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Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-12-2014, 3:15 PM Reply   
Has summer started yet?



Finally finished my 2014 modifications



This years list included:



1.Replace carpet with SeaDek

2. Re-locate stereo battery bank and switches

3. Major stereo upgrades

4. Theater lighting

5. LED cup holder and speaker rings

6. Re-designed surf gates





So I think I have covered the SeaDek pretty well in the other post, wont go into any detail here.



Battery Bank Relocation.



In addition to the two starter and house load batteries in the stock location I previously had 2 ^ volt GC batteries also stuffed in the passengers compartment. I never really liked this set up for 2 reasons. One, They take up a lot of valuable storage space and really clutter up that compartment and two, They each way about 75 pounds (which isn't necessarily a bad thing for surfing but since I am running the gates I don't want the boat listed).



So in searching around for a suitable place to put them I found a ton of space under the rear passengers seat over the tranny. And with all that room, why not stuff 4 batteries in there instead of two )





So the first thing I had to do hear was relocate my bow ballast pump (just moved it forward a bit)

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I took a bunch of measurements and drafted up a design for a tray that would fit the space and support the load. I took the drawing to a local 4X4 fab shop to build it for me (I have zero welding skills).



I had it built so that I could bolt it down to the stringers and span slightly over the motor mounts.

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To house the batteries I bought a couple of these battery boxes. These are nice. Heavy duty, fairly low profile and hold 2 each 6 volts.

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once I got the batteries installed I decided to relocate the Battery switch and ACR and I added an addtitional on off switch inline with the trunk cable that runs to my stereo distribution blocks.

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with the batteries in place and the box lids on, there is just barely enough room to get the back fiberglass lid back on.



now I have nearly 300 pounds of additional ballast is the rear centered and a wide open observers compartment

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Stereo Upgrades.



My previous amp set up was a 4 amp configuration (SYN 2 to the sub, 2 SYN 2's (1 to Each REV 410), and a SYN 4 for 8 in-boats) for a total of 2,900 Watts.



My new set-up is a 3 amp configuration (SD 2 to the sub, SD4 to the towers, and an SD 6 to 10 In-boats (Front 650's are on channel 1&2, 4 808's on Channels 3&4, and 4 rear 650's on channels 5&6) for a total of 4,150 Watts.



For the amp board I used a sheet of 1/2 inch birch plywood.

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Covered it with Black Carbon Fiber Vinyl (ordered from MB to match my interior)

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Mounted 3/8 acrylic mounting plates with red LED's

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Mounted the amps

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and finally a 1/4' Piece of acrylic held in place with stand-offs to protect the amps and complete the look.

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Subwoofer



Previously I had a wetsounds XS 12 Sub mounted in a ported box under the helm. It sounded great but with the additional power I would have with the SD 2 I upgraded to the XXX R2. I had originally planned on doing the slot ported box but decided to go with a single round Precision Port instead.



Box is built from 1" MDF, Coated inside and out with epoxy resin and then sprayed with undercoating (probably not necessary but had a can laying around so what the hell)

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I then built a façade to go in front of the sub and to mount the fuse bus and drivers heater to, again, 1/2" birch and black Carbon fiber vinyl.

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The rest of the stereo upgrades included replacing the drivers speakers from 650's to 808's and adding an additional set of 808's to the main cabin area.





LED Cup Holder and Speaker Rings



I had looked into how much it would cost to do this project with off the shelf items and it was looking like it would be around a grand so I was not going to do this one but then when I saw a post where some other guy had a slick DIY idea I decided to go for it.



So for these, I bought a bunch of 3/8" white plastic tubing from HD. The guy who came up with this idea was using 1/4" plastic pipe to "connect" the two ends of the circle since 1/4" is the inside diameter of 3/8 tubing. I tried this first and found especially for the smaller circles like the cup holders that the 1/4" tubing was too flexible and was not enough to hold the stiffness of the 3/8" together. So I got a length of 1/4" aluminum dowel and cut it into pieces about an inch long. This worked great connecting the rings together without creating an "angle point" in the 3/8 as the 1/4 tubing did.

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A couple rolls of the Ebay special LED strips and some JST Connectors (RC cars, model airplanes, etc..) and I was able to do the whole boat (13 cupholders, 10 speakers, Subwoofer, and amp board for less than 100 bucks!!





Incidentally while I was wiring all this stuff up I decided to add a bunch of white courtesy LED's around the floorboards as well.

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Old     (rockballer)      Join Date: Jun 2014       08-12-2014, 4:45 PM Reply   
WOW nice work. How you mount the amp board to the inside? Did you drill holes to hold the wood in place and what did you use?

That flooring looks killer.
Old     (bryce2320)      Join Date: May 2012       08-12-2014, 4:52 PM Reply   
Looks sick!
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-12-2014, 5:02 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by rockballer View Post
WOW nice work. How you mount the amp board to the inside? Did you drill holes to hold the wood in place and what did you use?

That flooring looks killer.
I used oak "stand offs" glued to the inside of the hull with marine epoxy and then screwed the amp rack into the stand offs
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-12-2014, 5:03 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryce2320 View Post
Looks sick!
Thanks for the inspiration Bryce..
followed your lead
Old     (shawndoggy)      Join Date: Nov 2009       08-12-2014, 6:33 PM Reply   
Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Man Russ, you see something and you "copy" it but the devil is in the details (execution), and your execution is always top notch. I may need to steal the battery relocation idea, actually.
Old     (FastR3DN3K)      Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Midlothian TX       08-13-2014, 6:46 AM Reply   
That transformation is insane...I guess we all know who has the sexiest MB on WW now....
Old     (hatepain)      Join Date: Aug 2006       08-13-2014, 7:50 AM Reply   
Looks amazing! Great job a pro couldn't have done better and likely would have taken such care. How does the lone sub keep up with the rest of the system?
Old     (Brendon444)      Join Date: Jul 2011       08-13-2014, 8:23 AM Reply   
Amazing, love the detail put into install. My system hurts the ears and I am running half the power and in boats. I wish I could but don't think I can convince the significant other I need more stereo. Nice job.
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-13-2014, 8:47 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by shawndoggy View Post
Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I may need to steal the battery relocation idea, actually.
haha.. I would be flattered brother
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-13-2014, 8:55 AM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by hatepain View Post
Looks amazing! Great job a pro couldn't have done better and likely would have taken such care. How does the lone sub keep up with the rest of the system?
That sub is Awesome!! so are the 808's! they really fill in the mid base nicely. the whole system sounds very balanced.

Its funny, the first few days out with the new set up there where a couple times when I thought I had hit something with the prop (rumbling and vibration in the steering) when I turned the stereo down to hear what was going on with the boat I realized it was just the sub hitting so hard
Old     (Redheadd)      Join Date: Apr 2014       08-13-2014, 9:01 AM Reply   
Looks awesome gonna do it too now! Fml. More $$ but looks worth it. How much did the sea deck run?
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-13-2014, 9:45 AM Reply   
SeaDek charges based on the number of sheets it takes to cover the area your after. They send you a template kit, you trace out the areas you want to cover, they scan the templates into a computer and come up with a price. All in with the chemicals to remove the old carpet, urethane coating to prep the floor, and the SeaDek material I was right about $3K
Old     (phathom)      Join Date: Jun 2013       08-13-2014, 10:50 AM Reply   
Wow, everything looks amazing. You definitely do some quality work, everything is very clean and professional.
Old     (whatshesaid)      Join Date: Jun 2013       08-15-2014, 8:50 AM Reply   
Dang good work!
Old     (tyler97217)      Join Date: Aug 2004       08-15-2014, 8:56 AM Reply   
Wow... totally cool!
Old     (timmyb)      Join Date: Apr 2007       08-15-2014, 2:19 PM Reply   
Nice install! Love the ingenuity on the speaker and cupholder rings!
Old     (trayson)      Join Date: May 2013 Location: Vancouver WA       08-15-2014, 3:57 PM Reply   
Russ, I was actually thinking about doing something similar with the rings, but hadn't considered the idea of the tubing (I was thinking plexi, but obviously tubing is way cheaper.

which LED strips did you go with? Did you use the SMD 5050 (with 3 chips per)? Or the cheaper dimmer 3528's (with one chip per)?

Did you cut and solder leads onto each led strip section so that they were all just the right length?

I assume that you just have a spacer with the tubing now on your cupholders where they stick up 3/8" higher than they would have. I.E. they're not flush mounted anymore. Did you need to do anything to the outside of the cupholders so they still fit snug in the openings?

Yeah, my boat needs more LED's...
Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-15-2014, 5:08 PM Reply   
Trayson - First off, credit where credit is due. Shawndoggy re-posted this over on MBOwners and I just followed this guys lead. .Brilliant idea for sure!

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/...y/#entry711868

The only real thing I did different was to use Aluminum 1/4" dowel to connect the rings together instead of 1/4 inch tubing. I found it held the shape of the ring much better.

I used the 3528's they, can be cut every 3rd LED and are plenty bright

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3528-5m-500c...item2ec8233b15


I bought a bunch of these JST connectors and soldered them to each strip for each ring. Makes it easy to unhook if I decide to take the cup holders out to clean them etc..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131209208269...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Yes you are correct, the cup holders now sit 3/8" higher in the holes than they used to. The LED's are stuck to the cup holder and the ring just slips over the top of the LED and sits up against the bottom of the cup holder rim.

on my boat the holes in the fiberglass for the cup holders are tight! I did not have to modify the cup holder itself but I did take a dremel and ground in a small notch at each location so the wire would not pinch.

Last edited by Midnightv10; 08-15-2014 at 5:12 PM.
Old     (trayson)      Join Date: May 2013 Location: Vancouver WA       08-18-2014, 4:01 PM Reply   
Thanks for the info. I'll be quite interested to see it in person in a couple days. I'll also want to see how you did the speaker rings using the tubing. Seems like there'd be a little more at play with speakers. But I'm sure I'll see it in person and you'll explain as needed.
Old     (trayson)      Join Date: May 2013 Location: Vancouver WA       08-22-2014, 9:14 AM Reply   
Russ, it was great being out on your boat the last two evenings.

And the system is impressive to say the least. Jax thought it was pretty cool.

Old     (Midnightv10)      Join Date: Feb 2012       08-22-2014, 2:59 PM Reply   
Thanks Trayson!
great having you guys aboard.
haha great pic!

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