Thought I'd finally get around to reposting some build pics.

First topic message reminder :

Nothing quite gives a guy such great satisfaction as taking a $50,000.00 truck and depreciating the value of it with a BIG HOLE








Oh well...On to a little Dynamat treatment.















That's all of the dynamat for now. I am awaiting another pallet to arrive before I finish the deadening. So we move on to the charging system. With an Ohio Gen alt. already installed I figured why not cushion it with a few "Ole Yellers".

First we had to make a little room by removing the washer reservoir. Then we fabricated a battery tray from 1/4" solid steel. Coated it with spray-on bed liner to retard rust and give it a little more grip on the batts. Jason welded some feet onto it and the tray got bolted to the frame in several places aswell as the fender and firewall. When you tug on a bat the whole truck moves but the tray in the truck does'nt. i made some tie downs out of raw aluminum. If you look closely you'll see that one has a brushed look and the other is polished. I did one of each to see which one I liked best. What's your opinion?











With the batts in place it seems time to go ahead and make a couple of runs back to the bed with 0 AWG. First covered with plastic weave and a layer of Stainless over that beacause part of the run needed to go under the truck. Two runs of 0 AWG just seemed like too much to go through the cab on the way back to the bed. As you will see both runs are secured well and pass through a pair of waterproof grommets into the bed. There is a bit of a loop in the wire where I allowed for the bed and cab to move independently with out too much strain on the wire.








For now, onto some build pics of the enclosure. Hopefully it won't need to be redesigned and built again. For those that have'nt been to our store and those that have. You're in for a treat. I'd like to introduce you to our wood shop. I mean Jason and ours GOOD friend Richards wood shop
He owns "Anything of Wood" custom cabinet shop and is kind enough to allow us to use it at our discretion. All of our boxes get built here.














Once built I took it back to our shop for some Spar Marine waterproofing treatment as well as silconing the inside of the box.


I'm still waiting on more Dynamat product to finsh out the bed and Dynxorb the enclosure. Once that is finished I will be able to roll on with the wiring start installing the box, subs, amps and such. I'll keep you updated. Let me know what you guys think so far. I don't figure I am showing anything on here that you would'nt be able to see in my presentaion book so I don't really consider it the letting of any cats out of the bag We'll see what happens when it comes time to tune

Send the brownies man, I need to concentrate a little harder on this thing

Not to be a buzz kill bro, but if you are using a braided mesh loom that is constructed from metal, or steel to loom your wire then you could very well run into a problem. Most local judges won't catch it, but a regional or finals judge will. You should not loom your power wires in steel loom because if there is a break in the casing of the wire it will have a direct path to ground out or arc from the break to the loom.

Chris's Studio Civic wrote:

Not to be a buzz kill bro, but if you are using a braided mesh loom that is constructed from metal, or steel to loom your wire then you could very well run into a problem. Most local judges won't catch it, but a regional or finals judge will. You should not loom your power wires in steel loom because if there is a break in the casing of the wire it will have a direct path to ground out or arc from the break to the loom.

Which is exactly why I added yet another layer of nylon and shrink between the wire jacket and stainless steel weave loom. I talked to a judge about it for a little while. Trying to cover my bases here. Only the 2 runs of 0g going outside of the truck are covered in the stainless. For added protection. However both ends of the line are well fused making even the most catostrophic break a short lived problem when it comes to arc to ground. I had to use extra large shink at the terminations to compensate for all of the layers

Good eye though man. I was wondering when someone would catch that and make a comment

That is fine, but I would cover the outside of the run in some kind of non-metalized conduit. I know you put an extra layer between the steel braiding and the wire, but you should have put the extra layer on the outside. The problem is the steel braiding is now connected (or touching) the ground plane. If you ran the power runs under the car....(which it looks like you did) you should protect them with some type of non-metalized conduit. First off the braided loom will not protect against water. If there was a break in your wire anywhere under the car then it would allow water to possibly penetrate the cable there-by allowing it to arc to the ground plain. Secondly the conduit is going to be more resistant to blunt-force-trauma. By that I mean being scraped by something under the vehicle. Oh, and I do not know which judge told you that would work......but he or she was mistaken

"Power Wires Properly Protected (0 - 5) - The wires that connect the power source components to one another and to the audio system should be protected from their environment. In a non-hostile environment, such as in an interior compartment or in the engine compartment away from all heat sources (at least a few inches), wire loom will be considered sufficient protection and awarded maximum points. However, in high heat areas or underneath the vehicle, better protection will be required. In these cases, metal or rigid plastic conduit will be considered sufficient and full points awarded. A grommet must be used at any point where a power wire passes through metal or any conductive material. Loom, or other suitable material, will be required when the wire passes through any abrasive material. Common sense will be used when evaluating and scoring this category!"

I know you put in the wrench time on your project so do not take it the wrong way. I am probably one of the hardest judges around......(ask anyone). I would give you 0-1 for power wire protection. Just trying to help you out so you do not get a suprize.

And I do appreciate the input man. As I understood the rules (Metal Or Ridgid Plastic) the metal I'm using would suffice but I see your point and will try to come up with something. I had another judge tell me to run it through some pvc or such but I dont think I could make the turns I need to make with it. Do you have a suggestion? One that will not require pulling it all out and starting over

Thanks!

When it refers to metal or rigid plastic, it is talking about the type of conduit. If you wanted full points I would cover it by building a steel case around the wire run under the truck, or pull the runs and cover them in conduit. Neither is an easy fix.

Well Chris YOU ARE BEING A BUZZZZZZZZ KILL. Good eye though ya hard assss....LOL JK That is one of the reasons i do half way decent is cause your anal asss taught me to be just as anal... Assssshole. LOL

John, might want to get on the phone with Chris and he could tell you easier than typing if he has time for a call. I usually get confused when he words it to me ... But understand when im on the phone or in person talking to him. But we all know why i dont member shizzzzzzznit... hehe Still coming along real nice John keep it up.. Ohhhhh and fix that damn wire.. hehe

metal mesh is not going to get you the points.........if power wire is run under the truck ele. conduit would be a minimum.......just trying to help......metal mesh and nylon looks good but would maybe get a 1........the truck looks good and would hate for you to go to finals just to learn there..........you could run the wires through conduit and eleminate all ?s........it is an easy fix

I'll try to grab some conduit and give it a try. I think I can pull it at the fuse blocks up front and drop the whole section down. My biggest concern is going to be making the turns and having enough flex between the bed and cab.

it shouldnt be a problem.........your truck looks good and in the end you will be happy you made the change......good luck at finals.....

that non-metallic conduit you can get at Lowe's does well...thick tough stuff.

Well I've finished 99% of the wiring in the cab. Just have to make a couple of runs up the A-pillars and to the kicks from their respective cross overs.

Then solder in the Power, ground, and turn on at the Head Unit. The only oem wire running to the radio will be the Accessory wire to turn the radio on with the key and retain the factory RAP system. I ran new power and ground from the back with the amps and such. Toslink and AI Net take care of audio signal all the way to the bed.

All new speaker wire from bed into the doors and such.

Here are a few more pics...














Here are a couple of pics of the first panel in the bed. These are not finished pieces. They still need to be pulled out and some touch up work done on them. I am even thinking of changing the color of the panel holding the fuse blocks and capacitor to a colr that is a little less drastic in contrast. Such as trunk liner to match the top of the bedcover. However the gray flows with the interior of the truck well.





We are using locking steel clasps to hold the gray panel to the main black panel. I needed to have a way to access the hydrolic cylinder and such behind these panels on each side of the bed. It unlocks and the panel is then allowed to be moved out of the way to ease in maintenance of both the hydrolic setup and my wiring.



As you can tell from the pictures the bed still has a ways to go. Wire still needing to be routed and tied down, panels finished and touched up, along with a little more Dynamat and Dynaliner. I hope to have most of it finished in less than 2 week though

Keep the comments coming. If I need to change something now is the time to do it.

Oh... I'm still looking for a good non metallic conduit to cover my power wire run under the truck.

Lowes...grey stuff in a box. Looks good Jon.

Hey John that looks great. I am glad that I am not in your class, or with Jimbo either. I am puting the truck in basic cuz that is what it is very very basic and I can decide if the bimmer should go intermediate or advanced consumer or who knows I may just step up to the plate and go pro with it hahahaha not!!!!!

No more pics yet but the interior is back in the truck FINALLY!

On to more fun stuff like finishing out the bed and putting that damn conduit over my power runs.

Hopefully a few pics tomorrow night.

you'll be glad you did! good luck

you'll be glad you did! good luck

Looks good! What class are you in?

Yours Dave.

jsketoe............MINE...........

NICE!

lookin good ////man doesnt wiring suck to make look nice

Mickey...you crack me up.

I gots my rigid plastic conduit. Now I just have to re run ALL of my power wire.