Justin's 2000 Silverado Build

Hello. I have a 2000 Silverado that I'm building up. You can read about the entire build here:

Project "Charlie Murphy"

And here:

2000 Chevy Silverado project "Charlie Murphy" - PerformanceTrucks.net Forums

The performance trucks link will always be the most current. I haven't updated the blog in quite a while. It still shows the Procharger on there and I've decided to go turbo instead. Also, the stereo plan is majorly outdated.

Anyway, back in the 90's I was sorta into car audio. I never really could afford all the stuff I really wanted. Over the years, I've managed to collect parts here and there. I have a collection of parts that I personally love.

I don't have thousands of dollars into this stuff and I don't have thousands of dollars to put into my stereo.

If you looked at the blog, you'll see my first plan for my truck. Well rather than buy a bunch of new stuff, I decided to use what I already have.*

Almost all of my music is digital these days so I was planning on going with the Alpine 305S. Instead, I'm going to take that money and buy a JBL MS-8. I can get a factory refurbished one for 399.00 shipped and it has a warranty.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's the equipment I have:

Clarion DRX9255
(2) A/D/S PQ10's
(1) Rockford Fosgate 500bd
12" IDMAX V3 D4
Boston Acoustics 6.43

I've biamped the Boston's before. They consist of a 1" tweeter, 4" midrange and a 6 1/2" midbass.

This time around I am going fully active.

Today I took out my old subwoofer box. It didn't fit quite right since I swapped the leather seats and console in. Plus I need to figure out how I'm going to fit the IDMAX.

Here is box 1.0. I was messing around with fiberglass and contouring the box around the seats.



Here's the beginnings of subwoofer box 2.0.



The underside where the IDMAX will mount. I gave it 2 1/2 inches of clearance.



Space is so limited. I'm mocking everything up to make sure it fits.



I recessed the box into the center console as close as I could.



It'll fit! Of course it's going to be mounted underneath.



I've previously sounded deadened the cab. Although, I need to order some more and do the roof and doors better.

Here's some random photos.





Here's the first box.





Here's the truck the day I got it.



Here's how it sits now.



I just finished installing:

Lowering spindles
Lowering shackles
Front and rear sway bars
Upgraded brakes front and rear
Hydroboost and master cylinder
Braided brake lines
Shocks
Swapped in leather/heated seats

Little more progress today.



Sorry, I'm not much of a carpenter and all these angles suck. Especially cutting everything with a circular saw.

I've built this entire box with a hand drill, a circular saw, a measuring tape, and a square. I drilled pilot holes for the screws. Nothing's glued yet. I wanted to make sure it'll fit.

Here it is fitted into the center console.



I still need to square off the top parts, but here's how it'll sit above the console. It'll be nice to have a flat area to set my backpack on.

I go a bit more done today.

The first thing I had to do was measure behind the seats do I can see exactly how much room I have. Well I got to looking at it and realized I made the side pieces surrounding the subwoofer to short! So I had to remake the 2 side parts. It was frustrating, but I think they actually turned out a bit better than the first ones.

I actually made them a bit to long on purpose. So I can trim them when I put the side pieces on.



Here's what I've got so far.







On the bottom I'll make a rectangular piece and then enclose the box. Also, I'll trim that top part to the same size as the side pieces.

Everything is just loosely screwed together. All these angles are much more of a pain then I thought they would be. I kinda wish I knew how to use cad.

I did some measurements. It looks like I'll have approximately 1.33 cubic feet of air space.

You know, if I'd just stop changing the design of this box, I'd be done already!



I've got all the pieces cut and just need to start gluing it together.



I decided to make the enclosure as large as I could. I'll have to remeasure, but I'd guess there's somewhere around 2.0^ now. In doing that, I'm going to have to do something I usually tell people never to do. I'm going to mount my amps to my box.

I plan on reinforcing where the amps will mount. I'll also put a layer of ensolite between the amp and the box. I may even throw a layer of deadener in their as well.

Anywho, we got the table saw repaired, but it's a little bit too late. *LOL. I've already made all my cuts. I did decide to make some minor changes. I cut 3/4 of an inch off of each end and put caps on instead of cutting a small piece to fit in. My cuts aren't quite square, so it will be easier this way.

So anyway, here's the box during pre-assembly. I pre-drilled all the holes for the screws.



Check it out. It totally fits!



It fits right around the center console.



Here's the carpet I picked up. It's felt from Walmart. I got 3 yards of the stuff for 12 bucks. I think it'll match pretty well.



Here's how I'm going to end up mounting the amplifiers. I have a few pieces to cut. I'm going to reinforce the inside where the amps mount. I'm also going to play around with raammat and ensolite.



It's a pretty bad pic, but you can kinda see how this color will tie into the grey.

Well I've had the box cut into shape for a bit, but today I actually had time to glue it together.

Now, the box isn't perfectly square. I made all of these pieces with a circular saw remember. So I decided to try a product that I've never used. Gorilla Glue.



This is an expanding glue. I've never used it before but basically you wet down to two surfaces you're gluing together, apply the glue, and clamp down.

I didn't realize how much this glue would actually expand. It's a good thing I'm not making professional furniture or something. If you do decide to use a glue like this, you might want to keep a damp rag handy or something.



The entire box, except the end caps, glued together.



Check out how much this glue expanded!



I didn't glue the end caps on because I wanted to be able to reach the inside of the box so I could run a bead of silicone along all of the joints. With the way this glue looks, I'm wondering if that's even necessary.

While I was waiting for the glue to dry, I started taking apart my door. I had previously installed amplifier on my inner and outer door panels.

I wanted to try something different this time so I ordered some peel and stick ensolite foam and raammat.

It turns out, the last time I deadened it, I did a reasonable job. So I didn't have to add much in the way of deadener. What I did add was a patch of ensolite foam behind the mid bass driver. I also used some raammat bxt to seal up all of the unnecessary holes.

This is as far as I got.

[

I think this door panel is done. I'm not sure if I ordered enough ensolite though.

My subwoofer box runs the entire span of the back of my truck. How beneficial would it be to install ensolite on the sheet metal behind the box?

I've never used this expanding foam glue before. I'm sure I used too much but it seems to have filled all the cracks nicely.



I usually go over all the joints with silicone. That foam seems to have filled everything so well that I don't think it'll be necessary. I had already bought the silicone so I just went through the box and applied some here and there. I still don't think I had to, but what the heck.

I had to file away at a few parts so the subwoofer would clear.





I always measure twice, cut once, but geez this is close.



Here's a shot from the inside where you can see that the subwoofer has plenty of clearance and how well that foaming glue sealed up the joints.



After that I glued on the end caps and went back to working on the truck.

With that expanding glue I got to thinking about the back panel. There's this gap above where the box is going, under the rear window. I had previously deadened it but there was no way to get to the outer skin. So I bought some expanding foam. The stuff I used said it was for gaps 1 inch or less. I filled the gap as best I could until I ran out. Hope it helps!

This was actually right after I sprayed it. It expanded and filled that gap even more.



Next I moved on to deadening the drivers door. I basically did the same thing to the drivers side as the passengers. I closed up all the holes and applied a layer of ensolite foam. I didn't get a picture of it.

I ran out of time. I'll get the foam applied to the rear part, behind the subwoofer and get the subwoofer installed and the box covered. Then I'll be done with most of the hard stuff!


Oh, I wanted to ask, what do you guys recommend using to seal the sub to the box?

I got to work on the truck a little bit today. Only for an hour or so.

I added another layer of matting to the low spots on the rear panel. Then I got to thinking.

I have seen where other guys filled the low spots with mdf and then attached the sub box to the mdf. I didn't really want to drill into the back of my cab. I had bought a sheet of foam with the idea of experimenting with filling the cab vents.

As I was looking at the foam I thought. What if I used this foam to fill the low spots? The subwoofer box would butt up against the foam. It would kind of be a cushion.



So that what I did. I used the peel and stick ensolite foam to hold it in place.



I'm finally done with the rear wall.



I've never used this peel and stick ensolite foam before. I haven't got to experience driving with the foam installed, but do far it seems to really make a difference. I'm actually going to order a few more yards of the stuff.

Back at it again. I ordered some peel and stick ensolite from raamaudio on the 16th and it hasn't shown up yet. I was hoping it would be here so I could install it on my roof.

Anyway, here's what I started with.



See that separate support piece in the center there? That wiggled and vibrated like crazy! I put deadener on the roof skin behind it where I could. After that, I filled the gap with spray foam. What's funny is there's some flexible foam in between the panels from the factory.



I'm going to end up covering all the holes with raamat. That top piece is solid now. After that, I'll add a layer of ensolite.

I really hope all this effort is going to be worth it. I've never done this extensive of a job before.

While the spray foam was setting up I decided to carpet my subwoofer enclosure.

I didn't know the best way to go about carpeting this box, so I kinda winged it.



I sprayed adhesive on the felt and the box. I basically did it in a crisscross pattern. One layer one direction, another layer the opposite direction.







Well, this is what I ended up with. I'm not to happy with it, but this is what you get at 1:00 am. It's not my best work, but most of the box will be hidden anyway.





The back looks pretty good. Too bad no one will ever see it. LOL.

I put a couple of pieces of ensolite in the box behind the subwoofer.



Ensolite on the bottom of the box. I'm going to use it as a seal for the IDMAX.

I finished the deadening on the roof.



I put up the rest of my ensolite foam. I ordered more but there was a glitch and it was never shipped.



The cabin vents are in just about the worst location. They're at the bottom of the cab, behind the seats. The interior panels basically route the vents to ear level. I decided to try something. I cut some foam put it in the vent.



I put some BXT II deadener on the top part of the vent to help protect the foam from water. Hopefully it will help block some road noise. There's actually a space between the deadener and the foam. It's not blocking it off.



Not that you would ever see them, but I decided to paint the silver black. I had a can of black hammerite paint left over from a previous project.



Headliner back on.



I started to put the interior back together. I need to trim that plastic part above the box. That's why it's just sitting there.

I need to figure out how to fit 2 (maybe 3) drivers into my door panel. Here's what I have to work with.



I'm pretty fortunate to have this much room really. I was originally going to build kick panels and mount the drivers there. I actually started the fiberglass work and everything. I decided against it because I put in a center console and I think that will really block a lot of sound.

Right now I'm debating in if I should mount the tweeters in the doors or on the sail panels behind the mirrors? What do you guys think? I'll be using an MS-8 as well.

So I cut out where I wanted to mount the drivers.



Then traced that onto some spare 3/4" mdf.



After I cut it out with a jigsaw, it almost fit. I ended up shaping it with a belt sander for final fitment.



So my idea was to use a 3" PVC cap for my midrange. It's too deep to clear the door panel and grill, so I cut it. (I found out later that its about 3mm too tall so I'm going to go buy a black end cap. They have a flat bottom instead of rounded so it should clear.)



Here it is trimmed up and fit into the door panel. The hole is cut for the 3" PVC cap.



Now you're getting the idea.



Today I'm heading to Home Depot and picking up the black end caps. Hopefully by tonight I can have it all built and installed. Then I'll be done with door panels!

So here's roughly how it will look.



Nice and hidden behind that huge factory grill. Even with the black caps that have flat bottoms, there's barely enough room to clear, but it does clear.



After that I ran the wiring for all three speakers. It was quite the pain to get that 14 gauge wire through the factory rubber loom between the door and the body. I wanted them in there though for as stealth an install as possible.



I went ahead and carpeted it since I had some scraps from the subwoofer enclosure. That way you won't notice them in the door. I siliconed in the black end cap, but prior to that I drilled a hole in it for the wire to go through.



I started on the drivers side. All I got done though was cutting the door panel, making the driver's mount and carpeting it. Hopefully I have enough speaker wire to reach the amplifiers from the drivers door.

Got a little bit more work done.

I had previously ran out of the Ensolite foam. I ordered some more from raammat and it finally showed up.

So I took the interior back out and finished up the floors.

Here's before. Look at that old Second Skin Damplifier. Before they switched to black!



The rear half done.



The front half done.



This would be the time where you would normally add mass loaded vinyl. Well, I couldn't find a supplier locally, and I don't feel like waiting or tearing the interior apart again.

What's weird, is my factory carpet really feels like mass loaded vinyl. I know it doesn't have the same mass, but it's strikingly similar! Basically, I'm calling this good enough.

I have a tiny bit left to do on the headliner and then deadening is done once and for all.

After that I'm going to finish the driver's side door panel install and wiring and then it's stereo gear install time!

I finished up the installation of the closed cell foam on the roof. The deadening process is now 100% done!



I wired up and installed my IDMAX. It's a V3 D4, so I wired it for a 2 ohm load.



I drilled a hole and siliconed in the speaker wire. I don't like speaker terminals.

I'm to the more boring part of the install now. I finished up a few things and started wiring.

The first thing I did was install my fancy-pants Die Hard Platinum battery.



The Die Hard Platinum is a rebranded Odyssey. Sears had a 10% off 4th of July sale, so I bought one.

After that, I ran the main power wire that goes to the distribution block for the amplifiers. That's a 200 amp circuit breaker.



I used a piece of mdf to mount my distribution blocks down to. I'll post up a picture after everything is mounted down, and the wires are ran.

I started experimenting with mounting the tweeters. I bought my Boston Acoustics used and the tweeters didn't come with surface or flush mounts, only angle.

I started searching for information and what I gathered is these tweeters are designed to be mounted on axis. So I temporarily mounted what I had to my sail panels.



One other thing I found out was I have Boston Acoustics 6.43s, not 6.53s like I thought. From what I can tell, the main difference is the tweeter. The 6.43 has a titanium tweeter and the 6.53 has an aluminum tweeter.

Having previously ran the 6.53, and loving them, I'm wondering what I'll think of these.

Nice work on the build log man. Love the details and pictures. Hope I get a chance to hear this.

Hey thanks! I'm kind of interested to see how it sounds too. We are talking about gear that's over 16 years old here. The amplifiers are from the late 80's! LOL

I hope it sounds good.

So the silicone did a better job of holding the tweeter mounts in than I thought it would. It really feels solid. I was only putting these here temporarily. I think I may just keep them siliconed in. I'll probably paint them though.



In case you were wondering why I put them on this way.



The tweeters have to be located there and I happened to have silicone on hand.

I started messing around with the 4" driver. I haven't put a lot of thought into how I was going to mount it down exactly. I thought maybe I could use butyl rubber or even silicone them in. Then it occurred to me that I could mount them down as if they were flush. Duh! So I got the grinder out and clearanced the end cap a little.



Next, I soldered the wire on.



Then I mounted everything down. It may not be very pretty but it'll work. I actually used foam to seal the speaker to the cup.



Soldered the wire to 6" driver.



Put everything back together.



It looks like nothing's there! Woohoo! You can't see the tweeters when the doors are closed so they're pretty hidden. Plus I'm going to experiment with painting them pewter to match.

After that, I did it all over again on the passenger's side. I don't think I'll have any free time to work in the truck for about 4 days, but I'll try.

I'm wanting to finish running the power wires and start fabbing up where I'm going to mount the amplifiers.

Well I got my fancy-pants terminals on. LOL. I hooked up the positive side. It has a 10 gauge wire that powers a distribution block and the 2 gauge wire to 200 amp circuit breaker for the amplifiers. I also ran another 4 gauge ground to the chassis. Part of the "big 3" upgrade.



I found a spot that I think will work as a grounding point. It's directly to the right of the gas pedal and has a plastic thing that clips on it to make it pretty. So I sanded off all of the paint and used a star washer.



Here's the board I mentioned earlier. The mounting points for all the distribution blocks.



You can see here how it's hidden underneath the center console.



There's the cup holders that hide it.



I wanted to show you guys how the box fits into the center console. If it weren't for the center console and seats from an extended can truck, I would have never been able to fit the IDMAX.



Next up, I need to figure out an amp rack. I need to put the seats back in to take measurements. I was planning on mounting to the sub box, but I think I can squeeze them in at the base of the seats.

I'm waiting on 10 gauge wire to show up for the PQ10s. Hopefully on my weekend I might get the amp mounts designed.

I hope i get to hear this at some point! I love ID subs and have never had a chance to sit in a car that was as sound proofed as this looks like it is going to be. Keep it up!

I've got no problem letting people hear it. I just don't want anyone to be disappointed. lol.

This is why I want to listen to others setups. I've never been to any competitions for spl or sq. I'll set this up for what I think sounds good, but I might be way off.

Haha it doesnt matter what other people think as long as it sounds good to you!

I know what you mean though, I did my entire wall build before ever hearing anything louder or better sounding than my previous setup that was maybe breaking a 140.

I really like your build you have put a lot of thought and time into this build and it looks great!

Hey thanks guys! I'll just keep plugging along as I have time. I found out today that my signal processor won't fit under the seat like I had thought it would. So I'm going to have to figure that one out. LOL!

If you can fit amps under the seat or behind them, where exactly do you put them? Hmm...