Author Topic: Plainview's New '84 Xtra Cab Toy  (Read 14059 times)

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slacker

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Re: Plainview's New '84 Xtra Cab Toy
« Reply #30 on: May 29, 2017, 06:17:35 PM »
if ya don't find any closer to you  .. I build them ..

TREKKER PARTS
86  "shop truck"  lots of fiber parts . 
84 2WD wide body "hotrod"  1GZ
83 3.4L S/C Trekker SR5
82 Mirage  #001
83 Mojave #465
86 3.4L twin turbo Mojave tribute

Plainview [OP]

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Re: Plainview's New '84 Xtra Cab Toy
« Reply #31 on: May 30, 2017, 02:59:43 PM »
Thanks for chiming in slacker, I'll be in touch if the pair I found turn out to be too ugly.
'84 Xtra Cab Project:
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=100651.new#new
Parts Wanted:

- Un-cracked dash pad (do they exist?)

Plainview [OP]

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Re: Plainview's New '84 Xtra Cab Toy
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2017, 09:38:53 PM »
Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I needed some tunes.  The truck came with an old Sony CD deck that would turn on and you could get sound out of it but the display didn't work.  That was hooked to a pair of 6" Kenwood 2-way speakers mounted under the Xtra Cab windows and the stock speakers in the dash.   I decided to replace the stock speakers and install a new head unit with Bluetooth capabilities since I have my music collection stored on my phone and the laws around here are such that you need hands-free if you want to talk on the phone while driving.

So, I bought a Pioneer Bluetooth capable head unit and a pair of Focal 4" 2-way speakers.  I really wanted to find a 4" separates system as that pole sticking through the middle of the woofer cone represents a significant loss in cone area in a tiny speaker that already doesn't have much bass but there are only a couple companies selling separates that small and they're outrageously expensive.  The Focals were moderately priced.

I dont' like Kenwood speakers, but they're there and they work so I'll stick with them for now.  Once everything was hooked up they performed as expected - very flat sounding without much clarity/definition in the highs or very good bass but for now they'll do.

Focal 2-way compared to stock speaker:

DSC_8192 by Will Baker, on Flickr

New speaker went right in on the driver's side. 

DSC_8193 by Will Baker, on Flickr

 I installed some foam baffles behind them hoping it might help provide better front/rear separation and maybe better bass.  I dunno if that was a mistake or not, these speakers have NO bass.  I mean, I wasn't expecting much from a 4" but I figured you'd at least be able to hear the low notes and maybe get a little mid to upper bass punch (like the "pop" of a snare drum up around 200-400 hz) but I'm not hearing much of anything below the midrange out of these things and if I crank the bass  on the head unit they just distort.  I'm going to try removing the baffles and see if that helps later.

The passenger side presented an issue:

DSC_8194 by Will Baker, on Flickr

Crutchfield's database says these speakers fit, but nothing deeper than a stock speaker could fit on this side due to the HVAC airbox.  Fortunately I had to trim a bunch off the baffles so had some extra foam and used that to fill the gap where the speaker wouldn't seat.


I wanted to install the bluetooth microphone as close to right in front of me as possible, so I removed the gauge cluster surround and made some surreptitious modifications to accommodate the mic cable.

A little trim here...

DSC_8200 by Will Baker, on Flickr

A little shave there...

DSC_8201 by Will Baker, on Flickr

And the mic goes right in the middle of everything -

DSC_8212 by Will Baker, on Flickr

Doing this stuff always makes such a mess of the interior...

DSC_8205 by Will Baker, on Flickr

Ready for future upgrades:

DSC_8206 by Will Baker, on Flickr

Everything installed and tidied back up:

DSC_8213 by Will Baker, on Flickr

I have to say I'm absolutely amazed at the features you can get in a head unit these days for $89.  I think the first tape deck I installed in my Firebird back in '86 was like $125 which was big money for a poor high school kid back then.  That'd be like spending $300 these days.  I flipped a lot of burgers to buy that deck.

That was yesterday.  Today I dropped the truck off at a muffler shop and had them finish the 2.25" exhaust system they started for me a few days ago.  It consists of a 2.25" pipe from where the two intermediate pipes come down under the truck to a 2.25" Dynomax Super Turbo muffler and then out the back in the stock location.  See these threads for a muffler review and discussion of whether deleting the cat and welding the bigger pipe to the collector for the intermediate pipes is as good as a header:

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=102076.0 -- Muffler Review
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=102090.0 -- Exhaust upgrade discussion.

That's all for now.  I'll be taking the truck on a camping trip Thursday morning so don't want to do anything else to it right now.  I'm going to dive into the carb and the distributor/timing next though.  Something's up with the carb, it idles too fast (~1000-1100 RPM) with a bit of a flutter, so I suspect a vacuum leak and I want to see what the distributor is doing as I haven't even put a timing light on it yet.


« Last Edit: May 30, 2017, 09:59:00 PM by Plainview »
'84 Xtra Cab Project:
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=100651.new#new
Parts Wanted:

- Un-cracked dash pad (do they exist?)

 
 
 
 
 

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