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drizzoh's build thread

Finally seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for this audio setup.

At the beginning of last week, I started actually doing some testing with the system and even though this amp is supposed to be able to accept a speaker-level input.. it was very unhappy trying to do so. Had sound in the rear for once, which was cool, but at 1/4 volume the system sounded like it was trying to unalive itself. Some of the worst noises I've ever heard speakers make. After working on this with JL to double-check I was able to properly use their DSP software and confirming with Focal that I had wired everything correctly, we did some further testing and concluded that the signal coming from the headunit was causing all the issues. Rather than convert the factory signal with LOC's, I started test fitting this last night:

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Didn't really want to change the headunit yet, but it's whatever. Should be rad when the rest of the stuff needed to make it work shows up and it will be nice not to have to get a scangauge to see engine vitals. Hopefully this weekend I can start doing some actual tuning and see what these Focal's can really do.

Also badged the doors while it's all apart since I have nothing better to do than wait for parts to show up right now.

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There's a before and after at the bottom of this post: drizzoh's build thread (https://tacoma3g.com/threads/drizzohs-build-thread.13423/#post-90350)

I didn't do anything special, just covered an uncovered area.
Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
 
Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
check the the side mirror adjustment knob. Mine has a little rattle at times and if I just push down on it or pull up it goes away temporarily.
 
check the the side mirror adjustment knob. Mine has a little rattle at times and if I just push down on it or pull up it goes away temporarily.
After a few times, I went all out. Every panel clip. Wrapped every wire. Lined between the control panel buttons and panel. Even placed TESA tape between the buttons and frame. Tapped that knob. Might just pull the buttons out and try that.

I got some weird rattles in there. @drizzoh, sending you all the positive energy so you don't get any of the rattles.
 
Damplifier just butyl and foil? Any concerns of it being exposed to water or wear?

While you have the doors off, I'd recommend TESA taping everything you can. I'm getting a rattle in my driver door. Seems to be pretty common and I drive with my left knee against it. Not sure if it's between the mount and panel or wires. I think I TESA taped it all, but may have missed something. Thinking about adding a layer of stuffing to try and get rid of it. Could also wedge TESA tapes into the panel clips. It made sense to me.
I think it's just butyl and foil. The Second Skin stuff is incredibly sticky and I prepped the surface well and applied with a roller so I know it has a strong bond. There is no chance of water getting anywhere under it. Did the same to the tC the week I got it (in 2016) and zero issues. The aluminum on these sheets is also very thick, it might take some abuse over the years but I'm 0% worried about it. Should hold up fine.

The door rattles have already been fixed. Plus with the DSP tuning no frequencies under 100hz will be in the doors anymore as well which should help with any annoying rattles that would come up.

After a few times, I went all out. Every panel clip. Wrapped every wire. Lined between the control panel buttons and panel. Even placed TESA tape between the buttons and frame. Tapped that knob. Might just pull the buttons out and try that.

I got some weird rattles in there. @drizzoh, sending you all the positive energy so you don't get any of the rattles.
The door panels and everything behind every panel that is currently off in the truck (which is all of them) should not rattle ever again once they go back on. Not new at all to getting rid of rattles. Felt tape is the best thing ever for this. Stock this was already the rattliest interior of any vehicle I've ever owned so most all of them have already been dealt with. I had most of the panels off of my Friday-built during the first month. This is the longest I've gone without doing the audio on a build but absolutely not the first. By far the most expensive tho. 😬
 
After fighting with my truck for another entire weekend, the audio system is almost wrapped-up. Feels nice to have all of the interior panels back on and no visible wiring exposed from the install. Everything is clean and hidden. It's taken so much effort to make it look like I didn't do anything, I have to be close to 60 hours on this install so far.

Headunit = Mostly in - Installed and works but waiting on an adapter to show up to keep the factory USB port functional that I overlooked. Looks like all of the important factory truck functions were retained with the iDatalink Maestro but I haven't looked into it too much yet. Was mostly just testing to make sure things worked so I could put all the interior panels back in. But during the setup testing I also noticed the ATB camera was only partially working with the picture looking like when you tried to watch channel 18 when you were 12, so need to look into that when I have a minute and unlock some functions of the head unit. Spent the whole weekend reinstalling everything and further clearancing panels to make everything fit like stock.

The one thing that actually went as planned is that the Overland Equipped auxiliary fuse panel actually fit the JL Audio MAXI fuse block perfectly:

mH5ZNvGh.jpg


Bigass Focal FXE crossovers = tucked away nicely under the rear storage compartment in their forever homes <3:

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Stealthbox and VX700/5i = Behind the seats in their forever homes <3:

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Still waiting on a few things to show up, have a few issues to fix, and the system needs fine-tuning, but this setup sounds phenomenal already even with a flat eq on the headunit. These Flax speakers sound similar to my Focal DFS's in the tC but just.. better - very full and balanced, more natural and less harsh on the highs. The TAM tweeter design blends very well since they're not as directional as a standard dome tweeter. This combo is going to be amazing once it's dialed in.
 
So one cool thing that happened from changing the headunit that I wasn't expecting is that the Compass and Current Song tabs got added to my gauge cluster info screen. So far, the compass isn't displaying but the tab is there. Might be able to make it pop up after playing around with it some more. It's not something I ever plan on using, but if I can make it work somehow it will be cool to have. There's so many things to tweak and configure with the new setup, I've only scratched the surface.
 
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So one cool thing that happened from changing the headunit that I wasn't expecting is that the Compass and Current Song tabs got added to my gauge cluster info screen. So far, the compass isn't displaying but the tab is there. Might be able to make it pop up after playing around with it some more. It's not something I ever plan on using, but if I can make it work somehow it will be cool to have. There's so many things to tweak and configure with the new setup, I've only scratched the surface.
When you say gauge cluster, do you mean the spot between your speedometer and tachometer?
 
Wha!?! So it's a dormant secret option?

I wonder if it's the lack of NAV that hid it.

Were you like:
I believe so. It still doesn't have a compass but it has the compass screen now. Pretty useless imo especially since I have one in the rear view mirror but it would be cool just to make all the things work that are there.
 
Had a few days off at the beginning of the week and decided to retune the DSP again. Much happier with the way this tune sounds. Beefed up the upper-mids a bunch and kicked my front stage and sub up a little. It's also fantastic how clean the new setup is turned up with the windows down. Incredible clarity.

qDqt1JDh.jpg


Then figured out how to get wireless AA setup and I'm amazed how much smoother and faster AA is on the Pioneer vs the stock headunit. Also I no longer have the weird glitchy audio cut issue when running Waze on AA. Greatsuccess.mpeg (still need to have the dealer swap out my bubbled qi charger though).

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The last thing I changed this week was upgrading the ECU tune from the VF 2.0 map to the KDMax Pro 9.0. I had gone back and forth a bit between KDMax and OTT and chose KDMax because I received much better support from them. With cash in hand, OTT would not give me any details or answer most of my questions and I felt they had a condescending attitude towards the few questions they did answer. Kreg (the K in KDMax) has been cool as hell and after only 15 or so miles I don't regret going with his tune. The Pro 9.0 tune is much more polished than the VF 2.0 map, shifts smoother, and got rid of the dead pedal feel for the first 30% of the pedal stroke. Probably does other stuff better too but haven't put many miles on it yet. The driving characteristics from my end are different with the 9.0 and will take some getting used to, but initial impressions are that the trans just seems to be behaving how it's supposed to and feels like a normal vehicle instead of pissing me off multiple times a day. I first tried the Sport tip in tune but found it to be too harsh off the line so I went down to Normal (still much sportier than the enhanced throttle VF 2.0 map) and think I'm going to go down another notch to what they call the N-L tune (between Lite and Normal) and see how it goes. I'm so used to the dead pedal at the start of the stroke that I haven't yet gotten used to it doing something immediately and it still feels a little jumpy when accelerating from a stop. I never thought I'd be a Lite throttle guy, but with them fixing the pedal feel, it's looking like that might be the way to go. Anyways, all good things so far. Now to find the time to put my Hammer Hangers on.

Update: KDMax's N-L tip-in setting is a winner. Truck drives like a normal vehicle now. 🥰
 
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Had a few days off at the beginning of the week and decided to retune the DSP again. Much happier with the way this tune sounds. Beefed up the upper-mids a bunch and kicked my front stage and sub up a little. It's also fantastic how clean the new setup is turned up with the windows down. Incredible clarity.

qDqt1JDh.jpg


Then figured out how to get wireless AA setup and I'm amazed how much smoother and faster AA is on the Pioneer vs the stock headunit. Also I no longer have the weird glitchy audio cut issue when running Waze on AA. Greatsuccess.mpeg (still need to have the dealer swap out my bubbled qi charger though).

[IMG]


The last thing I changed this week was upgrading the ECU tune from the VF 2.0 map to the KDMax Pro 9.0. I had gone back and forth a bit between KDMax and OTT and chose KDMax because I received much better support from them. With cash in hand, OTT would not give me any details or answer most of my questions and I felt they had a condescending attitude towards the few questions they did answer. Kreg (the K in KDMax) has been cool as hell and after only 15 or so miles I don't regret going with his tune. The Pro 9.0 tune is much more polished than the VF 2.0 map, shifts smoother, and got rid of the dead pedal feel for the first 30% of the pedal stroke. Probably does other stuff better too but haven't put many miles on it yet. The driving characteristics from my end are different with the 9.0 and will take some getting used to, but initial impressions are that the trans just seems to be behaving how it's supposed to and feels like a normal vehicle instead of pissing me off multiple times a day. I first tried the Sport tip in tune but found it to be too harsh off the line so I went down to Normal (still much sportier than the enhanced throttle VF 2.0 map) and think I'm going to go down another notch to what they call the N-L tune (between Lite and Normal) and see how it goes. I'm so used to the dead pedal at the start of the stroke that I haven't yet gotten used to it doing something immediately and it still feels a little jumpy when accelerating from a stop. I never thought I'd be a Lite throttle guy, but with them fixing the pedal feel, it's looking like that might be the way to go. Anyways, all good things so far. Now to find the time to put my Hammer Hangers on.

Update: KDMax's N-L tip-in setting is a winner. Truck drives like a normal vehicle now. 🥰
I wish I had that 6600. Flat face envy. Wha?! The OTT dude seemed really chill. The tuner near me that carried OTT even offered to help me flash and answered all kinds of questions even after knowing he wouldn't be getting any money from me. Since I already had VFTuned, I had to go the ECU locked route. Even dealing direct I didn't feel that way. Maybe he thought your questions were to steal or backwards engineer his tune. You do go into the details and know what you're looking for. ;)
 
I wish I had that 6600. Flat face envy. Wha?! The OTT dude seemed really chill. The tuner near me that carried OTT even offered to help me flash and answered all kinds of questions even after knowing he wouldn't be getting any money from me. Since I already had VFTuned, I had to go the ECU locked route. Even dealing direct I didn't feel that way. Maybe he thought your questions were to steal or backwards engineer his tune. You do go into the details and know what you're looking for. ;)
The 6600 is really nice, especially now that it's getting dialed in.

I didn't ask anything too involved, just questions about the general behavior of the tune in regards to how it behaves in 6th and its downshift characteristics and if they offered a gear lock version for my ecu. Not sure what his deal was but he completely lost me as a customer when he basically said I was too stupid to use the feature, then he stopped replying. Gave him the weekend to reply and he was silent (still hasn't replied, btw) so he made the choice very easy for me.

I grabbed the KDMax files in the beginning of the following week. Still swapping between the different tunes to see what feels best for me before I ask Kreg to make any changes, but it's a BIG upgrade from the VF 2.0 map. I'm not really paying attention to what the transmission is doing anymore, things just seem to work how they're supposed to. So far I like the general behavior and shift points of it, but would like it to come on a bit smoother when the pedal is first pressed while also having the trans downshift with slightly less pedal pressure when at speed. I have to press it pretty hard to get it to downshift currently. Going to put some more miles on it though before I have any changes made and see if it's still me just adapting to the differences after running the VF map for the past year.
 
Wish I had the chance to try KDMax. Wonder if there are old files floating around. Ugh, I'm really regretting the XAV-AX8100. Nothing wrong with it. It does stick out a bit and the resistive touch screen had that dullness. I'm a capacitive person. I feel it's more responsive. Even the XAV-AX9500, but that was double the price.

Do you use the USB ports?
 
Wish I had the chance to try KDMax. Wonder if there are old files floating around. Ugh, I'm really regretting the XAV-AX8100. Nothing wrong with it. It does stick out a bit and the resistive touch screen had that dullness. I'm a capacitive person. I feel it's more responsive. Even the XAV-AX9500, but that was double the price.

Do you use the USB ports?
This sticks out too if you use a dash kit. I modified the factory brackets and reused them to make it fit flush. Was easy actually, only required drilling 2 holes.

I don't normally keep anything plugged in, I hate wires. I only used the USB in the middle of the dash to pair the phone for wireless AA and check for firmware updates on the HU itself. All the factory integration technologies work via the Maestro unit though and I did not lose any functionality changing the HU. The 2 USB's in the center console area don't seem to be connected to the HU and still worked even when the HU was disconnected IIRC.
 
This sticks out too if you use a dash kit. I modified the factory brackets and reused them to make it fit flush. Was easy actually, only required drilling 2 holes.

I don't normally keep anything plugged in, I hate wires. I only used the USB in the middle of the dash to pair the phone for wireless AA and check for firmware updates on the HU itself. All the factory integration technologies work via the Maestro unit though and I did not lose any functionality changing the HU. The 2 USB's in the center console area don't seem to be connected to the HU and still worked even when the HU was disconnected IIRC.
So you have the Wireless AA out front? What if I told you there's an easy way to hide it? :)
 
So you have the Wireless AA out front? What if I told you there's an easy way to hide it? :)
What are you talking about? Wireless AA is built into the 6600. That was the main reason for choosing this model.
 
Hi. It's me again, but now with 200% more @ARCHIVE Hammer Hanger. :D

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The manners of the truck are excessively better. I saw one review that said the rear end felt almost sporty after installing and thought they were insane as that's one word I would have never used to describe it before. They weren't insane. The handling is noticeably tighter (much more controlled) and it almost feels like it has an IRS now. The truck is so much nicer to be in without the rear end shimmy-fest. With the Hammer Hangers in, the way the back responds to bumps almost exactly matches the feel the front both in compression and rebound. They both just take their hit and recover instantly instead of the rear end amplifying the hit and taking its sweet time trying to sort itself out after. There is a washboard section of concrete I have to drive every morning on the way to work and while my lowered Scion tC on low profile tires always soaked those bumps up, the truck has always reacted like I was bajaing it down a mountain on an old mining trail at competition speeds like a bucking bronco. I can finally say that is no longer the case. The rear end was so much better behaved going thru that section this morning that it's almost like it wasn't there. The rear end travel is silky smooth now without the hangers flexing. These are a really nice composure and handling upgrade. Thanks Eric for making these badass hangers and shackles.

The install sucked but also wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Getting the factory hangers themselves off only took about 45 minutes. But then it took another 1.5 hours or so after that to get the rivets the rest of the way out, holes enlarged to 1/2", surface prepped and repainted. Not counting the time to let the paint dry, I think it took around 4 hours. Used my grinder to slot the rivets, used my air chisel to knock the heads off and was then able to whack the hangers off with a couple hits from my 3lb sledge. Ground the rivets flat after that (which took the longest and was a bunch of suck) and then used the air chisel to pop out the top 2 rivets and used a ball joint press with the tapered punch bit from the air chisel to pop out the lowers and keep the weld-in washers intact. I bought the Archive drill bits but did not end up needing them as my step-bit made quick work of enlarging the frame holes. After the metal modifications were done, I flap-disked the surface rust off and painted with VHT chassis paint. After letting it dry for about an hour, I bolted it together with all the Archive parts and everything fit perfectly.

Unreal how soft the stock hangers are - I was able to flex them by hand once the shackles were disconnected.

During install:

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Stock vs Archive Hangers | BAMF vs Archive 3.6" Shackles

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Very nice! YES my reaction was similar to yours. No way this could be such a huge improvement but it was.
Next to the re-gear, this is my favorite update.
For me this opened a whole new can of worms.. Ext brake lines, and then HC cross and once I noticed how greatly improved the droop was and my 5160 rear shock being my limiting factor, I had to go with extended rears. Does it ever end :)
 
Very nice! YES my reaction was similar to yours. No way this could be such a huge improvement but it was.
Next to the re-gear, this is my favorite update.
For me this opened a whole new can of worms.. Ext brake lines, and then HC cross and once I noticed how greatly improved the droop was and my 5160 rear shock being my limiting factor, I had to go with extended rears. Does it ever end :)
Lol right. I don't know why it's so drastic but rear is just fixed now lol.

I already had 22" brake lines but I've been trying to find the time to call Crown to order a set of 24's for the rear. My shocks are 26.6" fully extended from eye to mating surface and at around 25.5" my lines are taxed af. +2" should get me fixed up.

I can't run the spare in the bed, but I have a coworker that fabricates that is interested in seeing if he can come up with a bar that will work with the spare tire.
 
Got reminded by a thread on TW that I've been meaning to paint the glove box lock cylinder for a while, so finally knocked that out. It's actually kind of 🔥 vs being silver lol. Painted it because the stickers look like crap and I never lock it so I'm not worried about the key scratching it.

Before and after:

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The interior could use a wipe down, but it's looking pretty proper now. The dial in front of the e-brake is the bass/tune map knob for the VX700. It was the only place I had room to put it within reach.

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Then I reflashed the ECU again to have the KDMax Pro 9.0 Lite throttle tune. This one has the smoothest tip-in response by far. All the other versions still felt like you had just popped the clutch if you started accelerating when the truck was already moving from a low speed. That issue seems completely fixed now, which is good because I'm out of tunes from them to try, lol. Successful week so far.
:thumbsup:
 
Found the time this weekend to do a proper detail on the truck and re-apply its ceramic coat. It's been feeling a bit rough lately so needed the full wash + clay bar + polish + ceramic treatment. Smooth now
:D


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Then just because I liked the Hammer Hangers so much, I grabbed these rear wheel sensor guards from Archive Garage. As expected, they are very well-built pieces with perfect fitment. I probably won't actually ever scrape them on anything, but they're really nice insurance and they hide the unsightly plugs. Trying to talk Eric into designing a matching set for the front too, so I don't have to purchase aluminum ones.

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So you do drive it outside. So the hangers give it a better drive. Is that just a bolt-in or welding involved?
Bolt on, but fairly violent to remove compared to other bolt-ons. They are absolutely with the install drama, truck is so much better to be in. Need to get it dirty but waiting for longer brake lines show up.
 
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