i wish i was more mechanically minded!! honestly i think im just going to have to save and but one already done! you should open up a business with some of the other members! you could make a killing.

great job im keeping an eye on your progress! thanks for inspiring us all!
take care tricky
ADS

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78 CLUBMAN VAN
researching 4efte conversion.
ANY HELP OR INFO WOULD BE APPRECIATED
THANKS GUYS

Well I thought I might post a short update for all you Mini people out there in cyberland.

Didnt do a great deal today, as I spent the morning travelling over to JC's place (an hour from my place) to pick up my other Clubman that has been stored in JC's dad's shed at Hawthorn for the past 12 months - big thanks to JC for this too by the way (now promoted to Legend status)!

The new clubman is called Crusty Octavius - I wanted to call it just Crusty, and Mitchell wanted to call it Octavius (dont know why, there's no 'eight' of anything on it). So Crusty Octavius is home safe and sound, and we shall decide what to do with him shortly.

Back to the The Cat. I did a little bit of carbon fibre work on the subwoofer board just after lunch, so the small raised infill piece would have time to fully cure, before I covered the major section in carbon cloth. This will give it 24 hours to fully cure, before the next step.

This how it turned out:


Close up:


Tomorrow I will finsh it off in carbon fibre and then turn my attention to the midbass enclosure and door cards. Just for a lark, I thought I would test fit the 9" subwoofers to see how they looked. I am glad that I chose black-coned drivers, as I want them to disappear into the carbon fibre panel and not distract the eye.

Here is a pic of the subwoofer business end - dual voice coil and 300W:


And here they are inserted in the subwoofer board - imagine if you can that the board is covered in carbon fibre - black on black (I will take some pics tomorrow of this again once the carbon fibre has been laid up):


Close up:


So, while all that was happening, I turned my attention to the midbass enclosure. I still had to do the holes for the speakers to drop through, so I pulled out my biggest holesaw I had and, as luck would have it, it was the right size. So off I went and drilled four holes for the 4" midbass drivers:


And then we test fit the speakers (love these little 4" blokes):


And with grills on (now imagine this in carbon fibre, with the grills on, or not - would look mega-cool:


Have a look at the size of the magnet on these 4" drivers - massive. They would do justice to 6.5" speakers and I expect them to perform flawlessly:


During the week the ICE gear arrived, and along with the 4" speakers shown, the 6.5" components showed up, and one of the amps - the 1000w Class D monoblock. Here it is sitting on the bonnet of Crusty Octavius:


The 6.5" components are just biger versions of the 4" midbass drivers. Nice big magnet, cast aluminium basket and polypropolene/carbon fibre cone. With grill on:


And with grill off (sexy eh?):


The 6.5" speakers will sit in the doors, with the tweeters high up in the dash, pointing directly at the driver/passenger. Should lift the sound stage up nicely. Now, onto the amplifier - the amplifiers will sit under the seats, semi-hidden but semi-protected as well. Here's a pic of the amp - like the speakers and boards, its in stealth black:


Test fitting the amp through the seat mounting brackets. Perfect fit, 5mm to spare:


Close up:


Well thats about it for today - I will post pic of the completed sub-board tomorrow.

Cheers,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Tricky,

Brilliant as always.. here's hoping El Gato has the same internal dimensions as the Pink Mule

Long shot, but are you coming down for Watto's BDO?

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

I've always shyed away from Fusion but that equiptment looks top quality. The Fusion boys and girls know how to make a good looking speaker.

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

Yes, but how do they sound ... ?

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

I tested the Powerplant speakers against Pioneers, Focals and Alpines and what I found was they equalled or in most cases outperformed the others using my test CD and plus, keeping them all Fusion and from the same range means they should be all tonally matched.

It is very important that you test speakers, amps and headunits using the same CD. It is equally as important that you are intimate with your chosen tracks on your test CD. I have a test CD that I made up about a year ago. It contains only 4 tracks:
1) Andrea Bochelli and Sarah Brightman - 'Time to say Goodbye' - this really puts any system through its paces when it tries to reproduce the highs and lows and subtle mellowness of the human voice, a great track for this.
2). BBC Radiophone Workshop - Dr Who - this forces the system to reproduce pure digital electronic sounds, it was originally recorded in quadraphonic so the speakers have to work extra hard to keep up with all the electronic changes in pitch.
3). Beethovan's 5th Sympthony - a classic masterpeice of string and woodwind that would push any system to the limit to try and reproduce what one would hear in a concert hall or live.
4). Eric Clapton - Classical Gas - unplugged acoustic guitar always puts any speakers through their paces and this is piece especially so, speakers have to be very tonally correct to get the nuances with this track.

From personal experience, the garden variety Fusion speakers (green plastic cone) are fairly middle of the road in terms of sound reproduction and quality (after all, isnt that what it's all about?).

The PowerPlant series is a cut above these again, and while not super hi-end audio equipment (but neither is the price!) they do belt out very faithful reproductions with good lows, awesome mids and very crisp highs.

In terms of value for money, they rate very highly in my book and I couldnt overlook this. And obviously if you have been reading the thread, there were other factors that had to be considered before I chose the speakers that I did.

SGC - would love to come downs for Watto's bash - do I need an invite? When is it?

Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

I am not in the least bit surprised, there's nothing that escapes your attention




Consider yourself invited 300+ Mini's expected, it'd be a shame if El Gato couldn't be amongst them.. but I doubt you'd make the Dec 9 deadline

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32911
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35897

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

I fitted Fusion 6-9 to the wifes Capri 1/2 the price and youd have to be blind to pick the difference between them and anther premium brand...
love th work with the wog crome (c-fiber)

_________________
its cool man jesus built my hot rod

wow tricky looking good. how's the body work coming along been and checked up on it recently.

looks like i might have to come around for another visit again shortly

dan

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Cheers Dan

FIRST COMES THE MONEY, THEN COMES THE POWER, THEN COMES THE WOMEN.!!

Ongoing artwork, as usual Tricky.. that balanced system should sound awesome once everything is in (seats, dash, etc)..

How's the body coming along?

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Gareth.

Dont ask me about the body - its a nightmare.

The panel beater/spray painter has now decided to pan the fibrglass work out to someone else to get it done - we decided on this two plus weeks ago, and still its sitting in the corner of his workshop gathering dust.

I am really stuck between a rock and a hard place here, asI have already done about $6,500-7,000 worth of electrical work for the guy and he has done jack with the mini!

Are there any lawyers on this forum - would love to know where I stand legally, because I need to take action!

Its now been sitting in his shed since the end of July!

Help!

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Thats a real bummer, and happens all too often. Did you have any official agreement with the guy, happen to sign anything etc.

It's so annoying when a project gets held up because the guy cant be bothered to get off his ar$# and do something.

You could just invoice him for the work you've done and tell him you're getting your car out of there.

My smallish rant.

Dicko

I know some highly credentled thugs on the gold coast..........but remember theres not a diploma between them.
But im serious.

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its cool man jesus built my hot rod

Tricky, sorry to see you've joined the club. The "Bloke's got my car and my money and won't do the panel work", club

My shell, for my Suzuki conversion, has been at **** *********'s Mini-**** since the day after Australia Day. He wouldn't start without a $2,500 deposit and has done SFA with the car. It isn't even in his shop, but in storage somewhere!

If you find a lawyer who sorts this type of stuff, please let me know.

M