New daily, who dis? (Bronco upgrade thread)

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Hah, I figured out the 'real' reason for the new ride - happy birthday Jeremy! (yeah, it's a day early).

 

[Ark :D]

Hah, I figured out the 'real' reason for the new ride - happy birthday Jeremy! (yeah, it's a day early).

Thank you.

 

[Ark :D]

So I learned that I was wrong, the tailgate does have a prop, similar to the hood, to hold the hatch open. It's still half-a**ed though, because the prop is right in the way. Regardless, I took 45 minutes tonight and installed the gas strut kit that gives the hatch the ability to hold itself open, assist itself when opening, and make putting the top up a single-person job instead of a 2-man job. I'll take it.

No photos because boring. But, the kit worked great.

Also, I made a little more progress in the audio department. I used an OBDII adapter and ForScan to disable the factory EQ, as well as disable auto-headlight on and auto-high-beam on. I also needed to use this program to change the factory audio controller from "Tweeter only" in the rear to "Tweeter + Speaker". Now I just need to receive the wiring and the sub box.

Current upgrade list and status:

• Audio - in progress
• Side steps
• 3rd-party addon for rear hatch
• Door pockets
• Taillights

 

[Rttoys]

I hate auto high beam. Where I’m at it’s pretty dark, but house flood lights will make the high beams go to low. One area it’s hit, low, high, low on and on. I force them to high (different ways to do it on the 2 vehicles) and leave it. Just like the good ol days.

 

[Ark :D]

All my audio stuff was received at the end of this past week, so that's great. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get into it to do the install this weekend, due to needing the car for reasons and not having enough time to be able to rip the interior apart without regrets. That's ok though, I've already made some progress in that I took the interior apart somewhat this morning to plan things. I know where I'm mounting both amps and the capacitor (I decided to add a half-farad capacitor to the mix, last week). I have a few connectors and miscellaneous bits to buy, so I'll hopefully be ready for the actual install next weekend.

But for now, here's a couple pics of the sub box and where it will be mounted.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Gives new meaning to the term Rumble Seat! Should be adequate for an enclosed vehicle. Party On Garth!

 

[Ark :D]

Yep, it's just a 8" powered by 300 watts. Nothing insane, just enough to round out the sound.

 

[Rttoys]

I remember when 300 watts was a huge system

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

40 watts peak X2 channels.

I had one of these in my '64 Nova SS.

 

[G Atsma]

Wayback Machine just went Maximum Overload...... lol

 

[Ark :D]

My grandfather had one of those.

Decided to keep this tame, at 50w x 4 for the fronts and rears, and 300w x 1 for the 8", small-volume sealed subwoofer. I've aged out of the days of ridiculous trunk-consuming boxes with tuned ports, four 12"s, and 2000w.

 

[Ark :D]

Taillights, before and after.

Current upgrade list and status:

• Audio - in progress
• Side steps
• 3rd-party addon for rear hatch
• Door pockets
• Taillights

 

[Metal Mech]

I need to hire you to upgrade the stereo in my truck

 

[Ark :D]

I spent about 45 minutes in my wonderful, air-conditioned basement tonight, prepping the wiring harness for the Bronco. This only covers the front and rear channels, not the subwoofer channels. My plan is to tap into the two rear channels to grab signal for the sub, but I am not sure how that will affect audio quality. Once I use some temporary wire taps and determine the signal is fine, I'll do it more permanently.

 

[ah.b.normal]

40 watts peak X2 channels.
View attachment 47818
I had one of these in my '64 Nova SS.

This pic made my heart skip a beat or two. I believe I helped my Dad install one in his 72(new to him in 75) Caddy Sedan DeVille, he wished it was a Coupe! Silver with Dk Blue leather int! It was a good looking car! 472/Auto. An Interstellar Couch!

 

[Ark :D]

I made huge progress on the Bronco audio project, this weekend.

I am not going to call it finished yet, because I still have to fine-tune the subwoofer crossover point, bass boost, and gain levels, and because a couple other little things popped up as I did the install.

First, I decided to add a capacitor to the system because, well, I can. Car audio capacitors are designed to provide high levels of current on-demand, as your amplifiers call for it. This reduces dimming headlights at night, and other "brownout" type problems. I went with a half-farad cap because I'm not running a lot of power.

Secondly, I decided I didn't like my plan to tap into the rear speakers to get the subwoofer signal. The Ford factory radio does some undesirable equalization and frequency elimination and, while the Kicker Key 200.4 amp I am using does fix that issue, I didn't want to tap into the signal after the amp, and use it with the high-level inputs on the subwoofer amp.. So, I installed a LOC from NVX. A LOC allows you to throw the high-level signal directly from the factory radio/amplifier to the LOC, which can then apply lots of shaping to the signal (HPF/LPF, bass boost, etc), before sending the signal out to your amplifiers at line-level. I didn't use any of the processing features though, the two Kicker Key amps do a lot of that themselves. I only installed the LOC for two reasons:

1. You can feed 4 channels in (front left/right, rear left/right) and get 6 channels out (front left/right, rear left/right, and two channels of subwoofer signal). The frequencies in the signal are summed across all channels, which fixes the factory radio equalization issues.
2. The LOC is able to use DC offset to sense when to turn on, and then will provide a remote out 12V signal to turn on your other amps. Both my amps also have DC offset, so I didn't technically need this feature, but I used it anyway, in case I ever want to change the subwoofer amp or something.

All in all, after the upgrade, the system went from sounding anemic, to sounding like a concert hall. I still have to tweak the subwoofer but otherwise, it sounds great! Unfortunately though, I am not done yet, most likely. For the near future, probably:

1. The Kicker CS 4" speakers in the rear pods can't handle the full-range signal at very high volume. I have a pair of 300hz bass blockers here I am going to install on them to filter out all the low frequencies to see how that addresses the issue, while tweaking the subwoofer. If I can't get it sounding how I want, I will invest in a pair of rear pods that can take 6.5" speakers, and will grab a pair of Kicker KS series to install in them.
2. During the install, I was annoyed to find out that, if you fold down the rear seats, the part you sit on moves forward as well. This means that I can't fold the seats down without removing the sub box from under them, making my whole decision to go with that box, pointless. If I need to remove the box for hauling capacity, I'd rather install a bigger box/bigger subwoofer(s) in the trunk. I don't know if I'll change this or not; it depends on how well I can dial in the existing box and subwoofer to complement the rest of the system.

Here's some pics.

Pro tip: Velcro straps and zip ties work amazing for installing gear in cars where you don't want to drill holes. Here's the capacitor and the Kicker Key 200.4 amp (zip tied to the other side of the kick plate), plus some closed-cell foam padding I wedged in on the metal edges to protect the cap and the wiring.

Testing the Kicker Key 500.1 sub amp. The Velcro straps around it will stick to the carpet under the backseat, it's not going to go anywhere.

Finished off the rear install. The entire install is next to unnoticeable, I did a really good and thorough job with it.

Current upgrade list and status:

• Audio - in progress, but mostly done
• Side steps
• 3rd-party addon for rear hatch
• Door pockets
• Taillights

 

[Rttoys]

Nice. Looks good. Capacitor helps a ton.

 

[Ark :D]

Near the finish line, now.

I tried out the 300hz bass blockers on the rear 4" pod speakers, as I planned to do. The result was they sounded distortion-free at high volume like I wanted, but the sound was devoid of midbass frequencies and sounded rather odd and a bit too harsh, since the 8" subwoofer has the lows handled pretty well. Picture a U-shaped EQ curve, that's what I was hearing, more or less.

So I ordered a set of the Mabett 6.75" upgrade pods and a pair of Kicker KS 6.75" 2-way speakers for the rear. I also decided I was not completely satisfied with the Kicker CS 4" speakers in the dash, so I ordered a pair of Kicker KS 4" 2-way speakers to replace them. I also installed the 300hz bass blockers on the new dash speakers.

The end result: there's more tuning to do on the amps (like re-running the "learn phase" using the included mic with the Kicker Key 200.4 amp), but the harsh edge it used to have from the CS 4" speakers is gone, replaced with what sounds, to me, to be very well-balanced sound. The Key 200.4 learn should remove any last misgivings I might have about the midrange setup, with a little more tweaking of the gain and crossovers. Oh, and 2 pairs of extra 4" CS speakers laying around now, lol!

After this next set of tuning, I'll focus my attention on the 8" subwoofer and amp. It's pretty close, but I think I need to reduce the gain slightly, reduce the crossover point slightly, and add 1 or 2 db to the bass boost. More later.

 

[Ark :D]

I am happy to report that my audio upgrade is now completely finished, after the steps listed in the last post. I've listened to everything from Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack, to INXS - Need You Tonight, to Onyx - Shut Em Down, to Michael Jackson - Bad ... you should see my playlist, it has literally everything on it.

300hz bass blockers on the front 4" speakers, an upgrade to the 6.75" Mabett speaker pods with Kicker KS 6.75" 2-ways in the rear, and slight tweaks to the subwoofer amp were the finishing touches. It is now very close to perfection and is as close as I can really get, within the set parameters of "no radio upgrade" and "soft top convertible". If I can complain at all (and I can, there's always something to be complained about!), it's that the 8" subwoofer just is not......quite......enough. I am looking for slightly lower frequency response than a small 8" subwoofer can produce. But that is a really minor complaint. I may do something about this in the future, but not now. For now, I enjoy it as-is and save some money, lol.

To summarize everything I did, with costs, in case anyone wants to take a swing at upgrading the factory audio in their daily:

• Factory radio remains unchanged; however, I used ForSCAN (ODBII app) to disable factory equalization and high-pass filtering on the rear channels
• Added a PAC T-harness to make aftermarket amp installation much easier, without butchering the factory wiring - $50
• Added a NVX XLOC66X to the factory radio for easy addition of extra channels for the subwoofer - this can do equalization, gain control, and HPF/LPF, but I did not use it for any of that - $80
• Added a half-farad capacitor to protect the battery from high-current draw - probably not necessary for this rather conservative system, but when I do things, I do them right - $40
• Replaced dash speakers with Kicker KS 4" 2-ways, with 300hz bass blockers - $80 and $10
• Replaced kick panel speakers with Kicker KS 6.5" 2-ways - $100
• Each side's dash and kick panel speakers are wired parallel for a 2-ohm load; this is unchanged from factory, but wanted to mention it
• Replaced factory 4" rear pods with Mabett 6.75" pods and Kicker KS 6.75" 2-ways - $140 and $100
• Added a Kicker Key 200.4 50w x 4 amp for the six midrange speakers - fantastic amp with "smart" features that makes this the best-sounding audio system I have ever installed - $225
• Added a Kicker CompR 8" subwoofer (DVC, 4-ohm) in a custom Bronco sealed box from ground-shaker.com - $75 and $225
• Added a Kicker Key 500.1 300w x 1 amp (it's named 500.1 because it is 1-ohm stable and can pump 500w into that load) to power the 8" sub - $225
• There's other bits to consider in the final cost of this upgrade: power and ground wire (4-gauge from battery to capacitor and from capacitor to power distro block), master fuse holder, power distro block, fuses for both, 3 sets of RCA cables, speaker wire for the subwoofer, and velcro strips, zip ties, and VHB tape for installation - roughly $100

Final cost (not counting the bits I ended up replacing or not using): $1450

Note that it can be done cheaper. The capacitor is probably not necessary; most vehicles don't need speaker pod upgrades; while the Kicker Key 200.4 is fantastic, I did not use the "smart" features of the 500.1, so a cheaper subwoofer amp would be fine; the subwoofer box is wildly expensive. Don't skimp on installation though, you MUST have proper power wiring, fusing, etc.

With nothing left on my list of upgrades, I'll add a few "maybes".

Current upgrade list and status:

• Audio
• Side steps
• 3rd-party addon for rear hatch
• Door pockets
• Taillights
• Maybe: better internal lighting for illuminating the interior at night - the existing lighting is weak and barely helps passengers in the back seat. There's a 4-pc dome light kit for this I am eyeballing
• Maybe: black Bronco lettering on the front grill - the white lettering strikes me as out-of-place - Ford offers a matte-black lettering kit
• Maybe: new side emblems - the "Big Bend" logo is a little obnoxious imo. There's an emblem kit I like, but hot d*mn, is that price tag spicy
• Maybe: signature headlights - they're growing on me, but I probably won't do this until I have nothing else left to do
• Maybe: new high-trim grill for the front - I'll only do this if I do the signature headlights, they would look out-of-place with the grill that came with the Big Bend Bronco, but again, d*mn spicy price tag
• Maybe maybe: Auto stop/start eliminator harness from our buddies at 4D Tech (same outfit that manufactured the ABS Eliminator for our Goblins). I label this one as "maybe maybe", because I'll have to decide if I really want to pay $100 to stop pushing a button every time I start the Bronco

 

[Rttoys]

Nice music selection. It’s a lot like mine. It’s a little bit of anything and everything.