Just a blatent copy/paste from what I've posted on talkaudio so don't take any notice of nicks

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Well, after arriving at the top of the hill, I slipped and ended on the slippery slope

Bought the Rainbow pro vanadiums off Amit which were previously fitted in the doors, replacing the OEM speakers.

Whilst it was a definate improvement, two things were not to my taste:

1) Imaging and soundstage was still a little to stereophonic. By that I mean you could hear it was coming from a set of speakers located here, here and here

2) I do a lot of driving and bought a parrot ck3000 bluetooth handsfree kit which plumbs into the car stereo. It comes with a relay box, so you connect the ISO coming from your head unit into it and then take the output of the relay with iso connector to the speakers. Having put the sinfoni in, didn't like the idea of sending 100W rms down piddly little relays, and purists would argue I'd be losing in sq, so wanted to seperate the music sound from the phone sound.

With the idea established that it's gonne be kickbuilds, and being a complete noob to that kind of stuff and advertising it, a certain otter-lover offered to help

So here are the pics. There are a few steps without pics - got carried away doing the work and forgot to stop and pause to take snaps

First, laid down masking tape, then gaffa tape then polythene sheets to protect carpet, trim, etc.

After that came the resin. Gosh I love the stuff of that smell. Been getting high for the last couple of weeks driving the fabia

Whilst they were curing, Mark made the baffle rings and I started dismantling the rainbows which were in the doors and putting back the oem ones.

Once the had cured a minimum, speakers were placed in the baffles and then we marked out the limits of the resin base which was then cut.

Following that, tried to aim the speakers and mark up the angling of the baffles compared to the resin bases

Then came the clever stuff - well, I suppose it's bog standard to your pros, but I still like the idea Dowels were cut to appropriate lengths to produce the required angling

You can actually see the green marker pen strokes to help line up the angles correctly.

Once the glue had dried and the baffle was solidly attached to the base via the dowel struts, side covering was in order. No t-shirt stuff here, proper fleece (sp?) was used. Thanks TKMaxx :P

Another coat of resin applied to stiffen the whole lot.

Checked angling in car:

Then the most painfully tedious, time consuming and de-motivating part of the install - sanding. Damn is that fibreglass tough to sand once the resin has cured :( After a few hours of sanding, dremmeling, cutting, hacksawing, angle grinding... Ok, getting carried away there but what a bytch!

Pic above was taken once sanding was finished and contact glue was pasted all over, ready to accept the vinyl finish.

Then was just a matter of putting speakers back in pods, wiring it all together. Whilst I really appreciate the solidity and build quality of these Skodas, they're a pain when it comes to taking bits of trim off to place crossovers, etc. So, cue another load of cursing..... :lol:

And finally, the result :shiny:

The most surprising thing, or rather the best achievement with the install is it was all done in about 12 hours. That's from turning up at his doorstep to driving away with everything completed.

I'd like to express my deepest thanks to Mulletboy2 from Talkaudio for his astonishing workmanship qualities and (sometines annoying :P ) perseverance to attain sheer perfection. So much so that I've even taken a bit of vinyl back with me to recover the right hand pod - a couple of hardly noticable folds are visible.

Must also thank Mr and Mrs mullet snr for their warm welcome, cups of tea, buttie sarnies, etc.

Anyone who wants help or advice on doing this stuff, I cannot recommend Mark enough. A true fibreglassing champion in my books

You've been on Talkaudio.co.uk too much.

Good Job

Think I'll read the post now instead of looking at the pics.

Probably a stupid question, but doesn't the one on the driver's side get in the way :confused:

Jane, it doesn't.

When we played around with the positioning of it, I was sitting in the driving position whilst the other chap was moving the speaker around to find the best fit. It fits snugly against the right hand side of my foot when on the gas

Aah. I look forward to seeing the setup at the next meet then

Aah. I look forward to seeing the setup at the next meet then

No probs

Looking very nice !

Looking very nice !

And sounds even better!

I've heard and I LIKE!

mmmm good work for a home job...not my cup of tea tho...pprobably just the pics but they do look very in the way..but you say you tried it first..so its all good..

Joel