Thread: 2000 GTP: Still Alive! New Trans?

I hear man!! I know was a stupid question, just wasn't for sure if you even knew about em. The weather def is sucking it right now!! I'm spoiled, my garage is heated. I still need to replace my front speakers, I have Kappa rears. Been needing to get Kappa fronts. At least I know who can help me with then now, lol. Keep up the good work man.

Thanks, I'll post my results on tweeter placement with these. I've never seen Car audio tweeters so big! Easily double the size of any other tweeters I've put in, Alpine Type-Rs, Kappas, Kappa Perfects, Kickers, Pioneers, Kenwoods, the list goes on. I've got freakin dinner bells on the dash!

Haha, thanks man, I show my friends the picture of it when I first bought it and they are speechless. I've had it for a year as of 2\17, and for 5 months it was down for the engine...so I think it's come a long way in 7 months. I still have a long way to go, but it sure has come a LONG way as it sits!

A lot has happened since I updated this thread, lol. I put the head unit in, and it is working great. It has a few quirks here and there I'd like to get fixed, but nothing major. Stereo in general sounds fantastic, and will only get better in time. I fixed a buddy of mine's amp and he is going to get me a Jl W3 as payment. Not bad for 1 freaking solder joint, haha. I also picked up some new tires today, $650 out the door for Falken ZE950s in 245\50\17 form. Not too bad I guess, considering I turned around and sold my old tires to a friend of mine for $100. I'll get some pics up tomorrow. I'll be installing my USB remote for the stereo, and fixing my leaking gas tank in the morning.

New fuel pump O-ring is in, that was a *****. Also have the USB remote IR sensor installed, IR emitter relocated, and new sub installed. Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but I fixed an amp for a friend of mine and in return he's selling me a W3 for $75. I put it in Tuesday and what a difference, who would have though a JL would sound better than a Sony (haha...)? Steering wheel controls all work great now, and most of the kinks are worked out. There's a few minor issues here and there, but that'll get fixed in the next round of "ripping all this **** apart." I have the backup camera to install, a relay to install on the remote amp wire (long story), a small capacitor to install on the power line (another long story), and clean up the wiring in the trunk. Then the weather should be warm enough for me to do the exhaust!

New tires are AWESOME. I love Falkens, I don't think I'll ever buy another brand again. These actually perform better than the Sinceras I had on the Torque Stars. Here's a few pics and a video:
New shoes:

JL sub and amps, I need to trim up some of the speaker wire and tuck some RCAs, but that's about it:

These are some pics from the install, it was in my cramped shed when it was 18 degrees outside:



These Kappa Tweeters are freaking huge, they wouldn't fit in the door, so I had to mount them on the dash. I actually need to pull the dash piece back off and elongate the wire's holes so the tweeters sit flush:

Cramped:

Video of how the Android is working:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6FNIBMZpyU

damn this car has come a long way

Get those tweeter mounted in the door if they don't fit pull a holesaw.. Just laying on the dash like that does them no justice

Originally Posted by REDCOMPG

Get those tweeter mounted in the door if they don't fit pull a holesaw.. Just laying on the dash like that does them no justice

There isn't anywhere on the door that these could be mounted without my leg covering them up. They sound VERY good up there, everything reflects off the windshield, so I hear it all. I've always been a fan of having tweeters about 2-3 feet away from the woofer to have good separation. I'll have to measure them when I get home, they need something like a 2-2.5 inch hole with at LEAST that much depth. My family is nothing but sound production and recording, my dad and I have built numerous recording studios, and my cousin owns a local Audio\Visual shop. We all agree this is the best place for then, so I get good separation and sound stage. Next year there's a pretty good possibility I'll be getting some Hertz Milles ($1200, 500W RMS EACH), so my cousin is a dealer for them and I can get them below cost from him, hehe.

Even more good stuff. I picked up a Ported sub box on CL for $15 today, if my measurements are right, it's 1.68 cubic feet, with a 12x2 port that 13.5 inches long. It's a solid box, but it's tuned to around 43hz, with a port that size. My JL needs at least 1.75 cubic ft, and needs to be tuned as close to 30 hz as possible (35hz would be fine since I'm more of a Rock guy). I extended the port another 12 inches using 1x4s, then sealed them all up and added 1.25 pounds of poly fill, which should "simulate" an increase of ~30% in my box's volume. This leaves me at 2.18 cubic feet for my volume, so when I rework the math with the new volume and port size, my new box should be tuned right around 31 hz. I've built PLENTY of sealed boxes, but this will be the first ported box I've played with in a very long time...something like 12 years, lol. That said, the math adds up that it should sound good, but we'll see. If it doesn't sound like I'd like it to, I'll probably break down and build a ported box sometime this summer. Right now I have $15, some scrap wood, and some polyfill into this box so we'll see how it turns out tomorrow, I hope!

I'll need to move my amps around a bit, the sub will now be in the center with an amp on either side, so I'll have to cut some more power wire and possibly a new ground. We'll see. I'll have pics of it all up when I install it.

It's in! Sounds GREAT! I might try and get a bit more low end out of it, but the Hush Mat will help with that soon. I gotta say, this is the best sounding 4 ohm, 250w (RMS) sub I have ever heard. I've typically used dual voice subs so I could wire them down to a lower impedance so they could get a lot more power, this is the first single voice coil sub I've ever decided to use on a permanent basis. This weekend I'll rearrange the amps and such, so the trunk will be done (other than the sound deadening).

The tweeters probably sound great there. However it looks like ass.

I ghetto rigged my first gp, the front speakers were drilled into the outside of the door because they were too big. My glovebox would hit the speaker before it would open all the way.

Th epics make it look worse than it really is, they aren't that bad. The ONLY person that has noticed them is my cousin that owns the local AV shop, and his response was "That's exactly what I wish I could do with mine, it sound so much better than way." I figure for now I'll leave it that way and if they ever get on my nerves or I just want something different, I'll just have my cousin mold some tweeter pods into my A-Pillars. His install guy put some pods into his A-Pillars on his accord with Hertz MLK 2 TM and I think they look great. He (my cousin) lives on a dirt road so I'm sure they'll be flexing quite a bit, so I'll also wait about 6 months and look for cracks before I let his install guy put my car under the knife.

I actually have 2 days off in a row this weekend so I decided to go ahead and install the headers. Tomorrow I'm driving it to a friend's shop to have the exhaust all welded up. Install went pretty normal for SSACs, nothing a rubber mallet couldn't massage in:





Also put in new spark plug wires while I was in there.

spectacular transformation on this car.....sub'd for more

And the exhaust is in! The only guy I could get to weld it over the weekend (and for free) had a stick welder so the welds aren't pretty, but they'll work. At first I didn't like it all that much because it seems deeper and louder than I expected. The more I drive it, the more I like it, it's loud when it should be, and quiet when it should be as well. Best part is that there is no leaks that we can see or hear! All in all, I installed brand new SSAC headers, 2 Borla mufflers, and exhaist tips for about $170 total. Who wouldn't be excited? I'll have better pics tomorrow, we JUST finished it up and it's dark outside, but here:

And a video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OZsDfzLjCk

Passenger side exhaust tips are a crooked a bit, so I'll take pics after they get fixed, lol. I am starting to plan out the pulley drop and I have some questions. I plan on getting a tune before the pulley drop, but I'm not sure who to go with. There are no tuners in my area, unless I drive 4-5 hours one way...even then I don't know if there is anyone. I was throwing around the idea of buying a copy of DHP or HPT, but I'm thinking I won't for a few reasons. I've sunk a lot of money into the car lately, and $500+ for a program that I'll only use on 1 car is a bit much. I don't plan on tuning for friends or a side job, I already normally work 60 hours a week and the rest of the time is with my family or working on the car\truck. With all that in mind is looks like I'll be going with a canned tune. I was thinking Overkill, but I'll do more research before I make a final decision.

A big question I have is should I go to a 3.4 or 3.6? Remember, I have a Gen V, so in order to goto a 3.4 inch I might need an intercooler...am I against that? For now, yes. I'll get one eventually, but that'll be in a few years if I'm lucky. With the 3.8 pulley and stock exhaust (minus Cat), and a HAI, I very rarely saw ~1 degree of KR, I now have SSAC's, and I'll have the tune (whatever it ends up being). Do you guys think I should try for a 3.4 or 3.6? Or maybe even a 3.5?

Today was a good day. I upgraded the Op amps in the crossover to Burr Browns, and basically tinkered with the stereo all. I still have some alternator whine, but I think I've narrowed it down to my RCAs. I changed out the tl082CN op amps for some Burr Brown OPA2604s on the front and OPA2228s for the rears and sub. 1 word. Holy****ing****. That is all. Both me and my dad were pretty speechless at the difference is made...He's a studio engineer and we've both recorded, edited, and mixed down numerous CDs. He's still building custom preamps for studio recording, these are Pro Audio Op Amps. Once I get this alternator whine taken care of I'll be one happy camper, lol. Everything sounds warmer, bass is punchier, mids and higher are clearer, overall it was just a fantastic upgrade, all from 9 little chips, lol. I installed sockets for the Op amps just in case I decided to change them out, which I might swap out the 2228s for more 2604s some day if I can get my hands on some. I spent about 30-45 minutes fixing bad solder joints that the factory had on this thing, they were terrible at best.

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