Project: HMROID

No real update today... got HMROID back from the shop with nothing done. The shop doesn't have a pipe bender for the exhaust, so that didn't get taken care of. They said they tuned the Weber to idle at 900 rpms, but after driving for about a minute it went back up to 2000 rpms and stayed there at idle. Was told my ball joints and tie rods need to be replaced. And can't do emissions with the Weber, so I'll have to get a P.O. Box somewhere that doesn't require emissions. Today I was quoted $850 to replace just the ball joints! I thought very seriously about selling the truck and washing my hands of it, until I looked up the ball joints and tie rods online. I can get the ball joints for just over $200 and they don't seem that hard to replace, certainly not $600 worth of labor! So I'll keep my truck and flip the ball joints since I have to work down there anyway. Tie rods run about the same price, so I'll do those as well. I found the exhaust online also, just need to take measurements to make sure the foward pipe will fit.

This truck is a pain in my ass!!!

yeah it may be a pain but you love it still haha

Well no real progress again, but I did get my Z71 wheels painted metallic black and cleared last weekend. They were too messed up around the lip to keep it chrome, so it's all black. Oh well, they turned out good.

My new ball joints and tie rods finally arrived today! So I'll get to work on those soon.

On another note, my other L7 and ZX750.1 amp came in too. The amp is pretty damn close to my first one in benchtest wattage at 934, so I'm pretty happy with that. I really haven't listened to my system yet because the truck can't leagally be driven and I just got the other sub and amp, but today I sold the Kicker L7's. I bought two Boston Acoustics SPG555-2 subs (race track or oval cone) to replace them. I'm pretty excited about them...haven't seen anyone else with them, but read some reviews and they are supposed to be great subs.

The new subs!!

Man, it's been a while since I've done anything to my truck. I did start my box for the subs and amps. It's almost done. So far it's just as I pictured in my mind. I was going to do a fiberglass enclosure, but I changed the design once I made the sub boxes. This is my first attempt at building a sub box and I think I did pretty damn good. Here's some pics. It's 53" wide, so it is a pretty snug fit in the back of the cab, and heavy, I built it all out of 3/4" MDF.

1 cubic foot sealed sub boxes

1 sub in the enclosure, amp back board in and amp cover routered


test fitting the amps, only 2 of three amps and 1 sub because 1 amp and sub are in my other truck, breaking in the voice coil.


I still have to cut out the top, paint and then put it all together. But I have to take the other sub and amp out of my F150, which is hard to do because it sounds so good.

Hoping to put it in the truck this weekend!

Great job on the box, looks real clean!

dang man looking good

Thanks Baha and Paparoach. I've got the interior torn apart again, so maybe tomorrow I'll get the box finished up, run the wires and install it. One of those subs with a Kicker 750.1 in my F-150 is loud, I can't wait to see what two of them with two 750.1's in the Mazda sound like! People are definitely going to here me coming, with sealed boxes no less... who needs ported boxes?! FTW!

I finally got off by butt and put the enclosure in my truck. I didn't run the wires or hook anything up. I just wanted to see how it fit and looked all put together. I am very happy with the end result. I think I will take the top piece back off and flush mount the 6.5 inch speakers. They kinda look like an after thought right now. Anyway here's how it turned out.

Side window is pretty dirty, sorry...




Should be pretty loud with the subs pointed up right behind your head!