The team builds long into the night, squeezing in just three or four hours of sleep before dragging their tired bodies out of bed each morning. Their task? Outfitting a vehicle with an audio/video system meant to impress. No big deal, you think. Whether you're rebuilding a car or writing a report, almost everyone brews a lot of caffeine-heavy Coffea Arabica when the deadline nears. But imagine having to burn that midnight oil every day. On car customization shows like Overhaulin', it's a necessity - builders only have seven days to turn a vehicle completely around.
With designer Chip Foose helming each transformation (see the interview on pg. 53), Overhaulin' vehicles never lack for aesthetics. However, the A/V department hasn't always blown us away. The nature of the show automatically restricts the scope of the sound system. First, installers don't get to plan ahead. They only see the vehicle on the first day of the build. Second, the short time period doesn't allow for anything elaborate. It also doesn't help that all aspects of the vehicle are being overhauled at the same time. Despite these challenges, we still get incredible builds like this 1996 Chevy Tahoe.
Overhaulin' has approached the guys at Kicker before. From working with the show in the past, the Kicker team knew all the difficulties that would lie ahead, but they agreed to fly out to California anyway. For this installation, Toby Lewis, David Adams and Sean Murphy had more leeway to let ICE reign than in other Overhaulin' rides. Owner Derek Parker's girlfriend clued them in that her man liked it loud and was completely willing to sacrifice a little cargo space for a lot of sound. That wasn't a problem for Lewis' team, who packed plenty of Kicker gear to fill the abundance of room in the two-door Tahoe.
Before ripping out a single panel, the three installers came up with some ideas for the system and ran them past Foose. They then tried to cram as much Kicker stuff as they could into the Tahoe over the next seven days. The rear cargo area holds the majority of the equipment. "We wanted to do at least four to six 12s," Lewis relates (they brought eight L7 2-ohm subs to the set, just in case they could go for more). Since Lewis wanted "it to rattle fillings out of teeth," they created two 2.75ft3 enclosures using fiberglass. Angling from the center of the cargo space, each enclosure holds three subs. Six out of eight ain't bad.
The short schedule put our installers in a bind, but so did all the equipment that had to fit in the cargo area. In addition to the six subs, the Kicker team needed to get the electronics for the audio system to play happy with the air tank for the Air Ride suspension. Adams hatched the idea for the metal amprack that cascades the two Kicker ZX2500.1 amps between the enclosures. Using the Calypso water jet on the Overhaulin' set, the guys designed the rack in about three hours and had it cut out an hour later. An additional ZX850.4 4-channel amp powers the components. On the opposite side of the enclosure, you can see its internals through a Kicker logo cut out of a sheet of stainless steel.
With stainless steel at the back and the painted fiberglass in front, the enclosures only needed a little something on top to finish them off. Killing two birds with one stone, the Kicker guys decided to install the rear SS 65.2 components in trim panels on the box's top. For the front, they went with the same components in the lower sections of the doors. Rather than just carving out spots and throwing the speakers in, the team took the time to fashion enclosures from fiberglass.
The last showcase of the Kicker team's advanced customization skills is the center console. Keeping it functional as an armrest and a storage compartment, the guys rebuilt the lid to hold a Sirius S50 portable sat rad receiver. Directly in front of it, they built a fiberglass pod to hold the Air Ride controls.
Unlike the audio equipment, the head unit and video gear didn't cause much of a sweat. Clarion and Directed chipped in the HU and the monitors, respectively. Parker already had an aftermarket receiver in his dash, so the installers merely pulled it out and plugged the VRX765VD with iPod interface in its place. In the headliner, they mounted a 17-inch monitor while the headrests received 7-inch screens.
For the last day of the build, the guys didn't get much of a breather. The reason? They didn't see a single piece of the cream-colored vinyl until the very end. "We were scrambling to cover the parts that needed upholstering the last day of the build," Lewis reveals. The guys had to wrap the door panels, the center console, the trim pieces of the enclosure and the false floor. Despite the rush, the Tahoe was delivered in time to a very appreciative Overhaulin' "mark."
This Tahoe boasts the most elaborate A/V installation ever done on Overhaulin'. Not surprisingly, when we asked Lewis what the most difficult part of the build was, Mobley interjected from the background, "What was easy?" It made a perfect setup for Lewis' answer to our question about the installers' favorite part. Without skipping a beat, he answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "Finishing it."
Interview:TroysumitomoTalks Shop With Chip FooseSo it's Friday morning, only 24 hours before I have to split town, and at the last minute Car Audio editor Ben Oh wants me to do an interview with Chip Foose. Do I really have time for this? Ben's lucky I like him. That is, I like Chip. Feeling slightly put out, I walk over to Chip Foose's - the now legendary Chip Foose - shop to conduct an interview. I want to get under his skin, see if I can rattle him, get him to throw something at me or something or maybe to punch me or something. Wouldn't that be cool? Just like on those other reality shows. Ben would like that, wouldn't you, Ben? I'm just kidding, of course, Chip's a nice guy. He's too nice. So there I am, walking into the Foose compound where I'm met by 15 guards holding steel pipes. If I can get past them this will be a good interview
[laughter]TS: Could we have silence in the background please! Anyway, they want to know a lot about the show, Overhaulin'. You're still doing it right?CF [laughs]: Yeah.
TS: How many seasons is it?CF: We're in the fourth season now and I think we're a little over half way. They have not ordered a fifth season yet but we've heard rumblings that they will be.
TS: Since Car Audio covers imports and you've done a few on the show, they want to know if it makes it more difficult in any way for you in terms of design working on that type of vehicle.CF: Our dream is to actually get involved with 5Axis and do one of their cars.
TS: [laughs]: Oh I see, shameless plug for each other. Yeah we could use someone like you...CF: Cause they're building the coolest imports of anyone.
TS: Thank you. But, I guess the question is...CF: That guy Troy is amazing. [laughs]
TS: All right, Chip, here's another $20. We'll go to hundreds in a minute. But seriously, with the size of the car as they're smaller and the bodylines are sometimes different than what you're used to...CF: That's why the speakers look so big in 'em. [laughs]
TS: They want to know if it poses any challenges and stuff just because it is a different vehicle to you. I don't think you look at it as a totally different vehicle.CF: The size isn't the challenge. The real big cars, those can be a challenge. Like we did that '56 Cadillac convertible and it wasn't just the size but it was the amount of moldings and chrome work. I think our chrome bill on that car was, uh, I think it was close to 30 grand, just to get that car done for Overhaulin'. There's a budget that's given for each episode and when you pick a big car like that that just comes out of the budget. And we didn't get lunch every day that week because... they had to cut back.
TS: [Laughs] For another molding or for the burger... I guess it comes down to the detail level I guess because those cars tend to have more intricate little moldings and things like thatCF: Exactly.
TS: ...where on the import we don't worry about that. We just put it all in the freakin' stereo.CF: Yeah, it would be fun, yeah with the import cars. What I like doing with Overhaulin' is playing with the love affair of the car. And people love the imports too, including myself. There are some really cool stuff. Like I said with 5Axis what you guys have been doing is pretty much top of the game. I know we couldn't do that level in the seven days that we have.
TS: Oh yeah, I don't think we could even do what you do.CF: But if we could get involved with somebody early on and have parts made, we could do a car like that.
TS: Right. What about the performance aspects of a car, how much does that affect the feeling for the vehicle?CF: Well the performance aspect, I have to go back to what the premise of the show is. My goal is to build our mark's dream car and the mark is the person that owns the car. So what I do when I have the design meetings or the insider meeting, the insider being the person who set up our mark, what I'm trying to do is find out what the dream car is. And if it is a performance car, then we're getting a 572 big block or whatever it is that they really want to do. Yeah a lot of thesecars, I'm just making real nice decent drivers because people aren't looking for a race car. If they were looking for a race car, that's what we'd build them.
TS: So if I guy doesn't want any performance and they really [want] something more aesthetic and more about the interior environment, you're cool with that?CF: Then I'm cool with that because I'm building their dream car not mine. If I was building my dream car, most of these would probably be extremely different.
TS: So, you're finished with about the show, you've said it's been on the air for 3 years and stuff...CF: We've been filming for a little over 3 years now and it's still. You know, a lot of people say, "How can you keep your interest there?" But when you give someone a dream car and they're excited sometimes to the point where they can't even talk, they're so emotional, it makes it all worth it.
TS: I mean I'm sure that's the big reward of it, seeing the people enjoy. It's just like us when we go out and people enjoy what we've done, there is a lot of reward in that.CF: Yeah, when you go to a local show and there's four or fiveOverhaulin' cars there and one or two of them win best of show for their category, that's pretty rewarding - and when you know you did it in seven days. Of course it went through a safety check and it may have taken two or three months to get around to finishing everything but you know that what you see we did in seven days and it might beat out a car that somebody spent two or three years building at home in their garage; not to knock what they've done, but it's pretty rewarding knowing that what you did is taking home awards.
TS: So, any changes in store for the show? Are you going to change the format at all?CF: There's talk about actually having the show follow my real life. SometimesI'm not on the set. "Oh, where's Chip today?" "He's over at Metal Craftersbuilding a car. Or he's over at 5Axis working with clay modelers on anotherproject...So if I'm gone it might be that I'm at another place going over some design issues or I'm in Detroit going over something because I do also work with the car companies. So they're talking about following some of my real life. Weused to have Rides onTLC as well. It was, Rides and Overhaulin'. Now Rides is being aired again, but we're not filming new episodes. And that was a great show to follow what my real life was and a lot of people want to see what we're doing here and it might be interesting to add it to Overhaulin'. Or we're also talkingabout starting another show. I don't know where we're going to go yet.
For the full interview click page 2