ok, you all know that i was in texas for 6 days (supposed to be 5, but we will go into that later) here is how it all went down.....
a couple months ago, i was contacted by joedawg54 regarding an audio system for his newly purchased, but not yet driven 2013 raptor. he is an active military member and was going to be on leave and wanted to have a complete system installed in his truck. well, a miscommunication happened the week before he was supposed to be here, and he thought i was in mountain view colorado,(7 hours away) however, my shop is in mountain view california (20 hours away) from where he is in texas. the original plan was to have him drive to my shop and leave it for 3 days while i did the install. but since there was a mix up, there as no way he could drive out to ca to have me install it. thats where he came up with the idea of flying me out to texas to do the install there. with a lot of scrambling and planning in 10 days, we were able to finalize details. joe was taking his truck to tmx for suspension upgrades, so we planned that i would do the install the 3 days before. so i had half of sunday, monday, and tuesday to have the truck to myself. and we figured i would need part of thursday as well just in case.
shameless plug.....
TMX is awesome because of the time frame i had and the hours i planned on working, brandon and his wife decided that i should do the install in their garage, and stay in their home while i was there. this allowed me to work as late as i wanted, and not have to worry about hotels. i have never met these people in person, and the first time i do, they let me stay in their home. i dont know what to say to that. jason, even went as far as going to let me use his truck while i was going to be there as well. however a slight issue caused his truck to not be there. but luckily since i was staying at brandons house, i didnt have to go anywhere. these people are awesome!!! they kept me fed and hydrated in that texas heat. and made sure that i had everything i needed. they were a big help in allowing me to complete the job on time...... almost..... ( more on that soon)
so a big thank you to all the TMX guys, and wives, who put up with an overheated asian for 5 days.
back to the job. i arrive sunday afternoon to be greeted by 90+ temps and 3000% humidity..... holy crap..... brandon and joe pick me up from the airport and took me out to lunch. after that, i decided it was time to get started. the first thingi had to do, was strip the truck, and i mean strip the truck..... as a last minute add on, we decided to use some sound deadening, so i had to get 2 bulk rolls of focal bam xxl overnighted so i would have it on monday. think of dynamat, but better. so i spend sunday night taking everything out of the truck. well, the first thing went wrong on monday. ups showed up, but we somehow managed to miss them. so we spent some time tracking down the ups driver and getting it redelivered later that evening. crap.... first hurdle. so i spent some time installing the viper 5904 and kept myself busy until the ups driver finally showed at 6:30 monday night. that put a wrench in my plans because i was expecting to be able to have the interior going back in by that time. so.... i decided to pull an allnighter monday night. about 5:30 am i am cramped from being in the same position for so long while i am rewiring the oem amp. i decide to take a break and lay on my back for a few minutes to stretch out my back..... big mistake.... brandon comes out probably an hour and a half later only to find me face down asleep in the back of joes truck. hahahaha. but i got to tell you, the focal sound deadening does make for a nice mattress..... i was pretty tired at that point. anyways, back to his install. after the sound deadening goes in, i get the speakers installed and the oem amp bypassed and get all the wires ran that i need. crap..... i realize that i dont have the programming module needed for the remote start on the truck. i call my shop and have my guys overnight some parts to me so i can get the alarm done. also in that package was joes gps tracking system for his alarm. he decided to add the smartstart with gps. so tuesday morning comes, and no mail..... we find out that the overnight shipping we paid for, didnt quite make it overnight. so once again, i am waiting on parts. luckily i had the interior and audio system to finish so i went ahead and got the interior back in. wednesday, the tmx guys were taking the truck to get the rims, tires and suspension installed, so i would be out half a day of working time. i pull another allnighter tuesday night and get everything installed and the alarm mostly done, and get the interior mostly in. i left out the parts where i was still working. i was up until about 6am when i finally decided it was time for me to take a nap. wednesday morning, i just barely catch the mail lady. i heard the dogs barking, so i wake up at about 9:30 and decide i should check the front door. crap, its the mail lady and she is putting the notice in the mailbox. i run out and flag her down as she is getting in her jeep to drive off. phew.... just got it. as i was getting everything ready so when i got the truck back, i find that the cleansweep i shipped here, didnt have the calibration disc. oh man.... another issue. i spend all morning looking for a shop that has one. i finally found a local shop who was a jl dealer and asked them for a disc. those jerks decided that they should sell me the disc, even though i am an authorized jl dealer. what a load of crap. those discs com in the cleansweep units, and usually dont get given back to the customer because we do not want them trying to calibrate the units. so they sold me a disc that was supposed to be free, but hey, we didnt have a choice. finally got the disc, and i was dropped off where the truck was getting the suspension done. as soon as they finish, i hurry back to brandons house and need to continue the install so it can be done in time. sound deadening... check, speakers..... check, interior in..... check, alarm in..... check, all i had to do was get the amps mounted and wired and add the gps tracking system. so once again, i am up until the wee hours of the morning sweating my ass off before i finally have everything finished except the mounting of the amps. thursday morning arrives too quickly, and i get started right away on mounting the amps. i was able to squeeze both amps, cleansweep, and summing device under the 1/3 section of the rear seat. tight fit, but it made it. during the tuning process i realized something was off, it turned out that the setting i used on the cleansweep somehow wasnt the right one, and that my speakers were out of phase. i guess those late nights and extreme heat made me lose concentration. simple fix though, and we are back on track. get the system tuned and sounding great. joe has never had a good audio system before. he has only had a sub in the trunk. well this left a huge smile on his face once i got the system tuned for him. we kept listening to songs he knew and cranking up the volume. haha, we could have sat there for hours, but no, i have a plane to catch. so we go over the necessities of the alarm system and audio system and we head off to the airport. damn construction...... the offramp that the nav said to take, was blocked by k rails, and it was a dirt path. so we drive around trying to find the dallas airport. we finally arrive 25 minutes before my plane takes off, only to find out that it is too late to check in...shit, i missed my plane!! so the lady reschedules me for the next flight, however it isnt until friday morning. crap. ended up getting a hotel room with shuttle service so i did finally make it there on time this morning. however i did almost miss my connecting flight in phoenix..... got to san jose airport and had tbone pick me up and drop me off here at the shop, where i have been since i arrived. its about time to head home i think.
to sum it all up, joe got an awesome suspension setup from TMX and he got an awesome audio system from me. we all made new friends and we had a great time (except me, that heat and humidity is horrible) i cant say thank you enough to the tmx guys. they treated both joe and i like we were their lifelong friends. they could have easily said that there was nothing they could do for joe and i for the audio system, but instead they open up their house and garage to us. we will never forget this.
a big thank you for all who helped make this happen. i couldnt have done it without you.
now for some pics. here is joes truck sunday night, and a door panel shot
a couple months ago, i was contacted by joedawg54 regarding an audio system for his newly purchased, but not yet driven 2013 raptor. he is an active military member and was going to be on leave and wanted to have a complete system installed in his truck. well, a miscommunication happened the week before he was supposed to be here, and he thought i was in mountain view colorado,(7 hours away) however, my shop is in mountain view california (20 hours away) from where he is in texas. the original plan was to have him drive to my shop and leave it for 3 days while i did the install. but since there was a mix up, there as no way he could drive out to ca to have me install it. thats where he came up with the idea of flying me out to texas to do the install there. with a lot of scrambling and planning in 10 days, we were able to finalize details. joe was taking his truck to tmx for suspension upgrades, so we planned that i would do the install the 3 days before. so i had half of sunday, monday, and tuesday to have the truck to myself. and we figured i would need part of thursday as well just in case.
shameless plug.....
TMX is awesome because of the time frame i had and the hours i planned on working, brandon and his wife decided that i should do the install in their garage, and stay in their home while i was there. this allowed me to work as late as i wanted, and not have to worry about hotels. i have never met these people in person, and the first time i do, they let me stay in their home. i dont know what to say to that. jason, even went as far as going to let me use his truck while i was going to be there as well. however a slight issue caused his truck to not be there. but luckily since i was staying at brandons house, i didnt have to go anywhere. these people are awesome!!! they kept me fed and hydrated in that texas heat. and made sure that i had everything i needed. they were a big help in allowing me to complete the job on time...... almost..... ( more on that soon)
so a big thank you to all the TMX guys, and wives, who put up with an overheated asian for 5 days.
back to the job. i arrive sunday afternoon to be greeted by 90+ temps and 3000% humidity..... holy crap..... brandon and joe pick me up from the airport and took me out to lunch. after that, i decided it was time to get started. the first thingi had to do, was strip the truck, and i mean strip the truck..... as a last minute add on, we decided to use some sound deadening, so i had to get 2 bulk rolls of focal bam xxl overnighted so i would have it on monday. think of dynamat, but better. so i spend sunday night taking everything out of the truck. well, the first thing went wrong on monday. ups showed up, but we somehow managed to miss them. so we spent some time tracking down the ups driver and getting it redelivered later that evening. crap.... first hurdle. so i spent some time installing the viper 5904 and kept myself busy until the ups driver finally showed at 6:30 monday night. that put a wrench in my plans because i was expecting to be able to have the interior going back in by that time. so.... i decided to pull an allnighter monday night. about 5:30 am i am cramped from being in the same position for so long while i am rewiring the oem amp. i decide to take a break and lay on my back for a few minutes to stretch out my back..... big mistake.... brandon comes out probably an hour and a half later only to find me face down asleep in the back of joes truck. hahahaha. but i got to tell you, the focal sound deadening does make for a nice mattress..... i was pretty tired at that point. anyways, back to his install. after the sound deadening goes in, i get the speakers installed and the oem amp bypassed and get all the wires ran that i need. crap..... i realize that i dont have the programming module needed for the remote start on the truck. i call my shop and have my guys overnight some parts to me so i can get the alarm done. also in that package was joes gps tracking system for his alarm. he decided to add the smartstart with gps. so tuesday morning comes, and no mail..... we find out that the overnight shipping we paid for, didnt quite make it overnight. so once again, i am waiting on parts. luckily i had the interior and audio system to finish so i went ahead and got the interior back in. wednesday, the tmx guys were taking the truck to get the rims, tires and suspension installed, so i would be out half a day of working time. i pull another allnighter tuesday night and get everything installed and the alarm mostly done, and get the interior mostly in. i left out the parts where i was still working. i was up until about 6am when i finally decided it was time for me to take a nap. wednesday morning, i just barely catch the mail lady. i heard the dogs barking, so i wake up at about 9:30 and decide i should check the front door. crap, its the mail lady and she is putting the notice in the mailbox. i run out and flag her down as she is getting in her jeep to drive off. phew.... just got it. as i was getting everything ready so when i got the truck back, i find that the cleansweep i shipped here, didnt have the calibration disc. oh man.... another issue. i spend all morning looking for a shop that has one. i finally found a local shop who was a jl dealer and asked them for a disc. those jerks decided that they should sell me the disc, even though i am an authorized jl dealer. what a load of crap. those discs com in the cleansweep units, and usually dont get given back to the customer because we do not want them trying to calibrate the units. so they sold me a disc that was supposed to be free, but hey, we didnt have a choice. finally got the disc, and i was dropped off where the truck was getting the suspension done. as soon as they finish, i hurry back to brandons house and need to continue the install so it can be done in time. sound deadening... check, speakers..... check, interior in..... check, alarm in..... check, all i had to do was get the amps mounted and wired and add the gps tracking system. so once again, i am up until the wee hours of the morning sweating my ass off before i finally have everything finished except the mounting of the amps. thursday morning arrives too quickly, and i get started right away on mounting the amps. i was able to squeeze both amps, cleansweep, and summing device under the 1/3 section of the rear seat. tight fit, but it made it. during the tuning process i realized something was off, it turned out that the setting i used on the cleansweep somehow wasnt the right one, and that my speakers were out of phase. i guess those late nights and extreme heat made me lose concentration. simple fix though, and we are back on track. get the system tuned and sounding great. joe has never had a good audio system before. he has only had a sub in the trunk. well this left a huge smile on his face once i got the system tuned for him. we kept listening to songs he knew and cranking up the volume. haha, we could have sat there for hours, but no, i have a plane to catch. so we go over the necessities of the alarm system and audio system and we head off to the airport. damn construction...... the offramp that the nav said to take, was blocked by k rails, and it was a dirt path. so we drive around trying to find the dallas airport. we finally arrive 25 minutes before my plane takes off, only to find out that it is too late to check in...shit, i missed my plane!! so the lady reschedules me for the next flight, however it isnt until friday morning. crap. ended up getting a hotel room with shuttle service so i did finally make it there on time this morning. however i did almost miss my connecting flight in phoenix..... got to san jose airport and had tbone pick me up and drop me off here at the shop, where i have been since i arrived. its about time to head home i think.
to sum it all up, joe got an awesome suspension setup from TMX and he got an awesome audio system from me. we all made new friends and we had a great time (except me, that heat and humidity is horrible) i cant say thank you enough to the tmx guys. they treated both joe and i like we were their lifelong friends. they could have easily said that there was nothing they could do for joe and i for the audio system, but instead they open up their house and garage to us. we will never forget this.
a big thank you for all who helped make this happen. i couldnt have done it without you.
now for some pics. here is joes truck sunday night, and a door panel shot
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