Enter the Headbanger (Part 3)

I thought I had gotten as far on the headbanger as I intended to for this camping season.... but, today, I wrap this puppy up. Pretty much. I designed, assembled and wired it in Part 1. In Part 2, I figured out how to mount it into the bus, filled in all the gaps with cardboard and applied trunk carpet everywhere a headliner would not be. And, of course, there was more wiring. Today, we complete the headbanger enough for use while we consider how and if it could be improved.

Before I begin, for my US readers, Hapy Flag Day. Earlier this year, I mentioned Phil and Phrends touring through the PacNW. We did that run, and I'll post on that adventure here shortly. But first, the completion-ish of the headbanger.

Headlining the Headbanger

The next logical step was applying headliner to the parts of the headbanger that were still exposed cardboard and OSB. I had a section of material that had been cut off the start of the roll that was about 2 feet deep (56" wide). I needed 19 inches. With the extra material, I was able to get the lines in the headliner to align with the bottom straight edge of the headbanger. I set the cabinet upside down on the tool cabinet with the rear edge facing me. I flopped the material over the speaker boxes and set the lines parallel with the rear edge. I rolled the material back on itself and applied contact cement to the OSB (2 coats) and then a light brushing on the headliner backside. I set the edge and flattened it with my hands. Once set, I rotated the cabinet 180* so the just-cemented part was facing away from me. I worked my way towards me, applying generous amounts of contact cement from side to side in about 6" wide swathes. I double-coated the cabinet, while single-coating the headliner. At each step, I smoothed the headliner down so there were minimal wrinkles and pulls.

With the main section covered, I considered the sides. I had enough material so I didn't need to cut completely separate pieces, but I would need a seam. I decided to make a long seam along the angled section rather than a short seam along the flat bottom at the rear. I did this for 2 reasons. First, the lines of the headliner run straight up-and-down like this, and they would have been running at an odd angle had I just folded along that edge. Second, I was having a hard time visualizing where to make the cut along that shorter edge. I made the fold, applied the headliner with contact cement and then cut off the extra floppy bit. In the end, I am not thrilled with the seam and will look for ideas for how to cover it with something visually inobtrusive. From a distance, it looks fine, I suppose.

All wrapped with headliner, I needed to remove the section in the middle. This cut was not my finest work, and after the less than perfect seams along the outer edge, these cuts further confirmed the need for something to clean-up the transition from trunk carpet to headliner. a small plastic 90* strip might work. Anyway, last, I cut the holes for the speakers and then poked holes through the headliner from inside the speaker boxes for the speaker mounting screws.

Install

I had hoped to have the headliner on the rear ceiling before installing the headbanger, but it's not in and I want to get Hapy on the road. So, I jumped to the install, and ultimately, this was a good thing. My method for raising the cabinet for install is unorthodox, but it worked. I set a plastic recycling tub onto the rear bed cushion. Onto that, I stacked the top and bottom cushions for the rock-n-roll bed. This wobbly stack sets the cabinet in the perfect spot to send through the rear bolts. These are all M4 bolts with lock washers and plain washers. These line up perfectly. Added to the left-center bolt are the grounding ring terminals for the USB chargers. I sent the bolts through enough to loosely hold the rear of the cabinet in place. While I could still reach them, I plugged in the speaker and the USB wires. Then I moved around to the front.

Up front, I discovered that the outer mounts were not going to work. The passenger side mount had the riv-nut in the wrong place (just barely, but wrong). The driver side mount riv-nut did not set, falling out as I tried to thread into it. I discovered that the location was too roundy for a riv-nut to really grab on after trying to set another riv-nut and failing. I know, I posted that I checked the alignment in part 2. I did, but checking the alignment and actually installing are 2 different things, and they are apparently different enough to matter. Lesson learned. So, the front is now held in place with 2 M4 bolts instead of 4. These were sent up the center, around the leading edge "gap filler". Now that it is all together and in place, that center gap fill probably could have been eliminated. As it is, it is very close to the rear light fixture. I may remove it in a later version, but it really does finish off that top edge, and it does pull the 2 speaker box sides together. As to the front edge mounts, I may send through a couple self-tapping sheet metal screws to help hold the cabinet up. It pains me to think that way, though, and as of right now, the cabinet it holding firm to the ceiling.

Once I had the front bolts torqued down, I torqued down the rear ones, and made sure the cables were tucked up out of the way. Satisfied, I pulled the rock-n-roll bed cushions and the recycling tub down. You can see the cushions through the rear window in the picture below.

Speaker Install

Installing speakers is not exactly new ground to cover. The only thing that made this interesting was that I was doing it upside down. Quick side-bar, though... I was able to get in and out the rear tail gate much easier than I expected to. In fact, it is easier to get in/out that way now, than it was 10+ years ago when the original 1972 Westfalia shelf was in there. Figure that I am not getting more nimble; this much smaller unit, and, with the angled front (front is front), it is not nearly as intrusive as the old shelf. I was able to sit upright on the bed (no rock-n-roll parts yet). I would wager that if I sat up suddenly in the middle of the night from a dead sleep, I would not slam my head against the underside of this cabinet. More and more winning.

Anyway, about the speaker install: One speaker at a time, I stuffed poly-fill into the speaker boxes... well, I stuffed poly-fill into the sides and corners of the speaker-boxes. Putting it anywhere else, it would have just fallen out. Then, I wired up the speaker and held it in place (with the cover) and screwed it into the headbanger. Repeat for the second side. Once wired up, I flipped the switch to turn them on and shazam, we have more sound blowing. Anxious to try it out, I closed all the doors, hopped into the driver seat and cranked up whatever was playing on the hard rock station at the time (Cowboy by Kid Rock). Wow. So much sound. After Kid Rock finished, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" started, giving me a sense of the system's fuller dynamics. This is gonna be fun.

Well, that's it for now. I will probably revisit the headbanger when I lower it to put the headliner on the rear ceiling. We are going to drive around like this for a while, though, to see whether we really need or want to change anything. Right now, it seems pretty great.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Enter the Headbanger (Part 2)

The effort to design and build a custom headbanger cabinet took a while. And, there is a ton of detail, so I split this into multiple posts. Ultimately, this took me a few weeks of sporadic, and sometimes dedicated time, to do. At this point, I have the cabinet structure built, the speaker boxes attached and the speaker wire in place. So today, we solve for the mounting, finish the shaping, add trunk carpet and finish the electrical bits.

Plan to Mount

gap-filling

Prior to the assembly I described in Part 1, I rough-looked at a mounting plan. I took the cobbled-together OSB almost-a-cabinet out to the bus to consider how I could attach it. The cabinet was mostly stable, but I felt that adding the speaker boxes and other bits would help me plan for the mounting brackets. I couldn't be sure what I could reach or could not reach without actually having the speakers in, the shelf in, etc. With a considerably heavier cabinet, I headed out to the rear end of the bus. When I held a single speaker box in place, I used a rubber strap to hold it against the torsion spring for the rear hatch. That would not work this time. Instead, I stacked cushions and whatever I could lay hands on underneath it to wedge the cabinet up against the ceiling. It looked ridiculous and I regret not having taken a picture of the wobbly stand it was on, but I could think about where to place the brackets without a balancing act or having the cabinet shift side to side or front to back as I considered different angles.

I discovered that my initial measurements were slightly off for the inner supports, and I had to remove about 1/2" of the front-most 3 inches (front to back) off the top of the top-most edge of the 2 inner supports to snug-in against the ceiling. In the picture on the right, you can make out a small cut-away just above the chairback in the background. After some quick adjustments with a hand saw, I could return the head banger to the bus for fitment.

 

filling in gaps with cardboard

The cabinet is not terribly heavy, and even with the speakers installed, I don't think it will be more than, say, 20 pounds. While it is not a big deal overall-weight-wise, it is very front-heavy, and I think that will matter. Figure, the speaker boxes and the speakers are most of the weight and that weight is all front-of-center. So, the rear mounts will provide stability, but the front mounts will be carrying the weight. This is especially obvious in the picture on the right, here, where I have a roll of tape wedged under the passenger-side speaker box so it will sit flat on a table. I decided that I would put a bracket on all 4 supports up front. On the outer supports, the bracket will point out and on the inner supports, the bracket will point in. Any other orientation would have been unreachable because of the speaker-boxes. Either in the interest of consistency or overkill, I decided I would put 4 on the rear as well, but with the installs reversed: outer brackets facing inward and inner brackets facing outward. This was necessary to account for the added shelf running all the way back to the rear edge of the inner supports, effectively blocking my access to a mount point above in the rear.

 

I marked on the ceiling and on the cabinet where the brackets should go, and then took the cabinet back into the garage where I installed 1" angle brackets with wood screws. I returned to the bus with the brackets mounted and re-checked the spots in the ceiling where the holes needed to be bored in, marking them clearly with a sharpie. Continuing my avoidance of sheet metal screws, I bored the holes out for and then installed M4 riv-nuts. I confirmed the will-be-cabinet mounts aligned with the riv-nuts and then removed it so I could complete the cabinet. 

One More Thing

cardboard rear-support

While I was working on the ceiling, I prepared the install of the rear dome light between the 2 speakers. I had run the power leads earlier, and I was already there, with a drill. I laid down on my back, and considered where we would be lying down reading a book. Based on where a book would naturally rest in my lap, with my head propped up on a pillow, I figured where the light position should be, and marked it on the ceiling. I measured off of that to set the holes for the fixture, with the switches facing forward. I bored the holes and set 2 more M3 riv-nuts in place so the light fixture will mount with bolts, not screws. Again, that riv-nut tool kit is becoming one of my favorite new acquisitions.

Fill-in The Front

Once I had positioned and installed the speaker boxes, there remained a large gap between the top edge of the speaker box and the leading edge of the headbanger. I filled in this space with carefully cut firm cardboard that I then carpenter-glued into place. These stretches of cardboard will only serve as a backing for the headliner, but they are firm enough to hold in place. Since they are far out of the way, I think that once the cabinet is installed, the headliner and the underlying cardboard will go untouched for years. This pictures along the right side show the fill-in efforts, and how I created some support-from-behind with additional cardboard bits. I taped the seams as well, so the headliner lays down smoothly. After the glue set-up, I tested the relative strength of the cardboard bits by pressing on them with my fingers. They held firm enough that I figured they will hold up.

Final Assembly: Trunk Carpet

USB panel and ports

I was approaching the home-stretch, or at least it felt that way. It was final assembly time, and that includes final surfaces. I chose to use 2 different fabrics. For the areas where hands will touch regularly, like on the face where the USB chargers are and the shelf, I am using trunk carpet. I figure it will show a dirty finger less than headliner material would, and it is designed to withstand some friction. For all of the other surfaces (outer-facing sides, over the speaker boxes, the very bottom) will get headliner. They both apply with stinky DAP contact cement (or spray adhesive). I brushed both the trunk carpet and the target underlayment, wait a few seconds for the DAP to get tacky and set it. You only get one shot, so measure and plan carefully. I chose to use many small pieces, in contrast to the single complicated piece I used on Oliver's sub-box. To create some time to fiddle the pieces around, I used carpenters glue on the larger faces of the trunk carpet. It does not set up as fast, so you can wiggle the carpet into the exact right spot. Then, I did the outer 1/2" edges with the contact cement.

 

fun with wiring

Before carpeting the USB face, I installed the face to the cabinet with a staple gun and tapped the staples home with a framing hammer. To make sure everything stayed put, I edged the panel with carpenters glue. Once well-fixed, some trunk carpet went on. I cut out the holes for the USB chargers and the speaker switch with a razor blade and then installed them too. Before I repeated the install process with the shelf, I applied trunk carpet behind the USB face on the floor around the rear edge to finish the look. I also applied trunk carpet to the floor area behind the speaker boxes, around the inner supports and on the rear-facing side of the outer supports. I did not address the rear of the USB panel, so in that large black sea, there is this large white rectangle. Yuk. I'm not sure if there will be an easy way to get in there and "black" it. My goal was anywhere that could be seen or touched inside the bottom-most shelf from the rear hatch got trunk carpet. The result would be a view from the rear will be completely blacked out, and any use of the rear-facing shelf has dirty-finger protecting trunk carpet. That center section is virtually unusable from the rear so I may make a block-off insert to keep the look clean, and the wires from getting disturbed. The plate will wait. 

Final Assembly: Wiring

At this point, I wanted to finish the wire routing, so the rear-facing area was as tidy as I could manage. I ran the power and ground wires for the USB chargers out through the hole I had bored for the left (front is front) speaker wires, and routed them up the outside of that inner support, setting them immobile with staples. The speaker wires got covered in that black plastic wire wrap so they will not get caught on anything that is set on the rear-facing shelves and, because of all the black carpet, they will visually disappear. I verified that I had enough USB supply-side wire to reach the mid-point above the center shelf, added female wire connectors to them and then popped a chair-connector onto those connectors. 

Out at the bus, I added a male wire connector to the orange wire, completing the set up for the headbanger wiring. I also made sure that the speaker signal supply cables were long enough to drape over the right speaker, where the wires in the bus are. In the picture on the right, you can see just how much extra speaker wire I have hanging down from the bus ceiling. Why? So I can connect things before mounting the headbanger and then tuck the extra up above. Also, by having such long speaker wire leads heading to the stereo, I could unplug the headbanger and plug in a pair of float-remote speakers. Will I? Probably not, but I saw little harm in creating the option.

I was almost ready for the shelf. This was complicated a little bit by the OSB supports I had made. I wanted them to visually disappear, so I spent some time cutting and shaping small bits of trunk carpet to cover them. Finally, the shelf went in, as evidenced by the pictures above. Unlike the glue-on and staple fun of the USB charger face mounting, I wrapped the shelf with carpet and pushed it into place from the front. It is effectively held in place by friction.

The keen eye will notice that the trunk carpet needed some perfecting and trimming. I will address that before I get after the headliner install... which will wait until next time / later. I am feeling the time pressure, and feel the need to get this buttoned up soon. Phil and Friends is coming up fast and we don't have any interior lights or a stereo. So, this is where I am leaving the headbanger for now.... sitting on the rear of my US General rolling tool cabinet. I will get back to this, just not for a little while, probably. LOL's.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Enter the Headbanger (Part 1)

It seems like the scope of Hapy's interior grows every week. I was just going to do a sound-containment effort, and it has grown in all directions almost from the jump. Today, I visit the furthest end of the sound system: the rear speakers. This little project actually took a few weeks to do, and this post got super long, so I split it into two. I will post the other half once I complete the work. Ha! Apologies for no post last week. I had spent the prior week visiting my son T in Los Angeles, and got back the Monday night before. Before I begin, Hapy Birthday Emily (my sister back East)!

How Did We Get Here?

headbanger from a 1976

So, I'm hanging out with Hapy, thinking about what to do next on the sound deadening one weekend morning and it occurred to me that if I were ever to want speakers overhead in the back of the bus, now was the time to wire them. Once the sound deadener is all the way in, snaking more wires will be much more difficult. While looking around at the furthest back part of the rear ceiling, I remembered that both the original Westfalia and the 1979 had a shelf or headbanger cabinet covering up the rear tailgate torsion springs. So, what had started as a "let's just run some wire" became "let's add a shelf/cabinet thing to hold speakers and cover up that rear-end ugly". More evidence that this bus will never be finished. I actually like that thought, but I'm weird.

Rear Speakers

speaker boxes

Recall, my earlier version of the rear speakers included a pair of speakers that basically floated around. When we were parked, we could move them out the slider for music under the canopy. I did not want to lose that capability, but felt that adding a pair of semi-fixed speakers back in the sleeping area would help the sound because we could actually dial-in our on-the-road sound based on those fixed speaker locations. I ordered a pair of Rockford Fosgate 6x9 speakers and a boom-mat from Crutchfield with a plan to flush-fit them into the lower ceiling, but.... ultimately, I simply could not bring myself to cut 2 big oval holes into the bus. I thought about a pair of 6x9 speaker pods from the guy who supplied the pods for Oliver a few years ago. Those were okay, but the 6x9 options seemed really big, and hung down over 4 inches. I found a speaker box that is curved on the back instead (picture on the right, here). I felt that these would give me more options for targeting the sound and they are quite small. The white lettering is absolutely atrocious, so I literally shot them with black spray-paint to cover it. If I could have gotten these boxes without carpet, I would have preferred that. I intend to cover them with headliner, because, while the spray paint removed the shocking white, the stitched letters are still visible. Wow, so ugly... but they will do the job.

The wiring for these speakers followed the line that the rear defroster wire takes: up the passenger-side A-pillar, and inside the lip along the ceiling. Behind the rear slider, they followed the course along the passenger-side ceiling.

 

Positioning and Modeling

rubber-strap thinking

I started thinking through options for how these speakers could integrate with the roundy rear end by hanging a speaker with rubber straps from the tail gate torsion springs. There is a support that runs from the lower ceiling back to the inner edge of the spring hinge on both sides. I used those supports as my outer edge fixed point. With a speaker in place, I checked the rear-view mirror. I tweaked the angle and tried again. I wanted the top edge to be within an inch of the ceiling, but did not want the lower edge to block too much of my visibility. I arrived at a viable compromise with the outer top-edge of the speaker sitting about 1/2" below the ceiling. Surprisingly, this "compromise spot" set the speaker fairly close to 45*.  This location would remove the top inch or so from the rear glass when looking through the rear view mirror. Based on the picture above, this is more than what is lost on the later bay-window Westfalia when the headbanger cabinet is installed. Can I see out the back? Yes. Will I be able to see out the back when it is packed with stuff? Of course not, but this cabinet is not the difference-maker; my packing ability is. Movin' on, the biggest difference in having this cabinet will be when I try to get in/out of the rear hatch or lean over the open engine access hatch. When I do either of those, I will be reminded why we call these cabinets headbangers.

With the position set, I shifted to solving for mounting. I started with some thin cardboard out of the recycling (surprise: I used a 12-pack box), measuring, cutting and fitting. This was not especially fruitful until I started marking up locations on the ceiling: inner edge of both speakers, and the center point both on the lower ceiling as well as on the upper lip of the tail gate. Now, with more reliable measurements,  I could determine a viable model. I planned for a shelf to run along the entire bottom, from outer speaker edge to outer speaker edge: 37" long, but only 5" deep. To help make the model better, I simply cut a 37x5 rectangle out of the remaining OSB from when I made the front shelf (See New Cab Shelf). With that shelf in hand, I modeled the supports with thicker cardboard. 

support modeled

The rear edge of the shelf required a 4" tall support. From the front edge of the shelf, the support will climb at a 45* angle. The supports on the ends will meet the ceiling directly. The 2 center supports, however, required an additional 2.5" of straight vertical to reach the ceiling, due to the curvy nature of the ceiling. The rear contour of the supports angle from the 4" drop up to 6.5" at the front (on the end supports) of the shelf before running straight forward. A few inches forward of the point where the lower line angles upward, the middle supports run straight up another 2.5" before running straight forward. The image on the right, here, shows the modeled shapes. I tested these with the OSB shelf, placing the cardboard on the spots I marked for where the speaker ends will be. Things looked good 'nuf.

From Cardboard to OSB

I took these cardboard cut-outs and applied them to the cut-up OSB, making 4 supports to go with the bottom shelf. After some fun with the jig-saw, I had 4 supports. This effectively used the remaining OSB, but I had enough to make the structure. Consider, between each of the outer and each inner supports, a speaker box will get mounted. Between the inner supports, I have an opportunity. My plan is to mount a pair of USB charger ports, another shelf and then enclose whatever is left. Since I am out of OSB, I will look to other materials I have lying around. Ultimately, the angled front face will get covered with headliner material, allowing it to at least visually integrate into the ceiling, and cover up the simply awful lettering on the speakers while I'm at it. Win!

glue-in the supports

Onto the base shelf, I drew the lines for where the supports were to be attached and confirmed again that the speakers would fit between. Then, I took the shelf and one-each of the supports and sorta-kinda test fit into the bus (keeping 3 pieces of wood held consistent with 2 hands is tricky). I felt satisfied that the lines, spaces and supports matched up with where I intended them to land, but, again, it's hard juggling 3 pieces of wood. When I built the speaker box for Oliver (See need reference), I learned that the screws were really not the key to making a solid box. The screws simply held the parts together while the carpenter's glue sets. Knowing this, I did not bother with screws at all; I used large clamps. Since I only have 2 large clamps, I did 1 support at a time: apply glue to both sides, set the support in place and then clamp both ends of the shelf overnight. The picture on the right here shows the last support getting glued in. Yes, that is one of those US General tool cabinets I posted about (See $50 Tool Chest) and that is Oliver in the background patiently waiting for dry weather and a trip to get smog certified.

 

More Planning

OSB supports

Now in one piece, I could plan for the USB chargers and such. I figure that the chargers are 2-1/4 inches in diameter, and we will need about a half an inch underneath it to snap-off the cover. To retain symmetry, I planned for a half-inch above, so I rounded up, making the USB face 3-1/2 inches tall. Because of the angle, I figured that the USB chargers would go on the lowest spot, since they take up the least amount of space. Above the chargers, I will put a shelf for setting the things that are getting charged (phones), and, again, because of the angle, the shelf being 3-1/2 inches up from the bottom will increase the depth of the shelf enough for a phone to fit without hanging off the edge, but only barely. The shelf doesn't really need a top, but to clean up the leading edge of the cabinet, I planned for a short drop front which I will cover with headliner. For materials, I have scrap bits of Oriented Strand Board (OSB) to make mounting points for the various flat surfaces. For the flats, I have one of the 1979 Westfalia panels I can cut up. Yes, I could save that for someone, and I could go find some veneer of some kind. But, this is free, and on-hand.

Some Assembly

I drew my plan onto the supports, and cut up a small pile (6) of OSB supports. With my limited number of clamps and vice-grips, I had to follow a similar pattern as I did with the supports: glue as many as I could support with what I have on hand and then wait a day. I oriented the 6 bits to support the USB charger ports and the small shelf directly above.

speaker prep

I then shifted to the speaker boxes. First, I prepared the boxes for speakers to get installed. I set a speaker and corresponding grill into the hole, marked and then drilled out the 4 holes. I set the speakers aside and returned to getting the boxes attached to the cabinet. These boxes deliver with wiring cups already glued in, but the location of the supports will completely hide them. I thought about boring holes in the supports, but decided instead to cut a small channel out of the speaker boxes and run the wire into that gap between the support and box. Then, I drilled 4 holes for each speaker, 2 per support, about 1/4" in from the long diagonal edge. Holding the speaker box in position, I drilled marks into the speaker box fabric, pulled the box aside and then completed the bore. I then returned the box to the cabinet and sent 1-1/4" long wood screws in to hold the speaker boxes in place.

 

For the shelf and USB charger surface, I measured out and cut with a razorblade the rectangular shapes. Into the USB charger surface, I bored 2 2-1/4" holes for the USB charger ports with a hole-saw bit on my drill.

Wire It Up

At this point, the weather outside was frightful. I wanted to take the cabinet out to Hapy to test fit, but I wanted no part of the wind/sleet/rain mix that was going on (it has been an interesting, albeit cold and wet, Spring in the Pacific NorthWest). I worked through the speaker wiring instead. We like the versatility that the plug-in speakers offer so, I added 2 plug-ports on the right rear edge of the cabinet. We will be able to add rear-facing sound our the rear hatch simply by moving the remote 6x9's. You can just see the rough-in plugs in the lower right corner of the picture below.

 

rough speaker wiring

Last, I wanted an ability to turn off the rear speakers from the back, without turning the whole system off. I figured, if there were a point where one of us wanted to take a nap, but the other was just hanging out under the canopy, the under-canopy person may still want some sounds. To resolve, we will fade the speakers to the rear, so the floating speakers still get signal, and then turn off the overheads. How? I added a STDP (single toggle/throw, double-post) switch. I wired the ground/negative-side of each speaker wire through the switch, and planned for the switch between the USB chargers (1/2" hole). The ports and the switch significantly increased the wiring complexity, but once completed, we have 2 plugs ready to plug into the speaker wires in the ceiling, a pair of fixed speakers overhead, a pair of ports for the floating speakers, and an override switch to turn off the sound signals passing into the cabinet.

 

I am going to stop here. Partly because this post has already gotten super long, partly because I have already spent a couple of weeks on this (and I post weekly), and partly because this is as far as I have gotten. I will complete the assembly, cover parts of it with trunk carpet, cover other parts with headliner and then get the cabinet installed/wired into Hapy. When I get all that done, I'll write and post "part 2". Maybe the weather will improve by then.

Thanks, as always, for following along-