The floor mats came in the right color!

After going in circles with Ecklers as to whether they ordered the correct color blue from ACC, they did.  Went through their customer service twice and couldn't get a yes/no answer as to whether or not the carpet would be the "812 royal blue".  During a sale I ended up ordering the mats and putting in the comments to ensure the color code before completing the order.  The mats showed up today and the sticked said "812 royal blue".  They look awesome.

Show the power locks working

Put a short video together over my lunch break to show the functionality I have working with the remote.  If you read my other post, you know the parking lights aren't hooked up yet.  Another thing is that I mention the alarm going off with the door open in the video.  That's the original alarm not the one in the remote module.  I decided not to use the remote modules door sensor interface.  The shock sensor should still work though.

Preview of the Brake Project

So I know I did the project a while back, but I'm just starting to put together the page for the brakes.  I have the start of the page complete with a few pictures.  Just have to complete the procedure.  There were a bunch of quirks that I have to make note of, so I'm just posting this so people can see what I used.

Good Progress But School Work Again

Well, I've done some work, ordering, and planning over the past couple weeks...

First, what I've gotten done.
In order to put the dash back together I needed to finish wiring the car for the accessories I'm adding (power door locks, remote, bumper sensor, etc.). However, in order to add the power door locks I needed to recondition the doors first. This meant cleaning and treating the rust and adding insulation.  I spent a weekend tearing down the driver's side door and then doing the rust treatment. While I was waiting for that to dry, I worked on getting the door panel and its parts ready. Also continued planning for the speaker enclosure. The weekend before last I finished applying the insulation to the door and was about to put everything together when I realized I didn't want to put rusty bolts back in the door. I looked all over town for replacement bolts, no one had quite the right size. Ended up ordering them, so the door still isn't back together. I'm waiting to finish that door before starting on the passenger side.

This last weekend I worked on getting the rest of the remote door locks wired up. I had to wire in multiple relays. Rather than have the wires free inside the car, I made packs of wires and used connectors.  After getting everything connected, I tested it and everything but the parking light flashing works.

This used to be where the seat belt interlock bypass switch was located

Shortened remote module wires and added locking connectors

The relay allows remote system to work with the original alarm

On to the ordering...
I have the DeWitts radiator with electric fans and the CVR electric water pump.  Recently, I got Spectre stainless steel braided radiator hoses (the kit came with some other hoses as well).  A larger alternator is on order so that there's enough power and I'm in the process of ordering a billet aluminum serpentine conversion kit from March Performance.

Also over the weekend I picked up a set of seats from a 1985 Fiero.  They look like hell right now, but reading through the recovering instructions from the seat cover manufacturer, they should be good enough (Mr. Mikes).  Fiero seats are a common upgrade for C3 Corvettes.  They offer better support and more comfort.

There were some rims sitting in the seats for a long time.

The car had speakers built into the head rests, these will be removed.

Final Design of Speaker Enclosure

So I sat down and calculated the volume in my previous speaker enclosure design.  It was quite low even if I took into account that poly batting would add 15-18% to the calculated volume.  So I tweaked the design a little bit.

The depth is now the maximum I feel comfortable with and I removed a messy angle that was going to be a pain to make.  I actually measured where the connectors on the amp are located to come up with where cut-outs would be located.  Also scaled down the size of the wire conduit after measuring the thickness of the entire bundle of wires.  The final volume for the sub, assuming a 15% increase for the poly, is approximately 0.47 cubic feet (manufacturer suggested between 0.4-0.6 and optimal at 0.5).

I have everything I need to build this except the glue and MDF...  Next step is to mock up the sides with cardboard so the box will fit snug.

Speaker Box - Draft 2

Took some much more accurate measurements and used the exact dimensions of the speakers and amplifier.  This design maximizes the amount of space for the subs while attempting to keep it as little impact as possible (storage space is a premium in this car).  I discovered that the speakers have to be isolated from the subs, so now they're placed in separate chambers (which reduces the amount of space for the subs).  The tweeter is in the sub chamber so that it doesn't fire into the soft top when it's down.  I'm planning on using baffling to isolate it from the sub chamber.  The back of the tweeter is pretty isolated by itself, so foam baffling should be plenty of isolation.  The MDF was switched to 1/2" but that should be fine as long as I use a hardening agent on it (resin/bondo mixture, epoxy enamel, etc.).  Also considering using the left over sound dampener from the insulation project as well.

The next step will be to do more calculations on this design to see if its sufficient (with the use of a speaker poly-fill).  If the design has more than enough internal space, I'd like to move the amp back to the rear of the box.  It would simplify the design and make it more hidden.  With  the amp in the front like this, it will be exposed for cooling purposes.  In the back I'll have to install a fan or something.

Trying to find the time

It seems like I've been fairly busy lately and just haven't had the time to work on the car.  Did take a few days break because I felt like I was neglecting the wife...

I was working on reconditioning the doors.  Since I'm doing power locks, I had to figure out how to wire the modules into the system.  Been doing a lot of testing with the multimeter and doing trial circuits to make sure things operate.  I did unfortunately burn out one of my new LEDs (the rear "dome" light).  However, after all the testing I have run the wire into the driver's side door and figured out how to wire the system up to the original alarm, dome lights, parking lights, and siren.  So it's just a matter of finding time to work...

Got lots of parts waiting for me to finish the interior work.

• Complete parking/emergency brake stainless steel rebuild kit
• Aluminum radiator with dual electric fans
• Electric water pump

I've just ordered the subwoofers, component speakers, and amplifier that I'm going to install in the back.  My initial design was used to just make sure everything was going to fit the way I want.  I really don't want to show off the giant stereo (in my opinion that's something high school kids do...), so I'm working to make the speaker box as minimal as possible.  A friend of mine that has built speaker before is advising me on the design.  Too bad the head unit I want is out yet.  In case you're wondering here's what I've got so far for it:

• Rockford Fosgate P400-2 400W Stereo Amplifier
• Dual Clarion WF2510 10" Shallow Mount SVC 4 ohm Subwoofers
• Polk Audio DB6501 6.5" 2-way Component System (front speakers are the same line)
• Auto Custom Carpet 812 Royal Blue Cut-Pile Carpet

Here's my initial design...  Measurements are approximate and the volume is insufficient for the subwoofer specs so there's going to be modifications, but at least you can see where I'm going with this.