bngl3rt's "Midnight Run" build

[bngl3rt]

It's finally time to make a thread, I think. All my work on the car thus far has been fixing little things that broke or were neglected by previous owners. But lately, I've been able to actually do stuff I want to do to it.

This build is inspired by the Audi R8 "Blackbird edition" (google it) - that car is black so the name fits, my car is Midnight Pearl so I've dubbed it the "Midnight Run" edition. Also inspired by Alex Roy's book The Driver, the film 32 Hours 7 Minutes, and so on.

Essentially the goal is a clean, stealthy, fully reversible long-distance road rally build.

A couple of things I've already done:
scorp's excellent mirror mount and hardwire for the V1
Centric (StopTech) slotted rotors and Hawk HP+ pads
Koyo radiator
CT Gen 2 headers & gen 1 exhaust

So now the build can begin in earnest!
Last year I set up a Uniden HP-1 scanner and attached a SpectrumForce VHF antenna to the rear hatch garnish.

That system worked well for a while, but I really don't get enough range off that tiny antenna, and having the scanner flopping around loose in the car while driving is pretty annoying. So I decided a more permanent installation was in order...

First order of business: a better head unit. I needed something with enough aux inputs for all the analog gear, and enough USB ports to charge all the iToys. The Pioneer DEH-80PRS fit the bill so I picked up a spare center console and a double DIN bracket (why DDIN for an SDIN radio, you ask? Keep reading) and got to work.

So, what am I going to put in the other DIN slot? Well, on 11/16, Uniden is said to be announcing their next generation of scanners, including a single-din model which will likely include all the advanced functionality and flexibility of the HP-1.

What to do about antennas? The little SpectrumForce doesn't really give me the range or clarity I want, especially for low-band stuff like CB and the frequencies used by our very favorite California Highway Patrol.

A friend kindly donated a spare OEM spoiler. On this spoiler I intend to mount four antennas - three for the scanner, linked up through a thing called a triplexer (basically turns an array of antennas into one big antenna), plus one for a CB radio. The antennas will be removable and will screw down to NMO (New MOtorola) mounts which will be drilled into the spoiler.

I dropped the spoiler off at the body shop this morning to get drilled out and painted purple:

The head unit is currently driving the OEM speakers but I may add some deck-powered tweeters because the scanner chatter is currently a bit hard to understand (what with it being down by my feet and all).

Other plans include a laser interceptor and hopefully the Raytheon night vision system from the 01-05 Cadillac Deville. I've got a navpod bracket on hand so if I am able to make the night vision work that is where the display for it will go. Also planning to machine a custom piece for the panavise mount to allow the attachment of a 2nd phone (one running Waze and one running V1Connection) as well as provide a place to clip the CB mic.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

 

[RYU]

*subscribed* for sure! Let us know if you need any help along the way.

 

[bngl3rt]

Thanks RYU!

Bottle caps standing in for antennas, we're ready to drill:

Today I picked up a Diamond MX3000 triplexer (for connecting three out of my four antennas to a single radio, namely the forthcoming Uniden scanner) plus the four NMO mounts that are going to go in the holes we're about to drill in the spoiler.

 

[bngl3rt]

Three excellent scanner antennas from DPD productions are in the mail!

http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_scanner.html

 

[PHOEN$X]

Wow, very interesting and unique. Subscribed! I'm wondering how your car will look the next time I see it.

 

[bngl3rt]

Picked up the finished wing from the body shop this morning:

Mmm fresh pretty purple paint.

Mounting holes, yay!

Ok, first order of business: antennas need a ground plane - a flat metal area in some constant ratio to how tall they are. In most mobile radio installs the whole body of the car functions as a ground plane, and in this case that will also be true, but you also need at least a bit of the ground plane to be in direct contact with the ring around the antenna mount. The NSX OEM spoiler is fiberglass (i.e. not a good ground plane) so I chose to address this by coating the inside of the spoiler with aluminum tape.

I basically threaded one looooong piece through from one end of the wing....

All the way through to the other side.

Then slowly peeled off the paper backing and flattened the tape inside the wing with chopsticks.

Added a couple of cross-members under the actual mount holes:

So turns out the mounts are designed to *thread* through a 3/4" hole in a piece of sheet metal, but fiberglass doesn't thread very well, so I ended up having to enlarge the holes slightly and thread the mounts through some washers instead. Lesson learned yet again... test fit everything, then take it all apart again, paint it, and put it back together. Cutting after paint is no fun.

Finally wiring up the mounts!

And finally secure the mounts from the outside.

Finished product - three mounts, and one hole covered with aluminum tape for now because that one is a bitch to get to - I'll have to find another solution for wiring up a mount there, but three antennas will do nicely for the time being.

 

[bngl3rt]

Just pulled out my continuity tester - the aluminum tape worked! Ground plane is contiguous across antenna mounts.

 

[ky650]

What we really want to see here Ben is the custom app you're designing to accompany this... Will there be an iPad version? :biggrin:

 

[bngl3rt]

What we really want to see here Ben is the custom app you're designing to accompany this... Will there be an iPad version? :biggrin:

You joke, but I have thought about a "countermeasures integration controller" - most of the devices I'm planning to use have a serial port and some kind of control protocol, and babysitting them to make sure they're all working is a task that I'd rather not do while driving. A system status display (with an audible alarm if something is not reporting "all good") would be very useful.

 

[Dhalsim]

now its getting interesting

 

[wlrk4gd]

Cool work Ben!
...and thanks for the recommend on the Centric (StopTech) slotted rotors and Hawk HP+ pads, got mine installed yesterday.

 

[bngl3rt]

Got the antenna connectors soldered up this evening. Out to the garage to swap wings...

 

[bngl3rt]

Testing the connections with the triplexer...

Swapped wings and used a coat hanger to fish the three coax leads from the antenna mounts through the tail light wiring conduit:

Zip tied together for strain relief until the point where they drop through the gasket into the trunk.

Triplexer flopping around in the trunk for now - going to get one of those SoS amplifier mounting panels to stick it to.

The output of the triplexer runs into a single BNC-coax-BNC cable, which I ran up through the engine bay into the passenger compartment.

For now it will connect to my Uniden HP-1 scanner, until the new Uniden 536HP scanner that was announced on Saturday ships in January.

 

[bngl3rt]

The antennas came today, in a very looooong box:

Took 'em out the box, screwed them on the antenna mounts in the car, and went for a drive!

Reception on 150MHz and 450MHz is really good. Incredibly clear. Unfortunately low-band (40MHz) reception, home of the CHP, was intermittent - at times very loud and clear and at times very choppy. That's what the biggest antenna is supposed to pick up. I suspect the cause is inadequate ground plane - low band reception is likely most sensitive to that, and a piece of aluminum tape probably isn't cutting it. I'll have to investigate other solutions.

This works for now, though.... Next up: interior goodies! Uniden announced their new scanners, so as soon as I can order one and get it installed, I will need to get a beautiful custom center console made to house it...

I happen to think it looks f**king mean :smile:

 

[simplife]

Eventually this?:smile:

 

[bngl3rt]

Heh... well, here is the interior of the Polizei M5:

However, a decade has passed and technology is more advanced and more compact these days so I'm trying to keep the interior looking as sleek and elegant as possible.

 

[Coots]

Awesomeness. Subscribed.

Love the color, too. One of my favorite.

When I saw the pic of your car with the antennas, the Knight Rider theme song popped into my head.

 

[bngl3rt]

Thrilled to report the system worked great on the NorCal exotics rally this weekend... We always knew what was happening several miles up ahead and also knew when we were attracting too much attention with our road going antics.

Zip-tied the HP-1 to a suction cup iPad mount... Pretty obvious from the outside of the car so I'm looking forward to the new Uniden scanner being more stealthily mounted in the dash.

 

[Dhalsim]

looking good Ben. I'd like to hear the audio you recorded when you guys got called in.

 

[bngl3rt]

looking good Ben. I'd like to hear the audio you recorded when you guys got called in.

Sure thing. I was so exhausted when I got back I just parked the car and went to sleep. Need to go out into the garage and take everything down, including the SD card with all the audio on it...

- - - Updated - - -

 

[bngl3rt]

Another sweet pic from Phong (REDNSXT) - thanks dude!

 

[bngl3rt]

So having the antennas on the wing is turning out to be a huge PITA for a number of reasons, so I am imagining moving them to a little interposer piece that would bolt up between the wing and the trunk lid, and provide a flat surface behind the spoiler for the antenna mount to sit on.

Invisible bit between wing and lid green, visible surface purple, antenna mount/base red:

Side view:

 

[FF Drifter]

What was the problem and how is it fixed by having the antennas mounted to a piece that juts out?

 

[bngl3rt]

What was the problem and how is it fixed by having the antennas mounted to a piece that juts out?

Two problems:

1) Antennas require a metal ground plane. The spoiler is fiberglass so I made a metal ground plane out of aluminum tape. That stuff is pretty thin/fragile so from regular heat and vibration and such caused by just driving around the aluminum tape ground plane is starting to deteriorate and some of the antennas are losing their contact to it. Bolting a piece of metal to the trunk lid solves that by turning the entire trunk lid into a ground plane.

2) Re: heat and vibration, the wiring is pretty fragile and some of that is starting to deteriorate as well, and taking the taillight out and sometimes the whole spoiler off every time I want to fix something in there is getting really annoying. There's not a ton of space inside the spoiler and I end up using flathead screwdrivers like chopsticks to summon different wires to me through the little access holes. Moving to this design would allow easy access to the wiring on the underside of the trunk lid when the trunk is open.

 

[torafugu]

Saw you today @ South Bascom between Camden and Northbound 85 ~14:00. I was directly in front of you on my Ducati. Hard to miss the decals, antennas and vanity plate. Beautiful and very unique color!