[97BlackAckCL]

Most of the silicone dried within the first hour, but a couple still weren't dry so I ended up pulling the truck into the garage overnight and putting the panel on the trunk of the Acura with the weights to let it dry and cure overnight. Here is the finished product today. The silicone held up super well and the panel does not flex or move whatsoever, I'm very happy with the outcome.



And here is the first test fit with the new trim piece. I was able to stick my hand up underneath and make sure that there were no clearance issues with the sub, and even with the JL dust cap grille cover that I had on, so I decided to leave it as an extra layer of protection.



And here's a wider look at the test fit. I was fighting glare the entire time, so I did my best.



And here's the panel all installed and ready for the third row seat to be put back in.



And here's the final result once the seat and all the trim panels are back in place.



And a wider shot, trying to avoid the sun glare.



And here's with the CanvasBack liners reinstalled.



And the storage panel remounted and installed.



I'm really happy with the look and I feel like it completes the interior and the back of the truck. I didn't mind the speaker being exposed because with the grille cover it almost looked like it belonged there, but this is SO much cleaner. I hate that it has the orange JBL logo on it, but my rear Husky Trunk liner actually covers that, bonus!

[97BlackAckCL]

Been working on a few small mods on the truck, I just finished this one up yesterday. So I have the center console safe, and I want to keep a pistol in there, however I've never been able to really see the combination lock at night or have good visibility to it in the dark or when I go to concerts, etc. A few members on here posted this solution and I knew that I had to do it. I didn't even have to remove the safe, just pop off the rear panel on the console.



Then remove the 6 screws for the arm rest hinge



Screws removed



And here's my center console armrest before



Quick tear down



And here's a before of where I'll be mounting the lights



Finding center and marking my holes, I had to stagger them back a bit in order to clear the rear of the panel



And here's 1 LED bolt light test fit



And the other side



And here they are mounted and installed. I used Oznium 11 mm LED bolts with cool white LED's



And testing on the battery to make sure they work



The cool part about this mod is the use of a mercury switch, so it only turns on the light after raising 45 deg or higher, I also mounted it at about 15 deg so that normal driving won't trigger the switch. I decided to wire the switch into the ground.



I only wanted to send down 1 set of wires so I wired the 2 LED's in parallel



And here's my final test of the wiring with the switch as the ground, everything works!



For power I only want this light to be able to come on when the truck is running or the key is in the on position, so I tapped off of one of the 12 volt outlets in the back of the center console. I'm not a big fan of wire taps, but for this application and the fact that I didn't want to cut the stock wires, it was perfect.


And here's the final product, all wired up and ready to go into the truck.



Here you can see that the light isn't on, this is right before the switch triggers at 45 deg



And here is the light on, with the switch triggering



And the finished product. Looks like it belongs there and it's almost OEM in appearance.



I'm very happy with this mod, and only cost about 20 bucks. Pretty cool, and now I can actually use my console safe at night! :toocool:

[SpeedyKevin]

I like that lighting idea! Well done!

[daytonaviolet]

looking good. btw, you don't need the front lock nut. the led has a bezel. i put both of the lock nuts on the back side



here's mine for comparison

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by daytonaviolet

looking good. btw, you don't need the front lock nut. the led has a bezel. i put both of the lock nuts on the back side



here's mine for comparison

Ah crap, now he tells me! lol. I would take it all back apart to mount them more flush, but then I'd have to undo all my wiring and soldering, so I guess I'll just be stuck knowing that I could have mounted them more flush lol. Thanks Fernando!

[daytonaviolet]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

Ah crap, now he tells me! lol. I would take it all back apart to mount them more flush, but then I'd have to undo all my wiring and soldering, so I guess I'll just be stuck knowing that I could have mounted them more flush lol. Thanks Fernando!

well looks good either way

[shdw03]

Nice work on that cover. Jealous of you third row guys

[TheWraith]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

Finally got a nice spring day and was able to get my door speakers all replaced. The speakers that I took out of my old truck had rusty contacts so I splurged and bought all new speakers for the front and rear doors as well as the back hatch.



Of course I had to get a before of the crappy paper cone speakers with no magnets



And since I had to buy all new TacoTunes adapters since the ones from my 4th gen didn't fit, I finally had all the right pieces to install


All ready to go in the doors!


And installed!


Before of the rears



Getting ready to mount

And installed!


I was able to get all 4 doors replaced before the sun and temperature started dropping, so I got 4 of the 8 crappy stock speakers replaced so far.

After having to order more adapters from TacoTunes because the ones I had from my 08 wouldn't fit the new speakers for the rear hatch I finally got them swapped out, current count is 6 of 8 replaced.



Here's a before of the crappy paper cone garbage



And all mounted up and ready to go



I go to a lot of concerts and do a lot of tailgating, so these will definitely get some good use, had to flip around a bit to get the holes lined up, no biggie



And got them both installed, took about 10 minutes once I had the right brackets lol

how was the sound after the speaker upgrade ??? for some reason I thought you could run 6x9's in the front and rear passenger doors and 6x5's on the rear hatch...

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by TheWraith

how was the sound after the speaker upgrade ??? for some reason I thought you could run 6x9's in the front and rear passenger doors and 6x5's on the rear hatch...

Sounds awesome, it's always been 6x9's in the front doors, 6.5's in the rear doors and rear hatch, they sound awesome

[TheWraith]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

Sounds awesome, it's always been 6x9's in the front doors, 6.5's in the rear doors and rear hatch, they sound awesome

hhhmmm fun ... I thought that because crutchfield suggest 6x9 in the rear pasenger door when I was looking.

ps. so you didnt run a aftermarket amp to power these speakers???

what the specs on them ???

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by TheWraith

hhhmmm fun ... I thought that because crutchfield suggest 6x9 in the rear pasenger door when I was looking.

ps. so you didnt run a aftermarket amp to power these speakers???

what the specs on them ???

No, all speakers are powered off the stock head unit, the only amp I added was for the sub

[TheWraith]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

No, all speakers are powered off the stock head unit, the only amp I added was for the sub

the mb quarts speakers especially the 6x9's are low watt ??? I'm curious because I want alittle more bump but not too much where I lose room in my cargo..

[97BlackAckCL]

Originally Posted by TheWraith

the mb quarts speakers especially the 6x9's are low watt ??? I'm curious because I want alittle more bump but not too much where I lose room in my cargo..

Yep, low watt, they say no amp needed. They were a huge upgrade over stock, and I did the 3.5" coaxials in the dash as well

[TheWraith]

Originally Posted by 97BlackAckCL

Yep, low watt, they say no amp needed. They were a huge upgrade over stock, and I did the 3.5" coaxials in the dash as well

I want to upgrade my sounds but I want to go hi watt like 100watt rms 300watt peak 6x9 component w/ 3.5 2 way tweeter.

I'm a Kenwood excleon fan boy because I've ran a few other speakers and I've never popped a excleon.

Either way thanks for posting your speaker / sound system ... You have peaked my interest in doing this project...

[Akkording]

I'm running the same suggested MBs and sub as well on a 250/1 JL amp. Definitely do 3+" dash speaker upgrade with the correct resistor, it just enhances the whole audio driving experience without increasing the volume too high. I still can't locate the unicorn JBL sub box for the life of me. Chris you lucked out even more with that JBL cover.