Day one
Bulk of the interior was removed. This car is really the easiest thing in the world. Can't believe it. Everything in this car was made to be modified/gutted. Got practically everything out of the car in a little under 3 hours, and that's with me taking my time making sure none of the pieces were damaged/misplaced (bolts,tabs). All I have left are the seats, floor carpet, and the driver side door. Should take my about 30 more minutes to get all those pieces out. Upon removal of some of the interior parts, I began to uncover a lot of OEM + other wires previously ran. This is what used to be in the car... All of the gear was removed by the time it came into my ownership. But that's okay, I was never a fan of Memphis.
Sad to say, while it really looks great with all of the interior panels/carpet overlay on; once removed I was actually quite disappointed at how the wires were ran. Unorganized and all over the place.. Yeah, its probably my OCD kicking in (electrical engineer undergrad); but for a show car I would've expected things to be bundled more carefully and methodically. I also discovered a few spots where CLD was previously laid down. It was laid down underneath the two rear bucket seats, and underneath the spare tire. Not really sure why these specific locations, as CLD is really meant to deaden rattles as opposed to acoustics. The CLD looks like its sort of peeling off, and could really use reapplication. I won't criticize the brand too much, as I know the car must have sat in some serious Arizona heat.
I didn't realize i lacked an E10 torx socket; quickly ordered one on amazon, should be here friday. A lot of my misc. parts are also coming in...(zipties, electrical tape, heatshrink, wires, etc). Stay tuned. Hopefully I get a hold of a better camera to track my progress.
Outstanding questions:
-Best way to mount tweeters...
-How to mount MLV on vertical surfaces?
-How and where should the subwoofer be mounted? I wanted to place a backslanted 12" sealed enclosure placed in the trunk, facing the trunk...But the height clearance in the trunk from the trunk floor to the rear deck at its most constricted point is roughly 12-13".... This limits my idea of having a vertical facing subwoofer pointed to the trunk. What I could do instead is have it seated on the rear seats in the cabin (with seats down), facing the trunk... Placement is really just going to have to come down to experimentation. I have a spare box I'll use to see what works the best.