Project Scar Update
Guess it's time for an update again. The interior is now completely put back together, with a minor compromise. I ended up having to use the Cutlass upper door panels as modifying the originals turned out to fail miserably, especially the passenger side, but at least the lower door panel modifications turned out well.
I'm not too happy with the clash of red and brown up front, but it's not entirely offensive, especially considering how darkened the dashboard is from years in the sun, and the Cutlass uppers still have some padding left to them, so it's actually a bit more comfortable to rest my arm there than it was with the originals.
The rears turned out pretty nice as well. Oh and, yes, I DID manage to get the cat piss cleaned off of them and eliminate the smell. Leaving the panels in direct sunlight after bathing them in vinegar cured that right quick.
Also installed are all four sill plates I got from the junkyard. I think they look pretty presentable with just a mild cleaning with a damp towel.
The dashboard was particularly annoying to get installed, as each time I got it in, I noticed while hooking things up that something was missing. I must've pulled the dash an extra three times to get everything just right. A bonus to this, however, was that I also decided to finally stop being lazy and fix the horrible rat's nest that was the stereo wiring. Every single connection was done by twisting wire together and then covering in electrical tape. Not only that, but every connection also had wire added in, which wasn't necessary if the person who did the install had just worked the wires towards them.
I tracked down each lead and figured out what it was, and by a miracle, I found what had been causing the parking lights to come on with the ignition. The installer had connected the ignition wire AND the illumination wire to the ignition connection on the head unit.. which meant that whenever the car was on, the parking lights would come on, and they would be dimmable with the dash-lighting dimmer. Don't get me wrong, it was sort of a neat "What the hell?" feature of the car, but it wore on my nerves not knowing what was causing it.
Along with fixing the stereo wiring, I took a cheap old Scosche FAI-3A speaker level to line level adapter and wired it into the rear speaker connections, since I have no real desire to have rear speakers, and none have been in the car since I've had it. That connects to a pair of the RCA's I installed, so now all that's left to do is get a power wire run (which means more disassembly.. yay..) and I can drop in the Kenwood KAC-7202 amp and Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1d subwoofer into the trunk. Those were also freebies I've scored over the years.
The guy who gave me the Infinity was a total moron. He got a seriously terrible pair of no-name 12s in his car in an equally terrible bandpass enclosure, and gave me the Infinity because to him it was worse.. because it wasn't as loud as a pair of 12s dropped in a burp-box.. Oh well, his loss. I still need to build a better box for it, as the 10 is currently sitting in a way-too-small wedge box designed for a truck cab. I haven't decided whether I'm going to go ported or sealed yet.. I suppose I'll just build both and stick with what sounds better.
An interesting side benefit of that Scosche adapter is that it fits perfectly underneath the head unit, and keeps it level once everything's slid into place. This stops the head unit tilting back and pushing on the bezel which always used to pop out on it's own after a time.
It's not going to be a great system by any means, but the novelty of having a tape deck attached to subwoofers is sure to be amusing, at least until I can get the Pioneer DEH-80PRS that I'm drooling over. (Would love the DEX-P99RS, but I don't have that kind of cash. At all.) I do all this because, first and foremost, I'm an audio guy. I went to school for sound engineering, and have always had a love for stereo equipment. Growing up with a Marantz 2245 receiver and three foot tall floor standing speakers kinda does that.
Updates are sure to slow from this point on, as I don't make much money, and parts for four door Regals are scarce around here. The next job is going to be tracking down a windshield and fixing the windshield frame rust to stop the leak that's eating my driver's side floorboard. I'll probably update with pictures of the rust spots that I know of at some point. I worry sometimes that the rust it has is going to be a major obstacle. That's really the only thing that disheartens me about this car, is that I know it has some rust spots. Rocker panels, driver's side quarter panel, and a hole about to form on the passenger side quarter.. wheel wells.. and that's just what I can see without stripping the car down. I know it'll cost an arm and a leg to get it all done at a shop, but I have zero confidence when it comes to bodywork, and no tools with which to do it. The other concern which ties into that is that this car is going to be my daily driver, as I don't own another car, so rainy days are going to be the bane of my existence for quite some time.
By the time the bodywork does get finished, I'll probably have spent enough money on my sedan to have had a clean-ish Grand National, but at least I'll be the only guy I know of in Tulsa, Ok with a clean Regal sedan, and that in and of itself will be pretty cool. Anyways, thanks for checking the update out, and thanks for all the support y'all have shown. Keep the comments coming, and long live G bodies.
Guess it's time for an update again. The interior is now completely put back together, with a minor compromise. I ended up having to use the Cutlass upper door panels as modifying the originals turned out to fail miserably, especially the passenger side, but at least the lower door panel modifications turned out well.
I'm not too happy with the clash of red and brown up front, but it's not entirely offensive, especially considering how darkened the dashboard is from years in the sun, and the Cutlass uppers still have some padding left to them, so it's actually a bit more comfortable to rest my arm there than it was with the originals.
The rears turned out pretty nice as well. Oh and, yes, I DID manage to get the cat piss cleaned off of them and eliminate the smell. Leaving the panels in direct sunlight after bathing them in vinegar cured that right quick.
Also installed are all four sill plates I got from the junkyard. I think they look pretty presentable with just a mild cleaning with a damp towel.
The dashboard was particularly annoying to get installed, as each time I got it in, I noticed while hooking things up that something was missing. I must've pulled the dash an extra three times to get everything just right. A bonus to this, however, was that I also decided to finally stop being lazy and fix the horrible rat's nest that was the stereo wiring. Every single connection was done by twisting wire together and then covering in electrical tape. Not only that, but every connection also had wire added in, which wasn't necessary if the person who did the install had just worked the wires towards them.
I tracked down each lead and figured out what it was, and by a miracle, I found what had been causing the parking lights to come on with the ignition. The installer had connected the ignition wire AND the illumination wire to the ignition connection on the head unit.. which meant that whenever the car was on, the parking lights would come on, and they would be dimmable with the dash-lighting dimmer. Don't get me wrong, it was sort of a neat "What the hell?" feature of the car, but it wore on my nerves not knowing what was causing it.
Along with fixing the stereo wiring, I took a cheap old Scosche FAI-3A speaker level to line level adapter and wired it into the rear speaker connections, since I have no real desire to have rear speakers, and none have been in the car since I've had it. That connects to a pair of the RCA's I installed, so now all that's left to do is get a power wire run (which means more disassembly.. yay..) and I can drop in the Kenwood KAC-7202 amp and Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1d subwoofer into the trunk. Those were also freebies I've scored over the years.
The guy who gave me the Infinity was a total moron. He got a seriously terrible pair of no-name 12s in his car in an equally terrible bandpass enclosure, and gave me the Infinity because to him it was worse.. because it wasn't as loud as a pair of 12s dropped in a burp-box.. Oh well, his loss. I still need to build a better box for it, as the 10 is currently sitting in a way-too-small wedge box designed for a truck cab. I haven't decided whether I'm going to go ported or sealed yet.. I suppose I'll just build both and stick with what sounds better.
An interesting side benefit of that Scosche adapter is that it fits perfectly underneath the head unit, and keeps it level once everything's slid into place. This stops the head unit tilting back and pushing on the bezel which always used to pop out on it's own after a time.
It's not going to be a great system by any means, but the novelty of having a tape deck attached to subwoofers is sure to be amusing, at least until I can get the Pioneer DEH-80PRS that I'm drooling over. (Would love the DEX-P99RS, but I don't have that kind of cash. At all.) I do all this because, first and foremost, I'm an audio guy. I went to school for sound engineering, and have always had a love for stereo equipment. Growing up with a Marantz 2245 receiver and three foot tall floor standing speakers kinda does that.
Updates are sure to slow from this point on, as I don't make much money, and parts for four door Regals are scarce around here. The next job is going to be tracking down a windshield and fixing the windshield frame rust to stop the leak that's eating my driver's side floorboard. I'll probably update with pictures of the rust spots that I know of at some point. I worry sometimes that the rust it has is going to be a major obstacle. That's really the only thing that disheartens me about this car, is that I know it has some rust spots. Rocker panels, driver's side quarter panel, and a hole about to form on the passenger side quarter.. wheel wells.. and that's just what I can see without stripping the car down. I know it'll cost an arm and a leg to get it all done at a shop, but I have zero confidence when it comes to bodywork, and no tools with which to do it. The other concern which ties into that is that this car is going to be my daily driver, as I don't own another car, so rainy days are going to be the bane of my existence for quite some time.
By the time the bodywork does get finished, I'll probably have spent enough money on my sedan to have had a clean-ish Grand National, but at least I'll be the only guy I know of in Tulsa, Ok with a clean Regal sedan, and that in and of itself will be pretty cool. Anyways, thanks for checking the update out, and thanks for all the support y'all have shown. Keep the comments coming, and long live G bodies.
