Speakers and Radio fitting

Speakers

I upgraded the speakers to a couple of 3.5" waterproof ones, a little better looking than the ones that came with the radio. I am also intending to build some simple passive high pass filters to try and mitigate the distortion at very high volume:

The obvious place is in the boot panel; while this is behind the passengers its also closest to ear hight and discretely tucked away so you wouldn't really notice them unless you were looking. Final fit is waiting on some M3 nuts & bolts:

Radio

I changed my mind on the radio location, instead of the tunnel top I'm installing it in the aux panel, this should give it a better angle and more chance of reading the display. Worst case if it doesn't work I can always create a new panel and set it up as before. The radio will be instead of the boost/engine map switch button for now, potentially moving forward if I wire up the horn on the steering wheel centre push boost can come back.

First shot is for reference before I unplug everyting:

Getting worse before it gets better; the vinyl was savable, carefully peeled back, template marked up and the hole cut with my Dremel. Position was limited by the existing hole, vinyl to cover up afterwards and enough space behind the panel for wiring and the back of the unit:

The Radio comes with a couple of stainless brackets for fitting on motorbike handlebars, I modified them and drilled mounting holes in the site to line up with my aux panel cutout. These were all drilled right into the plastic radio case while it was disassembled:

I thought through it enough to cut some fitting tabs from the cutout, but I decided on left/right instead of top & bottom so had to bend the whole panel flat to drill out and install the radio:

The Radio sits with the top edge proud and the bottom edge flush with the front of the panel to get as good angle as I can on the display. The pane is a little cluttered now, but reasonably neat:

The screws holding the radio are 16mm self tappers, cut down so they dont protrude into the radio case too far. The small circuit board is the PWM controller for the heater fan:

All ready for re-wiring.

Hood corners - test

Just a little time on the hood, I tried out the paper template on an off-cut to see how it behaves:

It seems to be ok - i.e. reasonably neat job and allows the fabric to sit flat on the front of the hood frame as well as curve around the corner without losing shape; easier said than done though - the fabric I'm using has a plastic inner for waterproofing which makes it challenging to press & pleat into shape:

A little more thought needed on the edging then I'm going to have another go at the full hood.

Comforts of home... Radio while you drive

Nothing like being distracted & this enhancement is moving away somewhat from the sparse racing car.

My motorway run to work is 42 miles each way & on some of the best/worst traffic roads in the UK, so often nose to tail/stationary. I miss the radio - I've got used to BBC Radio 2 - Chris Evans Breakfast show on the way in and Simon Mayo Drive time on the way home.

This is just a test, i.e. a number of factors will affect if its fitted - including how embarrassing it is listening to radio in an open vehicle. The Radio is a £20 Motorcycle Waterproof FM Radio so cheap enough to experiment with:

The unit seems reasonably well made, i.e. plastic feel is fine and not cheap, proper click buttons & basic FM radio functionality with a 15 station memory, headphone jack and Aux in jack. At ignition off/on it remembers if it was off or on and the radio channel.

Volume is plenty loud enough - even on the first setting its loud, so it would appear theres plenty of scope even with the car noise.

For now I've wired it to a standard lighter socket plug for testing & everything is sitting lose so I can try it out at speed etc & see if its worth fitting. Ultimately the two speakers would sit in the panel behind the seats roughly at ear level:

The speakers are a little too bright for me but they are screwed together and can be dismantled so if I decide to fit it long term I'll spray the covers black:

This is my intended mounting position, out of the way on the tunnel, it will be installed from underneath giving a reasonably tidy appearance & relying heavily on its waterproof design:

The only niggle is the display viewing angle, its setup for motorbike handlebars so the display is visible when looking down on the unit. When looking at it square as in the first picture the display is not readable:

I took a look inside incase it was a removable filter/polariser in front of the LCD, no luck though its a solid state unit. I'll just have to live with not seeing the frequency indicator. The controls are straight forward once presets are tuned i.e. only needing access to volume +- and a button to cycle through the stations so it may be ok:

A brief sound test - all on the lowest volume setting, music and speech both seem clear and reasonably bassy:

Just need the rain to let up a little and I'll give it a field test.

Update 12/10/13 - Sound test result, its fine up to around 40-50mph, then you have to ramp the volume above setting 12 and there is distortion. I did only have the speakers rolling around on the passenger seat too. Seems like for motorway earphones via the aux out would be a must.

If nothing else, its something to listen to when stuck in traffic, when on the move theres plenty to keep me occupied driving anyway.

Hood frame - Mk 2

I'm trying something different for the hood to windscreen attachment. My previous version would have lifted in the centre too easily so this U channel version should avoid that. Its just stock aluminium channel from Wickes:

Notching the aluminium will take away strength but should not affect what I need - i.e. fore/aft hold. The ends either side will be held down to the windscreen pillars:

That fits fine - possibly too tight a fit since it will have the roof material wrapped over it - it does seem to have more potential than the previous design:

A little work to find out the shape of the corners - I really want a single piece of fabric over the top, so used some paper templates to understand how the corners might work. This looks reasonable, a couple of pleats then its just straight backwards:

Unfolding shows how much over each side:

I'll think on it for a while before actually cutting cloth...