Builds Project Bush Cricket... (1 Viewer)

[jesus888]

Didn’t have a whole lot of time this AM, and I want to hold off on putting the headliner back in until my buddy and his extra set of hands can help get it secured…
So since I eventually have to order some speakers and figure out WTF I’m doing with them in terms of replacing with similar vs upgrading to bigger size etc,
I went ahead and got all of the door covers off.
Cleaned the front pieces of seatbelt/headliner trim in place with that 409 stuff… only the first coat, I’ll prob hit em one more time tomorrow

 

[jesus888]

And the trim…

 

[jesus888]

Also I finalized my stereo update/upgrade order today... stuff should be getting here this and next week. I'm using a chinese Joying Android/Carplay headunit and I was gonna utilize my Alpine 4 Channel amp and JL 10 that I have squirreled away, but instead, I'm selling those on ebay and just getting stuff that I think will make this as easy as possible. All that with the exception of the rear sub. I plan on running a free-air sub in the stock location (in the rear) and getting power from the 5-channel amp and figuring out how to get it mounted securely and filling a lot of the dead space with poly-fill and sound deadening... that part is a gamble but can't justify the cost of one of the powered subs (~$300) at the moment...

409		Carpet Cleaner	$2.50	$0.00	4	$10.00
Soundstream		PN5.640D Amplifier	$172.78	$0.00	1	$172.78
Amazon		Leather Tape	$8.99	$0.00	1	$8.99
Kicker	44CWCD84	8" Subwoofer	$80.96	$0.00	1	$80.96
Kicker	43DSC44	4" 2-way coax speakers - pair	$59.95	$0.00	1	$59.95
Baomin		ANL 100 Amp Fuses - Pair (extras)	$5.39	$0.00	1	$5.39
Installgear		4 Gauge Complete Amp Install Kit	$28.99	$0.00	1	$28.99
Monoprice		2 channel RCA Cables - 6 feet	$7.11	$0.00	3	$21.33
Metra		1/2 inch plastic spacer rings for 6.5" speakers	$9.65	$0.00	2	$19.30
eRapta		HD Backup Camera	$25.99	$0.00	1	$25.99
Metra		70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness	$4.99	$0.00	1	$4.99
Polk Audio		DB652 6.5" Coax Speakers - 2 Pairs	$168.88		1	$168.88
American International		UPT900 Pocket Install Dash Kit	$10.79		1	$10.79

 

[SkeeLo22]

Well… I’m a little stumped. I pulled some of the jute down from the ceiling and I’m regretting it. I was gonna do the butyl sound dampening and ensolite there, but I just don’t think it’s that necessary.

and getting the jute down is a pain in the ass… and I’m not uninstalling the sunroof to put stuff under there, so I’m going to pull the plug on this piece.

basically I will put the ensolite on the back of the CLEAN headliner so somethings up there to warrant all of this pain but otherwise, not messing with the roof anymore.

I’ve confirmed that my sunroof drains are working, so I’m good.

now as far as the floor goes, and I’ve had cars with very little sound deadening but the stock stuff really does get rid of most of tbe vibration wherever it is and I don’t have rust issues so no need to remove it! I plan on basically putting it on panels that don’t have anything on them and in the doors and tire jumps for sure and then basically putting the ensolite close cell foam stuff EVERYWHERE…

I think that’s the next steps, along with getting the headliner back in, and cleaning the sunroof cover so it’s clean like the headliner…

also hit the headliner with another coat of 409 and a soft bristle brush and it’s so damn clean, it makes me happy

View attachment 2770649

View attachment 2770650

View attachment 2770651

Those who know, know the only thing that smells better than Meyer's Soap is... 409 Carpet Spot & Stain Remover!

 

[jesus888]

Some things accomplished…
Put my 9 year old on door panel duty… he cleaned and scrubbed the carpet at the bottom and simple green’d the plastics/leather to get em as clean as possible…
Pulled all door panels and put Noico sound deadener on the outer skins
Checked the rear sunroof drain lines to make sure they weren’t leaking
Soldered the factory speaker connectors to new 6.5” speakers for the doors and the 4” speakers for the dash
Pulled dash panels and glove box off to get to the dash speakers and went ahead and gave them a good cleaning…

Next week planning on:
Getting headliner and ceiling panels back up, along with replacing some of the jute padding that I took down
Installing the door/dash speakers and the rest of the stereo wiring (got a 5-channel amp and an apple carplay head unit with rear view camera etc)
Figure out the upgraded kicker sub in stock location…

Then it’ll be time to put the new carpet in and get those seats back in!!

 

[jesus888]

More pictures

 

[jesus888]

Back from out of town, got an hour in, after dropping the kiddo to school.
Added ensolite/close cell foam to all of the interior door panels… #babysteps

 

[jesus888]

Progress… however small… is progress.
Front floorboards have close cell foam

 

[jesus888]

No progress to report on Project Bush Cricket, waiting on door panel clips because these tired clips, while intact, don’t have the staying power to hold these ensolite-stuffed panels in place… it’s tight, and hoping new clips will help.

But also was able to check something off of the list of to-dos… finally replaced this gross steering wheel that came with my LX470! Got a refurbished unit from @4060seriesnut and it’s a perfect match

 

[JDMStanNTopSoft]

No progress to report on Project Bush Cricket, waiting on door panel clips because these tired clips, while intact, don’t have the staying power to hold these ensolite-stuffed panels in place… it’s tight, and hoping new clips will help.

But also was able to check something off of the list of to-dos… finally replaced this gross steering wheel that came with my LX470! Got a refurbished unit from @4060seriesnut and it’s a perfect match

View attachment 2789578

View attachment 2789579

I am so glad! Sorry that you had to wait a little longer than usual!

 

[jesus888]

So I was looking forward to this morning because my new door panel clips came last night and I could finally get some stuff put back together, namely the door panels and speakers.

What I figured out quickly was that my longer speaker screws that I bought to go through the Grill —> Speaker —> door panel —> 1/2” spacer —> into the door metal… well they weren’t long enough, so a trip to Ace solved that issue.

Second thing I realized is 2 layers of close cell foam made the panels too fat to engage ANY of the new clips, so I pulled the second layer from a couple of spots, and was able to get about half of the clips engaged, I’ll remove more for the other door panels and just come back to this one.

Third I realized that the grill that came with the Polk 6.5” speakers is dumb.. offers crap for protection and made the install a lot harder given the already pain in the ass to get through 4 layers of stuff to get to the holes I drilled in the doors. Plus the door won’t shut with them on, SO I left em off and will figure out a different solution later for that.

Fourth, now the screws I had taken out that connect the few spots of the door panel to the door are too short. Luckily the original lingers screws I purchased for the speakers will work, just gotta dig through my extra washers to get those in.

Door panel #1 offered plenty of lessons that should make the other ones go on faster. Also I’ll have #1 buttoned up tomorrow with the washers.

 

[jesus888]

Couple more pictures…

 

[jesus888]

Do you have one of those friends that insists that stuff is done “right the first time”?? I do. So the passenger front door card came back off, I removed some of the ensolite, and did it right. The fit is much better. Also got the headliner back in, after replacing some jute padding that I took down. Just being held by a few clips but I’ll get that all wrapped up soon enough… at least it’s out of harms way…

 

[jesus888]

Headliner is completely installed again with all the fixins
Couple of dash panels have been reinstalled WITH kicker 4” speakers (utilizing OEM connections)
Got a small piece of metal cut and installed (with some rubber backing and mostly unnecessary RTV smeared on the back)

Things are moving swiftly for now… will probably slow down a bit when it’s time to work on the radio and associated components some more… til tomorrow…

 

[jesus888]

Pulled the new carpet out of the box to “relax” a bit before we put it in, in a couple weeks
Couldn’t wait any longer, went ahead and gave the front seats another very good cleaning and conditioning, and then put the new seat covers on em… still have the rear seats and the jump seats to do, but figured it’s one less thing to do later, and they look great

 

[TYM4FUN]

Seat covers look great.

 

[jesus888]

Seat covers look great.

I like em a lot... I have some work to do to get them properly fitted with the adjustment, but it'll happen in good time, and overall, I think they look great!

 

[jesus888]

I have to keep reminding myself… “it’s the sum of the parts…”
Small progress this morning… because I have a lot to finish with my paying work this week… I’m a CPA, and taxes don’t file themselves unfortunately.

Cleaned, conditioned, and covered the 2nd row. Not a big job, but that’s an hour and a half that won’t get eaten away when I’m putting everything back together

I don’t have the 3rd row covers yet, but when those get here, the last piece of that puzzle will be done, and ready for when all the other stuff gets done

 

[jesus888]

Well, I wish I could say that I’ve been workin on Project Bush Cricket for 6 months and just haven’t been posting, but unfortunately that’s not the situation. I haven’t done much since September of late year but had sometime this weekend to make a little progress.

Got the front and rear door/speakers buttoned up. I changed from 1/2” spacers to 1/4” spacers and since the speakers are surface mounted, there seems to be no interference with the window.

I am on the lookout for some very thin surface mounted mesh grills though to protect the speakers and still allow the front doors to close against the side of the dashboard…

 

[jesus888]

And the rears… had to cut the opening larger and do some finagling, but everything turned out pretty tight…