I've received several more e-mails with ideas for project vehicles I can build with my students. Here are a couple that I wanted to share. In the meantime, keep the suggestions coming to dereklee@mobiledynamics.com ...
Joseph Miele writes:I would like to see you rebuild a car from the '80s. Your biggest mobile audio consumer would be in his [or her] mid-20s to early 30s. I myself am a novice installer and would love to see a car that inspired me to want to have a system when I was a kid - a car that made me love cars. A lot of people do the '60s cars, but let's face it: Our fathers ain't buying TVs for their cars nowadays. I don't have the exact car for you, but what about a big body Benz coupe, square shape like the one you featured months ago [Phil Petracca's 560 SEC]? Or an Audi 90, or my personal favorite car ever and the one I have - a Legend coupe (timeless) - or a DeLorean, or an '88 M3 or an old-school M6 or an old-school 6-series Bimmer. If you want to do something different, do a car that your readers owned and loved at one point in their lives, probably the most memorable times of their lives. Sorry I didn't have an exact suggestion, but I guess that would depend on locating a clean car to work with. If you are interested, mine is one of the cleanest I've ever seen ... check it out, I sent you some pics. I hope one day it will be worthy of a spread in your mag.God bless, good luck.
Don't have an exact suggestion, huh? I counted seven. I like your direction, though. You hit on a number of projects I have been through in the past, but at the time, the cars were fresh off the showroom floor - not exactly vintage. I did an early '80s BMW 635csi that I remember to this day, and an old BMW 3.0 that was a challenge.
The DeLorean I did in '84 was an interesting project. Instead of being stock stainless steel, this one had a Ferarri red paint job. I worked though the night to finish it off for its debut at a car show the next morning. At about 6 a.m., I took it for a road test to make sure there were no glitches (a benefit of the job). I was tired and hungry so I stopped at a drive-through and ordered breakfast on my way back to the store. When I pulled up to the server's window, I discovered I couldn't bring my meal in through the car's window since it only opens enough to hand your driver's license to the highway patrol officer. To make matters worse, I couldn't open the gull wing door without hitting the building. I had to pull out of the drive through and walk back to the window to pick up my food. Every driver behind me in the drive-through line was laughing ...
I have found recently that our opinions of who buys gear is changing. Let me tell you about the father that bought lots of video screens: He owns a software development company; and Dwayne, my Phase X Advanced Skills instructor reworked this Escalade ESV with an Alpine flip out screen, two headrest screens and a 14 inch ceiling mount screen, and a major audio system backing it up. It seems that a lot the old guys are buying whacked systems to fill their rides, and some of those rides include old muscle cars from the 70's. Who knew?
David Miranda writes:I'm responding to your request for a different type of platform to build an audio system in time for the SEMA show in October. I would like to see you do something with an F-body Camaro or Firebird. I currently own a 2002 Pontiac Firehawk and have not seen too many ideas as for over-the-top builds for these cars. I have been reading CA&E for a year now and that style vehicle never shows up. I would like to see you do something exotic or even simple to give some of us gear heads that are into car audio an idea of what may lie in store.Thank you.
That's one I wouldn't have thought of - an F body! I think I know why: Back when I worked for Alpine, my job included building the show cars of the day, much like Steve Brown does now with the BMW X5 and the Sinister 6. Alpine's sales rep fleet was made up of Firebird Trans Ams or GTAs. I must have built a couple dozen myself, and supervised project-car schools where teams churned out dozens more between hangovers. After I left Alpine to start the school, I was so tired of the usual methods of fabricating a Camaro cabinet that I built a fiberglass mold that allows me to pop out a 4ft3 fiberglass drop-in cabinet that doesn't come up any higher than the existing floor. By then I was sick of Camaros and Firebirds, but I still have this mold on display in Classroom 3 - it would sure speed up the project and the cabinet does rock! That was so long ago that maybe it is time to reinvent the F body. Thanks for the suggestion!