Project G.

LOL, thats awesome and ridiculous at the same time!

Good custom Fabrication man. Looks fantastic!

Grant, I am also in the market for a GEM. Ideally, slightly used to save some cash. Stock is fine with maybe some better wheels and a few upgrades. Grant, would you be able to recommend a place for me to look?

Dane I tried to PM you. Drop me a line at grantwest@gmail.com

Awesome!!!!!!

Sweeeet….Very impressive.

Getting close The seats will be going to the upholstery shop this week.

Beautiful!

Ok I could use some guidance or opinions. I'm ready to get the seats redone. And I'm some what on the fence. The easy choice was to go all black Vinyl with blue stitching. (The reason I was thinking this was) "be safe don't over do it with inserts or more blue on the interior" But now I'm thinking Black with Matching blue inserts? Blue stitching?

Here is a pic of the seat I'm gonna re cover I was thinking it would be black where the seat is black and Matching blue where the seat is grey? The rear seat/bench would have the same pattern, your thoughts?

Here is a example of the black and blue I was thinking

i like just black with blue stitching ... getting a little blue heavy on the inserts blue too.

I feel ya on the all black. My brother had suggested all TAN! I wish I had photoshop skills. It would be cool to see all the possible different options b4 you commited to one design

I'd say black with tan inserts to match up the floor. I think you've got the right amount of blue already. I've got no photo-shop skills, so can't help you there.

^^ Black and Tan would look sharp.

I know this is the wrong color, but it gives you a idea of what the tan interior could look like.

And as a joke my brother did this version.

Maybe someone with some real Photoshop skills could hook me up with a tan version of the Red seats that matched the tan floor

It's not great, but gives a pretty close idea of a couple options.

Tom thank you could you do a black and blue version (black seats with blue) inserts

This is about as good as my hack skills get:

Grant, you mentioned vinyl as your material choice... While I'm sure this is for a water resistant quality being open environment that will be awful hot to sit on if it has been in the sun for any time. Anyone with shorts, bikinis, etc. will have some burnt legs sitting down. Just a thought...

I personally like the blue inserts, but agree it might be a bit much. Black with blue stitching would look good from an accent point of view or maybe even blue piping if you wanted more blue than just stitching. The tan IMO just doesn't work well with the blue. Yes it goes with the flooring, but just looks off to my eye on the seats. If the GEM were red then tan seats would look the part.

Jason I hear ya on the Hot factor. But how we use the cart i doubt it will be much of a issue. Example. The car sits in the garage most of the time. It comes out for a ride and then go's back in the garage. If we drive it down to the lake it will sit outside all day in the sun & Yes the seats will get HOT ( this is our built in security system) anyone that try's to jump in will be burnt to death LOL But on a serious note. Yes it will sit outside and get hot, But we usually return after the sun go's down so its not like you will be jumping into a hot car and if you happen to I will keep a towel in the trunk to throw over the seats if its to hot. Getting in with a wet suit on again not very likely but thats what a towel is for, Im gonna use marine grade vinyl so if it gets wet no big deal. Right now Im leaning towards Black with Blue inserts. I found a Blue that's almost a dead on match.

I think the inserts are a bit much - some highlights/stitching would be awesome. I think you need some nice stitched "Gs" on the headrests! What's the plan for the steering wheel? And when does the sound system start

Well that's either two or three no's on the inserts. I was already planning on doing the black stitching so what about blue piping. It wouldn't be as in your face as the blue inserts but it would add some color to the seats. The stitching is a nice touch when you're up close but if you're further than 5 feet away you can't even tell.
As far as the steering wheel I think I've been through about three wheels so far and settled on something simple and safe. Black with blue stitching. Here is a picture of the wheel.

Black seats with blue piping gets my vote. Looks insane man. Awesome fabrication as always. I bet that thing is a blast!

Originally Posted by brett33

Black seats with blue piping gets my vote. Looks insane man. Awesome fabrication as always. I bet that thing is a blast!

+1!!!

After playing with some colors on that mock-up, I think the black with blue piping or blue double stitching would look pretty sweet.. That leatherseats.com site has a tool where you can play around with the different color options (inserts, piping, stitching, etc.).

OK I'm convinced, Tom and others you were right after I went to LeatherSeats.com' seat builder tool I was able to see the difference between what a black leather seat with blue inserts looked like compared to one with Just blue stitching. I agree less is more in this case. The Gallery also helped me decide. The cars with the inserts looked a bit much compared to the ones with just blue stitching. I will make the changes and move forward.

As far as a sound system, I wanna try something different. I had originally thought a small system would be cool but a few months back some guys on a golf cart with a system blasting on it driving back in forth all day long convinced me that it was a BAD IDEA. It was a Gas Powered lifted cart with subs and even wake board tower speakers facing backwards. OMG it was the most obnoxious thing, I guess its one thing to blast music on the water in a cove but to drive back and forth threw the hood blasting put things in perspective.

I will show you the system later today.

black with blue piping for sure ... that was going to be my initial suggesting but decided not to type it.

Look what just showed up!

I have to say right off the bat Im pretty impressed with the look and feel (Solid) of this sound bar. The power cable is Bad A$$. It's as thick as a 12 Gauge extension cord. I hooked it up to my bench just to power it up and this thing is way loud and clear. My power supply is for light electronics and only has a 3 amp Max output. The sound bar was pulling 1.54 Amps during bass draw. I have to believe this thing when hooked up to a real power source will pull way more then that but for a quick test im impressed.

You're gonna love that. I put a Stealth 10 on my golf cart too. Thing is ridiculously loud and clear. Needs more bump, but I've been real happy so far. Wonder if the Steath Sub is the solution?

Looking awesome! There's no question that black with blue piping is the right call on the seats. A guy in my men's club (golf) had one of those Stealth 10's on his cart. He wound up swapping it out because it didn't have enough bass reproduction. I did a system in a Gem car some years back. We installed (4) 6.5 and a 10" sub along with two stand alone batteries and a separate charging system for them. It was decently loud but not overly so.

Installed the Stealth

Big A$$ power/ground wire

Here is where it comes out.

Boom!
Looks awesome!
I still don't care for the wheels........

Super nice, man.

What about some ultra suede for the interior? Probably feel awesome when you're cruising shirtless. I think tan inserts would be cool with the floor, or just black with blue stitching.

Seriously amazing project. You need to start building custom cars.

The Seats are going to be vinyl exteriors and Ultra Suede inserts with blurs stitching all around (French seems). They are almost done I'll post some pics soon.

I had Katzkin covers in my Ram 2500. They were black with tan inserts. Would look pretty killer here I think.

Well I have decided I want to have a little bass in the GEM. This "experiment" / project will help me decide what I wanna do as far as a system in my Pontoon boat so I'm gonna kill 2 birds with 1 stone type of thing. I'm gonna run 2 of the wetsounds SS 6.5 inch (small subs) in the overhead rear section of the gem. I'll make a fiberglass enclosure that holds the subs and faces them forwards and some what down. I will use the Westsounds HT amp that will push 250 to each 6.5 so they should bounce pretty good LOL. The area I'm gonna make and mount the box is in the pic.

Here is a concept of the Sub Box im gonna build for the GEM. These 6.5's weight 20lbs EACH

I like the 6.5"s in a box idea......but if that doesn't work, what about.........

The rear trunk.....you could build a box that sits inside or in place of the rear trunk and port it into the cab of the gem car...almost like you would a car...
the port would go thru the rear seats. Maybe 1-12" sub or a couple 10's.
You have 4-12w7s in a tiny wakeboard boat....whats a couple 6.5's in a gem car???
Boom!
Harold

Not surprised you wanted more bass lol!

I tried to not add a sub to the cart BUT after hearing it the way it stands it (to me could really use a sub) the way we use the cart we don't go blasting music around the hood. In fact most of the time I just put my I phone on the dash and play the IPhone or I bring my JBL pulse, and it works great. The cart is so quiet you don't need a lot of volume to get the job done. After installing the stealth bar I was happy with how loud it gets & it's mounted so close to your ears you don't even have to have it turned up. With that said I love good sounding music and it seems like a fun project and like I said I can call it a "experiment" for future projects. I'm fully aware of what a Huge sub sounds like with lots of power, just haven't done a small efficient system yet.

I knew when you got that thing you couldn't stick with the Pulse but you're right electric carts are quiet. Mine has a pretty efficient little system on it. Two 8's, two 6.5's and two 5.25's. When driving around I barely have to turn it up but when I get to our beach we like to rock it a little

Hate let's see some pics of your system.

My Westsounds HT-1 Came in Installing now. These are my aluminum amp mounts behind the rear seat.

This little amp is pretty cool. It's a nice small foot print and has pass threw Rca's as well as a remote bass boost.

I made some progress today, despite it being 103 outside. It was nice to have AC in my garage it saved me!!

The wetsounds ST-65's came in these are some meaty little subs

I got the amp and all the power distribution in.

I decided I'm gonna power the Lightbar, Stealth Soundbar & the Sub Amp from a independent battery located in the trunk. Mike came up with the idea after we were talking about how much power the 72 to 12 converter could effectively do. I was getting close to its max amp draw. And if you blow one up they are like $300-$500 and your stuck.

#2 reason was I don't want my accessories diminishing my distance. Example I don't want to be saying turn it down we might not make it home because we had the lights on to long or was pushing to much bass ext. This way I can experiment with how much play time you can get out of 1 group 31 and I can always add a 2nd battery if it's a issue.

I powerd everything up and tried out the led DEATH RAY.

I installed a old school stomper switch to turn the Death Ray on and off

looks sick man can't wait to see the finished product

So there's going to be a extra battery in the trunk along with a small battery charger. This is a picture of the disconnects on the car so that you can still remove the trunk

The blue one is the 12 V disconnect and the Orange one is the 110 disconnect for the battery charger

You can't see either one of these when you put the trunk back on

I got the front seats back today

Thanks to everyone that helped me decide less is more on this one

I think he did a great job all the French seems are nice and straight.

I got the rear seat back today and I wanted to show you guys some pictures of the interior before and after. The stock rear seat is somewhat Stark and looks like a flat piece of covered foam. Patrick decided to add some cleats to the rear seat and give it some shape . Here is the stock seat

In order to give the seats some shape and roll there needs to be a way of tying down or adhering and manipulating the shape. His way of doing it was to add cords to the pleats and tie them back here is a picture of the inside of the back seat. The strings that are attached to them are what goes through the seat and gives it the shape

It's hard to see from this picture but the bottom to bolsters on the back of the seat have more bold to support your lumbar then between your shoulders

Same goes for the base of the seat

G, I did a thread on it here some years ago, I'll try to find it. I will say that exactly where we out the amo but we were able to install the two extra stereo batteries in the open space under the front seats. It's my buddy's cart and he had a lift so it was pretty easy to do, without one it would be impossible.

Damn fat fingers. *That's exactly where we put the amp.

Hate: it looks like the best place to mount the Subs is going to be the space under the driver and passenger seats. The boxes are going to be pretty small but "What can you do" I don't wanna mount a thing more in the trunk so I'm just going to have to live with the small air volume for the sub boxes.

I'm understanding you correctly that when u mounted the batterys under the drivers and passengers seat that the batterys hung down a bit.

G,
Need another project?
http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/a...91QSCI15511014

Sorry I already have enough on my plate But that's a good deal for someone looking to get started. Well let me back up. I bought a 2008 GEM for around 8 grand It's in Awesome shape all the bells and whistles. I bought it as something to Drive while I'm working on my GEM. Knowing what I know now and If I was to do it all over again I think I would just pony up the Cash and buy the newest cleanest one I could find leave it stock & Rock it. I have built (from everything I have seen) one of the nicest Gem cars ever. ( I think I just broke my arm patting my self on the back) Now I have quite a liability I'm gonna be afraid to leave it untended, And that what its original job. O well
Its nice to have nice things but it sucks to have to worry about them

First world problems bro...

Well the car is getting closer but my "To Do" list gets longer and longer. Biggie was right "more money more problems"

As close as I thought I was I still have a bunch of loose ends to tie up to make the car 100%

Anyone have any Experience with Dash cam style car DVR's I have seen a few 12v Auto DVR's that can be used as a dash cam/security system
http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-PLCMDVR15...+recorders+12v

Well it's getting pretty close to calling it done. I still have to make the sub boxes for under the seats, but that's pretty much it

I had to abandon the Air Shock system because under party mode with 4 people in the car and Max air pressure 150 psi the car was rubbing. So I went back to stock shocks and it stiffens it up as well as raised it a few inches

Here is a shot of the 12v battery/ power supply for my Stereo and Lights. I have a "Battery Tender" strapped to this battery that's tied into the GEMs 110v ststem

I gotta say this light bar is no joke.

Here is a short video of the light at in Action


http://youtu.be/pq7CLfUyMr8

That is a wicked cool project!!! Good job!

Hey just wanted to update: The car is running awesome and is SUPER fun. If your thinking about building one Go for IT they are awesome. I got the System going and it sounds great. Im working on the ride height right now.

My Air shock mod was a complete failure; The ride was amazing but the car is not ment to have that much travel and when you would load it up with 4 people and go full Mario Cart i was getting rubbing issues

Here is a pic of the "mini sub boxes" that fit under the back seat of the GEM. Of corse the air space is not correct but this was more of a "test"
I wanted to hear what one of these subs sounded like in a super small box. So I built one box. I hooked it up and was happy with how it sounded it has plenty of bass. So I built a 2nd one and now she is bump' no have a sub control under the dash to adjust the boom. I will rhino line these later.