Install 2007

MacLeod

And here is the finished product.

My trusty Alpine 9855 HU


Runs to my Alpine H700


With the remote in the center console


Polk Audio Signature Reference 5.25 mids in Qforms kicks fortified with 2 layers of Dynamat and 10 pounds each of modelling clay. Dynaxorbs were used agaisnt the sheet metal and a lot of polyfill was used inside the kick panel itself


Polk Audio Signature Reference tweeters in the A pillars mounted 1" above the highest part of the dash


A Polk Audio MM2104 10" sub and that box is 100% wood! Im most proud of it since it was a major PITA to get it built with all those oddball shapes and still fit like a glove.


Powered by 2 Crossfire amps and an Alpine amp running my midbasses which are Polk Audio Signature Reference 6.5's in the stock door locations with a 1" baffle covered in Dynamat and mounted to a 6x9 adapter also covered in Dynamat. The doors are covered in Dynamat on the inner and outer door panel and the door skin has a layer of Dynamat plus a 1" thick layer of anti fatigue foam mat and a Dynaxorb was used for good measure right behind the speaker.


It aint fancy by any means and is downright boring but its solid and safe and doesnt use up all my storage space so I have a little left over.

Future upgrade will be Polk amps at which point I will make an amp rack to fit them which will probably take up all my useable storage so Ill have to buy a toolbox for the bed. Ill also be getting an Alpine HU with a digital out eventually as well.

MacLeod

Looking at this thread makes me want to cry.

Oh well. Spilt milk and all that.

You guys would be proud of me. I used T/S parameters just now!!

Since Ive got acres of space in my trunk, I decided to build the optimum enclosure for my trusty MM2104. Came up with a .92 ft3 sealed for the flattest response and Qtc of .707.

Poor thing has been choked to death trying to work in that tiny **** box I had it in before. If its not crappy weather this weekend, Ill probably start on it.

This one should be easy! I only have to carpet the front and sides because you wont be able to see the back of it. Best of all, no weird angles or nooks and crannys to fit around. Just a plain old simple square (rectangle actually) box................with 4 sides.

joeaudio26

What are you some kind of audiophile?...that's absurd...and you will never, never do it again...;)

black magic

very nice install

MacLeod

I will no longer make fun of Cody for taking so long on his installs. I spent 4 hours yesterday trying to get my head unit hooked up and running and I just spent another 4 hours installing my tweeters. Its a whole other ballgame when youre working on a car youve never worked on before. You go out there thinking "Ill just do this" and then realize after about an hour that "this" aint gonna work then spend another 3 hours trying to figure out what will work.

Anyhoo, here is my progress so far.

It took me about an hour to figure out how to get the dash apart. Yeah its got clips, its also got 4 screws that are hidden in certain spots that are NOT obvious. This is what it looks like with everything off and gutted out.



And this is what it looks like all buttoned up. Its not in a very "natural" position but it does look clean and I can use my Ai-net cable to my H700.



I mounted the tweeters in the stock locations. It was a **** too. Its a very small space and there is nothing to mount them securely to. I tried surface mounting them on the OEM grill with my old MM6 tweeter surface mounts but it wouldnt fit under the windshield. I ended up using the SR's compaxial gadget. It fit right down inside there fairly snug and wont move.





The grill is very odd. It looks like a grill, but its not. Its a solid piece. I started out by trying to poke holes thru there but we're talking a lot of holes and it skinned it up and look like crap. So I decided to use the SR grills. I used the adhesive off the back of Dynamat. Drilled holes into the grill where the tweeter would be firing and stuck em on. At first I thought they looked kinda amateurish, but after a few minutes of looking at them I kinda like it.





And here is my box. Its 3/4" MDF sealed up with silicone caulkI slapped a later a Dynamat (actually Scosche Acustamat I had lying around) on the mounting suface to help seal around the mounting point. Interior volume is .67 ft3 total and I threw in a handfull of pollyfill for good measure. Im not going to carpet it because you wont see it. Itll be mounted in the front of the trunk firing into the cabin and Ill cut out a piece of 1/4" MDF and carpet it and mount it right behind it. This is also what Ill mount my amps and processor too. The box is only 9" deep so Im only using 9.25" of trunk space.



Tomorrow if its not raining, Ill have to cut out spacers for my 6.5's out of 3/4" MDF in order to get my SR6500's to fit and Im not entirely sure if they will! Hopefully this wont be like the tweeters and HU and be a straight forward job.

Ill also apply a layer of Dynamat to the inner and outer door panel as well as the door skin.

One thing that is super easy is running wires! The panels just pop off really easy and there is plenty of room to run wires. The back seats fold down so its unbelievably easy to run it thru under the seats and into the trunk. Ive got all my wires ran except for the wires running to the 6.5's.

[Deleted User]

You could just cut out a larger section of the dash grill and wrap it with grill cloth.

MacLeod

That is a good idea. I hadnt thought of that.

Do you think that grill on top looks kinda cheesey? Its almost the same color as the OEM grill and blends in pretty good. At first I thought it looked kind of gawdy but then I figured its no different than if Id surface mounted the tweeter there.

One thing I like about it is something the Polk logo. Since the sub will be hidden and the 6500's will be in the doors there wont be any sign of Polk gear.

dolfan87

For the future Mac (to late now of course) by a drill bit small enough to fit into each little dimple of the factory grill. It will take some time, but you sit there and "unplug" the holes around where your tweet fits, and it all looks factory.

For now, I would leave them alone. They don't look that bad as they are. Also stealth is cool, when someone asks, you just tell them it's all Polk gear.

Gram

brettw22

I like the grill cloth idea myself.....something like a jigsaw or bandsaw to cut out the dimpled area.........

The grill on top of a grill I'm not so much a fan of though......

MacLeod

I actually tried drilling out the holes in the stock grill first but theyre just too small. Ive got a very tiny drill bit that I used and it still was too big and chewed up the edges.

Ill come back to it I suppose. I still need to get everything else installed and once Im up and running Ill see about wrapping them. Times a wasting. Gotta be competition ready by the 10th.

exalted512

I'd def. get some black grill cloth. I covered the factory grill on my doors with it so you couldnt see the 8" behind the door panel and it looks much better than factory, especially with my dark gray interior.

At least now you know how everything comes apart. I'm not sure on that year model, but my g/f's civic and most compact cars in general, you can pull the bottom of the back seat entirely out. 9 times out of 10 theres 2 clips, one where the crotch area is of each side towards the front, just give it a tug and it should come right up. If it doesnt, stop trying, but it makes things a lot easier
-Cody

MacLeod

I bought a Dremel today. That should come in most handy for the odd cutting that I need to do. $60. Sheesh.

That makes over $300 Ive spent so far and I dont even have everything installed yet!!!

I will probably go with the grill cloth then. With the new Dremel it should be a lot easier to cut out the grill.

[Deleted User]

PM'ed you, Mac.

dolfan87

MacLeod wrote:

I actually tried drilling out the holes in the stock grill first but theyre just too small. Ive got a very tiny drill bit that I used and it still was too big and chewed up the edges.

Ill come back to it I suppose. I still need to get everything else installed and once Im up and running Ill see about wrapping them. Times a wasting. Gotta be competition ready by the 10th.

Again, for the future...if you go to a hobby supply store, you can get drill bits down to .015...TINY.

The grill cloth will look great Mac, and you are doing an awesome job. Can;t wait to see it finished!

Jstas

When I was looking at the pictures, I was asking myself why you didn't go with the grille cloth. Grille cloth would look way better, more refined and as opposed to plastic grille holes, it's acoustcially transparent. If you are competing, that's defintly the way to go.

The sound deadener on the front of the sub box, that worries me. I think you are going to get more surface reflections off of that than you would the bare MDF. Since you are going to put it in a confined space facing the rear of the back seat, that may cause you problems. I'd either cut the extra off and peel it off, then carpet the front or just carpet over the sound deadener to minimize reflections as best as you can. I know it's a sub and unlikely to get distortions, especially with the MMC sub's cone design but all you need is one good note to pressurize that small area just enough to cause an uneven pressure wave and it can cause the sub cone to wiggle in the surround and it'll make a racket that will send chills up your spine.

exalted512

I think he plans on putting a baffle in front of the entire sub box and span the width of the trunk and the deadening is there to prevent rattles b/t the box and the board so no sound waves should ever get back to the front of the box directly to cause any reflection
-Cody

black magic

Wow, Mac. You get things done quickly... I'm still building my damn enclosure... havent even touched the speakers yet. good job!

MacLeod

You have a good point John, but I dont think surface reflections or any reflections should be much of a problem with my application. Especially since my sub will likely be cut off at 40 Hz. That low a frequency, the wave isnt even going to form til its 10 feet outside the car! LOL

What Im planning is to set the box in the middle of the trunk up next to the rear seat but itll be about 4" from the back seat. And since its a fold down seat, its not totally solid so its not like itll be firing agaisnt a hard solid surface.

Directly behind the sub, Im going to build a piece that follows the contours of the trunk (as well as I can get it considering my limited carpentry skills) and completely hide the sub. Ill mount my amps and EQ onto this. I kinda like the look of not seeing any speakers.

The only reason I stuck the Dynamat on there is mainly to give a better seal for where the sub mounts. Ill also use some along all the outside seams of the box as well. Makes it ugly as hell but ensures itll be airtight.

MacLeod

Here is what I got accomplished yesterday. Took me 4 f*#$@ng hours too!

I aint too proud to admit, this is kicking my ****! Every part of this project is taking 4 times longer to do than Id planned. Ugh!

After figuring out where all the stupid hidden little bolts were, I managed to get the door panel off without losing my temper and ripping it in half. I Dynamated the outter panel with a single layer and the inner panel has a layer on BOTH sides of it! Plus I slapped a layer on most of the door skin. This thing is solid!





I had to cut out a shroud that extended about 1" from the door panel in order to get the SR6500 mid to fit. I also had to make a 3/4" baffle AND use the 1/4" spacer to get this thing to fit!



I also discovered there really isnt anywhere I can run speaker wires thru and there isnt enough room to get my drill in there to drill a hole so Ill be tapping into the stock wires. But, like I said, we're only talking 12" max so I cant see there being any signifigant voltage loss.

Next up, the amp board. God help me!

MacLeod

And here is my new amp board.

As usual, it doesnt fit perfectly but what do you expect from a guy that builds 4 sided boxes.



Since I dont have anything with the Polk logos showing in the trunk or really anywhere for that matter, I decided to put an old bumpe sticker to good use.

So tomorrow, Ill install the amp board, hook up all the wires, still have to run wires to the mids in the doors and find a ground location and I should be done!!! God that will be great because I am so **** whipped over this thing already!! Im ready to listen and start tuning!

Tim B.

Next time I go to Memphis with a friend of mine. I am going to have to come check you out and hear this thing. You put in some serious work Mac

exalted512

Man I wish I could get back to work on mine...

6 tests in a 1 week period when i only have 4 classes is a ****...
-Cody

MacLeod

Fellas, I aint too proud to admit - this install is KICKING MY ****!

Christ! Everything is taking 5 times longer than it should!

Good news is I was able to run wires thru the doors to my mids so I wont have to tap into the OEM wires. Bad news is it took 3 F'ing hours! Even worse news is that now my speakers arent hooked up to anything so I get to drive around singing to myself.

Did manage to get my amp board mounted......then realized I mounted it about 2" to far back and cant open my spare tire cover now.

This is the first time Ive ever done a complete bumper to bumper install all at once tho. I usually always just buy a HU, then a couple months later some speakers and so on.

Im soooooo ready to get this thing done!

brettw22

I feel ya on the spare thing........I just realized the other day that my spare isn't comin out unless I completely empty the trunk with the size of the boxes.......oh well...lesson learned for next time, cuz I'm sure the **** not gonna do anything about these boxes at this point

Tim B.

Well you guys are both still lucky at least you will still have a spare. I will have to get rid of mine when I complete this install or give up the space to place overnight bags and T-Tops in.

exalted512

Ive been driving around for 2 years without a frontstage, I have no sympathy
-Cody

dolfan87

Looking sharp though Mac! It may take a lot of time, but you are getting it done right.

G

MacLeod

Ugh. The amp board looks like crap. It isnt wide enough. The trunk has so many funky angles to it and I dont know how to cut out a piece of wood in the shape that would fit.

I think what I may do is leave the board in there and then take some cardboard and make little end pieces and cover them with carpet and hopefully they will blend in enough to fill in the gaps on the ends.

Greg Peters

Thin cardboard as a template, then transfer to wood.

You could also mount your amp board you've built, and simply build an overlay that flush fits around amps and processor, better fits the confines of the car to cover the gaps.

MacLeod

Thats not a bad idea there Greg. I think I might give that a try.