Speaker Cover
My wife chimed in with her preference, and it turns out she liked what I was leaning towards; the original cover. It looks more stylish. Plus, as psychotech points out, that leaves those monster round covers for another day (GettoBlaster-Cade??). The outer width of the two speakers was about ¼” wider than the inner width of the cover frame. Thank goodness for Dremel tools. With a number of passes with a side-cutting bit, problem resolved. I picked up some sticky back Velcro, thinking that would hold the cover in place. Unfortunately the mating surfaces are too small and I had to go another route. I went with approximately 16 large dollops of silicon around the perimeter, and a thin layer where the cover touches the edge of the speakers. The silicone is just inside the frame, and does not ooze out where you can see it. That should hold it, be easy to remove, and not vibrate loose. Before I put it on, I put down a guide piece of masking tape to make sure I put it on straight. To keep it tight while drying, I leaned a couple of weights against it.
Seat Mounting
It seams like an eternity ago when I set the seat down on a plain wooden surface, measured for square & depth, and drilled some pilot holes. Now with the project substantially down the road, it’s time to use those holes. I had to poke a nail from the underside to find the holes through the carpet. I marked the holes with tape, then cut a small X at each hole to allow the bolts to go through. Before I could mount the seat, the rumbler circuitry had to be dealt with. The prototype relay based circuit had to be cut out. It is being replace with a high current transistor equivalent (page 2 of this thread; thanks again richms.) Also, instead of housing the circuit in back of the chair, it will go in the front of the cab, for easier access if/when it fries. A three-conductor wire (ground, rumble low & rumble high) goes from the chair to the circuit in front. The ButtKicker wire and rumble control wires are now securely tie-wrapped to the chair, and held together in a bundle with a piece of spiral cable wrap. Both wires, and the sub-woofer speaker wires are threaded through holes in the 2x4 base structure underneath. The speaker wires are in their own set of holes, keeping them away from the others to avoid generating noise/feedback. The chair is held down with ¼” bolts. The front two feet of the chair are at an angle, so I had to create a couple of wedges to more evenly distribute the load. They’re made of wood, spray painted black.
Once installed, I sat in it quietly, for about 15 minutes, adjusting the seat back & forth, checking my foot position with the pedals, adjusting the lumbar, reclining, etc. basically taking a break to enjoy this milestone in the project. But wait, there's more.....