2006 prius ownership and upgrade, drivabeater style

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Hopefully i used enough hardener. 

crush up a little blue pill?

If I have to I will. Hopefully it stays harder than 4 hours though

it set up! And came out of the mold. 

Let it finish curing for a day or two, trim and enclose it.

so, next step was cutting up a piece of particle board i found on the side of the road for a mount ring. Hot glued in place. 

Followed by two layers of woven mat and resin. I glued the first layer to the ring with spray adhesive, stretched it tight over the edges and secured the backside with packing tape. When I made the back side of the box I tried to leave myself a flat flange all the way around to bond the front to. That way it didn't get thicker and not fit my panel. Once it all cures tonight I will pull the packing tape and trim up the overlap. Additionally the first layer was cut inside the speaker opening wrapped around the particle board ring and stapled in place before being resent. The second layer was laid over top and rolled into place. I could not cut the opening prior to laying it out and wetting it so hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me. Looking forward to seeing it all trimmed up and fitted in the car.

We have a 2006 base, white Kenmore with JBL stereo named Pippy. Recently did the HV battery, if you truly end up needing to do it it's cake. Hardest part really was taking delivery of the new pack since it was on a pallet and I didn't want to pay for mortgage service. Shipping the old pack was easy enough since I was able to schedule pickup at work with our forklift.  We used a new pack from GreenTec auto. We'll see how long it lasts (on 2 years and about 10k miles currently).

We also had to do the gauge cluster capacitor fix. Luckily my wife is an electrical and computer engineer.

Also broke a few vents while doing the cluster. I ended up buying about a set and a half (Didn't realize there were two colors offered), so if yours are still broken I might have the correct one in my garage, but it's been a couple years so I don't recall which intact ones are which color. 

Glad to see more folks appreciate these cars for how great of transportation they are. Some of the features and engineering are really thoughtful and a decade ahead of their time.

In reply to bumpsteer :

I wound up with greenbean due to lifetime warranty. It wasn't cheap (1600ish) but they came to me, took care of it, and did it same day. Thats been a few months and a bunch of miles, and im still happy. 

This has been a fantastic appliance. Id go so far as to say i really like this car. The smart key is awesome, the auto hvac is a feature i wish all my cars had. The seats folded down i can do 60% of the stuff i use my truck for, at 45mpg vs 11.

a little more shaping, wrap it in carpet and load it up. Im happy with this, and the regained trunk space will make the run to and from miami that much easier. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

You built it for the battery side?  I assumed you were building it for the drivers side where there is a big void and no need to remove speaker to service 12v battery. 

Yessir. I actually use the cubby on the passengers side. Figured that I'd need to acess the 12v battery far less often. I may have made a mistake though. 

No, it's not like you need to get to the battery often but a lot of projects are, step one: disconnect battery. 

Fits and sounds good! I dont have tan carpet handy, and the grey i have would be pretty ugly. So bare glass it is for now. 

So, chasing the check engine light for evap codes. 

Then up for sale. Im downsizing the fleet. 

Grm only price 7000

I've been looking at later models/hybrid-options, that have these switches built into them:

but, I've also been known to buy electrified white hatchbacks that used to reside in Florida... hmmm

cel's are an issue though; I've got an emissions test to pass up here.  and also an '05 TL I've gotta get rid of.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

I found and replaced a cracked vacuum hose on the evap purge solenoid this morning. Going to drive it for a couple of days and see if the light is fixed. I have a feeling it is. Hopefully that's all it was

As an FYI, I've purchased the Prius from Dusterdb13 this weekend, and started a new thread. Originally in "Adventures" now moved to "Build &  Project Cars".