“Blacking out” my son’s car…plus other modifications

BigWaylon said:
Subs were ordered today. Supposed to be here Friday or Monday, and he has a 3:30p appt on Tuesday to get them installed.

He’ll do the head unit and other speakers either the next paycheck, or the one after that…all depends on how they give him the referral bonuses he’s due.
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Car amplifier ratings mean approximately nothing, but that setup is gonna be loud.
 
BigWaylon said:
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The key to that statute is the "designed for use by an emergency vehicle" and "similar in appearance" clauses. The intent of that statute is only to criminalize blue light bandit and rescue wanna-be type activity, not outright ban anything and everything blue or red. So long as it is not a light type that can reasonably be mistaken for a police/rescue light, you should be okay.
 
GymB said:
Car amplifier ratings mean approximately nothing, but that setup is gonna be loud.
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Yeah. Even if it puts out 1/3 of what it says.

I’ll be interested in hearing how awful the rattle is on an entry level car.

I also told him he was responsible for paying for any damage to his windows. 🤣
 
Me. said:
Encourage him to crank it up, with the windows up, and down, and stand in the driveway and listen for rattles.


A big offender can be the license plate. It's always amusing to hear a car where the owner thinks its cool for the whole block to hear his thumpin'bass, but really what we hear is the buzzing of a license plate clattering against the trunk lid or plate frame.



Also encourage him to follow a rule I set for my daughter..... keep the volume low when you are close to home. All trips will start and stop from home. People know you (or your car). Once you're away from home, feel free to annoy people. Statistically, you won't encounter those people as often.


My rule was, if I ever hear your stereo, it's too loud too close to home.
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I’ve already told him he can’t ride down the road with it loud. And can’t turn it up in the driveway after 8p, or when he leaves for school (before 7a). He needs to focus on driving. So I imagine it’ll mainly be blasted in the school/church parking lots.

License plate rattled already, and I believe we fixed it.
 
Order some of this and just plan to replace the door speakers yourself. He will be halfway to adding the sound deadening once the door panels are removed. My son had a single 12" in a ported box in one of his 4Runners and it sounded like the car would fall apart when cranked up. After deadening everything he could get to, there were very little rattles left.

 
Carolinatlc said:
Order some of this and just plan to replace the door speakers yourself. He will be halfway to adding the sound deadening once the door panels are removed. My son had a single 12" in a ported box in one of his 4Runners and it sounded like the car would fall apart when cranked up. After deadening everything he could get to, there were very little rattles left.

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He found out you can sign up for $199 (a year) from some Best Buy/Geek Squad membership, and they’ll install almost anything inside the car for “free” at that point. That’s why he’s doing the subs in a few days and then going back for the rest…instead of waiting and doing it all at once. Not really costing him anything.

I could have those subs installed in an hour or two. Most time consuming part would be running the power. But he never even asked.

Wonder if that would include the sound deadener. I remember dynamat (sp?) was the big thing when I was in high school. Probably a lot more options these days.
 
Me. said:
Kids with cars: I am willing to pay extra to get marginal gains in performance.

Also kids with cars: I'm willing to add 200 lbs in weight to have a kickin' stereo.
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Kids don‘t understand quality of audio, they just want volume.

I had some dynamat around here for a bullet feeder deadening project, I’ll let you know if I find it.
 
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BigWaylon said:
He found out you can sign up for $199 (a year) from some Best Buy/Geek Squad membership, and they’ll install almost anything inside the car for “free” at that point. That’s why he’s doing the subs in a few days and then going back for the rest…instead of waiting and doing it all at once. Not really costing him anything.

I could have those subs installed in an hour or two. Most time consuming part would be running the power. But he never even asked.

Wonder if that would include the sound deadener. I remember dynamat (sp?) was the big thing when I was in high school. Probably a lot more options these days.
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Lol, i was going to post about dynamat but thought the exact same thing about there probably being something better now.
 
When my son did his first stereo, I told him he would need to do some sound deadening. I found the above product when I searched for dynamat and it was around half the cost. Dynamat is what I also used back in the day so my car wouldn't fall apart.
 
I don’t get those burp competitions.
 
The underglow died…and he ordered another kit. He managed to drive the car off the ramps and it got stuck on the body behind the front wheels. I rescued him from and now I’m just sitting and watching him work. Or at least watching him take multiple breaks to be on his phone. 🙄

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Next up is he wants to buy these black (as opposed to the current chrome-trimmed) headlight housings:

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And these:

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Burt Gummer said:
I put black trimmed headlights on the truck I sold to @MacEntyre and it made the biggest difference in the look. Those will look great on that car
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…but he still hasn’t even taken the time to finish turning the chrome trim black. 🙄

ETA: to clarify, I meant my son is wanting to swap out the lights, before all the existing chrome trim has been sprayed black.
 
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BigWaylon said:
…but he still hasn’t even taken the time to finish turning the chrome trim black. 🙄
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I thought it was the way @Burt Gummer always wanted it to look...

P.S. I have not washed it lately. Might do that next week.
 
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Shady Grady said:
That man-bun getting caught in the creeper wheel will be another lesson learned.
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Pinning myself under my 57 Chevy when I rolled the creeper over my past shoulder length hair (when I had hair) was indeed special!

I paid a lot of respect to belts and pulleys when the engines were running.
 
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Shady Grady said:
That man-bun getting caught in the creeper wheel will be another lesson learned.
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It happened last time because he hadn’t put it up. 🤣

I on the other hand, managed to roll it over my beard when I put the original lights on his when he was at school.
 
BigWaylon said:
It happened last time because he hadn’t put it up. 🤣

I on the other hand, managed to roll it over my beard when I put the original lights on his when he was at school.
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Pictures next time, please! :)
 
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