Help with my "beauty panels" please

sdsport92064 · Post by **sdsport92064** » Fri May 22, 2009 8:37 am

Let me start off with saying that although I have been around car audio for decades and even worked at Car Toys in Portland and Tigard for several years, I've always been in sales and never in install. Frankly, I can't even tell the difference between a screwdriver and a wrench. Being happily married for a while, when someone tells me "flat head" I tell them "better than no head". Having that said, although I have no problems selling audio, and definitely none buying audio, I know nothing about installing it.

Jim Truett has been working on my Lanzar amps for a while now, and I'm currently up to 11 of them in various states of disrepair. The last time I saw Jim he showed me his 3-day install and basically it has motivated me to get off my ass and think about my car.

So what I did is, I built up the amp rack in stages. I laid down the bottom floor piece so that I had a foundation to build on. As you can see I have the big fuel pump hump in the way that basically killed off any volume in the spare tire well area (damn Toyota!!!)

There is still some usable space where I can put the ES changer, and possibly 4 1-farad caps that I still have lying around. I forsee the power, ground and remote distribution blocks sitting in there as well. I still need to find a place for the AudioControl DQX.

Once I had that nice and level, I built the amp rack to go on top of it. I completely copied Jim's amp rack idea of installing fans, and took his advice on using low low amp rated fans for quiet- this is a hatchback, so I will be in the same room as the fans. The sets of 2 on the left are push, the sets of 3 on the right are pull.

Now I come to the problem I am having. Unlike my old Accord or Jim's CL, I don't have the "trunk" space room to pull panels out easily. Basically if you were to be at the back of my car, looking eye level with my taillights, my hatch's factory interior panels start wide at the bottom of the hatch and then curve inward towards the top. This makes pulling a panel that stretches the entire width of the car impossible to put in or pull out.

So I made some templates of 2 panels, with the cut down the center. I then taped a spare old plexi piece I had to one o fthe panels, to mimic the overall look I was hoping to get.

Having done this, I can now foresee that it would be a big pain in the ass to screw the plexi to just one half of the panel. The panels can come in and out of the car easily but it just doesn't seem right not having the plexi completely bolted to something. On the other hand, the amp rack is 48 inches wide, the widest point of the hatch is 51 inches, with some parts almost touching the amp rack, so I don't think I have any room to create an "inner border panel" around the plexi by itself, and then another "outside border panel" surrounding that one, and still have it wide enough that you can see the width of the amps.

But maybe I'm wrong? Maybe I do 3 panels, with one big "inner panel" and two "outer panels" split in half?

So help me install pros, I think that with my limited experience I'm probably not seeing something correctly or haven't figured out something completely obvious to you guys. I want to have this up and running by, say, 2011 if I could. That seems like a reasonable goal.

And BTW, Jim had said I should do this install so that I could have the satisfaction of having done it myself. You know what? That feeling is completely overrated. I think I would have had a lot better feeling seeing this car come back after a week with all this crap already installed for me.

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Fri May 22, 2009 8:51 am

Why is the fuel pump in the trunk ?

I've never seen them beyond the back seat

Is that a Corolla ?

If it is your fuel pump should be located directly under the back seats

Post by **Bfowler** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:00 am

bmw's have the fuel pump in the back too.

that looks like a Carrado...?

so far so good! especially for a "non installer"!

dBincognito · Post by **dBincognito** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:02 am

Bfowler

bmw's have the fuel pump in the back too.

Wouldn't that be unsafe ?
i.e. rear end collision

This looks better than alot of people who claim to be installers.....keep up the good work.....and hide all the wires

Post by **stipud** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:21 am

Hmmm... What if you mounted the plexi on the top side? You could screw a bunch of holes around the edge between the plexi and the decor panel. Then glue in some screws that come up out of the decor panel. Finally, lay the plexi down through the screws, and get some nice round topped nuts to screw it down. Would look pretty rugged.

Post by **Francious70** » Fri May 22, 2009 9:52 am

Dang that looks good.

Post by **ttocs** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:27 am

I am confused. Why can't you just screw the plexi down to the amp rack, and then put your cover panel on top of it?

I would try to make the cover board out of one piece and see if you can flex the center of it to get it in. You would be suprised how far you can flex 1/4" mdf if you are carefull about it.

sdsport92064 · Post by **sdsport92064** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:43 am

dBincognito wrote:Why is the fuel pump in the trunk ?

I've never seen them beyond the back seat

It is indeed in the trunk. When I swapped the engine from non-turbo to factory twin turbo I had to upgrade the fuel system as well which is the only reason I actually know where it is. Otherwise a fuel pump to me is at a gas station.

Basically the fuel pump "top" is underneath that black screw thing you see. That circle comes off and you gain access to the assembly. Then the fuel tank is basically the rectangle you see in the picture.

dBincognito wrote:Is that a Corolla ?

Close. Very close.

ttocs wrote:I am confused. Why can't you just screw the plexi down to the amp rack, and then put your cover panel on top of it?

I want to retain access to the amps. These things are over 15 years old now and I have "spares" of every one now sitting around in case one goes bad. Believe me I thought of it but I just want to make sure I can get to them if I need to.

ttocs wrote:I would try to make the cover board out of one piece and see if you can flex the center of it to get it in. You would be suprised how far you can flex 1/4" mdf if you are carefull about it.

I thought of that too actually. I took a sheet of 2x4 foot 1/4" MDF to intially try out the "wide panel" idea and flat out could not make it flex enough to get in and out of the car. Thus my confusion now on how to reorient the panels.

Believe me the "wide panel" is what I would want, I don't want seams down the middle of my car.

Post by **stipud** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:45 am

ttocs wrote:I am confused. Why can't you just screw the plexi down to the amp rack, and then put your cover panel on top of it?

That's so simple... why didn't I think of that.

Post by **fuzzysnuggleduck** » Fri May 22, 2009 10:55 am

dBincognito wrote:This looks better than alot of people who claim to be installers.....keep up the good work.....and hide all the wires

It's put together way better than my install, and I don't think I was nearly as humble about it...

Post by **ttocs** » Fri May 22, 2009 12:25 pm

we all want access to our amps, but do you mean that you want to be able to stop on the side of the road and yank it out if you need to? You would only need a couple of screws to secure it in place, 5 mins max even if you don't know what a phillips head is.

I had to flex my coverboard a bit to get it in my truck. With as long as that panel would be, you should be able to put one side in place, bend the middle and then slide the other in place and then release the middle. What thickness of wood were you trying to use?

neverman · Post by **neverman** » Tue May 26, 2009 1:23 am

Pretty sure my fuel pump is under the rear seat... anyway, looking nice on the install. Keep the pictures coming.

Thunderdome · Post by **Thunderdome** » Tue May 26, 2009 1:51 pm

QUOTE

(I thought of that too actually. I took a sheet of 2x4 foot 1/4" MDF to intially try out the "wide panel" idea and flat out could not make it flex enough to get in and out of the car. Thus my confusion now on how to reorient the panels.

Believe me the "wide panel" is what I would want, I don't want seams down the middle of my car.[/quote])

If mdf doesn,t work I,ve used hardboard before in a grand prix for the cover for this same reason it,s just a cover so the material is,nt as important as it,s function

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Wed May 27, 2009 5:11 am

What type of material are you gonna finish it in?

If you choose to do it in carpet, you can do the wood work in 2 pcs. but carpet it in 1 piece. The carpet would act as a 'hinge' along the mating point of the 2 halves. Allowing you to fold it, get it in the vehicle then unfold it and the continuous piece of carpet will bridge the seam and the panel will appear as 1 solid piece.

Also, you could use that method, only make a 3-piece panel. Make the center section 1 of the pieces, with the sides as the other 2pieces. Sorta like 'flaps'. I've found this usually makes for the strongest overall and allows you to do whatever windows and cutouts, without the hassle of trying to keep 2 halves lined up with a seam right down the middle of a window.

Orrr, you could make a trim on the sides that is permanent with the center section removable.

Here's a link to some cars I did this in .. may give you some ideas ..

http://phoenixphorum.com/parting-shots- ... t7928.html

The red Accord (2nd car down) is an example of making some of the trim permanent with the center section removable

The 2nd green Plymouth Neon (about halfway down) is a good example of the 'flaps' idea.

Here's some more with similar situations. There's a Supra in the mix too.

http://phoenixphorum.com/parting-shots- ... t7982.html