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I used to use mdf for boxes but grew to dislike it. Too heavy and too much dust. Been using high-end plywood. Much lighter, cuts nicer and in all honesty dont think there's any difference in the sound. So long as it's high quality, more layers of thin laminates and no voids.
I used to use mdf for boxes but grew to dislike it. Too heavy and too much dust. Been using high-end plywood. Much lighter, cuts nicer and in all honesty dont think there's any difference in the sound. So long as it's high quality, more layers of thin laminates and no voids.
OH that is good to hear! I had a set of these in there years ago with hard wood for the big top pieces and fiberglass for the box itself. The big issue is the floor is so shallow with the old full size 10" subs I didn't have enough volume. I put those subs in my daily and get some shallow 10" ones for this. I'm definitely going to look at plywood, I'm so sick of MDF, and I hate the dust it creates when you have to cut or sand it.
Yep, cutting it dulls he hell out of blades pretty quick and the sanding sucks.. And it sucks to paint because it sucks up paint like a sponge.
If you cant find 10's that fit in there... I've seen some pretty high excursion 8's that you can potentially put more of in there to make up for the SD you loose..
Yep, cutting it dulls he hell out of blades pretty quick and the sanding sucks.. And it sucks to paint because it sucks up paint like a sponge.
If you cant find 10's that fit in there... I've seen some pretty high excursion 8's that you can potentially put more of in there to make up for the SD you loose..
I already have a set of shallow 10s, and It looks like they will fit after making a cardboard template of the enclosure. I should have just enough MDF to finish these boxes and then I'm going to try avoiding using it at all costs in the future.
Jessica
Mostly just finishing the subwoofer boxes at this point. Not exactly fun, and I've had other issues taking me away from the project. I had a bunch of work to do with the dually, but its getting there.
Still waiting on buying a wide band and doing a lot of reading on tuning and getting this thing to start. Still hating woodwork with MDF. I decided to use some filler on the whole thing. Now to sand it.
Getting these subwoofers installed won't really even be visible in the car, and I'll probably hardly ever remove them again, but it'll be so nice to have them built right and done.
Jessica
Been busy in the garage, making the most of the few good dry days we have left this year.
I'm focusing on getting the interior more or less finished with fabrication and modifications.
I still want to send the car off to a shop and have the dash and console covered but I want all the trim to be in place so I can drive it looking complete before I spend any more money on it. Got the second box built, and sealed. I even sanded and painted it, but didn't get a picture. Just waiting on carpet My front and rear brakes showed up, that should help with the whole driving thing
The next project will probably be making the G-body A-pillar trim work with a tweeter and the F-body dash. That should round out the last of the interior work and modifications to make the dash fit.
That means the wiring to the dome light, and all the bare metal will be covered and it'll look complete when I take it for a test drive.
One of my friends wants to learn how to "do brakes" so I'm waiting till he has some time to come over and "help" with the brakes on the El Camino later this week. The best part is they are stupid simple Camaro brakes and since hes so eager to learn I can convince him to help me bleed the brakes. Its a win-win situation for me Both covered in carpet and ready to go Not that there was a ton of storage in an El Camino, but this still lets there be some and have good sound. The 6.5s in the rear kick panels below the seat belts actually are the biggest improvement. I've had subs in this location for like 15 years of having the car, so I'm really used to it now.
The last pieces of the interior to deal with are the A-pillars. They need to have the F body lower piece grafted onto them so it'll match up to the dash. I'm also going to mount my tweeters in them and I'm hopeful that'll be as easy as drilling a hole in the finished piece and gluing them in place.
Still struggling with the tuning and getting it to start/stay running. I'm almost ready to pay for a mail order one, but I'm holding off for a little longer to see if I can figure this all out. No sense in trying to get it running just in time for winter, I can spend a few more months fighting with it before I'm really discouraged.
Jessica
Well my near perfect record of not having leaks has come to a very messy end. The damn brake lines leaked at a few fittings (Luckily tightening was all they needed)
The power bleeder broke its hose and dumped fluid all over the engine bay and inner fender, and my friend in his haste to fix the situation dumped a bunch on the outside of the fender.
Its all ok, nothing seems to be harmed, and honestly the paint on the body is going to get changed someday so thats even ok. The Eastwood Chassis Coat that I used stood up to that brake fluid like it was nothing, so that was great. The brakes are bled and they feel really good. Rears Fronts Flying Car
I'm well aware that I may have air trapped in the lines somewhere still. but it seems to be good so far.
I can't wait to get this thing to run so I can drive it around the block or something!
I've still got a wish list of parts I'd like before it is "done" and on the road, but we shall see how that goes.
I'm thinking wheels and tires for sure, and then maybe suspension and coilovers if I can afford them (otherwise I know it's going to handle like a high HP tractor)
I'm leaning towards some Riddler wheels and whatever tires, but I'd love to stuff a 275 in the back, and a 245 or 255 in the front.
I'd consider it lucky if it didn't kill the paint. I've had handles melt from that stuff before.
Yeah I'm not holding my breath. Its been a few days and nothing terrible yet though. The paint on the body is satin so thats lucky its not clear or it would be terrible.
Jessica
I've been plugging away at the "little/annoying" stuff lately. My thought process is it won't be fun to drive this thing as a complete mess, and it isn't going to drive anywhere without wipers in the winter in the NW.
I went from the dash mounted no delay wipers to a stalk mounted switch with delay. So I'm trying to integrate a newer motor with a park function and pulse board to work in my car. So far not a lot of luck but I can't get a new pulse wiper motor for an El Camino so this is my best bet.
I'm also working on getting the dash to look complete. Its a little bit of work and I hate having to modify ABS but so far I'm getting there. I'll end up mounting some little tweeters in the pillars when I get the shape all figured out.
Lastly my cat died suddenly this summer and I decided after far too long (2 months) without any fuzzlers in the house I needed some. So that has been pretty much eating up all my free time. The two brothers, Mario and Luigi, are getting bigger and are able to be left alone, and I can get back out to the garage for a bit Trying to make the washer/wiper switch on the turn signal work with my old car. Haven't figured out a system yet, but when I do I'll let everyone know. Started on making the dash meet up with the A-pillars. Using mostly the El Camino parts, and then adding the Camaro pieces to the bottom The reason for lack of any big progress lately
So for anyone following along the wiper saga. I can't get a pulse board for a 78 El Camino, I also can't get one for an 87. So I thought why not just use another pulse board from something else and make it work with my motor. The issue with a 78 motor is they switch the motor via a positive signal and the later with a negative signal (or maybe its opposite that). The point is I couldn't get the stalk to work an older motor. So then I went to a second gen S10 motor, and got closer, but those don't have a park function like I need so that wasn't going to be the best solution. Then I started playing around with a pulse board from a 97 Camaro or a 95 and that got me really close, but it needs to interface with the motor as its turning to trip the park relay and to do the delay the way it should. Using the pulse board just by itself and jumpers to the older motor, that bolts right up to my linkage/firewall and would be great to use, doesn't really work right. The last thing I decided to try was just buying a 97ish Camaro wiper motor with the pulse board and making that fit the firewall/linkage on the El Camino. So far I have all the functions I need and it works like it should.
The problem is I had to pull the big block out of the dually to fix a problem with the flywheel and re gasket it. That has turned into me sending the heads out to get checked/redone and I'm going to put some dome pistons in it to bump the compression up to 9.5:1 for a healthy towing/street cam. Now I can't be cutting and fabbing a bunch of wiper stuff while I have a bare block and pieces next to the fab equipment.
It turns out the dually has a 30 over 454 that looks great inside and it had a Crower cam and some decent parts. It just wasn't sealed up well and the cam had some wear from some lifter/rocker/pushrod issues. So I figured I've pulled the engine, I've pulled the transmission too to make my job easier, and its best to just freshen it up and get it all ready for spring. The transmission has been rebuilt too, so thats a nice bonus.
I also had to steal a spark plug wire from the El Camino for my Silverado the other day, so its actually now further from running hahaha
Soon things will come together, but for now its kind of hilarious the situation I've put myself in.
Jessica
Well its been more than a minute since my last update. Kind of threw my back out twice and had to take it easy over the holidays. Between that and the cold weather I've been slacking.
I decided to channel my inner pimp my ride, early 2000s customizer and use the foam trick to make the pillars.
Now if these were something important I'd make a plug and pull a part, but they should work just fine to hold a tweeter and cover up a hole in the dash. They're the last part I need to "finish" the interior, so it'll all work out and its worth it.
After some trimming with a razor blade it makes a pretty good start for some fiberglass work.
I've never been a huge fan of fiberglass, but it does work in situations like this. I actually used panel bond to stick the first layer to the original plastic parts. The polyester resin won't really stick to the ABS pillars at all.
So to make it all work, I drilled holes through the plastic, where I'll be fiber glassing. Then I covered it in panel bond, applied the first layer of fiberglass and let it kick off. Then while it was still kind of tacky I added the resin and the next layers of glass.
I forgot to take a picture after I trimmed up the cured fiberglass and test fitted the pieces in the car.
The next step is sanding, then some fiberglass reinforced filler, then whatever else filler it needs before some primer and paint.
Before the primer and paint I'll be cutting it with a hole saw to put the tweeters in the base near the dash.
As for the dually its still down. The parts are here, I rebuilt the heads with better springs and new seals. The rotating assembly is off getting balanced and new pistons installed.
Just trying to use my nice days to get the body and frame clean and ready for it all to go back in the truck.
If anything the big block at least looks good as a garage ornament. They're a lot more involved and have a lot of weird stuff compared to any of the small blocks I've ever built.
So yea, things are moving along slowly. I'm hoping the pillars will be close to ready for paint in the next week or so.
I'm also going to start looking into reaching out to people to help with tuning, but the car is stuck until I move the dually so whatever.
Jessica
**EDIT**
I finally broke down and got a garage propane heater so thats made a huge difference in my ability to work out there when its like 30 or 40 degrees.
Had a big breakthrough on the little truck car the other day. It fired up and kinda sort of ran for a few seconds. It sounded great, there was a transmission cooler leak that I could hear so I went ahead and shut it down. Then I got a video of it running after I'd checked things out the next day.
Turns out the 20+ year old coil packs I had from my original donor engine were not good and that was causing all my issues with backfires and not being able to keep it running. The only issue was I'd already cut out the baffles in those valve covers (to clear the LS3 rockers), and I knew that was a temporary fix just to get it running. So anyways I got new valve covers and new coils and that got all of that fixed and I even hooked up the PCV system.
I'm going to probably reach out to some friends who can help with tuning and get me on the right path to getting this thing broken in and running down the road.
Still working on the A-pillars, and the wipers, and for some reason my fuel gauge isn't reading so I'm digging into that. I basically want this thing as perfect and dialed in as I can make it before I start driving it. Plus me dragging my feet fighting with these little things means I can save some money on the big stuff like tires and maybe wheels (and anything else that crops up).
I need to put cotter pins in the suspension, and do a good bolt check under the car before I drive it. The tires are shot so I need to decide to either get new wheels now or just tires. I need to put the hood back on (maybe) and button up the interior. Then just the brake-in and what not. I'm sure I'll find new things as I work through all this though.
Long term I'd like to put new tubular suspension arms on it, and give it a new paint job but thats not going to stop me from driving it.
Jessica
The big block rotating assembly is off at the machinsts and I'm back to fiddling with body work and trying to save some money so I can give it to the machinist.
The pillars are the last bits of interior to finish, and they are getting pretty close. First of a few coats of fiberglass filler on top of the fiberglass mat They fit pretty good, but the edges could use some work to match the dash perfect I'm sure it'll be a little weird to some people, but this should help literally tie the two interiors together One of the last coats; I'm onto the final stages of sanding and I'll cut the holes for the tweeters.
If I actually work on them I could have them done by this weekend, but its also supposed to rain and I'm not a fan of sanding or really doing anything in the garage with a bare engine on a stand (yes its covered, but still)
Jessica
09-15-2021, 05:01 PM
