soundman98's 01 spyder

[soundman98]

Over the last couple years, i have been meaning to post a ride-thread for others loking to do similar mods, but just haven't gotten to it..

beware!! this is going to be a longggg post. i've got 3 years of mods to talk about..


this is my 2001 eclipse gt spyder a couple weeks after i bought it(2008):



after about a week, about the time i got sick of the stock radio, i installed all the gear from my old car-- a 94 lebaron

the setup used:

pioneer DEH P7800 deck
Pioneer REV-series 5 1/4" components
pioneer 300w 4ch amp
sony 600w sub amp
kicker comps in a prefab box

at some time during late '08 the car got t-boned, by a family friend of all people.. when all i wanted was some mcdonalds..



this turned out to be a huge fiasco. because the car was older then 2 years, the insurance company wanted to use all aftermarket parts to repair it, and promised that the parts would have the exact same fit/finish as OEM..

needless to say, i will never let any of my cars ever receive aftermarket parts anymore..

the fit was horrible-- the black plastic grille pieces(those little inserts below the turn signals) had over a 1/2" gap all around them, and many of the parts didn't line up very well with the factory parts..

so after a month or so of arguing with the insurance company, they agreed to replace everything with OEM parts. my car was at the body shop for around 3 months for all of this... by that time, i was just happy to get my wheels back..


at that point, i had decided to replace the headlights, and ordered a set of sonars while waiting for all the work to be done..

after i got the car back, i modded the sonars and made this how-to as well..

i also painted the red rings on the sonars just to try to make them a little different without looking too horrible(i don't like how the eclipse looks with color matched headlights..)




around the same time, the black plastic was starting to show it's age, and start to whiten up-- both on the lower inserts below the turn signals, and the wiper cowl.. so i took them off the car, and re-sprayed them gloss black, followed by a layer of clear.. now i no longer need to use back-to-black, and they wash up nicer...




the stereo setup lasted about 2 years or so, before i decided that i needed to get a overall louder setup. so first, i tried a phoenix gold 8v preamp, but the passive x-overs for the pioneers held me back-- primarily because they had too low of a x-over point. then i also ran some 13gax4 conductor into both doors for a better audio signal--this cable was about as thick as 0ga cable, and involved certain words to get through the factory wire tube...

so next i got a clarion 3-way active crossover(mcd360) which solved the problem.. but then the 5-1/4" mids showed that they couldn't do bass.. so more tweaking and tuning somehow led to a nasty ground loop.. which i attempted to remedy by "lifting" the ground to lose the GL noise-- by applying +12v to the rca shield.

this resulted in destroying both the pioneer radio, and pheonix gold preamp. both started having problems with a high pitched whine all the time.. so the death of the radio/preamp signified the start of my never ending project.. the radio and preamp were removed, and i ran a ipod for about 3 months as a source..

during the time running the ipod, i started hatching a plan to install a computer in the car to not only replace the stereo, but also to control and manipulate the audio--at least as good as dsp's like the bitone, or pxa-h701..

this led to a couple of mods..

this is the first photographed revision of carpc install:


there was one try before that-- i had attempted to fit everything into the dash, and also power a 250w power supply off the radio harness..

this resulted in blowing the 'accessory' fuses in the little yellow holder under the hood. i spent all sorts of time attempting to locate them before giving up and taking it into the dealership like this:




i was a little surprised they even looked at it that way, but i guess they were happy to take my money..

so after a that trip, and some embarrassment, i now know which fuses to check . and i mounted the carpc under the passenger seat..

so anyways, the first revision of the carpc kind of worked-- i used a intel 945glc board-- which had a atom dual core processor that couldn't keep up with the audio processing..

i also had to mod the center console a little to get the dvd r/w to work, and also added some usb ports to the console:


my main screen-- software is Ride Runner, with DFX4 skin, and my custom background..


and here is the audio processing screen-- at this time, i was using Console, but am currently using AudioMulch:



using console, or AudioMulch, i am able to configure and manipulate the sound any way i please-- even more then any sound processor would allow for..


this setup lasted about a month before i started having serious hard drive issues-- what i believe to be vibration issues from mounting everything on plexiglass.

so to try to resolve it, i got some anti-vibration battery thingies:
Cabela's: BatteryLast™

i cut one up into 1/4's and mounted the hdd to it:


this seemed to work for a while, but still ended up killing hdd's..


so after i got sick of the intel board not working the way i needed it to, i got a zotac 9300 board, and used a pentium dual core processor:


this setup is currently working great, sans the platter hdd. it dies just like the others before it..

since that pic, i have replaced the platter hdd's with a 160gb ssd hdd. bootup is way faster, and i no longer need to worry about vibration..



recently, i have also replaced the screen i have been using. for the first part of my carpc use, i have been using a lilliput 629gl that has worked out great..

but a couple months back, i got a amazing deal on a screen that is normally $600 that is sunlight readable, so that has gone in to replace it..

so i went from a cheap screen:


you can almost read the 'club3g' writing off my rear window:



to a nice screen:
..



about this same time, i have also updated the front stage of the audio system-- some peerless 6.5" hds mids are now in the door, and some dayton audio 1-1/8" tweeters are mounted up in the pillars(no pics yet).

i have some dash reflections that need to be eq'ed out, but other then that, these drivers are amazing..



that about gets me up to my current projects..

the last project i finished just before winter, was refinishing the grey gas cap door so that it didn't look out of place on a red/black car(the original gas cap was off the car for over a year with plans to do this-- it took me less then a month to do it..):





and currently, i am starting to work on led tails, and performing a mod similar to what bwracing00 did to his tails:



this as far as i got so far:


i just need to wait for summer so i can fill in the gaps, and get some primer on them..

on the led side, so far, i have designed the circuit boards, just need to do all the hard work now-- print, etch, drill, and populate them:

in case anyone is really interested in what i came up with, here are the board designs-- note: this is for the cheap ebay tails, so stock tails, or other brands might be different..


83mm led layout:


83mm board design overlayed on led layout w/ polarity color coding:


125mm led layout:


125mm board design over layed on led layout w/ polarity color coding:



i also quickly designed some led dome light layouts using some plcc-6 led's i recently found:


though, i need to redo the dome light design, because each led has 3 light chips inside, and i accidentally paralleled all 3, so there would be power issues with this design..


we'll see if the led's get done before next year..

otherwise, the other plan for the car right now is to finally get some wheels by summertime--some R-1 Racing Hype 19" rims..

thanks for looking!

[finesse49ers]

The idea of putting a PC in my 3G entered my mind but never seriously enough for me to actually look into it. Pretty good work.

[davila825]

what are some of the benefits of installing a car pc.

[RicoSmooth]

I could dig that! Nice work
Well done mods

[03Quicksilver3G]

Originally Posted by davila825

what are some of the benefits of installing a car pc.

[bwracing00]

pay for a wireless card and you have mobile broadband where ever you go

[Masta560]

Great custom work and it all looks awesome. I'd love that car pc haha

[finesse49ers]

Originally Posted by bwracing00

pay for a wireless card and you have mobile broadband where ever you go

Plus it would come in handy for tuning.

[bwracing00]

tune your car right from your car that is badass

[treehead]

Nice work so far, I really like those headlights post some pics of the whole car too so we can see what it's looking like!

[SoulAmazing]

Very nice looking spyder and great modding.

[DaniIndoor]

I like your headlights and that fuel door came out looking great
very nice spyder and great tasteful mods.

[Eclipse510]

dude im in love with your car...especially the headlights!

[thahnic1080]

Originally Posted by finesse49ers

Plus it would come in handy for tuning.

you could use a carpc for tuning or you could evoscan with the gpsnav. It has evoscan and ecuflash built into it so you can data log and tune from the gps for half the price of the carpc

to the op great start and good job doing something different with the headlights

[soundman98]

thanks for all the comments!!

i built the carpc specifically for audio control, but as everyone mentioned, it could be used for ecu tuning. with a pc in-car, the options are almost limitless...

before i had installed it in the eclipse, i had toyed with the idea for at least 4 years, and a car ago..

i was at the point where i was standing in best buy(i know, not the best choice of place, but it was a start), getting ready to dump around $3,000-$5,000 on a headunit, and dsp that had limitations.. and i kept asking myself why? what happens when i hit the limitations of that hardware again?

so that pretty much decided it for me-- limitless possibilities of a carpc for under $2k, or $4k for hardware that would could be easily maxed out..



the the request for outside pics:


the outside really doesn't have much done to it yet..

these are some old pics--after the headlight mod, and insert painting, but before i added smoked turn signals, and clear backup lights... i am kind of waiting to get my current batch of mods done, hopefully by the end of august, before taking new ones:







some of the trunk setup:





and yes, the block of wood is a pro audio device...


and the mod i keep forgetting: i redid the trunk lighting to get some better illumination:

[tomsoutdoor]

That's wild, nice work..

[Special_K]

Cool headlights.

[soundman98]

today was 50 degrees here, and summer is starting to come to mind.. after searching till my eyes bleed for led tail setups, i have not found anything, but came up with a second set of wheels that i really like. esp. after seeing 02gt's car

so now the choice-- which wheels? the requirements are that they be 18" or 19", close to the factory +45mm offset(the links below are +35mm), have at least a 1" of lip, chrome lip is fine, but no all-chrome-- like the enkei ls-5, silver/dark silver, i prefer a 5 spoke/split-spoke design, but some mesh patterns look really good..

here's what i found so far:


so 02gt's wheels, the Exel DL-46:
Exel DL-46 19 inch Silver Wheels - In stock! - 5x114.3 - 19x8

then my old favorite, R1 Racing's Hype:
r1 racing hype rims options. View r1 racing hype machined w/ black wheels at WheelsNext.com

motegi mr107:
MOTEGI RACING MR107 Machined w/Black Accent

the piaa super rozza is a consideration if i can find a decent seller..

tsw caldwell:
tsw cadwell rims options. View tsw cadwell machined w/ gunmetal wheels at WheelsNext.com

MRR Design GT-5:
mrr design gt-5 rims options. View mrr design gt-5 machined w/ black wheels at WheelsNext.com

HP Racing Lightning:
hp racing lightning rims options. View hp racing lightning hypersilver wheels at WheelsNext.com

AM FORGED Prime:
am forged prime rims options. View am forged prime brushed aluminum wheels at WheelsNext.com

AXIS Shine:
axis shine rims options. View axis shine machined w/ gunmetal wheels at WheelsNext.com

Ace Alloy Webb:
ace alloy webb rims options. View ace alloy webb machined w/ black wheels at WheelsNext.com



opinions?

[RicoSmooth]

2nd and 8th one, are the better looking ones to me. Basically any 5-7 spoke would look really good on your car. Black wheels would also look nice, matching your black hatch, headlights, and tinted tails, once you get done with that project.

[RULINGCHAOS]

Very nice mods. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

[finesse49ers]

5 spokes don't do it for me and honestly I don't like any of them but the 1st choice would be my pick if it came down to it.

[02gt]

Great job on everything you have done so far. I am looking forward to seeing which set of wheels you pick.

[Got Rice Boy]

Aftermarket wheels on a spyder? Definitely need to lower it ASAP then.

[scarr]

Originally Posted by Got Rice Boy

Aftermarket wheels on a spyder? Definitely need to lower it ASAP then.

[soundman98]

well, after pouring over all my wheel ideas, i have decided to stick with the R1 Hype. the axis shine was a close second...

the deciding factor was the wheel accent color-- the Hype has black, and the Shine has a similar dark-grey as the factory gas lid-- it would be the only dark grey on the car.. i considered getting that part repainted, but just don't think it is worth it..

so the Hype wins this battle...(the hype lived up to reality?!?)

now just to decide on tires.. any ideas on a 225/35/19 summer tire?-- i already have winter tires...
(after a brief search, the Hankook VENTUS V12 evo K110 looks pretty good)

Originally Posted by Got Rice Boy

Aftermarket wheels on a spyder? Definitely need to lower it ASAP then.

i would need to airbag it.. around chicago, they use small cars for pot-hole fill, and i already scrape at stock height.. there are many times i am happy that i haven't lowered it yet..

while i am not too crazy about taking on the project of adding bags, i am a little less crazy about having a nice looking car permanently stuck in '4x4 mode'...

any ideas?

[KreepyZeke]

I hardly drive my car all in the winter, but I honestly do not have all that much trouble with my lowered spyder in Boston. I have to believe our roads are as bad if not worse than chicago.

Bottom line, that car looks good as is, but would look great lowered.

[NFSEclipseGT]

You could also look at a set of Evo X used wheels...just a thought. They are sized almost perfectly, from what I remember about Eclipse wheel sizing. I had a set of HP Lightnings on my car. I loved them.

[jstewart92]

Glad to see you giving this place another shot. welcome back to the boards!

[NFSEclipseGT]

Originally Posted by jstewart92

Glad to see you giving this place another shot. welcome back to the boards!

I am thinking about giving my Eclipse another shot.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by NFSEclipseGT

You could also look at a set of Evo X used wheels...just a thought. They are sized almost perfectly, from what I remember about Eclipse wheel sizing. I had a set of HP Lightnings on my car. I loved them.

are you talking about these wheels or these?

either way, i am not feeling them too much..

i used to really love mesh wheels, and still like how they look, but cleaning them was always the pain-- this was my first car, and it is the reason i no longer want mesh wheels-- it took me almost a hour most times to get all the brake dust off all the wheels, and i washed it at least every week..

Originally Posted by jstewart92

Glad to see you giving this place another shot. welcome back to the boards!

being that i couldn't come up with a decent reason not to, and the fact taht i am planning mods that no one else has done, i figured it would be a good idea just so others could at least get some ideas for their own projects..

Originally Posted by KreepyZeke

I hardly drive my car all in the winter, but I honestly do not have all that much trouble with my lowered spyder in Boston. I have to believe our roads are as bad if not worse than chicago.

Bottom line, that car looks good as is, but would look great lowered.

point taken. and i guess if it really becomes a problem, i just gotta raise it a little..(my brothers a chrysler mechanic, so access to a alignment rack is not a issue)

i'm looking into some tein ss-p's right now.. i figured if i am going to do it, might as well get the better ones.

i am planning on ordering them the same time that i order the wheels, which with the added expense, is probably going to be closer to june now, or whenever the temps start to consistently stay around 60, and i start to get the itch to drive..

[soundman98]

time for a little update:

after a couple of weekends of work, i have gotten the tails to a rough-cut shape.




i got a little impatient knocking down the filler, so i used a dremel-- in the process, i messed up the inner circle a little.

because i couldn't see the imperfections too well, i hit them with some primer:





and just for kicks:




wheels still aren't ordered--i want to order them, but 2-4k is a lot to drop at one time-- all of my mods thus-far have cost less then $200 each..(though they add up to above 3k..)

after seriously looking over the tire selection, i am going back to selecting 18" rims instead of 19"(if i ever order them...)-- there just ain't too many tires available for 19's, and i like options..

edit: i went back to looking at the rims, and apparently, the rims are in the process of getting discontinued--currently, the 20" version is all that is available.

so back to looking for a different set...

[MitsubishiOwn]

Nice car and I really like what you did with the headlights btw!

[AllDay815]

wow awesome eclipse ... nothing to complain about except the color ... not a fan of the red but i love all the mods done especially the headlights

[SmoothGt]

looks good, love the tails so far..

[JermTheElf]

Nice work! I've seen you over at mp3car

[wright06jhs]

The car looks good. I really like the head lights.

[soundman98]

jeez, it's been a while since updating this..

in the 4 months i have made tons of progress, yet no progress at all..

the tails have gotten a couple layers of paint and clearcoat, they just need a little more clearcoat before i assemble everything.

all the led boards are finished, just waiting on the housings to get finished.

but i get bored easily, and ended up starting some other projects:

1. led dome light-- the one project that has actually been completed. details in next post.

2. led reverse lamp-- yet another project that is started, and about 75% away from completion. details in the next post.

3. new planned mods:

3a. led front turn signals. these will be a non-sequential layout, unlike what is sold here, flip-flopping between a new-bmw-esque layout, or single high power led...

3b. led third brakelight--to compliment the tails.

3c. adding more light in the inside of the car--led's in the footwells, under the door--to activate while opening/closing the door, and possibly something near the rear seats.

3d. hid retro-- this is vague at best. i still cannot decide if i am going to retro the oem housings, or the sonar housings i have laying around(due to the glare issue).

[soundman98]

finally, a project that actually has been completed..

my led dome lights:

the 3g spyder has a mirror that is apparently the whore of the mirror industry-- this same mirror is used in a 89 jimmy, 94 beretta, 94 lebaron, 95 grand prix, and 01 spyder. and that's just the ones that i can confirm..

i started off by designing the boards:

these boards were designed around some genuine Cree plcc 6 led's-- rated for 33 lumens each. the design uses a total of 8 led's, 4 per side-- so a estimated output of 132 lumens-- something like a 40watt light bulb...



after that, came soldering everything together:



then came opening up the mirrors, and figuring out how they're wired..

this was taken while the glue was drying for the voltage regulators and their heatsinks:



after that came gluing the boards down to the housing-- using my rare harbor freight pcb holding tool:




here's the completed design:




and here's the output before:



output after:

[soundman98]

while i kinda hate splitting this to different posts, i think it will make it easier to decipher..

the other project i have started is high power led reverse lamps.

to date, i believe these are the only ones like it in the world--not just installed on the eclipse--over all car brands, i think this makes me officially led crazy....

each reverse lamp housing is to hold 2 Cree XM-L led's-- each led is good for 1,000 lumens of light-- a standard automotive halogen headlight is good for about 2000-3000 lumens..


i started by mistakenly thinking that i could connect them to a simple piece of aluminum bar, and they would work correctly:




they heated up the bar to 100 deg in 5 min-- meaning that 20 min of run time would be about 220 deg...

these things put out a lot of light-- this pic is about one shutter-setting too bright:



so after talking to some of the very knowledgeable members of hidplanet, the design has been revised to use a single cpu heatsink for each led.

your typical socket 478 heatsinks:




when tested, the led will run for 30 min without a fan:



after confirming that they would run correctly, i drilled and tapped the other 3 heatsinks, and started laying out how i am going to modify the housings.







in the process, i found a trick that the housings are using to direct more light at the ground:



the reflectors are angled about 5 deg to point more light downward, so i intend to keep this in my design to try to focus a little more light at the ground..

more details to come!!

[rsingh12]

Man you do some crazy nice work I like the led mirror I wish I could do that myself but I dont have that much time or knowledge on this stuff. If you were to do this for someone how much would you charge?

[soundman98]

i was thinking about $50+shipping for a completed mirror.

[rsingh12]

Thats not bad Ill have to keep that in mind whenever I get some money

[soundman98]

i think i should clarify a little-- i don't have a bunch of mirrors here, so you would need to send yours, it would be $50 to add the led's to your mirror. if i need to source a mirror for you, that would need to be added to the cost...

[tomsoutdoor]

Man i'm glad i looked at this again!! it's crazy what people can think of doing.

[02gt]

You have a lot of nice projects going on. I need to send you my rear view mirror for that led mod. Keep us posted on the Retro fit, reverse lights, and tail lights.

[rsingh12]

Oh I know that I would have to send my mirror lol

[soundman98]

tiny update!

i got bit hard by the upgrade bug last night, and decided to do my hid retro:

some custom painted gatling gun shrouds, and a pair of morimoto mini d2s projectors--all done within 6 hours!!




and while i was under the hood, i decided to paint my corroded prop-rod-- just some gloss black/gloss clear:



now to get to the other projects...

[CrimsonGT]

Nice. *edit*

[rsingh12]

Nice looks clean I think Im going to do that soon

[soundman98]

update!!!

got the tails installed:





now to just finish the other bazillion projects..

[Got Rice Boy]

I am liking the LED's but for some reason I am not really feeling the color matched, which is weird because I usually like the other Eclipse's skyline tails, but I think it is just too much red for me.

[ccarrillo717]

Love it!

[Drewski0523]

Beautiful car man. Your a techie genius. Seriously props on all your work

[finesse49ers]

I'm with Got Rice Boy especially on the red housings, I don't like the "full" look when you press the brake but I do like the single outer ring when the lights are turned on. Good work none the less.

[Dustin]

Shit man, what do you do for a living, build rockets? You seem to be pretty good at designing and building/wiring anything. Incredible looking ride. You need to see about getting into a magazine or something with it.

[soundman98]

^ i service camera systems for a living.. i do projects like this to challenge myself-- a year and a half ago, i had never printed and etched circuit boards, soldered this many led's, used voltage regulation, or done any of the body work skills needed to smooth the lens...


i know what you mean-- the red housings are a little much, yet, i really have no idea how that could attractively be corrected..

i believe part of the problem might be the bright chrome reverse light housings... though, playing in PS, even darkening those doesn't fix the RED look...



and just for a fair comparison-- bwracing00's car that i had originally gotten the idea from--while the color is different, i don't think mine look any worse then his, but i might be over analyzing it:

[/QUOTE]

[soundman98]

ok, thinking about this more-- do you think revealing the reflectors helps break up the red, and makes the housings a little more attractive?:

[AKSpyder8929]

definitly a sick out come, been watching this one from the start great work.

[rsingh12]

I think if you left them the way they are and just paint them black it would look really good imo but the red is a little too much try niteshading your reverse lights and see what happens

[bwracing00]

you best be at MOD this year. we have some things to talk about.