Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[dsolds]

OK, a little ICE install to sort of introduce myself. Not been here long although I have run Troopers for 14 years.

I needed a truck for all the dirty stuff I do which was messing up the family car so I bought me a 98 LWB 3.5 Citation. Standard line fit rubbish radio which barely worked. Time a for a small modification then.

Right, I have a head unit. Nakamichi CD700II.
A couple of amps, a Nakamichi PA304 for the front stage and a Genesis Profile Sub for the subwoofer.

Speakers then…..not easy to find nice ones which will fit in the standard locations. So I decided to get the speakers I wanted and make them fit.

Hybrid Audio Technologies were the speaker of choice. 2 way with a 165mm bass unit and a small tweeter. So, to work. I removed the original speakers and the plastic thingy which supports them. All binned. Next I removed the bottom pocket of the door card and started forming up the required holes.

Now, to mount the actual bass speakers I was going to need some MDF rings and these were duly cut and fitted to the door card. I did need some small spacers which were also cut from MDF. The rings were fitted to the card in a permanent fashion. Araldite and screws. I now had this. Notice where I had scored the plastic with a craft knife as well.



So, I did a test refit to make sure I had measured the required depth correctly. All good.

The next step was to take an old fleece and cut some pieces to stretch over the thing like so.



This was stuck in place with some hot glue and stretched tight as I went. This is why the scoring was done, to give the glue a good purchase.

Looking OK so far so I set to work with the fibreglass resin. 4 coats of the stuff in fairly quick succession making sure the fleece was soaked right through to the back. I left it to dry overnight before tackling the next stage. Sanding off the unwanted high spots and cutting out the speaker hole. A bit of P38 to fill in the lower spots and a guide coat of black paint afterwards.



This was not overly perfect since I have ordered some grey vinyl to match the rest of the door card.

So, to the wiring.
Head unit first. This was a bit of a tough job since this HU has so many cables coming from the back. I had to drop the dash forward and remove the glovebox to get my hand up behind. All in and looking OK though. All wires soldered since this HU has a DC/DC converter (also hidden up behind the dash) rather than connecting straight to the +12v of the car.



I ran the RCA signal leads down under the seats where the amps were going along with a remote wire to power up the amps as well. Definitely a seats out job.

Speaker leads were then run into the doors which was easier than I expected. I stuck the crossovers in the hollow part of the main door card and glued the wires with hot glue



Running power cables straight from the battery for each amp was a doddle. 80 amp fuse on a 4AWG cable from the battery, into a distribution block and then 2 8AWG wires for the amps. I also made short earth leads and screwed these direct to the bodywork under the seats.

The speaker wire for the sub was run to an XLR socket which I mounted on the side panel in the boot. This allows me to remove it easily if the need arises.

So, some afters. Hope you enjoy. I certainly did, and even more so now it’s all running.

Still to do are the grey vinyl over the black pods I built and also the tweeter locations. Hoover the car. Dispose of WISPA wrapper - supplies for a hungry fitter. Oh, and put them damn jump leads back in their cubby hole   Then it's off to get the levels all set accurately. It's not far out now - Sade's Diamond life album has never sounded so good. Yummy.

Thanks for reading.

Dom

[Google]

[rallymarshall]

   
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atb kevin

65 vauxhall mokka 1.6cdti 4x4 se
66 vauxhall corsa vxr

[kennymac]

Tasty

Although I can't believe you put a Nakamichi head unit and Nakamichi & Genesis amps in to a trooper that you openly admit to getting dirty
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If all else fails just nod, smile and say "Yes Dear"

[dsolds]

I'm lazy so i did it right first time

There are few systems which sound as good as Nak, maybe 2 I can think of. McIntosh & a rare japanese imported Denon. And it will still sound great with a layer of dirt on it.

I have to say also that the Hybrid speakers are unbelievably good. They are newish to the market and I have only the second pair of these in the UK. Not the cheapest but better sounding than a £1000 set of JBL's I listened to - by a long margin. (hence the effort to get them to fit the doors

Thanks for the nice comments though.

[Philp]

Nice job, are you a member over at Talk Audio?  I have an install to do in my Chevy eventually, involving an RE8 sub, and alpine mono amp and a mac attack amp for the fronts.
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Phil

96 or is it a 98 Isuzu Bighorn Lotus

[dsolds]

Ah yes, the vary same. Same username as well.

Best get teh Chevvy done soon. Life without tunes is meaningless I've not heard the mac attacks - any good? I do recall the Alpine mono amps were very solid though. I used to have one running a pair of 18" Cerwin Vega subs in one of my previous Troopers. It did contribute to a cooked alternator as well  

Which reminds me, does anyone know of a bolt-on alternator upgrade for a 3.5 V6 please? Not sure what the output of the standard one is but the ICE system at a respectable sound level draws about 70 amps.

Next up - dual batteries.

[Philp]

I'm HeavyChevy over there.  The truck needs some work before its MoT'd and then its new interior and some engine upgrades.
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Phil

96 or is it a 98 Isuzu Bighorn Lotus

[gary820]

Nice install    would love to fit my amps etc but too much risk of it getting damaged.
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landcruiser 80 series  4.5, 35's/33's for road, 2inch lift, discreet winch, sliders/armour, factory lockers, stainless side exit +++++

[dsolds]

Ahhhh, don't worry about damage. There are plenty of options to protect stuff. Depending on what you have you could make a false floor in the boot or, put the amps where I have and make some guards to protect the back end where big feet can get.

Gotta have tunes in the motor. You know it makes sense !!  

Just imagine, you're doing a bit of muddy stuff, you get stuck and have to call for assistance. This is the exact time where you need to, very noncholantly, dig out the fat cigar you've been saving for "when the fat lady sings", start playing Queen - another one bites the dust or <insert appropriate tune here> and sit back waiting as if you really don't give a damn   -------Uber cool.

[kennymac]

[gary820]