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And the next car is...VXT


coldel

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Sub installed. Have to say for all the effort it was a bit underwhelming might have a play with the settings a bit. Was a pain the backside to install but it’s done now. It did fit very nicely in the recess behind the passenger seat though. 
 

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Tough trying to get a big sound from a small enclosure, other than turning the bass up to 11, try it in/out of phase to see if you’ve got any cancellation getting in the way. Always seems better after a break from a tricky job too.

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I downloaded an App which plugs direct into the Alpine headunit, its has a load of ways of setting up the music on the phone which is much easier than navigating a little head unit screen. I now have some nice punchy bass in the car, happy as Larry, whoever Larry is, and why he is always happy I am not sure, but I am as happy as he is.

 

I actually think I am now done with the interior. 2 years ago I started planning it, thought it would take 6 months max! Full list is:

 

Carpeted the interior

Retrimmed seats and doors

Leather handbrake and gear gaitor

Momo gear knob and carbon gear shaft cover

Retrimmed Momo steering wheel

Lined the roof in matching blue alcantara

Alcantara black the sills

Alpine head unit, JBL speakers and Kenwood sub installed

Redyed the faded alcantara dash

Sprayed the dash plates

New light switch panel

Changed out the huge astra rear view mirror for a cute little Smart Car one

Installed dash cam

 

A fair amount of work given the small and sparse nature of the car!

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14 hours ago, coldel said:

I downloaded an App which plugs direct into the Alpine headunit, its has a load of ways of setting up the music on the phone which is much easier than navigating a little head unit screen. I now have some nice punchy bass in the car, happy as Larry, whoever Larry is, and why he is always happy I am not sure, but I am as happy as he is.

 

I've always been amazed by how small drivers and enclosures can sound SO BIG with different EQ settings.

Take my Bose Mini Soundlink.

It's absolutely tiny but the sound it gives out fools you into believing it's much larger.

 

On the Zed simply changing my OEM Bose headunit to a JVC one totally transformed the sound. Just switching the "super bass" circuit on and keeping the tone controls flat gives me a very satisfying punchy bass out of the puny OEM Bose sub and amp.

 

I'm really impressed by this Alpine EQ app though.

Sounds like your headunit has a very wide and deep flexibility to alter the perimeters to suit any speaker and environment.

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I got the Alpine 92BT unit which when purchased was one of the better units the range. But yes when I first switched it on it was very flat, at first just played with the auto settings on the app and suddenly Boom! 
 

As you can imagine the cabin is very small but I have that in there now with a pair of 16.5cm 3 way JBL speakers right behind the head rests, plus a standard set of tweeters in the dash (potentially could change these too) it sounds pretty good!

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13 hours ago, HEADPHONES said:

A happy ending to a "is that it:surrender:" moment when you switched it on for the first time:thumbs:

 

Haha yeah totally. Due to the space in the cabin, behind the passenger seat is the only realistic location for one, so was restricted to boxes that were no more than 7cm deep. When I first put it on I was a bit disappointed, I guess that set my expectations much lower when I tuned it and was quite blown away by how much extra bass you get when you set it up right! Just the right amount of gain so its not thumping to low down the volume range. 

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Another small but super important job done today, noticed some hesitation around 4000rpm the other day, whipped a plug out and it looked like it needed regapping - these cars can be a little grumpy without them done properly. For the sake of £40 I bought some new plugs (NGK Iridium grade 6) gapped them all to 0.6mm and swapped them over. 
 

The difference was huge, you don’t realise just how much 0.05mm gap difference can make to the drive and performance.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Car lives outside so I decided with the half term and a week off work next week to really have a go at it - will definitely need a beer afterwards. I think I have everything I need…

 

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Edited by coldel
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So I have plenty of detailing regulars in there :lol:

 

Worx cordless pressure washer

Auto Finesse Avalanche

WD40 Grease

Wheel brushes and loads of microfibres

Bathe+

Sonax QSD

Megs wool mitt

AG Tyre black

Car Chem Interior cleaner

Sonax clay pad

Megs headlight polish

GTechniq metal polish

Gyeon Q2M last stage polish

Scholl Concepts G20 Black

Lake Valley polishing pads and DAS-6 machine

Sonax profoline headlight coating

Megs tyre sponge

Bilt Hamber Double Speed wax

A303 fabric guard

GTechniq G5 glass sealant

Megs APC

ACF-50 

...and Henry

 

God it was tiring just typing that out, let alone do all the work!

Edited by coldel
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The machine polishing definitely makes the difference though, close up. Managed to get some swirls out on the more visible parts of the bodywork

 

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then after

 

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its hard to see from the video but the paintwork has some really nice flecks in it

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  • 1 month later...

Some serous work on the brakes this week. Motul 600 brake fluid change. And then a rather expensive upgrade to the discs and pads with mintex discs and mintex 1155 pads going on. Very highly recommended in Lotus circles these pads, a good cheaper alternative to Carbon Lorraine - all on and now just needs a bedding in at the weekend (hard to do 70 down to 30 in zone 3 London)

 

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Edited by coldel
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