward to gain space for an S bend to put the tips back in the proper locations.

You know, your average sub install. :laughing:

I also noticed there are no exhaust heat shields under the car. Thought that was odd. I’ll probably make some later when I’m working on the back for the sub install.
 
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I wonder if the exhaust is not getting hot that far back, what all is upstream? It may be doing enough heat up front by the manifolds to be no big deal :confused:
 
Provience said:
I wonder if the exhaust is not getting hot that far back, what all is upstream? It may be doing enough heat up front by the manifolds to be no big deal :confused:
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It’s a twin turbo V6. It’s going to have hotter exhaust gasses than my 1.5l NA 4-anger that DID have a heat shield above the muffler.

It’s an aftermarket Borla system. I’m guessing the heat shields disappeared with the exhaust upgrade.
 
Provience said:
I wonder if the exhaust is not getting hot that far back, what all is upstream? It may be doing enough heat up front by the manifolds to be no big deal :confused:
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My dad, who is an old man and drives like one, melted the spare tire well trim of his CRV when the exhaust gasket by the muffler fucked off.

I used some THHN as a temp tailpipe hanger hanger on the Ranger and despite all the airflow that being under the back of a pickup provides the insulation still melted in no time.
 
arse_sidewards said:
My dad, who is an old man and drives like one, melted the spare tire well trim of his CRV when the exhaust gasket by the muffler fucked off.

I used some THHN as a temp tailpipe hanger hanger on the Ranger and despite all the airflow that being under the back of a pickup provides the insulation still melted in no time.
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Plasma table is being delivered today. I can cut some 1/8” aluminum and use that. Second Skin also has heat barrier/thermal blocking products.
 
I'm fawkin' tired.

Backed the trailer into the bay, moved the laser, and started unloading.
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I got it unloaded and will start assembling at some point. Have work to do and wanted this in the bay before rain came. I still need to finish the walls in this area and get the hard air lines ran.
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Provience said:
But it will be sweet once you get it dialed in :smokin:
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I DID jump ahead and mount the control box. :homer:

You know, ‘cause that matters. :laughing:
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Here’s something that’s fucking stupid.

LATE into the assembly instructions they give you this:
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Pluck one cable from the gagglefuck of cables and drape it across the X gantry.


Then, several steps later, they give you these two images:
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I’m over here like “WTF sense does this make?”

They labeled the limit switch connections for Y1, Y2, and X, but at the control box end there’s nothing. So they have the capability to label shit as demonstrated here.
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So I labeled the plug for the X/Y limit switch cable…
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I also labeled the stepper motor cabling for X, Y1, and Y2.
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When ALL of the plugs for the control box are the exact same I’m not sure why this machine comes without labels at the controller connections.
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budget76 said:
-5 points from them for sure. that's just lazy manufacturing. how hard would it be to put 9 more stickers on the wires
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Yeah. They also cheaped out on a simple piece of cardboard in packaging that would've prevented damaged to parts during shipping.

Sceep said:
:laughing:

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Well, well, well...looks who's fucking talking about finishing projects. :laughing: :flipoff2:
 
Got the rail supports installed, limit switches are in and wired, and I got the water table assembled, sealed and permanently attached.

This gets all the big parts off the floor so I can get back to other stuff. Like the Explorer. :homer:

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ProjectTwin said:
This gets all the big parts off the floor so I can get back to other stuff. Like the Explorer. :homer:
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I too, make excuses to myself to skip out on the active projects and play with the new deliveries :flipoff2:


looking forward to seeing what you do with it once it's fully assembled. Looks like a great space to store stuff currently:homer:
 
budget76 said:
I too, make excuses to myself to skip out on the active projects and play with the new deliveries :flipoff2:


looking forward to seeing what you do with it once it's fully assembled. Looks like a great space to store stuff currently:homer:
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:laughing::flipoff2:

I've already thrown shit on it. The Hypertherm machine torch is thrown on it.

Explorer today. Time to get that door card back on.
 
Water bed? Side shields? Extraction hood?

Your floor and walls are going to take a beating...
 
Firstram said:
Why park at that end instead of near the wall? Planning for a material rack?
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Help me understand what you’re asking.

It’s at the back of the bay with enough room between it and the two walls for me to get between the machine/wall if I need to.

I can still pull the Ranger or something in if I need to.

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ProjectTwin said:
Help me understand what you’re asking.

It’s at the back of the bay with enough room between it and the two walls for me to get between the machine/wall if I need to.

I can still pull the Ranger or something in if I need to.

IMG_3599.jpeg
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I meant to ask, why home the gantry on the end of the table facing the garage door instead of the wall?
 
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