Hey everyone, I'm starting a channel and a portion of it will be ISF/automotive. Yeah I know, another a-hole with a YT channel.

The video covers installing a Skar Audio VD8D4 8" sub into my ISF. I like telling stories about both "people" and hardware, so this and other vids will be in a bit of a TV show format. Most of what you see was done in real-time to achieve the proper reactions. DIY sections are isolated in the description for quick access. I walked out of corp America awhile back to finish an album for my band & now that it's done, I'm trying to deliver some quality content on YouTube to drive some traffic to the tunes. All music & content is 100% original. The mission is to inform & entertain.

Special thanks to Vitveet here on the forums for recommending & selling me this sub. Killer sub my man! I'm ecstatic with the results.

Anyway, hot off the press for you guys first, hope you dig it!

 

"Sup *****, what do you want?" LOL

I love it, great vid.

Also, didn't know you were so close to many of us in Chicagoland - I'm in Lake County.

 

You and Cortes make a great couple

 

I'm in LZ - are you ever through here?
I see an Obsidian 08 through town and on 22 about once a month - thumbs up from me every time, even if I'm not in my F. If that's you, you've seen me and waved a few times. Last time was right in the middle of town - I was in a white Honda Pilot.
USB on Church / Midlothian twice in the last 6 months near the high school - both of us beeped.
MM 08 at the RX drive through at Jewel about 6 months ago, thumbs up and a few words from me.

That Obsidian probably thinks I am insane at this point - if that's you, I assure you I am not.
Yeah we do. And that SOB is ALWAYS in a good mood. Having friends so close is a gift I do not take for granted - my whole street is killer.

 

Great video, hope to see more!

 

Not a fan of soldering. Here's why: the flux runs up the wire ahead of the solder, so when you tin the wire you have a stiff point underneath the insulation. In a high vibration environment like an automobile (or worse like the aircraft I worked on in the Air Force), this makes a stress point that is invisible and over time, the strands will break underneath the insulation where it is almost impossible to troubleshoot because your failure is intermittent. On a single wire, as in your video, it's not such a big deal. When it's a 100+ pin Cannon plug with all solder cup joints and you have to hack off the connector and start over, it's a huge PITA. Military aircraft (like the 135s I worked on) banned soldered connectors for this reason and went with all crimped connections. They actually spent a few billion (yes, BILLION) dollars completely rewiring the fleet of 135s in the middle 90's because they weren't ready to retire the airframes, but the maintenance time spent on resolving wiring problems was spiraling out of control. They decided to just start fresh with all crimped connections and zero issues with flux creep and broken strands underneath the insulation. Keep in mind, these soldered harnesses were obscenely expensive and their replacements equally expensive. Every wire is marked, so you have a bundle of 100+ wires that are all white Teflon because each is individually marked to identify it.

So - long story short - I never, ever solder any wire harness anymore. The only terminals with solder on your car are the battery terminals, and I've even seen the OEMs move away from that over the years. There is a reason the OEM harness is super reliable...

If I am splicing multistranded wire, I prefer to use a crimped bare butt connector with heat shrink. Done correctly, it is extremely reliable and has zero long term reliability issues. There are joints like this in your OEM harness.

 

Battery terminals with solder? Don't think I have ever seen this they are crimped. I agree with what you're saying in high vibration scenarios but in a street car? I've soldered entire connectors, say 24-30 wires still worked many years later. Ideally I'd like to crimp with the same quality as done at the factory if there is a way to do this I'd love to buy the tools capable. There are butt crimps in a wiring harness but they are nothing like the crude crush butt connectors you buy at the hardware store. The ones I've seen were crimped so well that if you removed the insulation the wired stayed perfectly together the copper was pressed together to the point where it almost become one piece of metal. This is not to be confused with a y-style splice which is just a crimp with 3 wires in it. Hard to explain but if you've seen them you know what I'm talking about.

 

I was seriously pondering this just last night, really something that you brought this up. The solder job I did in the column to complete the "sport / mode button mod" randomly popped into my head while I was doing something completely unrelated and I got a concern about longevity. Everything you're saying makes perfect sense.
Aside on OEM harnesses - I did a full electrical review & repair on my Firebird this summer. Took me about a week but I went through every single wire I could reach and it shocked me how much better the OEM harness was vs. the two modern replacement harnesses I had considered (I haven't seen the Ron Francis harnesses yet but I hear good things). The stock GM harness is 10x better, even from 1978! It's no wonder why people are still selling chunks of them on ebay amidst so many aftermarket options "built to fit."

 

Yes, battery terminals crimped and soldered for sure. It's been a while, but I've definitely seen this. C-135s flew for 3+ decades with soldered connections. Not saying it can't be done, just saying it's a bad idea if you're starting from scratch.

You'd love to buy the tools? Daniels Mfg - https://www.dmctools.com/ - made most of the crimping tools I used in the Air Force. When you see what they cost and how they need to be calibrated frequently, you'll understand why they're not in everyone's tool box. Not even mine, and I spend a lot on tools. The closest I have come is almost buying an HX4 with dies for common butt connectors and for RG cables. I ended up buying a ratcheting tool by Paladin for less than a quarter of an HX4, and it has been adequate for everything I need it to do, but certainly not as good as an HX4 with the proper dies.

 

This is what always baffles me about the Germans. Building a good wiring harness isn't a black art, but for some reason, the Germans always seem to have more electrical issues than everybody else. It really makes zero sense to me. Toyota's manual for wire harness repair is really an excellent resource and gives the reader deep insight into how to build a reliable harness.

And if you want to start talking exotic, these guys are the source for F1 - https://www.renvale.com/

Honestly, I wouldn't know anything about this stuff had I not worked on aircraft in the Air Force. I started my career in ground electronic systems, and the first class I took after fundamental electronics was a soldering class. I went to high reliability soldering school later in my career and was qualified to repair literally anything with soldered connections because I was working on board level repair of field replaceable units for about 4 years. I've used some pretty exotic soldering tools, but after I left the Air Force, I didn't do enough of this kind of work to pay for a fully capable soldering station. I would only consider buying the gear if I were doing LED swaps or board level repair commercially.

 

Rather than start a new thread I'm just posting my latest vid to this one for those interested in the style of my last one. This vid is an exterior detailing one that covers washing, claying, cleansing, buffing, polishing and paint sealant.

Less story attached to this & more how-to oriented - but still with the intention to entertain above all else.
If you dug my first, you'll probably dig this - hope you do!

 

@Quadrphnia Do you still have the stock subwoofer bracket? If so, may I trouble you to measure the distance between the top of the bracket (foam tape ring) and the mounting fasteners? Looks like two of four fasteners' flanges sit deeper (closer to the ground) than the other two.

Looking for first-pass feasibility assessment of a Rockford Fosgate P3SD2-8 in the factory location. Would need to orient it to fire up (magnet down) and do some spacer work, but as long as the sub's overall height will fit between the trunk deck interior panel and the spot-welded steel rib on the bottom, there is a chance. Not too worried about the DVC 4Ω impedance as my plan is to drive all speakers with a Match Up 10DSP through OEM speaker harnesses, downstream of the OEM ML amp.

 

@ChpEng Absolutely, I am traveling but will be home tomorrow. I will post back tomorrow for sure.

 

wowwwiee I didn't know all that stuff had to be removed just to get to the sub back there! I saved this video for use in the event I get a chance to do this :P

 

@ChpEng Here you go dude. I'll leave the bracket & the sub out for a bit, let me know if you need anything else.