Project Big Black

Been a long time.......... MEGA UPDATE!!!

2011-01-18T15:07:00.001Z

Its been far too long since I updated the Blog and with things picking back up for the 2011 competition season I thought I had better update it quick!

Alot has happened since the previous blog update so will try and list it in reverse order!

Sponsorship

Anyone following the blog and build on www.talkaudio.co.uk will know that Project Big Black is no longer being sponsored by Connects2 as they no longer distribute Ground Zero in the UK. I wanted to say a big thanks to the guys at Connects2 (Andy, Martin, Mike and Mark) for the help with getting Project Big Black to where it is today. Also a massive thanks to Adam Rayner - the Car Audio Svengali whos caeer I have avoided ruining by making sure PBB made some serious noise, so thanks guys

Propper Dropper Finals

One of the last competitions of 2010 Project Big Black competed in was the Propper Droppers UK Finals held at a very wet Arena Essex Raceway in October I managed to come in at 1st place with the following scores

153.3@20Hz
157@25Hz
157@33Hz
156.7Hz@40hz
Peak of 157.2@34Hz

156.2 average

The rest of my highest scores for the year where combined to give an overall loudest install EVER in Propper Droppers

Total Average= 156.8dB

Peak= 157.2dB @ 34Hz
40Hz= 156.7dB
33Hz= 157.0dB
25Hz= 157.0dB
20Hz= 156.3dB

EMMA ESPL FINALS

On 8th October myself and Ian 'hotwheels' Edgar set off to the EMMA European Finals @ the Ahoy 100% Tuning show in Rotterdamn Holland. I was entered into the ESPL Master catagory so took Project Big Black over to show the europeans how the UK do Streetbass!

The show was really busy but there was a strict bass curfew enforced by the venue which only allowed 3mins of booming every 30mins!!! We arrive kind of late on the first day and was only on the Team UK stand for about an hour before I had the install portion of the competion judged. I knew PBB could make some noise but the install judging was the section I was nervous about. I dropped only one point for some MDF on display in the amp build - not too bad at all considering the work I had put in to make sure the fusing was all safe!!!.

Here are a few pics from the show plus some videos - Big Thanks to Ian Edgar for the great array if pics you see here

As someone on Talkaudio said to me - you know you have made in car audio when you have bass royalty Mr Ian 'ICEMAN' Pinder holding your doors shut on a bass run. Ians Van couldn't make it out to the show (He qualified ahead of me in the EMMA UK Finals) but he flew out to support Team UK. Its a shame the Astra wasnt there as between us it would have been an awesome final in the lanes

Keeping the Sponsors Happy (But annoying their Neigbours)

2010-10-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

The Guys at Connect2 asked me to pop along to their offices to demo Project Big Black to their sales team so glad of any excuse to demo the beast I popped over. as yo uread earlier I killed a SUB at the T-18 meet but the guys at Connects2 had got me a replacement over nice and fast so we fitted that as well

Parked right at the far end of their compound I still managed to get the neighbours calling the reception asking me to keep it down!

Project Big Black videoed for www.talkaudio.co.uk @ T18 meet 2010

2010-10-26T12:19:00.000+01:00

T-18 Meet Part 2

2010-10-26T12:18:00.000+01:00

Project Big Black - Compliation of tunes and Engine Bay Flex!

2010-10-26T11:48:00.001+01:00

Project Big Black - Paul Richardson gets a Demo

2010-10-26T11:48:00.000+01:00

Project Big Black @ T-18 - Loud Front End - All That Remains

2010-10-26T11:47:00.000+01:00

T-18 - Not so full of Win

2010-10-26T11:33:00.000+01:00

In an effort to get my blog back upto date im trying to fill in all of the major events this season for Big Black - so Here goes

the T- Events are the Annual Meet for www.talkaudio.co.uk - this years was T-18 and I was all geared up for a full on booming session (Keeping in mind the SQ guys over the other side of the field of course)

As soon as I arrived I got PBB on charge - I was after a new personal best so the batteries needed to be in tip top condition - when I ran through the lanes something didnt dound right and I was about 1.5db DOWN so had a check of the subs and found that one of them had done this to most of its screws

Causing it to fall out of the wall and pretty much free air - at 155db - @ 33hz

as you can imagine - this happened to the coil

The silver bit at the top is the magnet - the coil came away from the spiders whoops

Still managed a decent 155.8 but had to drop down to the 139.9 class for bassrace - didnt do so well as a certain Mr Rayner was interviewing me for a future Talk Audio article AS I WAS IN THE LANES!!

Also managed to pick up a full size system diagram from Jon 'Squashed under Big Blacks Roof' Young a gian A0 version of this

Mobile Electronics News Article

2010-08-05T13:16:00.001+01:00

Hot off the press is the August issue of Mobile Electronics News and guess who made the cover!!

Project Big Black gets louder + Bottle Trick Videos

2010-07-25T23:35:00.000+01:00

Just got back from the Petrolheadz show at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port - It was a dB Drag show which means both dB Drag and Bassrace competitions. As you may have seen from my previous post - Paul @ A1 Audio Design helped seal off the b pillars and the step under the subs I was hoping for a little gain from that.

So I rocked up and burped as soon as I arrived

a .3db Gain - was happy with that but I tried a higher freq

Getting better! at this point I really wanted to hit 157db so I went back on charge and came back with........

Woo Hoo 157db - equalling my personal best

I also did my first real bottle tricks - got a couple of videos

Leather Seats and Facia Finishing

2010-07-23T20:24:00.000+01:00

I just got back from picking Big Black up from Paul (A1 Audio Designs) and Phil (Bespoke Auto Interiors) were it has spent the last few days getting the seats retrimmed and the finishing touches put to the B Pillars

A while back a good friend Jon (you may remember him from the roof installation) designed a logo for Big Black. He showed it to Lou and I and we loved it and decided to get it stitched to the seats this is the logo

And this is how the final article looks - Im so f**king happy with the end product - Phil @ BAI has done a blinding job

During the door builds Paul discovered that the standard seat adjusters would foul the builds and so set about making custom panels
Before

And after Paul's modifications and retrimmed panel -

I also needed to have the B Pillars finished off and sealed up - The step that the subs sit on was open to the rear door and could have been losing me the dbzzz so Paul contoured the B Pillar panels as well as sealing the gabs below the step

The B Pillar and roof joined nice and flush

The top of the windscreen is strengthened with a slab of 18mm MDF which is strong but looks ugly - Paul managed to tidy up the roof and hide the beefy brace baton

The port side of the box presented another challenge - how to trim the side panels without obstructing the port - as always Paul was able to over come this and fixed a baton to the side wall and blended it in to the port wall giving a nice hard edge to trim up to

This join continued to the bottom of the port as well to ensure a nice smooth transition from the port floor to the trimmed step

Im so happy with the work Paul and Phil have put in - As always they where flexible and willing to work to my deadline (getting it done before PetrolHeadz) and budget - the work speaks for itself - A fantastic pair of guys that can sort pretty much all your install needs in one place. Cheers Guys

Big Black thanks you!

Project Big Black does 156.2db @ 20hz!

2010-07-05T19:56:00.002+01:00

After changing my subsonic filter I guessed that it might improve my proper droppers score a little.

Proper Droppers test at 20, 25, 33 and 40hz plus a peak freq and then gives you an average score.

On Saturday I managed the following set of scores

1: Matt Sprigg (PROJECT BIG BLACK) - Mitsi Shogun - 8x 12" Ground Zero - Ported Box- 16.000wrms
Total Average ((((Propper Droppers)))) Score = 155.9dB

Peak Freeq= 157.2dB @ 22Hz
40Hz = 154.2dB

33Hz = 155.9dB
25Hz = 156.1dB
20Hz = 156.3dB

The 1st person in the UK ever to do more than 155db @ 20hz ( I was also the first person to beat 155@33hz to) and im only .2 away from beating Alex 'LoudvanMan' Mitchells record - If i can sort my 40hz score out (which i think was down as my epicenter was partially on) I think i can get there

1: Alex Mitchell (Loud Van Man) - 6x Digital Designs 3515 - Ported wall- 2x SPL Dynamics S6000D amps 12.0000wrms
Total Average ((((Propper Droppers)))) Score = 156.1dB

Peak Freeq= 158.0dB @ 33Hz
40Hz = 155.6dB
33Hz = 158.0dB
25Hz = 155.6dB
20Hz = 153.3dB

Big Black is really turning into a low frequency beast!!! I want to thank everyone who has helped me so far - I couldn't have done it without you guys

Ignition Extreme Weekender

2010-07-05T19:00:00.002+01:00

25-27th June was the Ignition Extreme weekender show - 3 days in theNottinghamshire countryside just messing about with Modified cars. RESULT!

Me and Lou got there early on Friday and met up with Adam 'bassbenz' Cope and set up Camp dB Drag while the wife 'supervised' i believe she called it ( I called it sunbathing whilst taking the odd picture!!!)

The genius of a couple of men at work

Both tents up without a problem ;)

We did better than Jim 'Buju Banton'Box did with his tent!
Fail!

Jim managed to sort it out with some help from the camping experts

Later on some more guys turned up - John Daddy-O Aitkin had the Jupiler supplies - happy days

Big Black sat happily playing away all night (well until 11pm when we got told to shut it off

Saturday Morning started with Big Black playing The Top Gun Theme at full whack at 8am - theyall loved us!!!

I got a shed load of help from Alex 'Loudvanman' Mitchell And Jon 'WonkyJon' Clements tweaking the individual amps to set them up correctly - My initial setup got me in the ball park but a couple of the subs needed tweaking - you can see the problem in the top right hand sub in the video - moving alot more than all the others

We tested before the changes and I hit 156.1db - a personal best and new UK record

Big Black got a lot of attention all weekend - It was making some great noise ;)

I qualified with a perfect 149.9 in Bassrace and 156.1db @ 30hz in db drag - a good day.

Saturday night we decided to order take out and after hearing rumors of a monstor kebab that would feed a family of four - our choice for tea was easy!!

Waiting for dinner

Whilst waiting for food - Tom (lol4fun) pimped a few dubstep tunes - one of which Buju took a shine to - he promptly blew the dustcap off his dd9512 and heated it up a treat but never fear - Wonkys magic glue to the rescue! - this stuff repaired my pair of dd9918s enough that I could hammer a perfect 149.9 bassrace run not 30mins after he repaired the entire surround on both subs!

Adam 'dumdum'Daniels and Alex 'LoudvanMan' Mitchell get caught in the T4/Bandpass portaloo discussing box designs!

Darren 'Loudboy' Millard with our massive food order

Adam 'bassbenz' cope and me with 'The Twins' - Giant Mega Mixed Kebabs

That is A - LOT of Meat - Lamb Donner, Chicken and Beef Shish, Chicken Tikka Pieces plus a Tandoori Chicken Leg in a Naan Bread I could have used as a blanket!

A very happy fat man!

camp db Drag was quite for a short while as everyone tucked in

My camp seat got a little to small so Adam and me moved to the flattest table we could find which happened to be Big Blacks Bonnet

The rest of Saturday night was spend groaning with full stomachs but at 11pm we did manage to celebrate armed forces day with a Big Black style rendition of The Last Post

Sunday morning started with Insomnia by Faithless - at full whack ;) they didnt get no sleep that morning I tell you!

Sunday was another blinding hot day so some shade was arranged for the Wags

as we where joined by Darren 'dbdaz' Hircock and his wife Helen, Chris 'Chris@Four' Woods ins the Hertz SPL Show Panda, Dave 'VD' Wilkins with his SPL Marbella and DC Sounds powered Mondeo estate and Ed 'edhick'hickling in the Jacked DC Sounds Chevy Blazer

ed and I ended up head to head again inthe bassrace semis - always very nerve racking pulling up next to ed!

Makes Big Black look not so big!

Unfortunately ed bust out and I managed another perfect 149.9 putting me up against adam cope in the finals

I ended up winning both the Extreme os 3+ category and 149.9 bassrace class - a great weekend - thanks to everyone who made it such a nice chilled out friendly show!

Project Big Black youtube Channel

2010-07-05T18:30:00.002+01:00

Hey guys. well it seems that everyone and their dog has a youtube channel now so what with me being such a media whore (thanks to VD for that description) i figured I had better get one as well.

Content is a little low on the ground but that will change as try and make sure every competition run I do from now on gets recorded

Check it out here - Link is on the left as well

http://www.youtube.com/user/thejoose

Project Big Black gets a checkup

2010-07-04T20:40:00.001+01:00

Last weekend was spent in the sun at the Ignition Extreme weekend show at the MFN Showground just outside Nottingham. It was a 3x dB Drag event (meaning any points earned in competition are tripled - allowing a nice boost up the dB Drag Rankings and step closer to World Finals

Before the show I decided to give Big Black a once over - I have been running it for a month now so just wanted to check that all the connections are still solid and that cables running under the the car are safe still

Using my ghetto car jack so I can get under and check

I also had to take the amp covers off so I could replace subsonic filter in my epicenter. I already had a custom made 24hz filter but with me burping at 30hz I figured I should get a lower one - so thanks to dirtydubber i now have an 18hz filter fitted

This should help boost my db drag and proper droppers scores!

Nick the Nurse - RIP

2010-06-23T19:11:00.001+01:00

As soon as I knew I was getting a Shogun I joined up on the Pajero Owners Club (www.pocuk.co.uk) - The guys there are really into the Project and I had a lot of interest and help. When it came to fitting the Alts I needed to get a cone filter adaptor to enable the intake to be moved and a member on the forum called Nick the Nurse had one available and let me have it for nothing (well I gave him a few Ciders in return) he also gave me some great advice around the radiator swap I needed to do.

Unfortunately 2 weeks ago Nick died suddenly in his sleep - and his funeral is on tomorrow and due to his enthusiasm for music as well as Project Big Black I was asked if I could attend and take part in his funeral procession - the idea being a convoy of 30+ Pajeros will take a drive with a Police escort all playing Nicks favourite tunes nice and loud - we have some Pajs with PA systems set up and I will be taking part with the back door open to really make some noise for the guy

A very fitting send off for such a nice guy. In the short period of time I knew him he helped me out no end and as you can see from the forum

http://www.pocuk.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=124

he was a proper nice chap

So if anyone in the vicinity of Apedale, Staffordshire tomorrow hears a little AC/DC playing very loud - That will be a lot of Pajero Owners saying goodbye to Nick in the way he would have liked

Performance Vauxhall @ Santa Pod

2010-06-19T21:17:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was the Performance Vauxhall show at Santa Pod - dB Drag was doing a round of competition there so off we went with Big Black for some competition and A LOT of showing off ;)

Not long after pulling up Dave 'VD' Wilkins jumped in for a listen

we soon got a crowd of people around- the speakers in the rear build did the job very well throwing out a lot of music.
I managed to get 155.8 again on a burpas well as 149.9 inbassrace and won both for the first time me and adam went up head to head in the bass race final

Pure Carma and Some MORE Speakers!

2010-06-15T18:00:00.000+01:00

Well after Project Big Black's success of Modified Nationals I was very keen to get the system back out and booming so the following week we headed off to the Pure Carma cruise/drifting show at Arena Essex - Its a regular event on the first Saturday of every month - come check it out and have a go at Proper Droppers with the guys from www.streetbassers.co.uk

I managed to score as follows

Total Average ((((Propper Droppers)))) Score = 154.5dB

Peak = 155.7dB @ 33Hz
40Hz = 154.2dB
33Hz = 155.7dB
25Hz = 154.5dB
20Hz = 152.7dB

A very decent jump from my scores at Modified Nationals!

154.5db @ 25hz!!!

On the way to teh show I also managed to smash my electric window regulator so last week I picked up a replacement and fitted it - a 5 min job but I have the feeling im going to be doing this alot!

I also got round to fitting in the speakers in the rear amp build to give some fill for people checking out the system from behind

Looks and sounds great

The Payoff

2010-06-04T10:44:00.000+01:00

Well after 5 months of hard work and the help of a lot of great people Project Big Black is making noise AND A LOT OF IT!!!!!

At around 5pm last Thursday I finished getting Project Big Black ready so me and Lou took it out for a little test

Back in Black is the theme tune for the system and sounds fecking good on it.

Friday we packed up Big Black and headed off to Peterborough for Modified Nationals - about 6 months ago - Adam Rayner and Connects2 asked me if we could be ready for Modified Nationals and foolishly I said yes - on Friday morning I kept that promise and was pretty much the first person at the show!

Me and the wife decided to park up and relax for a bit

We also met up with Adam 'BassBenz' Cope who helped me put Big Black on the Termlab and we got a 154db @ 34hz If I'm honest I was a little disappointed at that but knew there was more to come as the subs loosen up and I dial in the amps.

We then started some heavy HEAVY booming and it wasn't long before Big Black got its first official 'Turn It Down' from the organisers of the show, Apparently local factories were complaining about the noise - Thats when I knew we had done a good job - in Henry's words 'Don't underestimate the power of the long wave!'

We then moved round to the camping area where we started some more booming but again we had to keep it down until 5pm because I was annoying the factories again but as soon as 5pm rolled around we got back on the booming and I left a happy happy man

Saturday was a rainy day and I did a little tweaking of the system and found a few headunit settings that could have been interfering with my score from Friday so I ran through qualifying and retested my peak and found it at around 30hz!!

155db @ 30hz :) and this wasnt turned up fully so i cranked it up a little more and...

Result - Darren was as happy as me!!!

I then bassraced to 149.9db for a perfect qualifying score - I also popped down to see Marcus and the guys from Streetbassers to lay down my Ground Pounders score. got 153.5db @ 27hz with the doors sealed up playing Put On which got me my first 1st place of the weekend!
The rest of the day was spent booming and showing of Big Black - chatting to people about the build and also the blog (hello to all you followers!) I also spent a while going over Big Black with the guys from EMMA- basically going through best practices for a safe presentable system.

Sunday morning was spent booming over at the EMMA stand ready to have my ESPL reading taken - with ESPL you are told a track from the EMMA Test ESPL CD a short while before competition and everyone has to compete using that track - you have 30seconds to get as loud as possible with the doors closed up then again with them sealed - I managed 150.7 db @ 26hz as a peak hehe - Only managed a 4th overall due to a number of technicalities (main reason being fuses are not close enough to the battery).

After the ESPL testing I returned to the dB Drag area and was accosted by Mr Adam Rayner who had been trying to pin me down so he could do a video report on the build - here is that video

After this I ended up going head to head with Ed 'edhick' Hickling in his INSANE Jacked Chevy Bronco running 6 dc sounds 18s and 6 Sundown amps (build thread is HERE on Streetbassers) - Probably the only build in the UK to make Big Black look like Small Black!

I went up against Ed in both the Exterme 3+ final and 149.9 Bassrace final - I only just managed to beat Ed at bassrace as I was test driving a new tune (Great DJ by the Ting Tings with an epicenter )

It was a blinder of a weekend and my final results ended up like this

1st Place in db Drag Extreme 3+ class with 155.8db @ 33hz
1st Place in Bassrace 149.9 class with 149.9db (this is the class im hoping to become world champion in)
1st Place in Ground Pounders with a 153.8db on music at 26hz
2nd Place in Proper Droppers with a total average of 153.4 (peaking at 155.4@ 33hz)
4th Place in EMMA Enhanced SPL - lost points for the install (fuses are too far from the batteries) but totally ruled in the sound portion doing 150.7db @ 27hz

Thank you to everyone who helped out with the Big Black Build - and also everyone who popped by and said hello at the show - I will be out and about more and more this summer so if you see me at a show grab me and ask for a demo!

T minus 1 day

2010-05-27T07:03:00.000+01:00

Today is the last day before Modified Nationals tomorrow and Big Black's official unveiling - to say im scared is an understatement. Its just before 7am as I'm writing this and today I need to

Finish Carpeting the sides of the box
Install Head Unit
Install Epicenter Remote
Install main floor carpet
Wire and Install speakers in front doors
Install Head lining
Scope and Gain Match all the amps
Take the car for some new fluids and a valet

So im going to be a busy bunny - this is the state of the install as of sunday evening - thanks to alot of work from Big Jon Young, Willy P, my Dad and of course my wife Lou

Painted the wall black with an iron fleck

Link cables made for batteries

and all wired in
with lots of crimping done!

Switch panel built and wired in thanks to Jon

one broken LED :( but the rest work well - far left switch turns on the epic and delta boxes the individual switches turn on each amp - far left switch turns on the rear door amps

Rear door cabled

All subs installed with the help of Will P

Amp fusing and installation took ages

Those of you of the EMMA persuasion will not fuses for the amps are NOT within 40cm from the batteries -

will hopefully get everything done by the end of the day!

wish me luck

Amp Rack Build and Box Finishing

2010-05-16T00:34:00.000+01:00

This work started last weekend - Last Friday night actually - Started like this

A rough cut out around thearches - so I added some closer fitted panels glues and expanding foamed in

I then added a mounting board for the amps and test fitted the batteries

That was saturday morning - The rest of saturday I was at my cousins wedding (Congratulations Simon!) so didnt get anything else done until sunday

Out came the batteries

A blank canvas ready to carry on

Got the wife to paint the inside black -

While she was working on that I needed to get some bits out of the company car - For those of you that didnt know - I was testing a Ground Zero Nuclear 15 with a GZNW 1.2500 in my company car but I need The amp and the epicenter - so decided to take it all out

Thanks to Rik@RMD Audio in Wellingborough for the sub box - if anyone needs one they can have it!
Back to Big Black - I needed to route the signal and speaker cable around the door opening so used some 40mm pond tubing

I also added some tubeing as protection around the chassis rail were the 0 awg turns up into the engine bay

with the inside painted - the batteries went back in - The aim of the weekens work was to get everything ready to send Big Black off to Paul Richardson @ A1 Audio Design to allow him to build the rear amp rack - he is a busy chap as it approches show season and we had a long standing appointment for Big Black
so we got everythign mocked up

Front face of the battery box in place

lid cut into two section to allow easy access to the battery box

Started fiting amps prior to taking it to pauls

This was my simple design for the amp lay out - i dont 'do' fancy so was a little plain

So that is how it was left at Pauls last sunday night. - He started work on it on wednesday - and called me to ask if he could 'get funky' with the design layout - my idea above didnt allow Paul to but much personality into thebuild - it would have looked a bit flat so i gave him free reign and he didnt disappoint

And before anyone mentions it - yes the amp covers on the right are the wrong way round - they will be flipped in the final install

Rear speakers will be mounted in the roof here

After getting it back i needed to strip it all down again to finally seal the rear wall - there wasnt time last week

amp wall came down so that I could get to the wall proper
Lots of fibreglass filler

While the back was off I also added some M12 threaded rod ro tie front to back nice and securly

I also made a start on cladding the port radius with some pvc piping

using expanding foam to glue it on - screwed i nto place just to hold it but they will be removed and smoothed
Sunday I will finish the port and hopefully have the front face painted in a stone fleck finish

Bank Holiday Workin - Days 3 and 4

2010-05-06T01:21:00.000+01:00

Bit of a delay getting this update on but was so tired after the last twodays workingI have put it off until tonight!

Monday morning t his is how we stood

the black is fibreglass resin mixed with filler talc one giant tub of filler later

And starting on the port laying down some filler

Also added some expanding foam to seal in cable grommets

Needed to make way for the signal and speaker and remote cables
a few holes and a hacksaw later

some thick rubber hose as a grommet

The hose is stuck in (more later) and the cable will also run through 40mm pond hose
ran in the extra cable needed to run the tweeters in the doors wonky and buju may remember trying to get2 runs into the door grommet - imanaged the3rd very easily which was a shock!

Measured and cut 6 lengths of speaker cable and bundled it up to run it under the car

speaker and signal cable coming in through the sealed grommet - not pretty but will be covered with carpet when done

all in the back

Running along side the petrol tank - not yet secured

That was it for Day 3 - Monday - Tuesday - DAY 4 I was woken by the post man delivering my new air filter
old one thanks to Nick the nurse on www.pocuk.co.uk

And the new green cotton one

I then started onsecuring all the cables i had run

Earth cables mounted to the alt mounting studs - good solid earths

also put the port length in 275mm long 200mm wide box is 1335x1000x700 which gives a tuning of approx 36hz so should really make some noise on real music

Also ran the cables for the subs - 8awg power wire!

Plenty left over for running to the amps on the back wall

starting to look like its going to do some business!

GOT CABLE????

WE then started on the back wall - first off got the main panel in packed into place

the gaps around the arches will be filled and sealed with wood panels doubling as braces, expanding foam, fibreglass and filler

First brace goes in

LEVEL!

2nd brace in

And yes Wonky thecar was on flat ground

More cable

the grey stuff is7 core cable that I will be using for remote - I plan on having all 8amps individually controllable (with a single override to)

Big thanks to my Dad Eric and my wife lou for the help over the 4 days - thursday and friday night will be spent cutting wood to go over the arches to seal the back wall. saturday is my cousins wedding so cant do any work but sunday im off to see Craig cdescort Dillow inmilton keynes to put some steal strengthening in the roof up front - I will also be putting in the battery box so thaton sunday night I can take Big Black to Paul Richardson for the rearamp rack to be trimmed in!

Bank Holiday Workin - Day 2 of 4 - More box work

2010-05-03T01:00:00.000+01:00

We left the port flare setting lastnight so whenI came to it this morning the PU foam had gone off and wel and truly locked it all together

Front of the flare this morning

and the back

And after the wife cleaned it allup

You can also see in the backof that pic - we made a start on covering in the box walls with filler
I had alot of FD resin left and had ordered some talc thatcan be mixed with the resin to provide apretty nifty large coverage filler
We made a bucket load up

No real substitute for proper body filler but gave a nice coverage to start with

Progress really being made now

While the filler was drying I made a start on the cabling. The plan is to run 5 power cables front to back - 2 positive direct from the alts and 2 earths direct from the alt mountings and a 3rd positive from the battery +ve terminal. I also have to run 3 rca leads 6 pairs of speaker cables epicentre control cable and remote leads
I already cut ahole in the rear to allow the cable in and haveadded some 50mm flexitube to allow a safe entry grommet for the cable

was a mission getting the cable over the petrol tank

Cable going up over the rear axle - I figure if they can run brake and fuel lines over it then its safe for my cable! The observant among you will have spotted im one earth cable short - I all out of earth cable so am waiting for some more

You can see t he cable coming into the engine bay in this next pic - as im still waiting for the final cable I havnt tied any of the cable upyetbut it will be allsecured. the area to the right ofthe grommet in thebellow pic os where the rcas and speaker cable will be leacing the passanger compartment to be run under the car with the power

The cable in the engine bay making its way to the alt

Plenty of slack

We had some resin and a small amount of talc leftso mixed upan almost screed likebatch of resin to smooth the floor of the box - the line were the filler stops will be the line for the back of the box

Another good day - I also cut and bonded theport length (approx 250mm long) and bonded and cut the rear wall which will be 700mm from the front wall - meaning a box tuning of arounf 36hz
Tomorrow (mondays) work will be lots of sanding andputting in the port and rear wall

Bank Holiday Workin - Day 1 of 4 - Facia

2010-05-02T00:36:00.000+01:00

In readyness for this weekend I had arranged to have subs amps and batteries delivered - Connects2 did a cracking job getting them whole lot delivered to work especially. I was away with work when it all arrived so managed to get some of the guys at work to lug it all in. Later that day I took Biggy to work and picked it all up

Before

And After

loaded out with all this

I then loaded it all into the house when I got home

10 batteries 8 subs and 7 amps just out of shot on the sofa - Big Black is getting closer to completion!

With the Bank Holiday weekend coming up and a deadline getting closer (due to schedule conflicts - Biggy needs to be with Paul Richardson @ A1 Audio Design to get the front and rear of the box trimmed and tidyied) I have booked tuesday off work giving me 4 days work to do. Today was day 1 and the plan was to make a start on the facia

You may remember i spent a little while cuttin some holes last week - but when it came to align the facia with the rear piece the holes didnt line up - i tracked the problem down to my slightly ghetto cutting Jig so managed to get a better one made and earlier in the week started cutting a new pair of baffles - first job this morning was to finish off cutting holes

I cut the facia on Thursday -

Here you see the new improved router jig - this time using a bolt to centre it rather than the previous one which was screwed to the wood

Action shot! and yes I know I should be wearing a mask

Both baffles cut and aligned - perfect

time for PVA

And the facia screwed in place

Then in it goes

More Whack a Sprigg action

Some hefty bracket-age!

Once the face was installed we needed to make a start on the port - in order to get a nice smooth rounded edge on the port I thought it would be a good idea to take the 16 circles cut for the face and chop them into quarters - those quarters could then be used as the port by packing them onto of each other - we tried this but found it took up too much port width so we decided on a sensible width for a section of the circles and cut LOTs of them

Here you can see the cut sections starting to be attached - the large post with the notch cut out is a 2x2 post to attach the port pieces to - the notch is to allow the subs to be fitted in

And thisis how it looks now
- the PU foam is a bit of a mess but it will get tidyied up tomorrow and then sanded smooth

I HAVE THE POWER!!!!

2010-04-28T22:33:00.000+01:00

On saturday I took Biggy to see Adam 'dumdum' Daniels and John 'Daddy O' Aitken to get my new pair of alts fitted.

A while back we took off the standard alt and measured up for a custom bracket to mount the pair of 210A Renault alternators to. Adam got the brackets made up in 12mm steel plate

There is also a bracket for the back of the alts to - the large area at the bottom was to allow space for an idler

First up we had to remove the stock airbox and replace it with a cone filter - A massive thanks goes to Nick the Nurse for supplying me with the adaptor and cone filter!

We then test fitted the alts to make sure everything lined up

The alts needed no alignment - Adam had got it spot on!
We then mounted the Regulator on the old airbox mounts (this allows me to adjust the output voltage of the alts from the dash)

While John and I worked on this - Adam was modifying the alts to accept control from the regulator

Very Painful to watch your £160 alts bing butchered but the man knows what he is doing and once finished we where able to fit the 2 alts correctly

Here you can also see the idler mounted to the bottom of one mount- this allowed Adam to cut the baracked right down to prevent fouling o n the PAS pipes
As before alignment was spot on

Adam and his twins! the first twin alt install he has done - in his own words 'f**king easier than trying to fit 1 on a kia'

We then set about wiring in the Regulator

This has an adjustable pot mounted in the dash to allow me to adjust the system voltage
Set to 14.7 should give me a nice strong power supply

And here you can see everythign completed - cone filter in the back, regulator to the left

A1 Audio Designs really hit the mark! + Limited Edition Subs

2010-04-21T22:31:00.000+01:00

Been slack in the updates recently but here is how we stand at the moment - Last friday night I went to see Paul at A1 Audio Design to pick up Project Big Black from him after he spent 10 days working on the door builds and rear door amp rack - all I can say is WOW

We spoke at length about what I was after and he got the idea perfectly - here is the finished article

Saturday morning we took everything apart for storage so as not to damage any of the panels Paul has produced - the plan for t he day was to get the front face of the box in - that didnt goto plan but will let you know why later ;) - As you can see pauls work is fantastic -The car will be going back to Paul before modded nationals to have the rear amp rack and front face trimmed up as well as having the front seats retrimmed

First off was a trip to Travis Perkins to get some 25mm MDF - the plan for the front and rear of the box is to use 2 panels of 25mm mdf to make the baffle port and rear of the box

Loaded with 25mm MDF

Before we started I wanted to get a rough idea of port opening so i knew what size to cut the front face to so a lil BassBox Pro action in the back

Trimming the front face

Measuring out the cut out-

Decent spacing between the subs and a cut out designed for the GZPW12LIMITED Subs

And the new Whack a Sprigg game coming to a fun fair near you (copyright VD Games)

In the above board i was testing my cuts - routing isnt something I have much experience with but thanks to Ground Zeros 15th Birthday im glad I did. Ground Zero are celebrating the 15th birthday with 555 limited edition Plutonium subs called the GZPW12Limited

They are rated at 3000wrms, have a stiched surround (the surround is stitched to the cone as well as glued making for a stronger join - it also rocks a 4" voice coil - all the better for eating power with.

So im now going to be using 8 of these babies instead of the GZNW12 - and im glad i held off on the cutting as the GZPW12LIMITED and the GZNW12 have differnt baskets and so the cut outs in the front face of the box need to be remeasured.

This weekend im off to see adam dumdum daniels and John Daddy- O Aitkin to have the alts fitted and to make a start on cable running as well as finishing the front face of the box

Updates soon!

Door Build Progress

2010-04-13T20:49:00.000+01:00

Been a bit of a quiet week with Big Black begin at A1 Audio Designs for Paul Richardson to work his magic. This weekend was spent clearing the mess we have created over the past few weeks from the back garden - during which I found the carpet for the Shogun which we gave a scrubbing - came up good

But I didn't find the trim pieces I thought I had kept to make the boot build so with the help of Si7 from www.pocuk.com I was able to get most of the bits i need

Its going to make Paul's life a lot easier when it comes to blending the rear build into the side and back of the box/Shogun.

Talking of Paul - he has been working on the doors and boot door amp rack and has been keeping me updated with pics and progress.

His first day on the project he was working out clearances and finalising speaker location - the original plan was for a triangle of mids at the front of the door but with clearance issues it was decided that we should look to spread the 3 mids out along the bottom of the door but this caused another problem with the window not coming down far enough but Paul spaced out the window mech and now it works a treat - The sign of good workmanship - coming across a problem then coming to me with different ways to solve it - any way here are a few pics of the work so far

Door panels cut

Here you can see the clearance made available by paul's mod to the window mech - Very tight!

The final design of the door builds

And the finished article ready to be trimmed in matt black vinyl with allen head bolts as feature pieces

I pick the Shogun up on Friday Night - so will get pics up of the finished work ASAP - i cant wait to see it all done.

Saturday its off to see dumdum to get the alts fitted - the alt bracket is cut and he just needs to see about locating a tensioner as well as moving the air box - I will also make a start on the power cabling as I believe my Shuriken Batteries arrive on their slow boat from the states tomorrow!

The next few weeks are going to be very VERY busy

A1 Audio Designs get there hands on Project Big Black

2010-04-06T19:02:00.000+01:00

Well after a hectic weekend trying to get everything to a certain level we managed it yesterday. After running out of Glass Fibre Matting and getting the sides, outsides and roof glassed in Project Big Black was ready to be handed over to Paul Richardson at A1 Audio Designs who is going to work his particular brand of fabrication and trimming magic on the front doors for the front speaker install as well as for the boot door build for the amplifiers -
Here are a few pics from Easter Mondays work

Roof didnt move a bit with 22st of me on top

First layer of F/G on the sides and roof - more to come once we get the car back

The car loaded up with goodies to take to Paul

And the man himself taking the keys

If all goes to plan I should have Big Black back on 17th April when it will be going to have the power and signal cable run and the altenators fitted as well as the wall design finalised

Eyes peeled towards the weekend for some pictures from Paul with some updates on his progress!

Ginormo-Post - Roof Build and Fibreglassing Begins!

2010-04-04T20:42:00.000+01:00

Another long post this one - 3 days of work to catch up on so forgive me if it gets boring!

Started on Friday with help from my Dad again - it was chucking it down with rain so we tried to make a nice little waterproof area out back of the house to work in

This is how the roof stood when we started - The sunroof section is about 30mm lower than the rest of the roof so needed to pack the roof with wood to bring it down to an even level

Cut a large section of 6mm wood for the back section as well as a thinner piece for the mid section

Mid section braced to the roof

We then used some 18mm MDF to pack out the section between the braces in the sunroof
PU Foaming glue on the back and glued n screwed to the braced roof piece

Thats some good screwin

Rear section glued n braced to the roof

Even though we stayed slightly dry - we had position ourselves right by a blocked drain so ended up working in a pool!

Once the 6mm mdf was in the back section of the roof we needed to tie the mid and back section together and bring that to the level of the roof so in went a sheet of 12mm MDF

Braced and screwed up

This got the back section of the roof to the same level as the sunroof so we put in a final 12mm layer to tie the front and back together PU Foam on the back of the 12mm sheet before it went up

Up and braced - screwed to the previous layers with the right length screws - NOTHING WENT THROUGH THE ROOF SKIN! WOO HOO

Expanding foam in the voids in the corners to

And how the roof stood at the end of Fridays Work

We still had a little time and light left on friday night so we decided to prepare the final roof panels for Saturdays Job
we took 2 x 18mm panels and glued n screwed them together

Dad is old school and doesn't believe in power tools - or health and safety it would appear!

PVA Glue - Jackson Pollock Style

So we left it there for Friday - Wood back in the shogun for and left the roof braced over night ready for Saturday

For Saturday I had the help of Jon 'Project Diagram' Young He designed the ever changing project diagram in this article as well as the new Project Big Black Logo

He also printed off the latest edition of the Project Big Black system diagram (which will now have to change but more on that later!

We started out with the sandwiched roof panel ready to go in the van

Following some handy advice from Jon 'Wonkyjon' Clements we roughed up both surfaces and spread the PU foam over the whole board

take one squashed Jon and apply foam!

Once we got it in we braced with a Jack and some hastily cut to length braces (spot who had to shave his head after an unfortunate expanding foam in hair incident on Friday!

With the final roof panel jacked up into place we applied some beefy brackets

Screwed into place - again using the right length screws so nothing poking out the side!

All in and done!

We then drilled a few holes and started putting in the expanding foam - 2 cans worth!

OOOOOO the roof worms are coming to get me!

Nothing says bass like an MDF covered fat man

roof totally full of foam and solid as you like

Next we needed to finish off the fibreglass filling along the side joins

Jon getting all arty on the camera

Substance abuse if bad mkay!

After doing all this we were able to measure up the front face and do some scale drawings using pound coins as 15" subs

Epic sub fitting fail!
So we redesigned for 12s

Full of win!

We cut a mock face to get an idea of what we were dealing with
Up close

And set back a little

We then drew on the subs

Plenty of port area available!

Jon had an unfortunate expanding foam incident

We then tested a centre baffle with dual port design

Still lots of port area with this design

Jon also hung around until about 10pm Saturday night putting together a few google sketch up designs of the possible build

I'm still undecided about what I'm going to go for with the front face but these are the two main ideas at the moment - That was Saturdays work all done!

Today - Easter Sunday - me and the wife started to get very high - today we were starting on the fibreglassing

We started with a clean Shogun thanks to Lou's cleaning skills

One giant tub of Resin

And some glass fibre matting

and a lot of painting resin on!

Covered the wheel arches

Now we learnt how not to fibreglass doing this next bit - we stapled the glass fibre to wall and then applied resin

but this method proved to be a pain in the arse as it was too much to keep right all at once
The second side we decided to cut the glass into 3 strips which proved much easier to handle

So as it stands tonight

And a quick picture of Megatron the coolest damn cat in the world!

Box Building Part 2

2010-03-28T20:44:00.000+01:00

This weekend my aim was to get the sides of the box finished - First off I added some expanding foam around the sides and back of the box

As you can see in the above pic - the side panels have a little gap - this nees both filling and tieing to the bottom panel That means getting in a brace to join the existing panels together and then adding a 2nd layer of 18mm MDF top and bottom. My workshop for the day

And in the back groung - the workbench every good bass head should have

An 18" sub box!

Any way - I started by cutting some panels wide enough to join over the gaps

And with a little trial and error with the circular saw I managed to accidentaly make the right cuts whislt trying to trim this down

Glued (with pu expanding glue to get into all the gaps) and screwed along the join

Here you can see the accidental deep cut i made that worked well in latching the panel to the ledge of the join - a screw up that actually worked out!

And the 2nd panel added to the front

The centre panel isn't perfect but when the top and bottom are in the centre panel will be filled with fibreglass filler to make a single smooth wall, more on that later

The same was done on the other side

again the 2nd panel isnt perfect but nothign that wont be taken care of with the filler

That was yesterday - I was working on my own so couldn't get much else done - but this morning my dad came round and we measured up for a trip to B and Q to get the MDF for the top and bottom of each side cut - only needed simple cuts so let them do it
A template was made to get the contour right for the back of the panel and transferred to the MDF

And cut out

Once cut to size and test fitted it was covered in PVA and screwed to the side - and anyone that tells you they work with PVA glue and don't cover there hand in it and wait for it to set and peel it off is a liar

The wife is loving the new drill so made swift work of getting the screws in - anyone wanting to to do a stupidly big build like this should get yourself one of these - I couldn't have managed mine without it the drill is pretty good as well

She also makes cracking bacon sarnies and delivers Jupiler at just the right moment!

2nd panel went up nice and quickly

Next up was the tough part - cutting the contours over the arches - Craig made this look easy last week so I stole his pen on a stick Idea to trace the contour of the arches to the MDF and started cutting and managed to do not a bad job - please remember im an IT consultant my day and so this DIY lark is a bit of a stretch for me but im learning as I go along! Covered the back of the board in PVA glue and screwed it on

Needed to make a slight adjustment to the front end of the board to cut a notch out to fit around the centre brace but no problems after that

the same was done on the other side - a little bit of a bigger gap this side but again - filler will sort that!

Once both sides where done we proceeded to give ourselves a headache with some filler

The gap to fill - whoops

And with the weather as it was today - the ice cream van was about so we took a break

The FG filler went in a treat and will be sanded back when finished to give the sides a single smooth wall - we ran out of filler so managed to get most of one side done

With the long weekend coming up I'm hoping to get the roof in place and the fibre-glassing started before it goes to Paul Richardson at A1 Audio Designs to have the door builds and boot door amp rack built.

First Weekend of Box building

2010-03-21T22:53:00.002Z

Well I just got back from A&E (more on that later) so am updating on the weekends work. Again I was over in Milton Keynes with Craig 'cdfocus' Dillow this weekend making a start on the box build.

First up we had to cut and bolt the floor in. Yesterday it was chucking it down with rain but we managed to get a lot done - including a visit to B&Q to get wood and a circular saw - Thanks to the 20% sale we got it all for a good price!

The starting point

Cut to size

And arches cut out

And dropped in

The back cut out and fitted

And both parts fitted in

Front section cut to allow the main wiring loom through - the wiring for the power and signal will be run under the car

This is as far as we got on Saturday so started today with the task of bolting the panels to the boot floor but before we did that we needed to work away of bracing the front overhang. we started by drilling holes in the some 25mm mdf and bolting them down

This will then allow us to brace the overhang to the floor - pics coming up later - back to bolting the floor down. On the tops of the ridges we laid down alot of PU glue

About this time I was crawling under the car to find a safe location to drill boltholes - on getting out from under the car this happened

A nice 1 inch gash right over my eye - but I bandaged it up and carried on working - hence why I only just got back from A&E

Bolted and tied down nice n tight

Once the floor was bolted in I could brace the front with some nice big fence post!

Once the floor was nice and solid we started on the sides - we were able to screw wood behind all the panels that we could get access to to allow us to screw through the wood panel, through the bodywork and into the wood mounted behind - sandwiching the bodypanel

We were able to bolt the side panel to the door opening in 4 places - we will then also bolt the 2nd panels using the bolts

SPL FUEL!

The otherside went in a treat

We then started in the top panels. As you can see from this picture we are coming right upto the front of B Pillar but had to cut around the seat belt

And the whole thing done - this is just the first 18mm layer - there will be more along with lots of fibreglass on the outside (where the doors are) as well as over the arches plus lots of expanding foam

MEN Expo 2010 Videos

2010-03-20T22:35:00.001Z

During the course of the MEN Expo at Stoneleigh Park Mr Adam Rayner took a few videos of things that went on - keep your eyes peeled HERE for the full story but I thought I would sneak the videos up before him!!

Kenwood Headunit Blag!

Connect2 Hook up my Company Car

Eyes peeled tomorrow for an update on the box build - it started today and will be getting pics and a write up done tomorrow

A1 Audio Designs comes on board

2010-03-13T19:01:00.000Z

Today I took Big Black to see Paul Richardson of A1 Audio Designs who I am very happy to announce will be building the door builds and rear amplifier rack for the project. Paul is the mentalist behind the Earthquake Van - the first (and only so I believe) UK car to win both SPL and SQ titles in a single year! - Paul has an amazing resume of work you can check some pictures here

Paul 'got' the project right away and has already made some fantastic suggestions about what we can do. we will be working with him closely to find the right materials for the build to make it something special. Big Black is booked in for 2 weeks time so eyes peeled for in progress pics

Today I also painted the rear windows to black them out properly - Hammerrite for the win ;)

It needs a 2nd coat on some parts but works very well

And a little tease for tomorrows update regarding Project Little Red

thanks to Rick @ RMD Audio for this box - it fits Little Red perfectly ;)

Wheel Painting and Auto Sound and Style Show

2010-03-09T10:30:00.001Z

Another busy week - sorry for the delay in updating but had alot to do over the last 3 days - Saturday I took Big Black to Milton Keynes so that Craig 'cdescort' Dillow could give me a hand doing the wheels as well as fixing my poorly sealed sunroof! - This is a long update so make sure you read right through to the end!

I also got another delivery from the guys at Connects2 - Lots of cabling and midwoofers ;)

This gear was all in prep for the Auto Sound and Style and Mobile Electronics News Expo that happened this weekend - I also needed to get the paint on the wheels so off we went

Craig loaded the wheels up with wonder wheels cleaner and we left them to soak

we where a little bored so ended up building a Hover Shogun

Once rubbed down Craig masked and primed the wheels

Primer dried and then the first coat of Rover Grey Stone goes on

Craig also coated the wheel hubs which came up a treat

Part way through the day we got a visit from Dave 'VD' Wilkins who came bearing gifts from a recent trip to Belgium

Any one who has ever been to the dB Drag Finals in Europe will know this stuff - SPL Fuel of the highest order! that and Relentless

Wheels back on and looking fantastic! just what I wanted

My attempt at sealing the roof failed miserably so Craig came up with a better idea - first up I removed the sunroof glass and added some hammerrite for the black look

A lot of expanding foam on the glass

Board bolted to the glass, sandwiching the foam and weighed down with Craig's old optima

We then cut some angle bar and bolted it to the roof - we then dropped the sunroof glass in from above and bolted the wood to the cross bars

I also prepared the trim of the car for display at the auto sound and style show - Craig got hold of some Autoglym bumper shine as well as some wheel shine

With all the work we did on Saturday we didn't get time to wash the car before Project Big Blacks first official show - the Auto Sound and Style show at Stoneleigh park so i figured I would get up early on Sunday and take it to the local Tescos Jet Wash but i hadn't counted on it being -6 so the foaming brush instantly froze to the car which made for a good look as I pulled into the exhibition hall with lots of other perfectly detailed cars!

On the plus side as the car began to thaw I was able to clean it down pretty well as it stood in the Hall.

The guys at Connect2 had sorted me out with show stand that will be getting updated as the blog progresses Thanks to Mike and Andy for all the help so far its much appreciated chaps!

Im also now fully decal-ed up with the brand stickers too

The bonnet vinyl was printed wrong so will be replaced with a decal to match the door stickers - the black n grey theme will run through out the car as the interior will also be trimmed in that colour

The idea behind me attending the show with Connects2 was 2 fold - 1- people could see the parts of an big install that never get seen and 2-people could see the Ballistic material, Tsunami Cabling and some of the GZ equipment in the flesh

So I set up between Kenwood, Connects2, JKM and Clarion and started installing some cabling - this cabling was just for show - a temporary install as everything will be removed and run under the car for the final build

In between chatting to the public about the build and what a fool i was for taking on this project Wonky Jon Clements and Jim Buju Box as well as my dad we where able to put 2 runs of 14awg speaker cable into each door - and run it along the sills to the back.

I also managed to talk to Jeremy and Nathan from Highdown Audio about their mental Pug 107 build - good luck with that chaps and I look forward to hearing it!

Also toward the end of the day Mike and the guys at Kenwood presented me with an as yet unreleased DDX5026 double din DVD headunit which I was blow away at - so thanks alot for that guys - more on that in day 2 ;)

Day 2 of the show was a little quieter as it was the trade portion of the show so I set up camp early and started putting speakers into the doors - my aim for the day was to have music on for my journey home which meant fitting a pair of 8" mid woofers, a pair of silk dome tweeters, running power cables and installing a double din HU in a single din slot!

Again I set up shop between Connects2 and Clarion, with Ian Pinder to one side providing a nice chilled soundtrack to the day - Ian also provided me with some of his considerable experience especially as he had done an install in a shogun before - Cheers Big Man!

First thing i got done was to install the 8" GZCW8-4F midwoofers in each door. when I got the car from Tej it already came with these builds so i figured I would use them for now

After getting back from Craigs on saturday night I threw together a quick demo 'board' consisting of 1 GWUA4125SQ amp, a fused power block and earth block

I also ran a positive and a -ve power cable through the car to power this as as yet I have no readilty available earth point.

The cables ran through a grommet in the bulkhead and along the sill to the back of the car

fused at the battery with a 200a circuit breaker - not ideal as I was only running around 50a max with the 4 channel amp but for demo purposes it worked well

After running power to the amps I was then finally ready to fit the HU - as me and Buju discovered the day before, the space available in the dash is a little large for the HU so i took some 9mm ply and attached it to the mounting cage so create a snug fit, the HU then mounted well - not a permanent fixture but secure enough for a few days - just so I can have some tunes!

The next step of the project is to get the door and part of the rear amp rack built - The Shogun should be off to see Paul Richardson at A1 Audio Designs at the weekend so we can discuss whats going to happen so eyes peeled for and update to the blog over the weekend - sorry for the massive post but thanks for making it to the end!

Ground Zero Amp and Sub Porn

2010-02-27T19:27:00.000Z

This week I had a delivery from Connects2 (Check out the link to this very blog on the new homepage) The delivery consisted of

A GZUA4125SQ 4 x 125wrms amp to run the speakers firing out of the boot
A GZUA2125SQ 2 x 125wrms amp to run the tweeters in the front doors
and a GZNA 1.2500DXII sub amp plus a GZNW 15 sub

the 2125SQ 2 Channel amp with accessories

The 4125SQ amp with the crossover cover removed

Lots to play with!

The 1.2500 Sub amp

The obligatory guts shot

And the sub - 1 of 8!

I also spent some time today rubbing down the wheels getting rid of some corrosion ready to repaint them. They started off like this

After a little elbow grease and they came up really well

This week I should be getting a lot of cabling and wiring to allow me to start the cabling at the Auto Sound and Style Show and Mobile Electronics News Expo So come along and see me there - make sure you say Hi

A Busy Week Part 2 - Foam and Sound Dampening

2010-02-21T18:38:00.000Z

The mission for this weekend was to finish the sound dampening and also redo some parts that I was not happy with but with the snow earlier in the week i got to try Big Black out in 4wd mode ;)

A trip to Travis Perkins saw me with a big old selection of gear (the wife works for TP so hefty discounts ahoy on this lot) - Picked up some expanding foam, a gun and gun cleaner, some PU glue (for the box build) as well as some cable ties and cable tie mounts for when i start running cables and cleaning wipes and dust covers to stop the foam going everywhere

I started off removing sections of mat that I wasn't happy with and adding more mat to the outer panels over the rear wings before adding some foam

Also did above the rear doors and along the inside of the roof rails

I also stripped down the boot door and deadend it and added foam

Added some foam into the space above the windscreen

We then finished off the rest of the sound dampening - making sure to roller everything down hard - following some comments on the sound deadening i decided to get a better roller and make sure it was done right this time!

The whole build thus far has been powered by this stuff! I doubled up on the roof - as you can see in the back ground I also covered the board supporting the sunroof

I was not really happy with the doors so ended up redoing them

And finally Some of you may remember bass kitteh from my previous install

Well here is Megatron helping again

A dirty Big Black!

A Busy Week! Part 1 - Alt Test fitting

2010-02-21T16:57:00.000Z

This last week has been a busy one for Project Big Black - On Wednesday I took the Shogun to see dumdum to go over the alt fitting.

Adam has a line on 210a alts that are cracking value - and is also able to get hold of variable regulators for them that allow them to output whatever voltage is required

Test fitted to get an idea of space

Lines up very well

Daddy-O was also around to give a hand

It was decided that the fitting would be easier with the alt this way round

That way the 2nd alt can sit beside it like this

on a custom made 12mm thick plate mounting bracket with a tensioner between the 2 alts

Sound Deadening the doors and Sunroof Removal

2010-02-16T19:49:00.000Z

Well the plan for the weekend just past was to finish off the sound deadening of the doors and roof - to finish the roof I needed to remove the sunroof - which also meant I needed to find a way of replacing the sunroof - Thanks to Brian who came up with the idea of bolting a sheet of MDF under the opening and using expanding phone to glue it back in and seal - it worked a treat - anyway here ate the pictures from this weekend.

First up getting started on the doors

Front doors are a real pain - access to the top of them is only possible with bendy arms! did the best i could though

I wasnt able to use a roller when I was applying the mat as the ones I had all broke but managed to get hold of a sturdy Lino roller so will be going over everything again

Next time I will wear gloves!

The sunroof was in the way of about 2 inches of box height and was also stopping me deadening the roof properly so it had to come out

Next i needed to remove the glas from the rest of the mechanism

Wood bolted upto the old sunroof mounts then expanding foamed in and the glass glued it to

I could then finish off the dampening mat on the roof

im off to visit dumdum tomorrow to discuss plans for the alt fitting as well as the cable runs under the floorpan - cuts are healing well and im gearing up for another busy weekend of work

Tsunami and Ground Zero Goodies

2010-02-12T22:07:00.000Z

Courtesy of Connects2 I had a nice big package arrive today. To help me set up for the build I have a lot of cabling, accessories and speakers.

The HUGE Competition GZCT 2200 Horn Tweeters next to a Uranium GZHT 28 Silk Dome Tweeter

The Uranium GZUA 2225SQ Amplifier that will be powering a pair of Competition GZCW 10-4 10" Midwoofers in each door

Lots more Tsunami cabling and accessories to come as well

Batteries Ordered! NINJA STYLE!

2010-02-11T20:40:00.001Z

Just order my batteries for Project Big Black from Connect 2 - I will be using Shuriken Batteries
Im going to be using 10 SKBT100 (100ah, 2250CCA) in the back and a SK-BT785DT under the bonnet.

Should make for a beast of a power supply - with 420A of Charging and almost 1000ah of capacity ;)

Shuriken Batteries are available from Audio Assault NOW!

The SK-BT100

The SK-BT785DT

Ballistic Dampening goes on

2010-02-07T21:22:00.001Z

Yesterday's prep meant that today me and the wife could start laying down the MOUNTAIN of Ballistic Sound Dampening.

Started off wiping down every panel with panel wipes

Laying the mat down and heating it to allow it to fit the contours of each panel

Final result of the first sheet is pretty good - It goes on very well and sticks hard

So that is the first layer on the floor pan and rear quarters all done - will be doing a 2nd layer and doing the doors next

Next step is to do the doors and a 2nd layer in the back

Sound Dampening Prep

2010-02-06T21:36:00.002Z

Today's plan was to prep for the laying of the sound deadening. First job was removing the seats

Also took out the Centre Console - Need to make room for the roof brace ;) (more on that in a moment)

once the seats and the centre console was out i could take out the carpet Its very manky so will be sourcing a replacement from ebay

This is where the base of the roof brace is going to be - angled up to the centre of the top of the windscreen

I also needed to take down the front headlining

Im still undecided about what to do with the sunroof either leave it in and build down from it or remove it and get some sheet metal over the hole in the roof and sikaflex it in place and blend it to the rest of the roof and repaint. More info on that when I decide

I also removed the door trims ready to begin working on possible door build designs

Tej had some solid door builds on for some 8" Morel speakers I believe

I needed to remove them as I have to put a pair of GZCW 10" Mids in each door

I still have the build that should just screw onto the existing panels if anyone with a Shogun wants them give me a shout

So the interior is all stripped out and when you slam a door it sounds like a tin can

One of the other things I will be working on is tidying up the wheels - I had a little go today with some 220 grit sanding pads and was encouraged by my 2 mins work - i cleaned the wheels with some soapy water to get rid of any dirt then just used the pad to get into the wheel

Before

After

Final plan is to sand it back alot more and get them tidy before some gun metal paint on them.

Also got a new tool for tomorrows work - a 2000w heat gun ;) should have that sound deadening sticking very well ;)

Ballistic Sound Dampening Arrives!

2010-02-05T19:04:00.003Z

Thanks to the nifty work of Andy @ Connects2 the first delivery of many arrived at work today - the CityLink guy was well chuffed with his first drop off the day!

10 Ballistic SSBK Bulk Packs ( 9 x 18" by 32" sheets per pack)

and 10 Ballistic SSDK Door Packs (4x 12" by 36" sheets per pack)

I got a mixture so that for some smaller areas like doors and inside the rear quarter panels, I wouldn't have to chop the big sheets up.

Plan for the weekend is to finish stripping the front of the car (front head lining and seats out as well as the carpet and central console) then panel wipe all the interior panels and get some dampening laid down - the shogun is pretty noisy on the road at the moment so I am hoping i can get some before and after comparison with the Ballistic Dampening

Project Big Black Full System Specs

2010-01-30T14:14:00.000Z

As promised here is the final system specification for Project Big Black. There are few things to work out (like a crossover for the front end and a line driver for the subs) put this is pretty much the final spec.

As you can see It has lots of cone area and a lot of power the GZNA1.2500 amps are the same board as the Solid Audio 2500s so should be nice and reliable. The front end is PA spec with 10" high efficiency mids (like the Eminence mids from the Gula/Lozzy/Me Clio) and 4" Horn Tweeters running from the Uranium SQ level Amps.

Only thing not on the spec is some GZHT 28SE Silk Dome tweeters that will be going in the A Pillars for daily driving rather than having my ears ripped out by the horns!

Mid and Tweeter Setup

Subwoofer Setup

Project Big Black - Sponsored by Connects 2

2010-01-28T20:27:00.003Z

Its been a long time in the planning but I can finally announce that Project Big Black is now being sponsored by Connect 2 - Distributors of Ground Zero Audio, Tsunami Cabling and Ballistic Sound Dampening. Products from all of these companies will be being used in the project

Adam Rayner broke the news on www.talkaudio.co.uk earlier today and you can find that announcement HERE

Full details of the system will be announced soon but as a little teaser you can expect to see 8 15inch Subs powered by 8 2000wrms Amplifiers and a loud PA inspired front end running from SQ level amplifiers

Im sure if you nip over to Ground Zero Audio you could work out exactly what Im going to be running

A big thanks to Adam and the Guys @ Connect 2 (Mike and Andy) for having the faith in me - Its going to be a loud year!

Project Big Black also has a new Facebook group HERE

There's been a murder!!

2010-01-27T00:00:00.001Z

As you will no doubt have seen from the previous posts Big Black is not currently black - more dark green - well we will soon see about that! - If you didnt know the term murdered refers to black cars satin, matte or gloss, murdered out means its black on black (black body and black wheels) check out more cars like this at www.murderedoutrides.com

Take one Dark Green Shogun and add the helping hands of Craig "cdescort" Dillow and Brian "B-Rian" Hull plus a weekend in an industrial estate in Milton Keynes and alot of satin black spray cans and you can do this to!
Day 1 and the first Job was to strip the Shogun of all parts we could - door trims, rear light clusters, rear mounted wheel and mount assembly, rear number plate - you can see Craig and Brian hard at work - bear in mind I took most of the photos so you dont see me working but i assure you i did - HONEST!

You can see the rear light clusters and spare wheel mount removed as well as the bumper mounted lights and rear window wiper

We debaged the front wings as well as the boot we also removed the ECI-Multi V6 3000 stickers from the rear quarters - these where a beast to remove

All door trim and seals where removed to ensure a total coverage - the final box build will cover everything not painted black. We did discover a very neat little tool box in the rear gate that will be made into a feature in the final install - maybe a small voltage read out or something

Box of bits removed - note the small yellow box on the step - this contains all of the screws to hold all the bits back on - guess who ended up kicking that across the yard!

Once all the trim was removed we where able to start flatting back the paint with hand sanders and 120grit paper - about now we realised we couldn't change my mind - oh well black it is then!

See i did work! and it wouldnt be a proper build if i wasnt showing some ass flesh so there you go!

It started getting dark as we began masking the car

Mr Dillow on the roof sanding - we thought it was better he did that than me - they are tough trucks but not tough enough to take me on the roof!

Notice more man flesh - your going to get some ass crack before this build is out

Door partially masked - some nice big builds going in here

and the primer goes on - the flash shows up the wet patches too much but we managed a nice even coat from approx 8 cans

and this is how it was left at the end of day 1 - stripped and primed on the outside ready for day 2

Day 2 Begins with us running some finer grit pads over the primer to get a nice smooth surface

When we arrived on sunday morning Craig had already began masking the doors so we could paint the jams
Those of you that know me will understand how this part killed me - i was itchign to start shooting black but Craig and Brian kept me strong with the words PPPPPP

At this point I must give a shout out to Betty Warner who provided all the paper for this masking - Cheers Betty!

Once totally masked we sprayed the jambs, panel gaps and any other areas that would require extra attention/detail

before we flatted back the over spray, tacked the whole car and finally began laying down the black if your feeling bored you can download these pictures and skip between them to see the paint building up - thrilling huh!

My paint spraying technique leaves a lot to be desired but Brian showed me the way and i managed to eventually do a small section well. Brian managed to lay down a whole side of paint and it looks fantastic

A little tip I learnt from Craig - when spraying in the cold pop the cans into some warm water to thin the paint and get a better finish - it really looked like it worked as this is the final result

Time to start reassembling things - the spare wheel mount was a real state but Brian managed to sand it back and re paint it a treat

I was unsure if I should l;eave the window surrounds glossy, as well as leaving the chrome light protectors but the boys suggested i left the windows alone and the wife said leave the chrome on the protectors - she was right! it looks pretty good to me

Here you can see the rear door that Brian did a great job on and the drivers door that i did (P.S. if anyone has a centre cap for the Shogun wheels let me know my rear offside one has gone AWOL!)

And the finished job - The guys did me proud - we prepared the car well and it shows in the final finish - I know its not everyone's idea of a good paint job but i think it looks mean as hell

As far as exterior finish goes I have a few bits to address - the handles and door trim needs brightening up and the rear bumper mounted light clusters need replacing, the wheels will also be refurbished and painted a gun metal grey as will the sill steps (i'm unsure if i should gun metal the bull bars and light protectors)

A Big thanks to Brian and Craig - they will no doubt be popping up in later posts as they help me put Project Big Black together - Next step is to sound deaden the car - updates on that soon as well as a future post regarding the turmoil I had designing a box that would fit!

Until Next Time guys - cheers for reading!

A New Home

2010-01-24T18:30:00.001Z

Project Big Black now has its own domain -www.projectbigblack.co.uk

The stripdown continues

2010-01-17T22:54:00.000Z

After fueling up with Bacon Sarnies and Relentless for breakfast I started the rear strip down
Back Seats out

The black box to the bottom left is the underseat heater - more on this PITA later!

Passengers side trim all out

Drivers side - with rear speaker and rear seat mount still in place

And with it removed

This is the underseat heater - when it came to unscrewing it the screws seized tight, then rounded off and crumbled when I tried using my electric screwdriver so a quick visit from Mr Drill and HSS bit sorted that out!

Will be taking out some more of the heater as this is possibly going to be where the power cable comes into the vehicle as this whole section pulls out

so now we have this - an empty load area ready for sound deadening

All that is left to do now is work out a box design which as you can see on THIS thread over at Talk-audio might take some time!

Meet Big Green (for now)

2010-01-16T22:09:00.000Z

Well the time has finally come! I have the first giant piece of the Project Big Black Puzzle

Ladies and gentlemen meet Big Green

As you can see - its not black yet hence the name Big Green (although based on the amount of petrol it used on the way back from picking it up its far from green.) Its a Mitsubishi Shogun V6 3000 GLS Auto - some of the guys from Talkaudio might recognise it as belonging to Tej who ran it for a long time before he got into his Jap Sports cars - its no stranger to bass as it used to have an 18" RE XXX v3 in the back

Its currently parked out back minus the rear seats

It got too dark for me to carry on stripping the back out but will finish that off tomorrow and remove all the trim then its time to measure up and start planning the box build.

The dash has a funky instrument pod right in the middle shows altitude, attitude and temp

To me that has voltmeters written all over it!

Th centre console looks perfect for switch banks and epicenter controls as well.

Will be making an early start tomorrow on removing the test of the rear trim

Project Big Black on Twitter

2010-01-14T12:58:00.002Z

Anyone who is interested can now add me on twitter. @projectbigblack is up and running now and will be used to announce project as well as blog updates. - use the Follow Me on Twitter Button on the right

A quick pre Xmas Update

2009-12-15T07:57:00.004Z

Been a while since my last update. so figured I would get one in before the end of the year.

The final equipment list is yet to be determine as I am currently in discussions with a huge potential sponsor which I am very excited about - I cant go into more detail at the moment but keep your eyes peeled and if all goes to plan I will be announcing it on the blog.

The current plan is to get the Shogun/Pajero at the beginning of Jan and make a start stripping it - I have paint already taken care of thanks to Rich Wilson at Unique Body and Paint I also have a pair of 210a alts ready to go in.

I have already purchased a pair of NSB75s which will run off the stock alt to power the full range amps and engine electrics. The main battery bank is looking like its going to consist of 10 or 12 Enersys HX400s (Tech specs HERE) These are very similar to NSB90s - The power supply will stay this spec if the above sponsorship deal goes ahead. That might give you a little clue as to the sort of size system I am hoping to run

As always comments and suggestions please

Also - some people have been asking if the picture on the blog is the car I already own - No its not it is a mock up a friend of mine did in Photoshop to see what a Murdered Out Paj would look like son - here is a bigger version of the pic

I am planning on painting the wheels as well - alot will depend on the final model of Paj I end up with

100 + hits today

2009-11-20T01:16:00.002Z

Little bit of geeky fact but it looks like I got over 100 hits today 80 of which where new visitors to the blog!

Power Supply Update

2009-11-19T07:46:00.003Z

Well all has been pretty quiet on the Project front. Planned holidays to Canada and New York have all my funds tied up until January when the hunt for a Pajero can begin.

As I'm sure you are aware, any big power car audio system needs its power supply and its one area I have been thinking a lot about recently. (mostly due to the amount of money I have had to budget for batteries! )

I have managed to pick up a pair of NSB75 batteries (one from eBay and one thanks to Aaron 'aaron_s' Sandy from Talkaudio ) to run from the stock alt and power the front end and car electrics. I have also been investigating how to get 2 alts into the Pajero engine bay and it looks like that's going to be possible by replacing the stock air box with a cone filter (on the left in this picture) which frees up enough space to allow Adam 'dumdum' Daniels to work his magic and mount a pair of 210a alts on a custom bracket

I have recently changed company cars so no longer have any bass fix which is going to become a real motivator for the project as anyone who has had to go bass cold turkey will confirm so if anyone wants an SPL Dynamics SPL460 in a custom ported box let me know! selling that will get me the deposit on my alts!

I have not had many comments or suggestions on the blog so feel free to post your thoughts, comments or questions

The Competition Formats

2009-11-14T20:51:00.004Z

Had a few people ask me why I'm doing this and how the competitions work so I thought I would do a post about the 4 main formats I will be competing in.

dB Drag - Measures out and out volume at systems peak frequency
Bassrace - Measures music playing ability and system controllability
Propper Droppers - Measures volume at low frequencies
Ground Pounders - Measures music playing ability at volume

dB Drag Racing

dB Drag is run in the UK by Darren 'Loudboy' Millard as part of the worldwide db Drag Racing competition format and is designed to measure how loud a car is at a single frequency. Some people design and build cars just to excel in this competition (these cars cannot play music but just play one tone as loud as possible) the format is split into a number of categories that are designed to group similar systems in the same group - check out the dB Drag Rules for more information on these classes. I am unsure which category I will be competing in as this is determined by the install configuration. Project Big Black will not be built to fit into a specific db drag category but will compete in which ever category it fits into. My Personal best was 157db at the UK Finals 2008

Bassrace

Bassrace allows people to go head to head with other competitors with a system of similar volume. They termlab sensor measures the average volume of the system as it plays music for 30 seconds and displays this in realtime for the competitor to see. The idea is to get as close to the maximum score for your bracket as possible without 'busting out' e.g. I will be competing in the 149.9 class so over the 30 seconds I will need to hit 149.9 and make sure i do not go over this score. below you can see a video filmed at the World db Drag finals in Bar Le Duc of me competing against Geoff 'Firestarter' Kerss - My Personal best was 149.9 and 4th place in Europe - My target for this year is to return to the World Finals and bring back a World Title to the UK

Propper Droppers

Run by Marcus 'MegaHeavyBass' Barnes from www.streetbassers.co.uk the Propper Droppers format tests a system at 20hz, 25hz, 33hz and 40hz and then averages the scores to produce a final score. This format was introduced to allow systems that has a low tuned peak to compete against each other (db drag favours systems with a higher tuning)

My personal best was

Total Average (((Propper Droppers))) Score = 152.6dB

Peak= 155.6dB @ 33hz &40Hz
40hz= 155.6dB
33hz= 155.6dB
25hz= 150.8dB
20hz= 145.7dB

Ground Pounders

Ground Pounders is a brand new format from the same guys that run Propper Droppers and is designed to measure how loud your system is 'Showing off' 3 reading are taken

1st: Doors and windows open etc
2nd: Doors and windows sealed
3rd: The sensor is placed at the foot of your door with the door and windows open

Ground Pounders is all about showing off how loud your system is - I have only competed in one event using my last company car system and got a very disappointing score

Total Average= 137.2dB
Sealed= 138.8dB
Open = 141.1dB
From outside = 131.9dB