fr34kout's 08 Envoy Denali Build Log

[fr34kout]

Never really noticed this section, and I have a build log on my local car audio forum so I figure I'll post some stuff on here haha.

May 2010 1 year after graduating high school I buy my Envoy at 18 years old for $30k lol

Two days later, installed HID's.

Stock Hi beams

6000k Low beams

3000k Fogs

Low beams and Fogs

 

[fr34kout]

June 2010 I get my wiring from Knukonceptz

50 ft 1/0 fleks
100ft 16ga twisted speaker cable
10ft 4ga fleks
50 1/0 ring terminals
4 4ga ring terminals
5 fuse holders (2 300a, 2 250a, 1 100a)
6m 4 channel karma RCA
6m 2 channel karma RCA

Deadener from SecondSkin

 

[fr34kout]

Yada yada yada

Mechman 270a Alt

The octopus of wires, and temporary yellowtop up front while I waited for me D3100's for the rear

Pioneer 4200 installed

The amps, Sundown 4500 for the sub and Sundown 100.4 for the front 2 mids

Speaker rings made by local shop. Mids at the time were Image Dynamics XS up front, and CTX in the rear

Rear door tweeter placement

 

[fr34kout]

July 2010

Box is made by local box guru Phil aka Mr. Incredible. 6.3 cubes, tuned to 33 with 14 per

Got my D3400 for the front, had to wait on D3100's for rear

Half assed amp / battery rack. It worked and is still in use today lmao need to redo it one day

Viper 5901 installed

Next pics were stolen from a carshow mid july haha don't have my own pics of progress prior to this.

[/quote]

Oh incase I didn't post it, sub is an 18" Dual 2 AA SMD.

Left to right, 18" AA SMD, 18" Fi BTL (UFO), 18" Fi BL

 

[fr34kout]

Kind of got caught up in other stuff and didn't take pics or update my log for a while, next update was April 2011.

Pretty much the list of changes since I last updated this is
Tint 5% over 20% on the sides, 35% on front 2, 15% over 20% on the back glass
Tinted tail lights, 3rd brake light, and reverse lights black
Stickers which I probably already have that picture up here
Interior LED's and license plate lights
DJM Upper Control Arms / Lower Strut Mounts and adjusting rear airbag sensors
Remove Roof Racks
Remove door molding

After that kind of fell off again and started updating again Feburary 2012

PCMForLess 4" airbox intake reusing stock MAF, 160 degree thermostat, and tune with core program

Custom E-Fan kit (I think I spent $75 total)

Redline Tuning Hood Struts

And after turning my car practically back to stock for a few days, was able to get my Recon (needed in Hawaii for pretty much any suspension work)

After that decided to modify my headlights

Used my original 2 headlights to figure out where I needed to cut and to do a little experiment on painting a few things black. Started off with the chrome face inside the headlight

Didn't like that look, figured hell why not see how the clear lens will look painted

Nope didn't like that either. Decided to just remove the orange and clear it out, that did the trick

Shot of how it looks on the car

Corner Lens LED bulb

Turn Signal 3157 Switchback

Scraped off the recon plate while going up a driveway, had to relocate it to the tow hitch area

 

[fr34kout]

And videos of the switchback bulbs


[video=youtube;MClV-1GM6AY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MClV-1GM6AY&context=C45a2492ADvjVQa1PpcFNuG-4psvcYj5uo1hhb2nIeDePtXXx0cJ0=[/video]


[video=youtube;MRwX7_qaUmc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRwX7_qaUmc&context=C45a2492ADvjVQa1PpcFNuG-4psvcYj5uo1hhb2nIeDePtXXx0cJ0=[/video]

 

[fr34kout]

Mods to come:

Belltech front drop struts (ordered december 27th, been back ordered for ever hoping to get it in the next few weeks)and rear 3" springs. Looking to get to around 30" ground to fender front and back. May go slightly lower in the front

Exhaust, want to do a Borla setup beginning of next month after I make my next car payment

Summer time I plan to put drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads, flush my trans, flush my brakes, change spark plugs and wires.

After that the plan is to get 22" TBSS reproductions in chrome, but I might add 1 more set of speakers in the front with another 100.4

Some stuff that I didn't really post throughout but just to add in here. Sub is Dual 2 ohm, best score I've done with it is 147.8 @ 39 hz. Used my friends Dual 1 BTL and did a 150.3 @ 39 hz in the same box. One of my coils on the SMD is blown, have a recone kit coming in soon and making it a dual 1. Blew my ID XS front speakers and replaced them with Massive Audio RK6, sounds better gets just as loud and can handle more power. Also removed the window handle and replaced with carriage bolts painted black and neoprene washers.

Here's how my truck looks from the back except I replaced the Image Dynamics sticker with the group I'm in right now Dysturbin Da Peace, it's a hawaii group but is starting to spread. Gary Killian the Cyclone Champ is repping us on his truck . Probably going to take off the stickers soon and ride clean for a little bit

 

[Jkust]

Wow that is a lot of work. I like everything but, I don't care for big sub boxes but realize there really isn't another way to do it effectively. I noticed your Denali doesn't have a moon roof. I've never seen a roofless Denali. I saw you are in Hawaii and thought for a second maybe that's how it goes there but my folks live there too and love their moon roofs. I was one of the first people in MN to have a high end audio system in my car and one of the first subwoofers in MN back in the late 80's and our sub boxes back then were just as gaudy. Back then sound offs had just a handful of cars attend. Back then there were only a few people here with systems before it went mainstream and in that many years I'd have thought you could get the sound without the huge boxes. I still have a bunch of the gear in the original pakaging in my basement. When I'd drive down the street, it was literally the first time anybody had ever heard that kind of sound come from a car. We had 15's in our trunks.

 

[fr34kout]

Well nowadays, generally the more power you run the smaller box you run for the sub. 18's usually require a 7-10 cube box, this one is actually lower than most calling for only 4-7 cubes. Only reason I'm running it in a box close to 7 is because rms is 3500 and the amp is 4500, but after rise and whatnot I'm not seeing that much power.

To be honest for about 6 months before I bought this car I was straight looking at Dodge Magnums, when I finally saw how big the trunk was I knew I needed an SUV. I bought my sub 3-4 months before I actually bought the car so I was looking for something with a trunk big enough to fit everything in it haha.

As for the moon roof, I'm actually glad it didn't have one because that's a spot to leak air and rattle with the sub lol, plus a chance of breaking it with vibrations. I guess the original owners decided not to get it lol. Other than that I believe it's close fully loaded, but didn't come with navigation either

 

[Irishboy02]

Awesome progress so far. Question, where did you get your LED switchbacks and what model are theY? I have a set now and am far from happy with them. You have the exact ones that im lookin for

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Absolutely beautiful man!! It's looking great nice job

Just one thing, You said you have 3000k fogs, those look pretty white/blueish to be 3000k lol

Awesome progress so far. Question, where did you get your LED switchbacks and what model are theY? I have a set now and am far from happy with them. You have the exact ones that im lookin for

Try these out!

[EBAY]270822943980[/EBAY]

Or if you want less LED's

[EBAY]390406569774[/EBAY]

 

[fr34kout]

Awesome progress so far. Question, where did you get your LED switchbacks and what model are theY? I have a set now and am far from happy with them. You have the exact ones that im lookin for

I got mine from autolumination after setting blckshdw do his and I also was less than happy with the first set of bulbs I had.

As far as the fogs, they were a light yellow but I recently changed them to 6000K and that's what color they are in the video

 

[MAY03LT]

Digging the build man!

 

[fr34kout]

Thanks bro, glad to see some guys from SMD on this forum lol.

 

[Black_tb]

nice ride man

 

[fr34kout]

Thanks man, going to do a small detail tomorrow, but I'm out of wax till sometime later this week haha. Just a regular wash, dry, waterspot windows, and some tire shine. I'll try to post up some pics of a clean car tomorrow lol

 

[fr34kout]

Let's see if I can post this without loading to photobucket

 

[Irishboy02]

Looks absolutely perfect!

 

[fr34kout]

I think the pictures just hide all the flaws lol. I know how I want it to be, and I'm not guna really be happy until it's another 2" lower, dual exhaust, and some 22" factory reproductions or even better would be a nice looking set of 24's.

 

[Irishboy02]

Im not sure how it works with the denali, but my tb had the ground force kit. 1.3/3. Was perfect height. On 275/45-20. Was the perfect setup imo. Also, when you drop remove those side steps, there gna be useless and just get torn off by a speed bump anyway. Will definately clean the side up too. I wouldnt go bigger than 22s bro. Iirc 24s are runnin 30-35 series tires, going to loose ride quality. Need to purchase a retainer so you dont loose any teeth, nothing to absorb the shock. As for exhaust, i had the magnaflow dual kit. People always thought it was an SS, esp with the suspension. I dont want to take away from your thread so ill pM you some pics

 

[fr34kout]

Nah it's all g bro lol, I'll try respond to everything.

Right now it's pretty much a 2/2 kit (djm upper control arm and strut mount front, bag adjust in the rear) but I wanna add another 2" kit to bring it to 4/4 all around. Trying to get the fenders about as close to even with the tires.

The running boards are staying on haha, they make the truck look lower and to me it looks better with it on. On top of that I tried to take one off, and I would need new rocker panels. A lot of people actually go out and spend absurd amounts of money for these Denali running boards, had one guy on the OS who had a blue envoy with 24's and he bought these running boards to set off the look. It's guna be only about 5" off the ground, but this car was never inteded as my DD. Turned into it when I messed up my saturn but I'm getting that back on the road and this is going to be driven around a lot less often, which is actually why I'm considering the 24's even though the ride quality is going to suffer.

For the exhaust I'm planning on doing a Borla setup, but Magnaflow has crossed my mind since the price point is a lot better.

 

[fr34kout]

Found out a while back I had a blown coil on my SMD, finally got the recone kit in

Coil still looked brand new after tearing it apart, it seems like a tinsel lead ripped. Oh well, going from D2 to D1

Also plasti dipped my tan panels and wired up my 194 switchbacks.

Rear shot to show the tan panels I didn't hit yet (they've since been sprayed)

Trunk, not perfect but it's whatever

Pretty close color match

 

[MAY03LT]

Man those panels look good in black.

 

[fr34kout]

Thanks man, for about a year now I wanted to do the panels (originally thinking vinyl spray) in black and doing the headliner in black suede. After checking out some suede today, idk if it will be able to be done because of the curves of the headliner. Might just spray the headliner to match and plasti dip the over head console, dvd player, etc.

 

[fr34kout]

Got some moar low today

Took a picture this morning to show how it sits with the current 2" drop

Stock strut with the 2" Drop DJM Lower Mount next to the new Belltech strut

Compressed the springs and swapped the strut mount to the Belltech Strut

Strut's apart, swap spring to Belltech

New Belltech strut assembled

Thirsty?

Didn't get any pics of the rear, went by fast once I figured out how to get the bags out. Cut the air lines, twist out, and new springs slid right in.

New stance

Hoping the new spring settles a little bit over the next 2-3 weeks to bring the back end down some, and also hoping the drop shocks prevent the axle from tapping. Might have to order helper bags. If the spring doesn't settle enough, I'm going to cut about half a coil at a time until I get it to sit where I want it to.

 

[tokahao]

Simply amazing. Congrats, that's a nice ride!

 

[jrSS]

Agreed. Sweet ride!!!

 

[CdnGMan]

I'm liking the stance... very sweet looking indeed...

 

[fr34kout]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It's a work in progress, and going slower than I want it to due to lack of funds but it's getting to where I want it slowly but surely.

 

[fr34kout]

Entered a local car audio comp, came in 2nd place in C Class doing 148.8 @ 41 hz.

Got beat out by a well respected SPL competitor locally, if this guy is there I have no chance to come in 1st lol but it's all good. Still got a trophy for 2nd place

And damn I love my how truck looks in this roll up video lol

[video=youtube;MnefLc23Q6U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnefLc23Q6U&hd=1[/video]

 

[fr34kout]

Got some new interior LED panels today, damn these things are monsters. Old set I had were 21 3028 LED's, new set is 48 5050 LED's. So more than twice the LED's, and these are also supposed to be about 3x as bright.

Old panels vs new panels

Huge difference in light output, even during the day it's easy to see how bright these are

Got em all in, including the 2 license plate lights.

All I gotta do later is create a makeshift splitter so I can run 2 boards in the rear over the sub. Gotta say I'm very happy with these new boards, and they were only about $50 shipped for 8 of them!

 

[fr34kout]

Went in for alignment today at Scotty's, added my own mark to his rack

Boards from now on >.>

Then I went to Rad's just looking to get a quote on my exhaust. Guy was super cool, told me why not just do it now while nobody was there... Left with a Spin Tech and dual 4" rolled tips.

Happy with it, still deciding if it's too loud.

 

[fr34kout]

Got my correct Belltech Rear Shocks from Tony and installed them today

 

[fr34kout]

Got a PM asking about how the exhaust sounds. Took a video with my phone but the audio sounded horrible. My friend took a video with his iPhone 4 and the resolution sucks but the sound is a lot closer than my Galaxy S2 was.

[video]www.youtube.com/watch?v=OetjWGRtF4s[/video]

 

[fr34kout]

Washed, Waxed, and ready for a car show tonight.

 

[fr34kout]

Had some fun with PlastiDip today, still undecided if it's going to stay or not. Opinions?

 

[ItsOnVoy]

I like it

 

[fr34kout]

Thanks lol, I was actually considering flip-flopping the whole thing and seeing how I liked it. Put the trim back to chrome, plastidip the grill, and get a chrome GMC. Not sure how that would look though

 

[fishguy1123]

I like it, denali grills are a prize to enjoy! I like the contrast on a black truck like that. I would think that removeing plati dip from a grill like that would be a PITA but if you want to see the look, it can't hurt anything to try. I just like it the way it is...

 

[fr34kout]

Yea I really like the grill but about a week ago I dropped the truck again, etc and took off the front license plate. So I've been trying to find a lower grill that will match the Denali one and haven't had any luck. Was considering buying the Street Scenes set, but I can't bring myself to do it.