First I installed the head unit. The shitty install kit forced me to modify it otherwise it would just hang freely in the dash. I made some metal tabs used duct tape to hold them to the plastic and a screw holds the whole thing to the dash. Overall I think it turned out pretty well, especially when I originally thought I was screwed.
Next was the amp. I mounted it under the passenger side seat. The wires where separated via zip ties so there'd be no noise, and they were easily covered up by the carpet protector thingy.
oh and yes, that is a 2 awg ground wire with an 8 awg power wire. I would of coarse used 8 awg for the ground wire as well, but ran out and had to go with the weldingsupply.com stuff.
Now it was time for the speakers. The woofers fit almost perfectly where the stock ones where, I just had to cut the back of the plastic basket they where in because of depth.
For the tweeters, I cut a hole int he door panel with a hole saw and flush mounted them.
And that was it. Two days of work. I felt bad wasting such a large trunk space by not putting any subs in it, so I bought it a new cooler. :toast:
And did you do anything in mounting the HU to make it a little bit harder to steal?
I make my HU easy to steal after having one stolen that was bolted in. They still got the HU and completely dismantled my dash. If you have any credible insurance company, they will cover anything thats mounted in a factory location. Just keep your receipt.
Is your amp raised a bit off the carpet to aid in cooling?
And did you do anything in mounting the HU to make it a little bit harder to steal?
Nope and nope. The amp doesn't get very hot, it's really efficient, and there's no room to raise it. I raised up the little tabs on the HU so that it can't be taken out of the bezel, but if a thief pries it hard enough I'm sure the duct tape won't hold.
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The mounting clips on the side of the head unit mounting bracket are nice. My kit had tabs on the mounting bracket so that the console woodgrain trim panel pinned the bracket in place making clips unnecessary. It took me for every to figure it out for some reason but once I did, it was a nice secure fit. I don't see the same tabs on your kit though...
maybe should have run the amp wired under the carpet? And how much of that did you buy at WalMart? I assume everything from the beer to the deck and amp. Maybe even the small gauge amp kit. The TypeR's prolly from Best Buy, no? Oh well... I guess you got what you wanted.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by importenthusiast
maybe should have run the amp wired under the carpet? And how much of that did you buy at WalMart? I assume everything from the beer to the deck and amp. Maybe even the small gauge amp kit. The TypeR's prolly from Best Buy, no? Oh well... I guess you got what you wanted.
Hey man, thats unnecessary to call him out on where he bought his stuff. As long as it suits what he wanted to do, its perfect.
IMO, i would try to run the amp wires under the carpet. Seeing as yours is an L, there should be little effort required to remove the passenger seat. Do that and take note of the foot print of the seat. Then you will see where the under seat vents are, you might be able to squeeze the wires through there under the carpet so that you dont even have to fight with the wires up top. Otherwise, not a bad installation.
It also appears that one of his tweeters are mounted a tad overlapping his door handle trim, and the other is not. Maybe it's the photography. Sorry about the WalMart comment. After being in the car audio game for so long... it's hard to take "roachy" installs seriously. I suppose a Schoche amp kit is a Schoche amp kit, regardless of where it's bought, as is a Pioneer deck or Jensen amp. Not to mention it took him 2 days. And he brags about a 900 watt RMS system in his previous ride.
Anyway, to each his own, and I owe him some respect for DIY. I gotta give some props to the Wichita folks.
i would rerun the wiring, its easy. just removed the plastic piece above the door sill and you should have enough room to raise the carpet just enough to slide the wiring thru and htere is a spot by the under the seat that has a opening for the wiring from the seat control, or if its L, which now i see it is, there just should be a opening in the carpet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by importenthusiast
It also appears that one of his tweeters are mounted a tad overlapping his door handle trim, and the other is not. Maybe it's the photography. Sorry about the WalMart comment. After being in the car audio game for so long... it's hard to take "roachy" installs seriously. I suppose a Schoche amp kit is a Schoche amp kit, regardless of where it's bought, as is a Pioneer deck or Jensen amp. Not to mention it took him 2 days. And he brags about a 900 watt RMS system in his previous ride.
Anyway, to each his own, and I owe him some respect for DIY. I gotta give some props to the Wichita folks.
personally, i think your speakers in the door wells are too intrusive. i would have to have something RIGHT tehre. not just b/c my car is a stick and the it woud cover my clutch, even if it was auto, thats way too far into the my left foot space, and looks worse installed then what he has. LOL. i do like the sub box, but i see u like to rattle your trunk lid. i used to have my typeR's facing that way, the truck rattled like a bitch. i faced them inward towards the car, and there isn't a single rattle in the body and the subs sound way cleaner coming into the cabin directly.
Trunk doesn't rattle that much. It's faced that way becuase bass is a reflex sound. Typically, it needs about 12" to phase correctly. Plus, it's a ported box, ported outwards.
The reason the kicks are positioned the way they are is because of imaging. If you tied strings to the speaker grills at 90 degree angles, they both point to the head rest of the driver's seat. And, they're convertable components, making the staging correct, unlike the door mounted tweeters, where the higher frequencies meet your ear much sooner than what your woofer of the component set is getting there. That also leaved room to put the JL TRseries woofer from their components into the stock door locations for midbass. I chose the TR series because they required no cutting/modifications to get into the factory location. I've got them coiled so they emit no high frequencies, only mid-bass.
Basically, it's for SQ. The sub bass could be a bit better though with a JL amp instead of the PR1000 I have now. JL has a better dampening factor, along with an more ohm-friendly output for the w7.
I did research and picked components for the system, along with measuring things. The Alpine deck allows for time correction as well. It's fine and dandy you don't like the looks of things.
I've done this for a while now, I know what I'm doing, and have reason to do it the way I do.
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