Bod
Once the seat and amprack assemblies were built, it was time to get back to the body. This was about the time that Rino Odorico showed up from Alpine Canada. We wasted no time putting him to work! Grille cloth was stretched over the metal framework and coated with polyester tooling resin. Ten layers of fiberglass mat were then built up to form the new body. Duraglas was applied and then shaped with 16-grit pads on the grinder. The next step was to apply a coat of Rage Gold and start the long process of block sanding. This process took about four weeks, and was about the time Rino went back to Canada.
The hood and front grille were framed out and fiberglassed. Eight pieces of 3/4" 6061T6 aluminum were cut on the router table, sanded and polished. These make up the classic vertical billet grille. We had two custom 11" Mercedes logos machined by Eddy over at Eye Candy Designs. One is molded into the front of the car and the other caps off the motorized amprack.
Doors
With the body looking good, it was time to make some doors. The rotating seat assembly was attached to the car's new body. Templates for the door shape were made from multiple layers of masking tape and applied to each door. The air saw and Sawzall were used to separate the new doors from the rest of the body. The seats were then framed out of MDF and molded to the door assembly. As we got started on the interior, Glen Swackhamer of Alpine Canada showed up to lend a hand for five weeks.
Interior
This car's interior was designed for sound. The dashboard was designed around speaker placement. The front stage contains four of the new-for-2007 SPX-17REF 6" midranges and two matching tweeters in a D'Appolito configuration. The speakers were mounted on-axis in sealed enclosures and powered by two PDX-4.150 600-watt amplifiers. In the center of the dash you will find four new SPX-1043D subwoofers. The woofer setup has a flat response down to 20Hz and with four PDX-1.1000 1,000-watt amplifiers they have enough output to please any car show crowd. With the bass solidly anchored in the front of the car, the next step was to add the rear fill speakers. A single set of SPX-17REF component speakers was mounted in a custom trim panel firing forward to minimize reflections and put the speakers on-axis with the listeners.
The next step was to build trim panels around the rear wheel tubs and amprack. To connect the dash and rear trim panels together, a center console was created. In the front of the console a unique gauge pod was fabricated. We wanted to give this car a high-end feel, so we built a custom clock with continuous movement. Auto Meter gauges surround the clock and deliver the car's vital signs. A custom aluminum Mercedes logo was cut on the router table and used as a steering wheel. The stock shift lever and key were relocated to the console.
Massive amounts of Italian leather were used to wrap the majority of the interior. The floor was painted with a matching brown interior dye. Inserts were fabricated out of fiberglass and airbrushed with the look and feel of rich mahogany.
The center console is home to the heart and brain of the system, the new CDA-9887. This unit features Alpine's new Imprint sound tuning. The built-in processor has over 500 adjustments for frequency and also measures and adjusts time correction for you when hooked to the Imprint Specialist Tuning Kit. The CDA-9887 head unit uses a 24-bit Burr Brown D/A converter and also controls a Sirius Satellite Radio Sportster 4 via the Alpine KCA-SC100 interface. In addition, the KCE-422i Full Speed Connection for iPod cable was used, allowing us to quickly access Apple lossless-encoded music on our iPod for a great-sounding digital music experience.