Adding an Aftermarket sound system keeping the original radio

[JohnnyType2]

some goodies arrived for Christmas...

 

 

 

 

the sub magnet weighs 15 kgs, its a beast! 750 RMS for a 10 is huge, im still waiting on the components before the install can start.

[ChoonDoode]

You'll be needing deaf aids in no time. A meaty sub that!! 

[JohnnyType2]

6 hours ago, tunedude said:

You'll be needing deaf aids in no time. A meaty sub that!! 

 

 i think ill need stiffer springs on that side or a sand bag to balance out the weight

[ChoonDoode]

Meant to ask before, but how are you finding the road noise now you've started to put bits back into the car?

[JohnnyType2]

its much quieter with just the deadening in place and the trim out. Plan is to remove the arch liners and do both the ABS on the inside and the larger areas on the inner arch where a lot of the noise would resonate through. 

Edited 7 December, 2018 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

mocked up the amp and DSP arrangement. not sure about the cap though. not needed? im using palite to mount the amps and fix it to the left hand side of the boot. 

[JohnnyType2]

rest of the kit arrived.  Very well made speakers, seems a shame to hide them behind door panels. I've gone for 150W rms each components for the front, and 180W rms each 6.5s for the rear. 

 

 

 

carbon fibre cones



huge neodymium magnets! 8awg posts!

[JohnnyType2]

small update, Bought an Alpine PDX 4.150 as the Alpine PDX 5 i have has an extra channel for running a sub so its for a full setup, great amp loads of power in a small footprint its up for sale if anyone wants it (£350 ono). The PDX 4.150 has 170W rms per channel verified and should suit the bigger speakers better. 

 

...been mad busy with a new job so just getting round to fitting the sub, some damping to the inside of the enclosure...

 

 

Edited 12 January, 2019 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

fitted the sub into the box and mocked up the positioning of the wires...





the sub was a PITA as the box has a considerably smaller ID than the sub, so a lot of sanding and measuring was needed. The wires will be tidied up once i've figured out the best route to the doors for them. 

[JohnnyType2]

Two small updates, 4 gauge power cable fed to the back of the car and the 100 A trip fitted. I secured it to the fuse box and protected the cable with flexi-pipe in case it gets chafed. And i purchased an Alpine PDX 4.150 4 channel amp, as the PDX 5 would be a waste using only four of the channels, it has aroun 110W per channel and a 300W sub channel whereas the 4.150 has four channels at 179W verified on this unit. The rears are 180W rms each so should get much better back fill.

i used ferrules for the first time on the 4 AWG which make it much easier to install and keep the ends much more secure.

 

  

Edited 19 January, 2019 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

ACR-1 added to the dash under the AC, this controls sub volume via the LC7i. The USB housing was removed drilled and the cabling done after fixing the knob to the underside. You need to remove everything in the dash to do this. the flat screen, head unit, glove box etc all have to come out. I've ran all the speaker wiring for the fronts and rears and earth cabling for the amps. Next job will be tracing the wiring to the doors and sound proofing the doors. 

 

[jaygemson]

This is one tidy install!  Very impressive stuff.

[KarlO3V5]

loving this thread. Keep it up

[JohnnyType2]

power distribution sorted....

 

[JohnnyType2]

did i quick mock fit of the amps, power dist and LC7i on the palite, fits nice and snug and should be tighter with the panel back in place.

 

there was too much snow to do any wiring in the car unfortunately.

 

 

Edited 30 January, 2019 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

Finished the wiring to the power distribution LC7i and Amplifiers, i've fitted the Subwoofer enclosure and got the boot back to normal. Still have almost full boot space and retained the 12V and LED light. 

 

 

  

 

A slight delay on the speakers fitted to the doors as i've discovered the rear doors also have a set of tweeters and i've ordered a set of SD-T - Sundown Audio 1" Tweeters and active crossovers...

 

 

 

[JohnnyType2]

rear tweeter fitted into the door card. progress is slow due to house renovations and weather sorry

[9@zA]

impressive !

[JohnnyType2]

I finished off the sound proofing on the door internals with just the door card to finish and wiring almost done. I used Tesa film, the stuff dealers use to protect paint work in transit. I covered the inner door with a few sheets and traced the cut out ready to transfer to the sound deadening. I used Auto Mute 3mm this time witch is excellent value, i got a 10m x 46cm roll for £50. The roll is easier for the outer portion as you can cut from one large single piece.

[JohnnyType2]

next up was to fit the rivet nuts to allow the use of M5 bolts to hold the speaker and rings together.




 

[JohnnyType2]

i then had to route the 8 gauge speaker wire into the door, this was really tricky as i didn't want to drill the pillars, that wasn't happening and the quick release connector is a sealed unit with no way to pass a wire though at all. I took it apart and noticed that the top 8 pins were unused and had the idea to dremell an opening on both male and female to pass the wire through.

Inner and outer male/female connectors....


Inner female with no access


8 unused pins at the top


dremelled out and the speaker wire carefully threaded through


had to pass it back through the door pillar and you can see the cut out on the male end, not pretty but its all concealed


The speaker cable passed through the male end.


this was tricky as it had to be refitted before going any further as the wire had to be pulled through at the same time.

 

The door grommets were the most time consuming as they had to be stripped of tape and pulled back to feed the wiring though then re-taped


wiring complete and grommets refitted.

Edited 23 April, 2019 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

I didn't get time to fit the speaker as the crossovers need placed and bullet connectors fitted first. I did fit some fast rings though...

 

 

The winder mechanism cable looks as though it interferes with the speaker but the speaker ring is deep and lifts it away from the door completely.


they channel the energy from the speaker and fire it back out into the cabin. Luckily the rear speakers are very low and the window fully down doesn't interfere with them at all.


 

Edited 23 April, 2019 by JohnnyType2

[JohnnyType2]

I almost forgot i've moved up to MIB2.5 with a 9.2" screen and virtual cockpit to be retrofitted later this month.

[JohnnyType2]

forgot to post a pic of the full door ready to take the speaker...

[logiclee]

Very good work.

 

I used to be a pro-installer in the late 80's and early 90's when car audio and car security was a relatively new and growing business.  Ford Sierra's and the like were much easier to work on than todays cars though.

 

The Audio in the Mk3 really bugged me, I've posted before I felt it was a step down from the Mk2 and that wasn't great. And as you have mentioned the sound deading is not great either.

 

So when I was looking for the Mk3's replacement, I made the audio system very high up on the priority list.

 

Lee