Custom 2003 XLT Stereo Demo Vehicle build !!!!!!!

[pdaoaudio]

Ok guys, I have been on here for about 6 months now but I really havent posted much but I think its long overdue I through a little build log on my truck to give ya a little taste of what I'm doing here, I may have some people who love it, and some who will hate it. Let me start buy saying this is my daily driver. I have my other toys but this is my current toy im draining money into.

I am building this into a demo vehicle so local car shows/ stereo shows. Now that is where I will get a lot of "bagging" so to speak to the guys who think Im your a$$hole neighbor who pulls in at 3 am with his walmart system and rattling trunk who thinks he is so cool. This is not what Im about. There is a very large amount of planning evolved with many calculations to consider when building something this large and make it sound perfect. Im sure there are a few guys who are into competition stereo brands or what we call ourselves "bassheads" and we are a tight group of people, We arent the people who fit the stereotypes that people get the misconception of who we are. I cant stress it enough not to judge a book by its cover.


Ok, so onto why I am posting to share my ride.

My truck is a 2003 Expedition XLT.

It started its journey as a dirty, muddy, rugrat carrying, family truck.

I bought it from a guy with a wife, a dog, and three kids. He lived in the country side on a dirt road. This truck needed a makeover. There was juice stains on the headliner, dirt, mud, dog hair, toys, candy..... you name it in this truck, not to mention all of the scratches on the doors from the dog they owned.

After looking past the bad, I saw all the good, it was a strong running truck that needed more cleaning then "work"

I brought it home and the fun began. I bought this truck with the intentions of building a c-pillar 4th order band-pass wall. (for the people who just read that and are lost you will see my pictures and then begin to figure out what that is)

I will leave it at that for now and start uploading some pictures for you guys and narrate through out

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok guys so this is what the truck looked like after I got her home and started cleaning up a bit.














It was a big improvement compaired to when I got it. My next project was to clean up the outside a little bit more.

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok guys, so we all know about the fading of our plastic cladding. It makes me truck look so ratty and I hated it, (one of the reasons I joined the forum). I decided to go a different route then most guys on here using the krylon fusion paint. I decided to go with black plasti-dip and I could not be more pleased. All I did was give it a good cleaning and made sure there was no dirt before i started to plasti dip

Here are a few pics of me doing the plasti-dip:




what I started with.



mine were so faded it may have just been white haha









here is where I went wrong. Please guys if you try this leave a good 3 inches of gap between your cladding and the metal of the door itself. It will come out much better when you pull the extra off and will give your a much cleaner line.







Here comes the first coat (I did four of them I believe)




















This is still wet after the 4th coat has been applied.









after it was fully dry (was a humid day)

 

[pdaoaudio]

After I finished up on my door claddings I decided to try it on my blue ford ovals (once you plasti dip something you want to plasti dip the world....... its addictive haha!


What I did here was mask off a square around the oval and did about 5 coats. After i let it dry for the day i cut myself the ford logo in gloss black vinyl to go over the plasti-dip. It was something I thought would look neat and turned out it does. I love doing things I have never seen before. heres the finished product, I did both front and back ovals.

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok, well now since I went with the whole "blacked out" theme I tinted my tail lights with vht nightshades.

Also a little tip to not do what I did, use duplicolor clear coat, I used a cheap-o 99 cent can and it hazed badly, I got all of it out with rubbing compound and am yet to buff them out to a mirror finish yet but will be doing it in the near future. So dont cheap out like I did and it will save you the headache.

Here is where I started out, I cleaned them with soap and water, then scuffed them with 1500 grit to lay my first coat, you can really get a great finish with wet sanding between coats and buff them out and they look like mirrors if you do so.

After that I masked off my reverse lights because I didnt want my whole light black and to give a little contrast to the truck still.





(an easy way to mask the lights off is make a square with the tape then put a flash light where your reverse light plugs into to see the outline and cut the extra tape with an exacto knife)







First coat of vht on





2nd coat of vht







after 3rd coat with my clear hazing everything up




Installed on the truck (not buffed) This was with 3 coats of vht nightshades on it in direct sun light.

 

[pdaoaudio]

I also went to superbright LED . com and upgraded my dome lights/ puddle lights on my mirrors, license plate lights, glove box light, and speedo lights with 6500k leds. I dont have any pictures of them off hand but they look great! makes the truck look very clean and only has a slight blue tinge, nothing tacky.

 

[pdaoaudio]

After being pleased with the outcomes to the outside of my truck, I began to rip out my nasty headliner, strip it, and wrap it in black suede.

While I had it out I also started to rip out the third and middle 2nd row seats to begin my stereo build. While everything was out I optied to not re-install my middle counsel on the headliner as I feel it will break and fall out after my build was done.

Out comes the headliner





The headliner is out!




Me and a buddy stripping the foam adhesive getting it ready for me to reupholster it




Now while I had it out I needed to do some bracing, I braced the roof with sound deadner as well as wood. I did not take a lot of pics during this process but what I did was take a razor blade and cut the access deadner foam inside each roof brace from the factory and make them flush. After I did that I cut strips of sound deadner and wrapped each metal roof brace, added wood bracing throughout the roof and then covered everything once more with a layer of deadner.


here is the factory foam before i cut it to make it flush



This is after I cut the foam flush with every brace.



here is the strips to go over each brace







front bracing





Now that I had everything braced (again sorry I didnt take any finished pictures of it) I wrapped the cleaned headliner in black suede.

It turned out very well although this was the tuffest headliner I have ever done because it is not symmetrical and very wide and long.

This is me making some final tuck and cuts and installing all the lights/ and air vents.



Here is the finished product!

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok so now that I have the truck looking pretty slick if I dont say myself, it was time to start my build. I again pulled out all of the third row and middle 2nd row seating, carpet, jack, and other panels to see what I can work with here.



I also installed my double din as well, I went with an Apline INA W900bt. It is amazing, Very clear picture, gps, very fast with your ipod, blue tooth, and everything ya can ask for

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok guys now here comes the fun stuff. I have stripped the back of my truck to build my wall. Again I may be speaking a different language to some, and many will not know the gear I am using but Im sure some of you do. My equiptment consists of some of the following:

Headunit: Alpine INA-W900bt

Subwoofers: T3 Audio T2000 15s Dual 1ohm voice coils

Sub Amp: American Bass VFL-1100.1

Mids and Highs amp: American Bass VFL-350.4

mids: sealed backing 6.5" mid range woofers

Highs: TBD

Wiring: 6 runs of American Bass OFC 0gauge wiring

Batteries: Northstar energy one sealed gell batteries.

 

[rex450se]

Love the build

Victor

 

[pdaoaudio]

Here is one of the 5 15" subwoofers that will be used in my build



No before I built the wall I wrapped the inside of my windows with black vinyl so you can not see in aka 0% tints haha



Now I have built this inside of the truck, it is bolted and braced throughout.

I am starting the floor and brackets for my battery bank







The battery bank:





Building up the dips in the floor









The start of the skeleton of the wall

 

[pdaoaudio]

 

[pdaoaudio]

 

[pdaoaudio]

 

[pdaoaudio]

Ok guys this is where I am at. currently. I have finished all my buss bars, have done the big three upgrade (h.o 300amp alt) coming soon. All my wiring is done. Now I am at the point where I am working on my doors before I install my port and front baffle and wrap that in black suede as well.

here are the doors and here is a basic sketch of what they will look like when they are done.

 

[pdaoaudio]

Well in the mean time during my build I bought a set of 20" roush rims that are off the roush f-150 ...... the truck looks super mean with them on, here are a few pics of them. I also have a set of halo headlights that should be here this week.

 

[pdaoaudio]

here is all 5 of my 15s wired up at .4ohm






front baffle, port, and beauty panels done in suede soon to come.

 

[pdaoaudio]

Love the build

Victor

thanks man, Tons of pics to come, a ton more added since you posted as well, stay tuned, I will be updating

 

[tallsville]

looks like a very clean build. cant wait to see the end result

 

[03expyMG]

Wow very nice!!!