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Fern's Sq Install


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#1 Brams96

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 11:50 PM

I thought it was about time I put all the pics I haveto date of my sound install in one place. I have taken a few pics along the way but will leave out all the boring ones.

Things I will cover is the parcel shelf, sub box, speaker pods, equipment, amp rack & sound deadening. Here goes!

Firstly lets look at what she looked like when we first got her home.

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The first thing I did was to decide where the speakers were going, what size they would be & what angle would best suite them. After doing that I used a 3mm piece of MDF for the base, cut a ring out of 12mm & used 8mm round dowl & screwed it together. Once I moved things round & got the angle I wanted I then covered it all in some stretchy lycra type material & using fiberglass resin soaked it.

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Once it had gone off I covered it in some layers of chopped strand mat & resin until I thought it was hard enough. Using quick sand body filler I smoothed the shape out, painted it with a couple of layers of colour & laquered to finish.

It ended up looking like this:

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and installed with the door card I made.

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Next was the Head Unit. I'm using an old Sony (before the went to cheap crap) competition HU,CDX-C90R. It has awesome sound with dual 20bit DAC but the only problem with it is the back light is unreadable in daylight, very frustrating. Anyway, to mount it I made up a small dash board to fit next to the dials which would house the HU & 2 52mm gauges.

This is about the only pic I have of it while installing.

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And pretty much how it looks now.

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Next was the Parcelshelf. It's made from 9mm MDF on the base & rings cut from 12mm. I traced the shape from the old factory one then fettled the edges to get it fitting properly.

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The original idea was to have the sub in the boot so the middle grill was made as a vent. The speaker rings were positioned on top of wedges of mdf to get the angle I wanted then using body filler I made the shepe before sanding it all down.

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Getting the smoothed edges to match involved a lot of sanding & rechecking. Once it was all smoothed out it was covered in the same vynal as the door cards. (Black vynal from Dunelm Mill)

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#2 Brams96

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Posted 30 June 2011 - 12:31 AM

After the parcel shelf it was onto the Sub enclosure. As said before i changed my mind about where it would go & decided on the rear passenger bin.
I started off with card board templates but soon binned them & just thought bulding it as I went was easier. I mostly used 9mm MDF for the box. Only 9mm some of you are saying? It was all PVA glued, screwed & reinforced with fiberglass inside & out so definitely strong enough for a 10" sub. Alpines SWS-1043 10" to be exact. The box I start making used an old donor shell I had (since sold) hence the white coloured paint.

The red line shows where the box actually went instead of where the wood is. I originally forgot to take into account the rear seat.

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As you can sort of see fromthese pics the box goes all the way to the bottom of the bin to get a big enough volume.

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The curve at the top was the hardest to make & get the wood to butt up nicely all the way. Once the back part to the box was made it was a case of getting the front done. I again used dowls with an MDF ring to get the right angle then used material stretched over it with fiberglass resin. I reinforced the front inside & layered over the front to make it nice & strong, then using the trusty ol' boddy filler smoothed everything before covering it in acoustic black carpet.

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The end result

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The amp rack I decided to put in the passenger side rear bin so I could keep the boot space as free as possible. There is a piece of MDF at the bottom of the bin with the board you can see screwed to it using some angled brackets.

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The power cable is routed through the gap in the seat from the battery through a 40A Stinger fuse. The RCA's come up under the bottom board through a cut out & the speaker cable goes through the bottom of the bin through grommets to the other side for the sub & along the center tunnel & out to the speakers.

I made up a cover from 3mm mdf & covered it in the vynal again. It's got 2 x 30mm PC fans to suck air in, a grill in the middle to aid heat disipation & is open at the other end.

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Lastly I have a D-Class Fusion amp under the rear passenger seat at the moment which now is powering the sub and the JL is powering the front components. Plans are to add in the XDP-4000 processor to the system so I can have more finer adjustment.
I'm in the process of making some tweeter mounts for the bottom of the front window so will add more pics as I take them.

#3 evansisgreat

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Posted 30 June 2011 - 12:36 AM

Looking good mate, keep going I want to see it finished!

#4 darky32

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Posted 30 June 2011 - 07:58 AM

Excellent job !! I think the parcel shelf looks the nuts :unsure:

#5 Deathrow

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    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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Posted 10 July 2011 - 04:34 PM

Do you still have to cut holes in the metal panel with that shelf you've made?

Looks really, really good!

#6 Brams96

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Posted 10 July 2011 - 06:03 PM

My car has the factory speaker holes but they are untouched. Because I used 5.25" speakers, have angled them & used 9mm MDF as the board & as a spacer the magnets sit right in the middle of the hole. Cool eh.

#7 Deathrow

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    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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Posted 11 July 2011 - 06:41 PM

What year is your car?

I ask because the speaker holes changed size later on. Just wondering if I could get away with doing something similar.

Stealing your work a bit but immitation is the best form of flattery remember :thumbsup:.

I've currently got some SPL Dynamics components which I was going to mount up front, but it might not be exactly practical.

#8 Brams96

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 05:57 PM

Mine is a 1991 Mayfair with the factory speaker holes & the 2 smaller ones in the middle.
Steal away, there's no copywrite from my point of view & that's what this forum is all about, sharing ideas.

#9 Deathrow

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    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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Posted 16 July 2011 - 09:54 AM

I don't have holes other than the 2 middle ones :D.

How much do they sit in?

Might be something for me to investigate in the future anyway. I'll see how the components are up front :).

Cheers and I look forward to progress!

#10 Brams96

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Posted 10 August 2011 - 10:29 PM

Well I got 1st equal with 3 of us tieing on points. The only reason the other guy beat us was he had a better SPL score. Getting 1st equal has inspired me to do everything better. I will be radically rethinking my install to maximize my points and get that top prize, so in the next few months it'll all be changing. Watch this space.

#11 Ruckus

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 08:54 AM

Scott

You tied on SQ, all of you scored 26 out of 30... very good all of you. And a simple switch on you amp cooling fan would have got you back another point!

As you know your install and SPL are where you lost points. As the PM system is down would you like to chat on the phone one evening or weekend? or are you going to MITP this weekend?

#12 Brams96

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 05:46 PM

Hey Joe,

When you say switch on the cooling fan do you mean it shouldn't be run directly from the amp's remote but switch on when the amp gets to a certain temperature? I have been thinking about the positioning of the fans too, I will probably move them so the noise from them is muffled by the board and just have a mesh where they used to be. I will also be experimenting with a potentiometer in line with the tweeters to attenuate them a bit, it's either that or hook up the Sony processor I have & go active (like you suggested before). Chris gave me a couple of other suggestions which I will be trying also so I expect next time you see the car it'll have changed some what. I'll also be trying to figure out the HU back light issue.
I am working this weekend so can't make MITP but I would have loved to have gone. It would be great to chat sometime but without displaying my number in public how would I PM it to you?

#13 Ruckus

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 08:11 PM

No you need a simple switch to turn it off while SQ listening that's all.

Edited by Ruckus, 12 August 2011 - 06:17 AM.


#14 Brams96

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 08:25 PM

Oh that simple, guess I was over thinking things again. :)

Ok got those numbers

#15 Ruckus

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Posted 11 August 2011 - 10:02 PM

And those ?




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