EntertainmentThis vehicle showed up at The Stereo Shop in Tuscon, Arizona gutted, and in pieces. The shop had a tall order to fill. The installation had to be done for an upcoming show in California in one month and had a list that easily warranted four months of work. Steve Hawley, owner of the shop, is no stranger to extreme custom jobs, having worked on demo vehicles in the past for big companies like Sony, Kicker, and Infinity to name a few. The decision was made to go for it and they went all out, completing the project on time. Over a thousand individual man hours were invested in the Tahoe, with a group of guys each working 9 AM to 6 PM and back at it from 9 PM until 2 or 3 AM every day of the week.
Celli chose what he felt would work the best for each of the different components involved in this complex system. He started with the Clarion DRX9675z AM/FM/CD Player mounted in the factory head unit location. Next he decided on the Clarion DVS9755z DVD player for in-vehicle movie entertainment. The DVD player has the DIN chassis mounted backwards in between the driver and passenger with the remote controller mounted on the fiberglass bridge that attaches to the dash for easy control and access. Celli elected to go with four monitors: two TFT LCD color Santeca 4-inch units mounted in the front sun visors, and two Alpine TMEM750 6.5-inch counterparts mounted in between the rear passengers. For old school video cassette viewing Celli went with Clarion's VDH9600, and mounted it in the center console just below the two monitors for the rear seat occupants.
The front stage was upgraded with the KC Series eurostyle pro components, two 6" midbass and two 4" drivers from Kove Audio. Two KDT silk dome tweeters from Kove Audio take care of the highs and complete the upgrade to each of the front doors. The rear stage received the exact same set of components mounted in the side walls of the fiberglass on either side of the rear occupants. Power for the 6" midbass drivers comes from two US Amps USA150's, one for each of the front and rear stages. Power for the 4" drivers and tweeters comes from two USA100X's, also delivering the power to individual front and rear stages. Bass is delivered from three sealed chambered boxes, each containing two 12" Kove Audio Armagedden Z series subs. The subs are powered in pairs. Each pair is powered by a USA2000, which provides solid-hitting bass and an excess of power that's ready on command. The extra power required by the amplifiers comes from a total of three yellow top Optima deep cycle batteries.
Mounting of the amps and subs was difficult, according to the installers. That seems self-evident from looking at the pictures. The most amazing part of the install is the fact that the sub enclosure, amp racks, rear seats, and center console are all of one piece (from front to back). It was constructed of fiberglass, bondo, foam, and MDF. Paint work for the enclosure was handled by Modern Art in Phoenix, AZ. That was only after countless hours of sanding and shaping by everyone at The Stereo Shop.
A few finishing touches were added to complement the install in the form of neon lighting. There are pieces of shattered Plexiglas at the top of each amp that are lit up with purple strobe lights; and there are also purple neon lights that light up the underside of the dash, side pilars, and console. The factory dome light was also replaced in like fashion.
With all the work that went into the Tahoe there are a lot of talented people to thank. Celli Cell would like to extend special thanks to the following people for all their help with this project: Wendy Scott and Craig Elder for building the vehicle; Steve Hawley at The Stereo Shop for the wild install; Al from Modern Art for the paint work; and Dave, Adam, and all of the other guys that helped to finish it. Kudos to all for a spectacular vehicle.