A house is built with wood, bricks and nails. A home is built with Blood, Sweat and Tears. Love is what makes the effort of turning a house into a home worthwhile. My home improvements are dedicated to my wife, who makes each job, a joy.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Samurai Project



Yeeee Haaah! The weather is great, averaging about 84 degrees. I added a stereo system to my garage so I can spend more quality time there, working on my toy, a 1987 Suzuki Samurai Tin Top.


News note: As I write this my Samurai is in the paint shop. I visited the shop on yesterday and it is looking great. The final color sand, clear coat and wet sand has been completed. I will pick it up this week, hopefully on Monday and then continue reinforcing the vehicle's electrical system and installing the sound system.


I have a new, chromed, Chevy truck alternator with a fabricated mounting bracket and I made a wiring harness to allow the Chevy alternator to run the idiot lights in the Suzuki dash. This mod will increase the Samurai's capability from 42 to 105 amps! I’ll Update pictures of the Samurai as I get more done.


The key components of the new audio/video system are…

Head unit with 2.5” Screen and DVD player that includes an input for a backup camera and outputs for front and rear video units. I had to fabricate a mounting for this using 1/4" birch, but now it looks like it came with the car.


Infinity 3.5” reference coax speakers custom mounted in the front dash air vents (No A/C).


Kicker CVR 10” dual coil sub woofer in a Pro-Audio sealed box on a custom mount.


An old school, Rockford Fosgate Punch 60.2 cheater amp driving the front speakers (60W/Channel@ 4 ohms, 300 watts bridged @ 2 ohms. This amp runs hot but stable at one ohm, so I expect it to be great running my infinities with clarity and power.


Kenwood 8104D Mono amp driving the sub woofer, 500W x 1 @ 2 OHMS.


Soundstream Bass expansion unit with a dash mount remote controller.


XStatic BATCAP 400 a 20 Farad equivalent hybrid capacitor with 400 CCA.


All wiring is Stinger Pro Audio and Power.


Distribution blocks and the circuit breaker are also Stinger.


All power and ground wiring is four gauge to distribution blocks, then 8 gauge to the individual components.


The system is fused by an 80 amp circuit breaker at the battery, then by 40 and 30 amp midi fuses at the amps.


All speaker wiring is 10 gauge.


The Samurai has had dynamat applied to the roof, door and rear panels to reduce or eliminate vibration noise and a new headliner was also installed.


I am going for a simple but very high quality, three way system with a great sound stage.


More to come!


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