Jason's 209

Ed LOL, Modest. I feel like the bigest show off with all my photo's all the time, LOL I get somthing new and 2nd thing ill do is post it here. Thanks for your complemnts. I love boats and audio, I love seeing other people's creation's no mater how big or small, its just cool to see stuff that people came up with, Im always learning and this place has lots of cool/smart people. I have taken some great infor from this place In fact I got the Idea to mount the amps in this boat from this thread.
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/213022.html?1110137042 where Jeff Royal and Mike Todd were cool enough to post photos of there Idea's, This is my rendition of there Idea.

The amps mount to these bar's The bars attach to the rub rail and screw into the floor. The bars have 4 studs that stick out and create a mounting location for each amp. Each amp has a mounting plate that mounts to the amp and then to the rack making it easy to install and remove each amp.

and this is what it looks like at the amp

Grant were did you get thouse mounting brackets? Im using the same idea from previous post also.

I bought the metal strips from Home Depot

Grant, is there any reason (beyond the more uniform output) that you use neon instead of LED? In my experience LEDs are much more durable, which in marine use is a big benefit, and with a diffusor you get light output that is very similar to neaon.

wow, so amazing. Thanks for posting all those pix, I love it. keep up the good work

Jason C: I have been using the Cold Cathode's they are the tubes that look like Neon but arent. They have been working out great, I havent broke one yett IMO its where and how you mount them that determans how they last so, I didnt see a need to change. I talked with Neil Felt the LED guru for Texas and was looking forward to using LEDs'on this project but the Cold Cathode's were so cheep we just went with them. I found them here
http://www.elwirecheap.com/coldcathodes.html
$12 for "2" 12 inch lights is way cheep. So for like $100 you can light up a boat pretty well, The leds were pretty expencieve compaired to the
Cold Cathode's. If space was a issue the LED's would be the ticket

Grant - What do you use to bring the speaker wire through the box to the outside? Do you use a terminal? or a small hole that you seal up after you pull the wire through? Do you have a picture - I looked through your website, but couldn't tell from any of the pictures.

I guess your asking about the Sub box plug's. I use bannan plugs. I drill into the sub box and install the female connectors into the sub box itself. The amp has the bannana plug's that connect to the sub box

OK, thanks, so it looks like the box that you made for the speakers in the motor compartment pictured above?

Ian "Sort of" the connectors that I use counter sink into the Sub box so they are flush on the outside they are all metal. You can drill a hole and press them into the box and the speaker leeds will bolt from the back side onto the sub, And yes you use the same style of plug connector you see in the engine compartment, Bannana Plug

Aw, come on Grant, I mounted my amps like that a year earlier... http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/193963.html?1098128785

Can't a guy get any respect...RIP Rodney; lol

Jan, back from the Dead. lol yes props to you

Mikeski,
I missed it before but going over the post you said you had tried lighting up the edge of plexi. Just buy some of this plexi, natural light makes the edges glow, I use it trade show display stands, very cool!
http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.asp?pagenum=3314
Grant you might want to try it as well some time.

Jason: Neil Felt has some cool speaker trim peices that have LED's in them, pretty trick. Ill look threw the Mc Master Car thing when i get a second.

For people in the Bay Aera, used to going to TAP plastic for there plexy need's I found another place in Newark, just across the bay who did the plexy for quit a bit cheeper than TAP. Tap wanted $266 and made me feel like they were doing me a favor. This place did it for $150, Ill post photos of the boxes today

Here is the battery box cover with the vinyle cover, Ill install the plexy window and the light in it today

PRO! Grant I love your attention to detail!

Grant, Did you go to Port Plastics?

Looks Great!

Thanks
The Place is called
Tri City Plastic
6803 Central Ave
Newark Ca 94560
510 742 8008

Grant, what's going on the tower? Have you decided yet?

Hey Grant, What model blue tops are those?

I have been "fixing" my boat, and it looks like no matter what I do, the cart batteries wont fit. Now the bluetops are appealing to me cause they will lay on their side and fit.

Glad I didn't buy the batteries yet. Now I can get 4 bluetops all under the floor. The GC batts were almost 2" too tall. And I totally wanted those too.

oh, where do you get your batts also?

Sorry, had to be post #100 on here.

(Message edited by lukeduke95 on March 16, 2005)

Luke: Jason picked up the blue tops at Cost Co, I think he payed $150 each,

Ill stop by some time and see what might fit in your 2001

Sams has them for 140.00 as of last sat.

I know there are two different models of blue tops though.

The D31m and the d34m. the latter being the one with more power overall.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/publish/optima/americas0/en/config/product_info/marine/technical_specs.html

They list the specs for each model here.

It should say what model it is on top of the battery. I was just wondering what you had in your boat, and what is geting put in Jasons. I could have sworn costco sold the smaller version bluetop.

I have some updated floor pics in my post.

Whats up Luke? The batts. that Grants using are the D34M.
Later
Harold.

Sweeet, thanks Harold.

Box #1 finished, There is still a trim ring that will surround the outside of the box, so you cant see the edge of the box and the side of the boat

Grant these boxes look great!!!!!! "BLING, BLING, W7s aint a thang!!!!!!!!"

Yea: Clay Thanks for your help, they went together so nice

Can you say Ka-boom!
I hope you don't blow them up with those big amps you guys use

This is not where this crossover box will be mounted, just snaped a photo of it

BOOM!

wow! looking super pimp.

how thick is that plexi glass? sure hope it doesn't crack!!!

Grant,
have you had any problems with slow start up on the cold cathod tubes? I had a friend who used them in his car and they would take 20 mins to get to full brightness.

Grant,

First off, great work as always. Your installs have to be some of the most thought out, cleanest of all installs.

My question is this, I also want to know how thick the glass is, and have you had problems in the past with mounting such a woofer in glass i.e vibration. Seeing as how many systems you have done, which all seem to have W7's and a gazillion watts, I thought I would get your opinion. I was wanting to do something similar with an IDMAX 12 and 1000 watts. What size, type, glass should I be looking at?

Chad

Thanks,

The Plexi on the face of the W-7's is 1 inch thick. I had called JL and asked there opinion and they said 1 inch would work fine. The next size would have been 1-1/4 and that seemed way thick, JL recomends that the baffel on a W-7(the board the sub mounts into) is mounted into 2 peices of 3/4 inch MDF for strength. The plexy is much stronger than MDF so you dont have to match size for size. So Im guessin that the 1 inch plexy is as strong or stronger than "2" 3/4 inc MDF boards together.

This was the first time I have mounted a sub into Plexy. I worked with a new company that made it very easy. You cant screw a wood screw into the plexy like you would MDF so all the holes that the sub mounts into needed to be drilled and then taped with threads, The company that I got the plexy from did all the fab for me.
They cut and drilled all the hole's for me, They even gave me all the screws that I needed to mount the plexy to the box and the stainless steel screws that the woffer bolts into the plexy with.

Chad: IMO 1 inch this would be overkill for a ID max, so I would go for 1 inc. Im pretty sure 3/4 would work fine if you were trying to save a few buck's

I have one cold cathadoe in my boat thats slow to get bright, its because the balast is going out. In all of my exp with cold cathadoes I have yet to have one break or blow out, Fingers crossed. The wire size that goes to the cold cathadoes are important and #2 its important not to have the ballast mounted to far away from the tube, the further away the more dull the tube.

Grant, it sounds like you could use propell nuts in an application like that (i.e., speaker mounted to plexiglass). You don't have to thread the hole and you can remove the speaker and replace if necessary without messin' up the threads.

Go here and scroll to the bottom:

http://www.stafast.com/products/tnuts.html

The smooth ones at the bottom that you pointed out look great, Thanks for the link, Ill try them, But I wonder how much larger you would have to drill the hole in order to accept the propell nut when you cut the speaker hole the edge is all ready pretty close to the edge. Or if you would see it from the front side, If I stripped a thread that would be a great fix.

I use the propel nuts all ready But I have never seen ones with out the spikes, Thanks for the Idea

I think you have to drill the hole one size bigger than the thread size, but I'm not sure. Try a few tests on a piece of scrap. I'm sure you have a drill press!

You won't see them from the front as long as you trim the screw to the proper length. I also recommend a dab of LockTite on the threads.

(Message edited by swass on March 21, 2005)

Seems like I need to be saving my money!LOL

Ed your a baller its shouldn't be a problem.LOL

Hey,
Is this boat going to be at the spring ride at Pedro. I want to check it out.

Im not sure if J's going to be there. I dont even know if his boat will be done by then? I sure hope so. Its in a month correct.

Alright, enough with the suspense, What's going in the tower?

Good question!

Right now we have 4 of the 5 way Pioneer 6X9's that will be pushed by a PPI 4125, Jason hasent gotten of his A$$ and picked out a tower box as of yett. Mabey Clay will build him one? What ever he choses he better get somthing going, The wire should be here Friday and we might have sound by this end of next week

Grant ~LOL...Whatever gave you that idea.LOL

Thing looks F'ing killer man. Just like all your installs. I don't care to even think about what all that costs. Thankfully I spent all the money I have on my boat and can't worry about adding to the stereo.

Grant- I'm using the same idea as you are on Jason's boat with mounting the amps. Any tips on how to remove the rub rail on a 04 X-2?

Grant,
Yep that is the date. Do you think Jason will want a stereo competition.

Grant - Ive seen some plexi boxes before but that kicks ass. Nicely done

Big ED: Just start charging the people you take out on your boat everytime and you will have the money in no time. LOL

Rich: Just remove the rub rail starting from the rear and remove/pull it out from the rear forward, use a heet gun to softin it and put it back in.

Jeff: Stereo competition? LOL. Is there sutch a thing.

Grant, check out panel nuts too. mcmaster.com has a good selection:

Grant,
I know you have done one before. My boat might not be as nice as Jason's, but I can hang when it comes to stereo sound off's.

The whole idea of stereo compition IMO is stupid. Look up the NVS VS Defcon thread to see more of what Im talking about, What is the goal. To be louder then the next guy? or to be cleaner or both, What about bass, What about install, Bla Bla Bal. IMO to many variables Its all personal. I know what sounds good You know what sounds good lets leave it at that. IMO "He who has the most fun with his system has the best stereo"

That is what I was trying to say on that thread, but some people are a bit too serious when it comes to audiophile quality and not enough fun. Oh well. The system is looking great Grant. Hope to see you guys at the spring ride.

Grant,

Very nice craftsmanship, well done. I have been a fan for some time.

Did you use Tri City for the 1" Plexi machining? Care to share what they charged?

Also, where are you sourcing the colored formica laminate from? The Home Depot out here is limited to shades of woodgrain which would be fine for a woody but not so cool in a sub enclosure.

Thanks, keep up the inspiration for all us hackers. Youre setting the bar pretty high.

Thanks guy's

Tri City is the the Bomb. Ill start of by saying TAP plastic's suck's they wanted like over $300 and made me feel like they were doing me a favor.
Tri City did it for like $150, Im not done talking crap about Tap, I know they are independantly owned the One is San Mateo is the one Im talking about. They wanted to charge me $30 per speaker hole and they would only use there template, There template was just slightly larger than the hole needed for the W-7, If I wanted the exact size of the W-7 I would have to pay to jave a jig made??? "RIP OFF" Tri City cut each speaker hole for $12 to my exact size,
Then they drilled and tapped all of the plexy and they even included all the hardwear to install the sub, Stainless Steel and rust proof wood screw's, I left the boxes at there shop and returned and they were ready to install. The subs droped right in "peice of cake". Tri City is used to doing strange job's like this and they welcome them. Tap makes you feel like your taking up there time with your job. Ok Enough go to Tri City plastic in Newark CA,

I get my formica from a place in San Mateo called lamanated top's. But if you want some formica get a hold of Clayton, He's building Harold New sub box, get a color sample and he will get it for you, He will be my new connecton for Formica, I payed about $80 for the sheet that did the 2 sub boxes and the Cross over box it was about 4 X 6

Grant/Clayton,

Do you guys want to build the cabinets for my kitchen remodel? I swear I am getting bids for big bucks to do stuff much less sophistocated then what you are doing here. Things to think about...

Mike

Mike: Thats what Clay and Jude does for a living. How do you think he can afford to be pimpin a VLX at age 19, Building Cab's pays the bills. Hitching beats is just for fun.

All good Mr. Bling Bling.
I still want to check out your stereo install and Jason's at the Spring ride. I hope you guys can make it.
Keep up the good work.

Its wire time, Here is most of the wire for Jason boat, Ill show you the break down on all the wire, this is somthing most people dont account for,

2 - Stinger Expert Series SXPD04 Distribution Blocks 52.00 (2 x 26.00)
2 - Stinger Expert Series SXFD04 Distribution Blocks 64.00 (2 x 32.00)
1 - Stinger SVMB Digital Blue Voltmeter 26.50
1 - Stinger SR200 200 amp relay 44.50
50' Stinger HPM Blue 0 Gauge Power Wire 120.00
50' Stinger HPM Clear 0 Gauge Power Wire 120.00
26' Stinger HPM Blue 4 Gauge Power Wire 32.50
26' Stinger HPM Clear 4 Gauge Power Wire 32.50
100' Stinger SCL14450R 4 Conductor Speaker Wire 35.00
1 - Stinger Hyper Series 6' RCA Interconnects 8.00
1 - Stinger Hyper Series 1.5' RCA Interconnects 5.50
2 - Stinger Hyper Series 4 Channel 20' RCA Interconnects 55.00
1 - Stinger Hyper Series 12' RCA Interconnects 10.75
1 - Stinger Hyper Series 20' RCA Interconnects 12.00
Shipping via UPS Ground 22.00
Total: 640.25



www.darvex.com

Good luck with those RCA cables. I've had nothing but BAD luck with those. I've had to go back and replace all my Stinger cables because they were intermittent and wouldn't work all the time, plus they are kinda fragile, can't take too much abuse, I had to repair a couple of ends on my own until I gave up and bought all new ones.

Chris
Get the Grip you Deserve
www.wakejunky.com

Chris: I have the Stinger RCS cables in my boat and havent had any trouble with them, However the ends were as you suguested a bit fragile. The problem was the RCA's fit so tight to the connection that if your taking them on and off all the time the cables stretch and then they can fail. You should never pull a RCA from the cable only from the head. Ill keep a eye on them and if there is any sighn of trouble Ill toss them like you suguest, I have found most of the time that its how or where you run the RCS that keeps the noise to the min.

Chris: I have the Stinger RCAs in my boat and havent had any trouble with them, However the ends were as you suguested a bit fragile. The problem was the RCA's fit so tight to the connection that if your taking them on and off all the time the cables stretch at the head and then they can fail or create moise. You should never pull a RCA from the cable, only pull from the head. Ill keep a eye on them and if there is any sighn of trouble Ill toss them like you suguest, I have found most of the time that its how or where you run the RCA'S that keeps the noise to the min.

Grant;

Your installs kick arse: I hope to check it out up close and personal next weekend if you come to the lake.

Gary thanks: I dont think Jason's 209 will be @ the spring ride. But If I go Ill see ya there.
Might be at tulloch next weekend. Sorry dont have anything to exciting to show you now, I have been busy pulling and running wire.
Here is the fuse block pannel.

Hey Grant I was reading your parts list at the begining of this thread, what is a line driver and what is it used for?

What tower speakers is Jason going to be running. I beat he is going for the best: NVS's huh?

"Its Alive" Here is the mounted ground and power distrbution block's


And the battery box is finished.



The only thing left to do is everything. LOL

Engine Ground.

Wire Managment, LOL. Believe it or not this is the power and ground loom from just the bass amp's "8" 4 AWG wires. Running this amount of wire at this gauge takes lots of mounting block's to get the wire run clean and out of the way. I dont even want to talk about the 0 AWG wire. Its like trying to run a garden hose size wire cleanly threw the gunnel

Gant: What is the cost breakdown? Equip., labor fab. etc.This seems over the top!! Awesome!!! I wish I did'nt live so far away.

John: Its expencieve, If you have to ask you dont have enough, LOL

Still looking awesome. Where is that power board mounted; I can't tell from the pic? You are gonna put some straps or something over the top of those batteries, right?

John, there has to be at least $5k just in materials, and I am keeping that conservative to protect the innocent. Grant is right, with something this awesome if you have to ask, you dont have enough... I can hear the arguements already. Why spend so much on a stereo? blah,blah,blah.

Jan: The power board is mounted on the passenger side wall. It is sandwiched between the bass amp's and the high's amp, The O-Awg comes from the battery box in the back and splits right between the 2 banks of amp's, So the power and ground wires are about 2 1/2 feet long from the power and ground block's. The amps are mounted so that the cross over adjustments can be made with relatieve ease. There will be a cover that covers the amps and the front of the sub box when Im finished, in 10 year's J/K

The batterys are not or will not be strapped down. The battery cover folds down and on top of the battery's and then the back seet will go on top of the battery box. I cant see due to the weight of the cover and the angle that you need to pull it at that it would fly open, and then when you install the rear seet it should lock it down pretty good, However Im sure if you went wave jumping in the ocean Im sure you could launch a few blue tops out. But I bet the boat would crack in 1/2 before that happend, LOL

Hey Jan: Your are totaly correct about the money, and the comment's. I like to answer peoples questions as much as I can. I dont have a problem talking about money and if some one is serious about putting somthing together Ill help them e-mail me. But as soon as you put out a dollar amount some people will start acessing a value and how it is or is not worth that much money and when your doing somthing like this you can spend lots. And lots of money is spent on things you dont even see. If your realy into good sounding beats and have a taste for wild stuff then it might not seem like that much, But if you are fine with a stock stereo then its going to seem like a complete waste, to each his own.

if "ROCK STAR" status came cheep we would all be partying like P-diddy.

You're on the Real Grant! If I called you on the phone could you turn that thing on for me so I can get a visual!

Don't hate the player hate the boat! haha!

Grant (as a fellow fabricator) you are impressive!