Using smaller sections of birch, Warren "tucks and rolls" the yellow vinyl over the framework and secures the two sections of wood together before wrapping the vinyl around. This allows for multiple color usage without having to sew the vinyl colors together. Simply cut the vinyl shapes from wood, tuck in the vinyl under the edge of the shape, and attach it to the main board.
After making the center and outer edge shapes, black vinyl is tucked under the shapes and then stapled into place. The centersections use long, threaded screws to double as anchors for the tabs that will secure the Plexiglas.
The Plexiglas window is cut to match the shape of the opening in the window frame (plus the depth of the retaining lip). Warren uses a sandblaster and a homemade template to etch the Crutchfield logo into the Plexiglas from the back side. He also polishes the edges of the Plexiglas to allow for the neon lighting to illuminate the logo at night.
The Plexiglas window is seated into the lip of the window frame and then secured by scraps of Plexiglas and some hardware.
While it will be a shame to partially hide these bad boys, the Rockford Fosgate amps that Crutchfield chose for our system will more than make up for their hidden home with some serious output to drive our front and rear soundstage and subs. The Rockford Fosgate 851S is a two-channel amp that Warren will use in 2-ohm mode to drive the front and rear sound stages, while the Rockford Fosgate 1001bd sub amp (also used in 2-ohm) will power the two Kicker L7 subs. These amps come with a verification certificate showing actual total power output. The 851S puts out 910 watts and the 1001bd puts out 1,057 watts, for a total of 1,967 watts of crystal-clear power.
The Rockford Fosgate amplifiers were mounted to the yellow-surfaced birch baseboard using the Rockford Fosgate Punch Link adapter, shown here with a Lighting Audio 1-farad capacitor. The Punch Link allows you to mount together multiple Rockford Fosgate amps for a seamless-housing look.
With the amplifier rack housing completed, Warren slides the housing into place and begins mounting the other components on the rear of the housing and then finalizing our wiring. Seen here are the Alpine XM tuner and Punch Bass wired remotes (installed to prevent "fiddling" by staffers).