These are some cutains that I made years ago. The material is called "sateen", a fake satin. The rods top and bottom are held in place with crazy glue on the right (metal to fabric joint) and the left side is held down with tiny brass screws that you can only get with "National" brass hinges at any hardware shop.

This is a before pic of the rear door. This was coated in dynamat - 2 layers on the skin and 3 layers in the door - but I didn't take a pic.

Those are the passive crossovers that come with the 5.25 components. I mounted them in the trunk up on top of the sub box. There is a large plywood panel that spans the length of the trunk that bolts to the sub box. Then a small plywood rectangle is bolted to the shelf and the crossover.

This is a cubby that exists on both sides of the sub box. The plan here was to put doors on, but that is proving very difficult. The frame is again masonite and is bolted to the shelf up top and the plywood floor for the sub box to hover above the spare tire. The whole thing is quite rigid and has so many steel and brass corner braces and screws that theft is damn near impossible.

Here is one of the 4 channel Lanzar Vibes. Both are in the pocket behind the rear tires. The amp is bolted to a painted plywood wall that houses a LA 1 Farad cap on the reverse side, as there is a pocket here as well. The layout is nice and tidy and doesn't kill trunk space. You'll notice that I sanded the raised parts of the heatsink and then polished them; also I buffed off the cheap gold plating on those plastic rivets. To me it makes the Vibe look much less cheap than it really is.

This is a bad pic of the Obcon sub box. It sits in the center of the trunk and fires into the back seat - had to do it this way so I had a trunk left. I added dynamat to the box. That grey plank is a false bottom made of masonite. It covers the large area under the sub where I keep the spare tire. The whole trunk - which was small to start with - can still carry about 5-6 paper bags of groceries-not bad, but hardly practical for travel, but still more space than my dad's Miata.

This is a before and after shot of what I chose for rocker panels. Notice that the stainless polished steel panel only comes up to the crease in the door. I chose this look over the standard kits that mount above the crease and are larger. To me it looks more classy. But to do this I had to buy steel horse suv door sill guards and cut and sand them to the curved part of the door. Also, I caulked around the seam with black silicone to prevent water from weakening the double sided tape that comes with the panels.

This is the ghetto way to lower your front end. Those are standard "lift kits" flipped around to compress the spring. I dipped the shackels in Plasti-dip to prevent rust and sprayed the whole assembly with spray on rubberizer when done. Don't try this on the rear as the bolts rub the springs and sound like hell. But up front the bolts just barely clear the spring - if you carefully line it up. Note that I needed a pair of quick grips by Vise Grip to compress the spring enough to get the screw to engage the nut
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A statement on the Dynasty as a car:
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To fellow Dynasty owners
The Dynasty as a custom car
As you know there aren't many of us out there. Most of my peers think I'm crazy to actually want a "grandma car".
But, despite its image, the Dynasty is a good car for customizing.

The Exterior
Classic styling is present in abundance. The lines are unmistakably domestic luxury car. Boxy front end, proportionaly long hood and the formal extended roof line are all styling cues of days gone bye.

But fused into the old skool design is a modern refinement. The body panels are smooth,blended and flowing; when compared to other luxury domestics like Grand Marquis for exp. And the tack on chromed steel trim is minimal. The windshield has the most horizontal and flat laid back angle I've seen on a 4 door. The door B-pillars continue the slanted feeling.

The only major flaw is the exessively high ride height; it almost looks jacked up.

The Interior
On the surface the inside is perfect for the lowrider (like in the mag) look. Lots of soft faux velvet and chrome to see. Unlike many imports, the dash matches the interior and unlike modern domestics and imports, the interior was available in more than just grey or beige and the occasional black.

Once I took the inside apart I found lots of wasted space - good for a customizer - bad for everyone else. The door panels have lots of dead air space between and in the door. The dash is cavernous, tons of wasted space here.

The interior is cramped compared to its larger competitors like Grand Marquis, but is fairly roomy compared to others like Chevy Corsica and Chevy Celebrity. It's this wasted space that puts it in such an ackward size. Unlike modern cars which are big on useable space, this ride has a good supply of "unusabe space". So if you want to add cd changers, tvs, equilizers, speakers, and on and on - the Dynastys got the room.

Trunk
Dissapointment. What else can I say. The trunk looks chopped off from the oustside and it ain't no illusion. I suspect, that to keep the length within misdize car, they lopped off about a foot of trunk - too bad.

The trunk is deep, but not very long. I can't haul much of anything with it. And if you want to add amps and a sub - well it's pretty much filled. The high lift over doesn't help when loading up luggage either. I don't know what Chrysler was thinking.

Some things cry out to be worked on including:
front grille
cornerlights / turn signal cluster
rear window
ride height
wheels and tires

If you are interested in doing just that, check out my How To section where I chronicle how I did these mods as well as the entire revamp of the car.

To Dynasty haters
It seems most "custom" cars today are a mix of lowrider/performance and audio/ video, all layed out on a Japanese car format.

I'm not saying some people don't work hard and deserve credit, but how many dropped, lit and bumped civics can you take? The Civic is a good car; I have 2 friends who own them, one a '94 and the other a '99 Civic Si. To me a "custom" car is a car that is DIFFERENT from what everyone else has.

And it's the Dynasty's absence in this arena that marks it for criticism. People need to remember that custom cars didn't start out as imports.

Not knocking Japan, they make good cars, but it gets old quick seeing ONLY Hondas as altered rides.

Also, many people seem to think that the way to build a "unique" car is to dynamat it down, put in drop coils, get some aluminum wheels that are too big for the suspension to handle, stretch on some paper thin tires, throw in randomly arragned and colored street glow, get the same pedals and body kits everyone else has, tack on a 12" tall wing and buy RF amps and subs. While this makes for a cool looking ride and offers good audio, it is hardly original.

Here in Oregon/Washington all I see is lowered, winged Civics. Now, in Washington, I do see more old skool low riders, but the Civics and wanna be Civics are still prevalent. They all have the same stuff, it looks like a factory option car. The cars are "different...just like everbody else." (10 points if you know where I pulled that quote from.)

One member commented that the Dynasty ain't no classic, and it's just getting older. True, it won't go down as a classic. But how many cars do? Some do, the Mustang, Edsel, GTO etc., but I bet most people didn't know the Corvair, Tucker, Fiero - (All commercial failures, but, for their time, very different cars) ever existed. They took a big chance and love 'em or hate 'em at least they took that chance. Yet still these cars go completely unoticed by the public.

Now I'm not saying that a Dynasty is as innovative as a Corvair, because it isn't; but I am pointing out that just becasue a car doesn't get a huge fan base doesn't mean that it is a bad car.

The truth is that most cars never become classics - they just get old. How many really think that 20 years from now kids will wish they had a '98 Civic?

So to all you who hate the Dynasty, or any other car that isn't on every other block, "....with his windows down and his system up....", remember, it's cars like these that are truly "custom".
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What shes got
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Exterior:
*custom aluminum horizontal bar grill
*tinted windows all the way around; WA state legal
*shrunken limo-style rear window
*stainless steel rocker panels -pending
*Rally "BBS style" plastic 14" hubcaps in silver / chrome finish
*chrome extended valve stems by "monkey" and "????"
*Power schoshe fully automatic stainless steel front fender antenna
*chrome pinstriping all the way around the beltline by "trimbrite"
*"Cruiser" tinted plate covers and chrome screw covers
*chrome lisence plate ring by ??????
*Chrome "stick on" fender trim by "trim- brite"
*"Ventvisor" tinted wind / rain deflectors

Engine bay:
*red wire loom by "taylor"
*red anodized hose cover clamps by "spectre"
*chrome plated hose clamp covers
*braided heater hose by "spectre"
*braided radiator hose by "spectre"
*cool flex stainless heater hose by "summit"
*K&N air filter

Interior:
*burgandy wrinkle wrapped satin over most platic panels
*custom burgandy floormats with script "Dynasty" embroidary
*burgandy velvet wrinkled headliner
*burgandy crushed panne velvet covers over all black plastic: cranks, levers, etc.
*"Quest" "radical" red anodized pedals including foot parking brake
*"dynamat" the original
*burgandy crushed panne wrapped, framed, and shrunken rear window
*burgandy velvet wrapped in a smooth style over all fake wood

Trunk:
*masonite, grey carpet and mirror lid cover with script Dynasy letters in mirror - pending
*gas charged strut lift - pending
*storage compartments with hinged doors on both sides of sub box -pending
*false bottom trunk - allows tire, jack, etc. to be slipped under sub box
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1.5Tips to Dynasty/New yorker etc. owners
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This is the section where I'll put up all the stuff I learned the hard way for people starting out on their project.

GROUNDS
Many "pros" will tell you to ground your added electronics using an existing factory ground location.
This is problematic. First off, you'll find that the grounded wires might not be anywhere near where you want them. But my big complaint is that (especially in the trunk with a subwoofer - vibrations) once the screw hole has been made to hold several ring terminals it will not tighten well and you'll get a poor ground.
So don't do it. Put the grounds where you need them and limit each hole to one wire - this will ensure a tight connection.
Supposedly you may get a "ground loop" but I haven't had this happen.
Also, messing with, and ultimately loosening a factory ground can influence a modern car (1990 and up) in ways you'd never think. That ground you yank will send an error code to the computer and set the car to a "fail safe" mode - in my case the annoying habit of the car to want to shift into 2nd from third or fourth while you're on the freeway - even though the ground has nothing to do with the transmission.

BUDGET
This was my first install, so I was stupid. I came out way over budget. A $300 deck that does all the tricks is a good deal but don't forget all the little stuff.
Wire and connectors get real expensive real fast and if you're like me you leave these as an afterthought. Everything I used was either entry level grade, of medium quality, or was on one hell of a sale. Yet, I still spent a fortune (for me anyway).
So, while small improvements may seem small, they have a ripple effect that drives up the cost quick (exp. I wanted to add a center channel speaker and figured $90 for the components wasn't bad - but don't forget the extra amp, the extra wire, the fabrication you'll need to do to fit it and on and on)
Time as well as money will be spent alot quicker than you think if you're not careful.
My sugggestion is to do your upgrades one at a time. Sure it's easy to say "Why not dynamat the car interior while I've got her apart to do work on interior panels - it'll save time in the long run." But I found the long run was longer than I thought. My car sat for literally a year undriveable while I did everything at once. So, do it bit by bit. If you do it all, it will take longer; but you may find that some things won't seem so important once you see how much work the others are.

***TIP***
My best advice for your stereo install is to figure up what type of system you want and write it all down.

Then figure out how much power wire, ground wire, speaker wire, connectors and zipties you'll need. Go with the bigger gauge power wires, as this will allow system updates at no extra cost. Also, go heavy on your measurements. I did this and found my overestimating lengths turned out to produce about the required feet.

Then, layout the wiring through the whole car. This will allow you to keep driving the car during construction and will make installing the amps and speakers a lot less of a hassle later.

While your doing all this keep an eye on the cost of the products you want. Prices tend to fluctuate seasonally and every now and then there is a really good deal out there.

I'd recc. waiting about one full year before finally buying, so that you know what to look for, what is good quality and what is a good deal.

Suspension
Bad news - NO ONE makes lowered stiffer springs for this car.(Since I wrote this, a fellow Dynasty owner posted that some could be fit from another chrysler product, and he may be right, but I haven't looked into the matter - I ran out of money) I was told to have a set custom wound. Sure if you've got $600 + the install!

Interior
If you're starting and are nervous about taking this apart - I found, and it's probably true on almost all cars - nothing is bolted. Use a flat head screwdriver wrapped in a towel to pry up panels - but "feel" around a little first - you will find an ocasional bolt.
The roof has some sort of wannabe dynamat on its skin - but not enough to cover it.
Door panels have NO foam in the front and the rear does - makes no sense. But chuck this foam. It's so light I doubt it does anything - replace it with your choice of CAE foams.

Rear Deck Panel
To change out your 6x9's you've got to remove the whole damn rear seat, then the deck cover - a real pain in the a*s!
Go ahead and cut the holes out so speaker swaps won't be such a chore ever again.

Door Panels
That clear tarp material you'll see is important- DO NOT throw it away. I had a neighbor replace his window and he chucked the plastic. Big mistake - though it's cut all over it may provide mininmal heat rejection, but more importantly - it keeps water off the back of the plastic skin, and the wiring. Glue it back on after dynamating - I used a clear RTV silicone - get it at any auto parts store.
Also lots of people dynamat right over all the unused cutouts in the steel. I don't recc you do this. Look close - some of those holes are there so you can replace stuff - like the outer window weather belt stripping for exp.
You'll find that the front door panels will crack right at the leading edge where the protruded door handle / power window tray meets up with the dash when closed. This is a source of bad rattle over any imperfect road. To fix it, remove the panel and scuff the plastic with course sandpaper. Then use JB quick weld and build up a good lump of material to hold it together. Chrysler made this area very thin and put a sharp corner (sharp corners or jagged cuts are "stress concentraitions" where the stress, ie force per unit area, are highest.) to it to boot! There is no way anyone's dynasty is not cracked here and it is a huge design flaw!
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