Defblade

Had a few stonechips and scratches on the doors filled in last week; washed, clayed and washed again beforehand; a quick all-over hand polish 2 days later, then waxed. Wheels are to be refinished in the near-ish future, hopefully....

I believe they were Octavia wheels in the first place. Think I'll get the correct size put on just to save worrying...

So, apart from a very brief test during which I had no accidents claims or convictions, did you not see the bit where I said I will be declaring before using? Twice. Could we please leave this sanctimonious and already-covered-for-those-that-can-read area, and answer the actual question I posed?

Call handler I guess - no problems in principle with fitting smaller alloys and winter tyres... but that may all change when I actually want to put the changes through, I know!! It's all ebay stuff, so if it doesn't work out, the worst that happens is it goes back on ebay. If I need to change the tyres to OE, I'll still put the other ones up to get a few quid back.

Hi all, Picked up a set of 15" alloys with the correct size and offset etc to use for winter tyres. They have come with some fairly unworn winters fitted, they'll be good for at least this year and maybe next... but they're not quite the right size. Officially, I should have 185/60, these are 195/65. So they stand about 30mm taller/15mm larger all round than the OE 17s. or the recommended 15" size. I've popped them on the front (where clearance looks tighter and the wheels have a lot more moving to do), checked clearances on full lock both ways and been for a short drive... no obvious problems. As expected, Waze confirms that they make my speedo pretty much spot-on accurate rather than over reading. Given that my insurance is happy with the change (I did check regarding the wheels but not the tyre size), is there any real problem running these tyres? Thanks in advance for your comments.

Not entirely about the car - one of my other loves is cycling - this came up and was a must-buy the second I saw the back

Cheers The hinges weren't a choice so much as what was in my tub of hardware! I haven't really even thought about them in use.

Just a quick couple of pics to show the sub box in it's alternate location, seats down, ready for a tip run: Works just fine and I now have vibro-massage function for my back if I choose the right music

I haven't changed them; not sure if I'll bother as I have them switched off in the settings anyway.

Well, not a lot to say today! The sub problem tracked down to poor connections at the box itself, so I've ordered some proper plugs to sort that out. I was able to set up the Bit10 really very simply... it was all straightforward and I have to say, it's an impressive little box of tricks The first time American Idiot slammed in with the drums, I got the most enormous grin ... then I spent a bit of time with an RTA and the Bit10's graphic equalizer... I've lowered the bass somewhat in the interests of balance now... even if unbalanced is fun Staging is a little clustered at the edges, especially towards the left, which I guess may be improved by fiddling with the time alignment, but may be inevitable due to the tweeter locations, so I'm not going to worry too much. I do have a few bass-heavy sub test tracks; they're not really appropriate to my little 10"er; but I do like to run them to see what happens... the answer is, at max (unclipped) volume the door cards rattle/buzz somewhat under that sort of provocation. Luckily, I don't listen to that sort of music (I'm a rock/metal kinda guy... it's more about the mids, for me) so no need to take them off and beef them up for me. (I'm not sure I'd start with a Rapid if I was building a bass/SPL monster anyway!) Overall, I'm really really happy with the results. The sound is so clear, you don't quite realise how loud it is until you try and talk My last couple of installs have been ... ok, but not great. So I put in the time and effort, along with as much budget as I reasonably could, into the fitting and I'm sure I'm going to be happy with this for a good while If there's any info or details I've missed out that would help anyone else on a similar project, feel free to ask! Thanks for reading

Just wondering if anyone knows about this... I was starting to set up my new Bit10 DSP controlled external amps system and the first step involves setting the input gains to the unit by playing a sine wave... with the RCAs for the amps pulled out. But I could still hear the sine wave! Very faint, coming from the front passenger side. I switched to music just in case there was some weird induction going on somewhere, or somehow I'd messed up the wiring - after all the amps are unplugged, so the speakers shouldn't be playing anything - and the music came through as well. Turns out it wasn't the speakers in doors at all, it was actually coming from, as far as I could tell with my head stuck under the glovebox, the main processing unit in the glovebox. So, does anyone know what's going on there?!

Not quite finished today, but really just setting up the DSP left to do. I've spent lots of time with the live wire, and none with the earth, so I ran that today. There's a handy earthing point on the c-pillar behind the trim that I had to pull off anyway. Then I limboed under the dash to get the patch lead and the feeds to and from the boot plugged in. I couldn't push it all up as high as I would have liked, as there's a heater flap up above it that needs the room to move. So I kept everything and flat and out of the way as I could, and cable-tied the hell out of it! This pic is looking up under the glovebox. With that all done, time to connect the power Then I could connect everything up and test it. ... no sound from the sub. No idea why. I ended up getting another amp out, and another sub (this one is 1ohm, so I can't connect it to most amps)... nothing. Swapped all the RCAs around, used different speaker wire, even wired the 2nd sub into the working Profile... still nothing. Then I put it all back to where it started and just plugged the JBL amp into channel 3 (rather than both 3 and 4, or 5 - the sub channel) ... and bingo! Don't know if I had a poor connection somewhere to start with, or if the dsp gets upset with a bridged connection across channels, or what... I'll sort this out tomorrow when I get a laptop hooked up and can tell the Bit10 what I want it to do with each channel. Lost a good hour messing about this all that. Anyway, then it was time to start putting the car back together. Despite my checking that the cill cover would fit on over the 2 8 core cables, it didn't actually want to sit quite flush where it meets the kickpanel, so I pulled it up again and cut off the little reinforcing struts on the clip towers. In the picture below, I've cut off the LH one, the RH one is still there. I guess those were there for a reason, but it seems plenty strong enough still and the most it'll cost me is a new trim piece... and it just makes enough difference for it to sit and join completely right again. Then, putting the rear seats back in and all my extra bits together. I added a paracord handle to the far edge of the false floor, as it's a heavy old lump to move about and I don't want to be dropping it onto the kit! A quick peak through the flap shows there's a good bit of room around the amps still and plenty of chance for air to move about.

More progress today... lots of soldering! First up, my secret weapon - 8 core wire: Which as I need to do 2 runs of, and there's wires under the cill on the passenger side as well, I was hoping I could fit 2 runs above the cill but still under the cover. So sacrifice a few inches just to check before I start: ... sits fine and the cover clips back over Time to crack on... Played with wires and positions for the various bits on the amp board. sadly due to space and where the connectors are, I couldn't separate the power and signal cables completely. The amps are screwed down with space below to allow airflow over the carpet. Then 2 long wires to make up. The cores of this wire are usefully numbered (except for the earth, but that's easy to spot!) and so I wasn't having to check continuity with every connection, at least. I decided that rather than solder directly to the Bit10's harness, I would add an extra ISO connector, which will make it much easier to remove the whole board if I ever need to (it'll be remove main fuse, undo main power and earth wires, pull this connector, undo the speaker outs from each amp. Not too bad.). So the wire that brings the signal from the HU has ISO each end to go from the patch lead to the DSP; the other is just using 4 cores for now for the fronts - ISO back into the patch lead at the front and forks to the amp output at the back. And the proper wiring building up on the board. You can't really see here, but there's 2 sets of wires off the JBL sub amp so I can change where the sub lives easily. Then put those 2 into the car (patch lead loose in the footwell) When I fit everything together, I think I'll need to take a few lumps out of the "hinge" at the back of the boot carpet to give the big wires a clear run. And finally today, I did some quick eye measurements, gulped a little, and took a gas hot knife to my boot trim to make slots for sub straps. Came out OK (after the first one, which was a bit messy) - a single smooth melt gives a neat rolled edge to the hole. I also added a sheet to the Dodomat to the inside of these trims on both sides of the boot. Tomorrow is finishing off, put it all together, plug it all in and cross fingers nothing explodes/smokes/burns #gulp#

Yesterday's job: power into the boot. Starting with this mess of nice silicone coated 4awg: I looked long and hard for an easy, or even not so easy, way to get the power into the car via existing holes. I couldn't find one, so I had to break out the drill. First off, as the signal wires will be running down the passenger side, I took the power around the engine bay. A few holes drilled in the slam panel let me cable tie it along there, then I unscrewed the metal panel above the headlight and ran neatly along under there. Any metal edges the wire goes near get several layers of gaffa applied around them , just in case. Then through the the hole in the foam (presumably for the bonnet release cable on LHD cars... I can see there's a grommet there for the cable, too, but I just couldn't find it up above/behind the dashboard on the inside to use it :( ) and following other wires down behind the wheel arch liner. The run is tidied up a little from the "in progress" pic below Then down to the hole I drilled, which comes out behind the driver's side kick panel. The hole is grommeted, the wire extra wrapped with tape and the whole lot sealed in with glue/sealant. Running power through my own holes makes me nervous,so I tend to go a bit OTT.. The wheel arch liner sits a little further out - the wire's too thick to sit completely flat - but it's well clear of the tyre. Some of that spare sound-deadening mat comes in handy as a big sticker Then a series of cable ties to attach it under the run of other cables down the cill: And it appears in the boot I haven't secured/protected that end yet as I'm not 100% sure exactly where it'll all run without being a problem for the seats etc; those little diagonal intrusions at the sides of the boot do make it a bit more difficult than it needs to be. I suspect I'll run the cable forward of the seat belt mount (rather than behind, as above) and have it come out past the end of the diagonal bit - and much the same the other side with the signal wires.

On to the install proper... It's due to rain through a fair bit of this week, so as it's not quite possible to fully open the doors both sides in my garage, I wanted to get the front speaker install and pulling out the various bits of trim done on the drive while the sun is out. First job, back seats out and free up the boot trims and cill covers. I'm not running the big wires today, but I wanted to do this with easy access all round, and to see if there were likely to be any problems running them. All seems fine. There's a handy earth point behind the boot trim on the c-pillar, and as that trim is free, I will cut it later to run the sub box straps through it. So, on to the front doors. The speakers I have are Focal Access 165AS 2-way comps with passive cross overs - the bottom end of properly nice, in my book; I've had them in 2 cars previously and so I know I like the sound I used just over a dozen sheets of Dodomat altogether (I've got some left over that may appear around the boot). I found the Dodomat was very easy to use - cut well, the backing pealed easily and it took shapes well. Slightly surprised to find that Skoda had rivetted on the woofers, so had to drill those out before going any further. I didn't cover every square inch - there's no need, despite the temptation -and actually, the Rapid's doors have far fewer holes in than many I've done in the past. First off several chunks on the outer skin behind the speaker and also through the big plastic access hatch. Then one around the mounting hole so the adaptor gets a good seal, and the immediate area is damped: The adaptors I bought were marked as "Octavia rear subs" (I'd just chucked them on the pile when they arrived, without really looking) so I did panic for a moment, but they turned out to fit perfectly. I used those (don't know the proper name) bent spring clips that grab screws inside the door to hold the adaptors down. You can see the mat bulge slightly as they press in to make the seal. Then mat across the rest of the door - those big plastic access hatches look like prime rattlers to me, so plenty across them: I also added mat to the inside of the door skin - there's more than you can see here, tucked under the insulation. I added some acoustic foam behind the mids to help absorb the back wave: Then on to the tweeters. Again, the OE ones are sort of rivetted on - mounted on plastic pins, which are then melted down, so out with the drill again. The Focal tweeters slotted in just nicely, with the pins removed and even the slight bulge they made removed from the inside of the raised mounting section. A dab of superglue, then some more dabs of hot melt around the outside for luck. Careful examination of the door card showed there was room to surface mount the crossovers towards the lock side, on a line between the middle mounting popper and the lower door handle screw. BTW, as I won't be pushing silly power, I'm perfectly happy using the OE wiring (which turns out to be a reasonable gauge anyway) for that 'orrible job of getting the signal from the car body into the door. If I ever go active, guess I'll have to run more wires then (or move the tweeters somewhere off the door!). So, nearly there... the only other thing I wanted to do was because I had noticed from the OE mountings (when I was seeing what was what with a torch) that there's a lot of space in front of and around the mids in the door card. As I had more acoustic foam available, I thought I'd try copying the Fast Rings idea of channelling sound to the cabin: Then put it all back together... I didn't take a pic of that, it looks 100% standard! I have had a quick play with these just from the HU... they rock! The mid-bass is particularly strong, just as it should be. It does point up though how much the system now needs a sub. I'm really looking forward to getting these amped up I'd almost go as far as saying that I'd have been quite happy if I'd have just done this as an upgrade and left the rest standard, but it would take some fiddling with tone and the HU's standard processing effects to disguise the lack of sub... and then I suspect you'd lose a lot of the benefit. More soon