1987 3.2 Carrera Backdate project - Sladeys hotrod

[sladey]

Eventually and with a bit of help from Ian I got it all working on the bench.

I could play music from my phone via bluetooth and output it to the speakers through the external amp.

I connected up the head unit but the sound was rubbish. In the end I ripped out the guts of it and used the on/off switch as a switch for powering the amp on and off.

So the setup worked ok. Now to put it in the car.

In my mind the amp would fit in the front boot. My mind was mistaken.

I then looked at putting it under the drivers seat. It looked like it would fit fine.

I took my time running all the cabling, running new speaker cable from the doors (pain in the arse job made a lot easier by help from my daughter Ella - thanks El).

Eventually I was happy that the front speakers were all connected up and it all worked fine. I was going to do the rears another day. All the wiring was hidden and I had a break.

I returned to the job and went to put the seat in.

It wouldn't go down properly.

It was fouling the amp.

AAAAAARGHHHHHHH!!

In retrospect I panicked. That's really the only way I can explain that my next logical step was to get out the grinder with a cutting disc and slice a chunk off the top of the amp.

That at least allowed me to get the seat in - although it doesn' move back and forth as more adjustment is needed.

During this time my iphone (which was in my pocket) was getting hotter and hotter. And hotter and hotter. It was still working but getting hotter. I looked at the screen after a while and it had gone black. No worries I thought - I'll hard reset it when I've done here.

Tidied tools away and went inside.

iPhone=dead. D.E.A.D - Dead.

I'm taking it to an apple shop next week (earliest I could get in). So now I've got a system that only runs from the iphone and I don't have a working iphone.

To top it all I realised in bed that all I actually needed to do with the amp was turn it through 90 degrees and it would have fitted.

Last night I ordered another identical amp off ebay (I don't want a butchered one in the car)

Round 2 next weekend.....





Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mrk]

Brilliant episode Mark....a continuing tale that brings to mind the remarkable creativity and broad sweeping ingenuity of the great Matt Damon in 'The Martian', but somehow this is much, much more epic.
One of the best threads on DDK!

[sladey]

Thanks Matt

Last night my daughter lent me her old iphone so today I was at least able to get some bangin choons through the front speakers - it sounds pretty good

In spite of the 'issues' I'm really happy with the sound system thing. Electronics have always been a black art to me and with Ian's help I've been able to make a bit of progress. I'm most pleased that the idea I had last year about how it could all work together did actually work out in the end.

[murph2309]

Love this thread.....It's like The Archers of DDK. Nearly been going the same length of time too. Except without the gaslighting and coercive control bits.

[aston]

Just caught up with the last few updates... great read.

[sladey]

OK so to illustrate my past post, here's a pic of the amp in situ post-panic butchery


And Lo! he doth turn it 90 degrees and all was good!! Muppet. (New good amp waiting in the wings). I had to cut a chunk out of the rear seat support but nothing serious. the seat operates properly again now


New good amp in place and all wired up


On Monday I got to drive it and there were still a few teething problems - The amp wasn't configured properly so that one channel wasn't coming through. The track the shows this up best is paperback writer by the Beatles. So last night I ended up playing it around 40 times on the trot while I configured it all. I'd got the speakers connected to the wrong terminals, the input switch was incorrectly set and I needed to set the gain from the front speakers and the rear speakers.

Finally my replacement ashtray had arrived so I was able to fit the controls into that.

Here's the head unit



And here's the ioplay controls hidden in the ashtray


Sounds great on the way in to work - it looks good, can control volume quickly and easily and the sound quality is great

[Nige]

Mark, that's really neat. Well done!
10/10

[Bootsy]

It's the dirty story of a dirty man .......

[Nige]

Good job it's a weekday too as it wouldn't just be his power dressing shoulder padded suit reflecting in the oil gauge.

[jtparr]

Nice work Mark...

[smallspeed]

Nice work! Love the clean hidden look

[sladey]

And his clinging wife doesn't understand....

Thanks guys. Pretty pleased with the sound now. Found out that the original mike (from the previous ioplay) doesn't work with the new version of ioplay so I'll have to fit the new one soon and run the cable down the A pillar

[jury]

Looks great mark, perfect for the Bangin' Choons !!

Hope all is good mate

[sladey]

Thanks Chris, same to you mate

[Boydyrs]

Aye Sladey "In a broken dream" all over again all day long!
Boydyrs