Got the new 4 channel amp in, I saw pictures of this thing and I still couldn't believe how small it is. I should have no problem stealth mounting it somewhere out of view. It's only 8.5" long, I had so much fun playing with it, I took a couple size comparison shots

Here's all the controls that are hidden by a brushed aluminum cover


And here's a comparison shot I took of the amp


Thing is tiny, it's actually digital and is supposed to output a lot less heat than normal amps, so I definitely think that will help with the stealth mounting

Probably gonna be a couple weeks till I get it installed though

 

Yeah the new XD amps were what I was thinking of for putting under your seat not the HD amps. They are crazy small. I remember the first time I saw one at my buddies show and thought that can't be a real amp.

 

Digital amps are fantastic for car audio. I wouldn't do them for home audio, but for cars...

 

I thought that's what u meant, you said HD, but I like the XD a lot better

 

 

So did you get that little thing installed yet?

 

Nope, haven't had a weekend to fish the new wires through the doors yet

 

Was trying to work on the 4Runner with my upcoming 5 day weekend, but I have to help my brother move, and my friend is coming in from out of town

 

Any update on the amp yet?

 

I have the amp, but it's not installed yet. This got pushed to a winter project. I'm hoping to work on it next week when I'm off

 

Ahhh I see. Trying to think of ideas if my amp turns out to be dead. Not sure what to do. Possibly just replace it with the same thing or go with something different. I hate to not have all matching gear but I am considering JL amps. Either a HD 600/4 and 1200/1 or 2x XD 600/1 and 1x XD 400x4. Was just checking to see what you thought of the amp. Guess I have to wait.

 

Nice system man, its been ages since I installed a system in a car. I got my 12w7 sitting my living room, and at this point I might turn it into a home audio sub.

Did you use polyfill in the enclosure?

 

Nope, did not polyfill it, I wanted the airspace

Thanks man

 

You should polyfill it for a little more low end extension

 

Well, this was all planned, my buddy was gonna help me with tear down on Friday night and get the wires run through the doors, then stay over Saturday night to help me wire up the new amp and get everything running. But after dinging my acura a couple times with the 4Runner door, he went to grab my car cover off of a stack of rims that I have sitting on a pallet, and he pulled one of the rims right down onto his big toe almost breaking it. Needless to say he couldn't walk or stand, so since the door panels were already off, I swapped out my Alpine Type S speakers to all of the new MB Quart speakers. I used the stock wiring for now, just because I wasn't going to fish and run all the wires by myself. So at least I got all the speakers in. They sound so much better and cleaner than the Alpines that I had in there. Now I have to wait for his foot to heal before he can help me tear everything down again and fish wires through the doors. At least we got the speakers in and saw where we have to fish the wires through in the future

 

Here's a couple pics of the MB Quartz components, didn't get any pics of the rear components since I had the wrong brackets. Will get a couple of those when the right brackets get here. Here's the 6x9's and tweeters for now.

All wired up to the stock wiring for now


MB Quart 6x9 Component and Dome Tweeters


Better pic, my phone's battery was too dead to use the flash, so these are the pictures my gimpy friend took


As mentioned the rear 6.5" brackets that I bought are the wrong bolt pattern, so I ordered a set that definitely will work, made by the same guy who made the front adapters seen in these pics, now I just have to wait. The good news is, the guy is in Pittsburgh.

 

Got the new set of brackets from the guy here in Pittsburgh and got them installed last night. The baskets around the magnets were so big that I had to modify the brackets to fit, so it took longer than expected. Didn't take any pics though, but they sound great

 

Awesome. Now onto the amp

 

After I go to Texas

 

While I'm gone, I'm shipping my gauges and HVAC clusters to get changed from the stock orange/amber lighting to blue. This is what I'm going for

 

Damn that is cool. Curious as to how much something like that costs. I have wanted to have it done but then I would need to have the entire nav/radio/ac controls done and door switches which could get pricey.

 

I'm sure it isn't bad if you do it yourself, I'm having some kid on the 4runner forum do it for me, but I did my CL myself. You should look into it, most of it is just bulbs. The reason I'm sending this off is because they're soldered to the cluster

 

Back in town, still waiting for my gauges, I planned this out with the kid like 2 months in advance, he had them for a whole week and never touched them. So I'm driving around with no speedometer or hvac controls

 

No speedo is funny but no hvac this time of year sucks. Sorry man.

 

The good news is, that unlike my acura, the hvac keeps running whatever you had it set to last, and I had it set to heat/defrost on low, so I'm getting heat and defroster still. The no speedo/gas gauge is a trip, but I'm dealing with it. Kid's still working on the gauges, but I went ahead and ordered LED bulbs for all my switches to make them match the gauges and hvac controls. Then I'll be about 90% done with the color conversion. Also ordered a couple more cool white wedge bulbs for my interior cuz a couple of mine are starting to flicker. Also ordered a new dome light for the ack

 

Gauges should be shipping today

Drove in 4wd today cuz the roads were icy as hell in my neighborhood this morning, backed out of my driveway, went to drive in rwd and went sideways

 

You better take pics!

The extreme work is what's keeping me from converting my Type S ugly red to blue.

 

Mine are all LED so the soldering work is extremely intricate. Most people or places that do it charge almost $500 for the work.

 

I don't really have before pics of the stock orange, but I definitely will take pics when I put the blue gauges in

Pay me $300 I'll do it

 

 

 

So talked to the kid that has my gauges today. The blue conversion is done, but he was hung up on what I wanted to do with the needles. He's gonna send me a pic tonight and see what I want to do, I can either leave the needles orange and they'll be lit up with blue light, or he can clear them and have white/opaque needles lit up blue...

 

So, the orange needles turned out just like i wanted, so we're good to go. Kid sent me a couple of pics from his iphone and I am satisfied. Here's a few before pics and his couple pics since I promised updates. I'll have better pics once I actually get the damn things back

Not mine, but here's what they look like stock, ugly ass amber color




Here's a few pics I took of all the switches that I have to change to blue






Here's the pics he sent me of the gauges, I haven't seen the hvac unit yet, sorry for the quality, like I said, he took them, not me




And to get an idea, I changed the orange back ground and LED controls to blue

 

That looks great.

 

Thanks man, I'm excited to see them in person, if I ever get them back

 

Gauges supposedly shipping today

 

How long has it been now? A month?

 

3 1/2 weeks...

 

Since I'm still waiting for the gauges to arrive (supposedly stuck in the snow storm) I've been working on converting the rest of the orange lights to blue LED. Has been quite a pain so far, but I'm making progress

 

Looking good so far