PG Astra Australia Demo Car - 2013 - 159.5dB @ 41Hz

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

garden hose... Not sure I would brag about that really.

Curious, what happens when it gets cold and you turn the heat on the car?

Garden Hose was a lot cheaper than stripping the copper out of the 0ga...

As for the turning on the heat...we just turn it to defrost or dash vents...

[ttocs]

Eh, not my thing. To me it seems like an afterthought/hack of an idea. I can't see it gaining you any points in competition for creativity even if it does work...

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Eh, not my thing. To me it seems like an afterthought/hack of an idea. I can't see it gaining you any points in competition for creativity even if it does work...

This car isn't being built for points or for competition. It's being built to play music, cleanly, loudly and reliably day in day out.

As for the Garden Hose I wouldn't dwell on it too much, since as mentioned it will not be seen once the install is finished. Aside from that it's no different than if we hade used some form of clear flexible plastic tubing, but cost us much, much less... so if saving money and thinking laterally is being a HACK, then I'm proud to be a Hack LOL!!!

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Well another full weekend of work. We started out with more of the final sanding and fitment of all the B-Pillar pieces getting them all ready for vinyl.

From there we were starting on the interiors of the amplifier boxes (behinf the driver's and passenger's seats). ORiginall the Driver's side housed 2 of the SD500.4 4ch amps and the Audio Control MATRIX line driver. The Passenger's side held 2 more of the SD500.4 amps along with the Audio Control EPIC-160. The problem is, that we've found that we pretty much adjust/disable the EPIC-160 every song and having it behind the seat is just a royal pain. So we decided to reloacte it to the dash with a quick custom pod.






With the EPIC-160 moved, we could look at giving us a bit more room for the MATRIX, so we decided to put 3 of the SD amps into the Passenger's side amp rack, then we only have 1 of the SD500.4 amps in the Driver's side along with the MATRIX.





After dinner that night Fab and I decided to tackle rewiring the subwoofer amplifier rack to strap the amps together. We had an issue with the way we originally had the amps wired. WE wired each amplifier running two subwoofers. We made it so that each amp ran a subwoofer from the top box and the matching subwoofer from the bottom box. Example Top Driver's Rear Corner and Bottom Driver's Corner. The issue was that if an amplifier went into thermal protection, we had one subwoofer in each sealed sextion becoming a passive radiator with 8 other woofers trying to physically tear apart the woofer.

So now we will be running strapped pairs of amps, with each strapped pair running 4 woofers. We also made sure that all 4 woofer were in the same box! This way if/when an amp goes into thermal protection it will shut off 4 woofers, turning them into passive radiators but only being driven by 5 other woofers. So instead of an 8 to one ratio, we will now have a 1.25 to 1 ratio of woofer trying to tear apart the other woofers. Hopefully this makes sense, and hopefully this works!!!



Still have to wire up the strapping wires to join the speaker terminals between the amps, and also wire up the RCA's, but that should be relatively quick!

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

So Sunday started with the front doors...we had decided earlier to increase the number of speakers throughout the car and the front doors are now getting 4 of the Ti65CS 6-1/2" components. So Fab set to work cutting the doors out to make room.



Then it was time to place the rings



We also removed the old door pods to make room for the speakers, funny how you have to go backwards in order to move forward...



Prepped for material and resin:

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

We also made a good start on the rear speaker pods that go on either side of the rear amplifier rack. Once again we decided to increase these up to 3 Ti5CX 5-1/4" coaxials per side.








We also wrapped the amp rack in plastic so we can resin the pods while they are srewed into place to prevent any problems with warping once they cure.



So still some work to do wrapping them before we resin them, but Bec says she will tackle the stretching and wrapping this week so we can resin them one night...

No updates next week due to Christmas, but we'll be back at is soon after!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Oooh special late night delivery from Glenn...




Stripper pole fits like a glove!!!

Taking it down for paint tomorrow

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Quick Update with some trimming Goodness as we get ready for the SummerNats show next week!


Roof mount speaker pod looking good, covered in a shiny silver vinyl that actually matches quite well the colour of the brushed aluminum laminate we used for the inside of the box.


front section starting to come together. Bec chose black vinyl for the main wall colour witht he speaker pod in shiny silver and the port painted in the same yellow as all the metal bracing inside the box.


Dash mount pod for the EPIC-160 putting it front and center on the dash, so we can make adjustments per song quick and easy. In our quick playing with this unit, when you dial it in to the song it can make a huge difference, but if you dial it in wrong, it just sounds....wrong :p

Oh Yeah and God Forbid that you have it enabled when random your iPod lands on a Bass Song - Better hope you're close to the Volume Knob!!!

More this weekend...

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

It's been a crazy week and I know I'm skipping ahead to the end without brining you all up to sped with the build progress. We have tons of pics to put up, but thought you might want a sneak peek of the semi-finished project...

Enjoy the Vids!!!






More soon!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Another quick video from today...it was absolutely pouring rain outside, but luckily we snuck into the dB Drag Racing Pavilion to stay dry.

Here's what happened as soon as we turned it on:



We couldn't do too many demos since they were trying to do SQ judging and we kept drowning out the PA system too LOL!!!

That was OK though because the Finals for the Grand Master's Burnout Contest was on too, so we got to head over ands watch it ALL!!!

Enjoy!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

A couple more videos for ya, not the greatest quality but I think you'll enjoy them!!!



And one of a failed hairtrick that we thought you might still like!



Cheers,

Scott

[stipud]

That's simply absurd

How long do your batteries last like that? Or do you run a large power supply at shows?

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

That's simply absurd

How long do your batteries last like that? Or do you run a large power supply at shows?

Currently we're running 9 of the Stinger SPV69 batteries, so basically one per monoblock. There's 2 underneath the subwoofer box in the spare tire well, another 6 across the back below the amps, and one in the stock location in the engine bay. Thanks to Glenn for fabricating all the battery trays!!!

In the videos (at the show) we were running the car at about 3/4 Volume, but we had the engine running for the entire time.

We only have to stock 120a alternator and we had the Air Conditioning cranked as well... By the way the Garden Hose with the Air Conditioning into the amplifier Rack worked Awesome!!! We overheated once on Saturday which was about a 90f day at about 4pm with direct sunlight shining on the amp rack!

Long story short, the batteries lasted a good 3 hours before there was noticiable voltage sag down into the 12.5V range

At night we use a 21A battery conditioner to bring everyting back up to full levels. So far it is working quite well!!!

We also have a 60A power supply that we can try to hook up at events where we can't have the car running. My suspicion is that without the Air Conditioning the amps will overheat well before the battery voltage sags...

Cheers,

Scott

[oldskoolmseriesfan]

BUMP!! UPDATE PLEASE

[onecrazy95civic]

Hello, are you using PG wiring in your system? PM sent...

[Damo95]

Wow.. Scott's sure been busy to not update this... I'll remind him tomorrow..

Wiring is all stinger hpm blue/clear..

Been doing some good numbers too..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

It's been awhile since we last updated this build log, but there hasn't been a lot of significant changes since the last updates.

As many of you have heard/seen the Astra does some decent numbers with a Pb of 152.1dB at 32Hz (on music) but more impressively we also do a 151.7dB at 22Hz on music as well.

The 'issues' we've been having with the box has all been linked to the shape of the centre chamber. Basically we didn't make the angle of the baffles steep enough, so there is too much airspace at the back of the box and not enough at the front. What that means is that most of our pressure is actually going to the back of the box. In testing we put the Termlab meter on a broomstick and moved it around the box and vehicle. We used a 30Hz tone and found that at the back of the box we were doing 161.x dB at 30Hz, but in the port we were only getting 147dB, we would then gain back about 5dB at the dash for a 152.xdB on the dash (our Pb in testing was 153.1dB with driver's door open)

What we would like to do is try a different layout / box design to see if we can get rid of 'some' of the cancellation.

We haven't decided on a final design yet, but while we do we are pulling out all of the amplifiers, batteries and subwoofers to give everything a thorough once over. The've all been beaten on pretty hard for the last 10 months and we need to see if we broke anything.

So here's where we're at...









Stay Tuned for more updates this afternoon!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

OK a bit more progress this afternoon. We got all the batteries removed as well as all the 5-1/4" speakers and pods...









Next step is to remove the B-Pillars and all the Subs. While that's happening Mick has already ordered all the new lighting and has designed the new protection circuit which will shut off all the amps if any amp goes into Thermal Protection. Not that this new box will have the same issues as the old one, but just in case. For those of you that don't know, in the 4th order we had issues with physically tearing subs apart. Basically if a single amp went into protection then those particular 2 subs would not get any power, that mean the other 16 subs that were still playing would basically bash the crap out of the 2 non-powered subs. Anyway Mick's new super-duper circuit will turn off all the amps whenever one goes into protection. No more lying upside down lifting new subs into position LOL!

More Next Week!

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Well yesterday we got all the subwoofers removed, so getting closer to having the car gutted...

Tons of fun removing these damn things, especially the top subs, we had put 2x bolts in each sub just incase the screws ever decided to let go, sounded like a good idea at the time, but makes it a pain to remove them LOL!!!







Love the shot of all 18 subs in front of the car!
A bit more work tonight and all the front stage amps should be removed.

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Well we had a fairly productive day, we got the entire sub box removed. Thankfully we had origianlly made this as fully removable, no pieces are actually attached to the vehicle permanently, and all panels are just sealed together with weather stripping and a bit of silicone.

The new build will utilise the entire outer shell of the box, but nothing else. At that point we will permanently connect all panels and fibreglass everything.

So here's some pics of the tear down:








It started raining, so good thing we had some free 'Storage' space LOL






Next weekend is cutting out the baffles and internal braces, then sanding things smooth witht he belt sander - I know, sound Fun Right?!?

We should get some work in during the week cleaning up the wiring and prepping things for the new lighting system, new location for the 4ch amps and the new amplifier status panel.

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Well it's been a little while since I posted updates...we've been working on cutting out the baffles for the top and bottom boxes. All I can say is that we built these damn things STRONG! It's been an absolute pain in the @$$ getting these things gutted.










Still one more day of sanding to smooth out the transitions of the side and rear walls into the top box, then we can start re-assembling it in the car. From there we want to glass up all the joints and smooth everything out before we start on the new baffles.

Off to Hong Kong this week so more updates in a couple weeks.

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

OK back from Hong Kong, had an AMAZING time and had an unbelievable time meeting with the boys from AAMP of AMERICA. It was great to finally meet Morgan and bore him to death with Nerd talk!

It seems they have been following the Astra and wanted to be an even BIGGER part of the Rebuild!!!

Let's just say it's going to be BIG! <cough>24kw<cough>

So excited to get this thing happening now...more progress this weekend!

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Alrighty then, made some decent progress this weekend thanks to Craig Whyte lending a helping hand.

Got the inside of the box all sanded (there went another 5 belt sander belts), then put the box into the car for the final time, all joints Liquid Nailed and screwed together. Then on Sunday we took a couple hours to do a garage clean up (amazing what you find) and did a Bunnings run for supplies and more wood (Ply and MDF). There was enough time and motivation left to go ahead and bondo up ALL the screw holes and joints on both the inside and outside of the box.

Take a look:









More next weekend!

Cheers,

Scott

[Phoenix Gold Oz]

Hi All,

Not much to look at but it sure took long enough...sanded down the interior of the box and cleaned it all up.



Next we took the final measurements and made an old school cardboard layout to work out magnet clearance and whether we could actually physically get the subs in and out of the 'wedge'. After a bit of messing around we worked out a good compromise, we have a nice progression of cross-sectional area Vs the cone area of the subs. At the back of the second row of subs (where it turns into port) we have approx 80% of cone area, in the middle of the two rows we have 96%, and at the very front of the box we have 99%. Hopefully this will take care of the compression problems we had with the last box.



Had to give the poor Astra a quick wash after getting covered in Fibreglass dust.



Off to Canada for 10 days, so no updates for a bit, but as soon as I'm back we're ready for Baffles!!!

Cheers,

Scott

[Starunit10]

Don't Forget your winter coat it's startin to snow already !