So a couple weeks ago I noticed a bulge in my upper radiator hose. We gave it two weeks life span, and I completely forgot all about it. I'm driving to work and parked my car and shut it off.....5 seconds later it sounds like a mortar went off under the hood. I knew exactly what it was.

Thank God I made it to work and napa was just across the street. All's well now!

- Brandon

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So let me start by stating that I worked for a company called Clive Maaco. In the course of the refinishing of my Monte Carlo, things were going smoothly. I thought that I had built a decent relationship with my managers at work.

We had an agreement to work after hours, off clock, and I could take off all I wanted, as long as it was off clock. Now, I started to pull it apart, and they started to complain that I was taking too long with the project. Granted, it did take longer than I was expecting, but it's my car, that was my Grandfathers, so I'm not gonna let half-ass work be done, and new issues kept arising as I prepped the vehicle for paint. I busted my feet every chance I got to make sure it was getting done swiftly.

I had told my "managers" that I wanted to spray the Monte, as it was my car, with the only stipulation to it was that another painter be there in case things went wrong. Well, the day came and I began spraying. Instantly I noticed my pattern was wrong and the material wasn't laying out flat like it should. So I went to grab my manager. Nobody was at the shop. So I called and they gave me some tips to try, checked my settings. But nothing was changing. I sprayed away hoping it would blend out as I laid another coat. Regardless, all was gone, I had to re-prep the vehicle again and re-spray it.

Now, since it was my mess up, I agreed to pay for extra material to spray it again. Even though they fell through on their end, but whatever.

We went to spray it again. I had our head painter spray this time. Well, the fun began.

While he was spraying, our desiccant system broke and water came through the air hose on the last coat. Frustrated, I prepped the ENTIRE vehicle again, with hopes nothing would happen the next time.

Round 3. Same, but this time way worse. My worthless "managers" told me they've had enough with the car and weren't supplying material for it to be sprayed again. I had 1 day to reassemble the car and get it out of the shop.

Furious, I put 80% of it back together before I got kicked out of the shop, and they told me to take my car with me and come back on monday for work.

I left my car in the shop, as it had no rear windows, or nose/headlights and couldn't drive it home. They called me at 8PM and told me if I didn't come get it, they were having it towed out of the shop and I would pay the bill.

At the edge of my wits, I came and picked up the car, tried to get a police escort, which fell through (as it's a police liability). And had to leave the car outside the shop with no cover and no windows in. The officer was kind enough to check on it every hour since the station was only 4 blocks away (and I greatly appreciate his kindness).

I had to wetsand for 6 hours a day (after 8 hour shifts at work), for a solid 2 months (deprived social life, I know). I had to do 3 rounds of clear dabbing with exceeded 250 dabs each round.

After all was said and done, I got most of the fisheyes to block flat and unnoticable. And maybe have around 30 small bumps in my clear from them not sanding completely flat. I did burn through in a few places, but luckily having sprayed it so many times, the clear coats bled with each other and you can barely notice where they are (unless you do body work as a profession haha).

All in all she still looks great, and I get compliments all the time. But the truth is, the milpoint is way past its spec, and It only takes a decent rock to put a 1/4" deep chip in my hood or nose. And if I ever want to paint it again, I have to strip it to metal and start over.

Anyways,

This is the story behind the paintjob, and I'm still mad about being screwed over. But, life goes on, and you realize how low people are, and you can be proud of yourself when you realize how hard you work and how below you they really are.

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So guys....

I ran into a little issue, I had to find a new job. So now budget is completely dead. I've been waiting for this job to come through. And it seems as if it's not going to as they are taking WAY to long to get everything taken care of.

BUT, aside from that...I plan on porting the subwoofer box. Since Jade is different than Clara (The Explorer), the system needs to be ported directly into the car so the bass isn't trapped inside the trunk. It should roughly double the amount of bass into the car.

If all else fails, I'll add another CVX10 into the trunk, doubling the system ontop of what I already have.

It's at roughly 600 Watts RMS, and if I add another, it will be 1200 Watts RMS, which is 200 Watts louder than my old system, which was insanely loud haha.

Anyways, I'm bored and have nothing to do, so I figured I'd share with you!

Peace

- Brandon

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So I took a stab at it again now that it was good weather and a day off.

I pulled everything out, went back to bare. I decided to strip out all the old adhesive and respray the trunk with a rubberized coating to give it that "just off the lot" look where you would still see it. And let me tell you. It made a hell of a difference! I'm still amazed at how much newer the trunk looks. And everybody is surprised as well.

I let it all dry and decided to get the carpet set in. I got it all in, laid and laid and laid until it got where I wanted it, trimmed what I needed to so it would sit down, and went from there. I haven't glued it down yet because I want to lay a fabric mat under it to hide all the body lines in the trunk. So it's still not finished but it's getting there!

I finished up the entire box of what materials I had. I laid the carpet as flat as I could, mounted the amp and tucked the wires as I planned. I'm still waiting on the plaque and the sub. The subwoofer should get here this week, hopefully by Wednesday. And the RCA sets are on their way as well, including the fuse for the power wire.

I'm building the side panel and adding a digital voltmeter, fire extinguisher, and a Kicker ZX350.4 4 channel amp, to boost my interior speakers.

SOOOO, now it's onto the side panel build =)

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So yesterday I finally got my box built!

It took me all day because I ran into some cutting problems, I cut out total dimension instead of inset dimension on all the planks, sad and depressing I know, but oh well, what can you do haha.

After the box was built I set it in it's spot and I ran into some blockage. The rear right speaker needed 3 inches of room, and the right side bar of the trunk lid support bars.

But I got them all cut out and sealed the box again so everything should be ship shape =)

Anyways, Ill keep you posted because I got my carpet today =)

Peace

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When I first started this project, I was excited as hell, to be amazed at how it will look when I'm done with it all.

I knew it was gonna take alot of work to do, and I'm still building my confidence with all of it.

I have the MDF, Kicker amp, and Kicker wire kit.

I need to finish building the box and get the carpet to get the majority of it done, then I can go onto building the side panel to lay in a fire extinguisher and mount a digital voltage meter =)

When I visualize it all finished I can tell it will look good, the only problem is, Jade has alot of curves, and sometimes that can be bad lol. So that sets the project back as I have to account for a perfect fit...

Plus I just started up school again, so it'll take a bit longer.

Anyways, I was bored, so I'm glad you were as bored as I was and read this haha.

Peace

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So what was once a budget sound system, has now turned into a full blown project.

I started with a Kicker ZX750.1 amp that I got for dirt cheap, and the wire kit was free =)

I'm buying a Kicker CVX10D4 to match the amp.

I'm building a custom enclosure that sits on the rear shelf. It will have the amp mounted with disappearing wires, the sub, and a little surprise =)

The entire trunk will be carpeted to match, and the left quarter will have a flush wall holding a fire extinguisher.

Still thinking about wiring up a digital voltage gauge, have to find one first haha.

The entire trunk will also be DynaMated.

I also might have the full size spare refinished to finish it all off!

And there is one big surprise coming. So if you wanna know you just gotta check back =)

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