Latest interior work, still a lot more to do:

If my psychiatrist's sofa was as comfortable as my Recaros; he might have been able to talk me out of spending this much money on an old mommy van! I don't really have a psychiatrist...he got scared & quit!

Let me introduce you to this badass:

 If I have to explain, you wouldn't understand!

It 's a whole lot meaner than it looks, it drives my Orion H2 12 inch DVC subwoofer in a 2.5 cubic feet 3/4" MDF 4" ported 14" inside depth box. It hits like Mike Tyson. Even the kick drum on Petula Clark's 1966 version of 'Downtown' will make you urinate blood for a week. However, classical music will pulverize kindey stones like ultrasound does. The double kick drum from vintage Judas Priest i.e. the Stained Class album, feels like an East L.A. street gang beatdown!

October 4th, 2009, this about where these subs wil set in the final project:

All of this will be enclosed & disquised to look like an old Marshall amplifier concert speaker, old habits die hard!

 The California Profile is bridged to drive a JL Audio 12" sub in a sealed 1.5 cubic foot box, it produces very, very tight bass. Efficent speaker paired with a very low power amp about 100 watts total RMS, probably peaks at 175. The JL's sound signal comes out of my Alpine Sound Processor's sub out. The Orion's signal comes out of my Alpine head unit's sub out which has four different controls that I can use to 'mold' the signal. Anyway, it and the Orion just wrap around each other, acoustically speaking, that is.

 The Denon amp drives Infinitys in the door, along with Clairon mids & Alpine tweeters in the sail panels up front.

August 23rd 2009; Just found some Ferrari Logos to put on the speaker grills, the Infinitys will have the Ferrari shield on them, the Rockfords will have the word 'Ferrari' on them.

Rockford Fosgate 4X6s in the rear. If anything is wrong with sound quality it is that the highs bounce around in there like the magic bullet in Kennedy's limo at Dealy Plaza, of course most of the interior is missing, hell; I am starting to get an interiorotity complex! The Alpines head unit's treble gain is turned down all of the way,-7dB! If I try to 'scape it' down with my sound processor it sounds really 'flat'. I think it will heal once the interior is back together. It will have a small bed in the back of the van, that will kill any echo, high or low. I wasn't gonna do it, but now I'm thinkin' Dynamat it.

I will also be building a console that will replace the factory one. It will need to able to house my old AudioControl EQX. That will control the front soundstage. I'm gonna add some speakers, so that the rear seat passengers will have a better soundstage. I know it 'sounds' like overkill, but it is too easy to do, if I don't do it now, I may regret it later. I have also decided to replace the HVAC controls to thier original location. The brain part of the Alpine sound processor will also set in the new console, but will be removable to hand to the back seat passangers, for control of the aforementioned soundstage. This paragraph compliments of Starbuck's Coffee - Mocha Latte Grande!

The idea was to give it studio quality sound, I have a very a very precise system at home, complete with spectrum analyzer and an oscilloscope. And, my intent was for this to sound similar; problem is the exhaust is so freakin' loud that you can't listen to Pink Floyd or Steely Dan or classical without that thing growlin' when i'm out prowlin'. At any rate, loud ass rock kicks ass; I guess that's something I can live with.

The new gauges, I replaced the first ones I had in there:

Notice the white line in relation to the dashboard; apparently digital cameras will not yet take over the autopilot program of GMC Safari vans. But thank God, He did place a wide spot precisley where I needed it on US119 North, just south of Clendenin!

The head unit & sound field processor                 & at night

Recaros, just after being reupolstered.

For those of you that have never sat in an 80s vintage Recaro; it's kinda lika a hammock, but for you butt. Put it like this; they are even fun to set in & PRETEND like you're drivin'!

The side bolsters clamp down so tight, it's like you're bein' hugged by a fat girl!

The knob centers are now Guinness beer bottle tops, the first couple were easy to get to fit; the more I tried to generate fresh bottle tops, the harder it became to make the relief cuts around the edge of the cap. Like I said the first two were easy, but I had to go through two & half six packs to get the other four correct ;)

New door panel. You can see one of the Infinitys in the lower door panel. May put some LEDs or neon on the inside of the speaker grill, those little 6.5s look like they are really pumpin' outta beat. Beside the door lock is the factory mids placement, but 'replaced' with Clairon mids. Thought about makin' my own grills outta the same mesh we made the grill out of & paint it to match the body.                       

Instrument Cluster:                                               & at night

The first panel installed            Passanger Door Panel                 

These are the orthopedic edition Recaros that will be the front seats, the ones for the back are the base grade Recaros.  

Before & after, notice also, how much better the lawn looks. I work on it when I'm not workin' on the van. I have a small group of deer that go across my lawn almost every evening, they 'mark' in the lawn; hence the brown patches of grass.